Ain’t Got Nothin’ In The World These Days

Listening to Young Man Blues from Live At Leeds, I am reminded that Pete Townshend is one hell of a good guitar player.

If you want to enjoy some of the mayhem instead of staring at a still, The Who’s performance at The Isle of Wight ain’t too shabby either.

ps – yes, John Entwistle had the skeleton suit before Flea.

The Circle of Love

In Guitar World’s 30 on 30, 30 great guitarists pick their favourite axemen.

All the cats you’d expect to see are there:  Green, Clapton, Blackmore, Beck, Hendrix, May, van Halen, B.B., Rhoads, Malmsteen …

As are, thankfully, a few guys you worry might be all but forgotten, like Leslie West, Alvin Lee and Mick Taylor.  And there are a few names you might not expect to be the idols of guitar wizards, for example Neil Young or Pete Townshend or George Harrison.  Not that they weren’t/aren’t amazing guitarists, but you don’t realize the hotshots feel the same way as you do.  So that’s cool.

But what’s really interesting is to see who the guys on the list like.  So:

• Tom Morello likes Steve Vai, and Steve Vai likes Brian May.
• Joe Perry likes Angus Young, but Angus likes Chuck Berry.
• Ron Thal likes Zakk Wylde, whereas Zakk Wylde likes the Judas Priest duo of Tipton and Downing.
• Richie Kotzen digs Eddie van Halen, who in turn thought Clapton was the man.

Sometimes you can clearly hear a guitarist’s influences in his work; other times, not so much.  So it’s instructive to see what they actually think.  And sometimes surprising.

Rhythm Ninjas

Guitar World’s 50 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists of All Time proves the point that you can have a tremendous impact without being a flashy soloist.

Chuck Berry, Steve Cropper, Bo Diddley, Don Everly, The Edge, Keef, Andy Summers, Pete Townshend, Malcolm Young … these guys defined the sound of the band, erected the songs on their chords, and for the most part didn’t need a solo to make the tune kick butt.

As Danny Kortchmar says, “it’s easier to play a screamer solo over a heavy groove than it is to make that groove.”

Which is why cats like Alex Lifeson, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, who are perhaps know for their soloing, are also on the list.  And deservedly so:  it ain’t easy to give us a rhythmic groove and a solo all at the same time.

I can’t figure out why John Lennon doesn’t make these lists, though.  Maybe my Beatles obsession just drives me to want to include a guitarist who happened to play rhythm, as opposed to a guitarist of revolutionary importance.  Maybe, but I still think he was pretty darn good.

I Can Sense It From A Mile

Go have a listen to Pete Townshend’s Secondhand Love.

Nice, eh?  What would you call that?  Rock?  Blues?  R&B?

All the above and then some, right?  Sometimes great songs exemplify a genre.  Sometimes they defy categorization.

Who cares?  Great music is great music.

I Stand Alone

Gibson’s 10 Great One-Man-Band Albums reminds us just how freakin’ talented some cats are.  Write the tunes, play all the instruments, produce it, mix it … sheesh!

Prince (we’ll call him Prince today), Dave Grohl, Steve Winwood, John Fogerty, Todd Rundgren – oh, and this English knight called Paul McCartney.  These guys stand as giants, even when performing as members of their respective bands.

Then they go and demonstrate that they might not actually need the help.  Hats off to ‘em, I say.

Rock is full of huge talents whose creative force drove not just the songwriting but the studio production – guys like Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Pete Townshend, for example.  But they don’t stand on their own.  They need the presence of – not to mention the chemistry with – other musicians.

By the way, where is Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions?

Forgotten Years

Let’s face it: we were all rather tired of it by the time the 80’s ended.  And ever since, it’s been fashionable to look back on that decade with disdain.

But there was some great music in the 80’s.  Not the Euro-pop synth stuff.  Not the disco with no soul stuff.  But great guitar-based rock.  We got:

• The rebirth of rock ‘n’ roll from New Wavers such as U2, The Pretenders, The Police, Elvis Costello, and The Cars;
• A continuation of what came to be known as Classic Rock by the likes of Tom Petty, Midnight Oil, Dire Straits, Deff Leppard, and The Cult;
• Some great reminders by Classic Rockers like Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, The Stones, ZZ Top, Pete Townshend and George Harrison that they were far from ready to hang up their guns.
• Oh, and guys like Colin James and Stevie Ray Vaughan came along to carry the flag for ball busting blues guitar.  Oh ya, and AC/DC also had their best decade.

You reflect on the music noted above and it’s pretty easy to forget about all that spandex and those strap-on keyboards.  We were handed a lot of music that didn’t age well, but we were also given some brass in pocket.

The Hypnotized Never Lie

Was any song ever more prescient than The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again?

The change it had to come.  We knew it all along.  But the parting on the left is now the parting on the right.

Are the morals that we worship all gone?  How long before we’ll be fighting in the street with our children at our feet?  Will our families be left even half alive?  Did the shotgun always sing the song?

Townshend always made it clear he would never be drawn into choosing sides between “us” and “them,” and, although a lot of stuff has gone down in the last forty years, he proved himself right.  History ain’t changed.

Nothing in the street looks any different to me either.

Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss.  No wonder Daltrey blew out his vocal chords with that scream.

From These Failing Hands

You can’t develop a style without studying someone who came before, says Gibson’s 10 Guitar Greats and Their Influences.  Truth.

Surprising revelations, though.  OK, so Zakk Wylde digs Randy Rhoads, and Joe Bonanassa adores Paul Kossoff, and – duh – Derek Trucks was influenced by Duane Allman.  And Clapton and Beck get mentioned more than once.

But Slash was influenced by Cat Stevens and Cheap Trick?  Trucks was into Coltrane?  Townshend thinks he sounds like John Lee Hooker?  Frampton practiced Shadows tunes?  Holy b string.

What surprises me, though, is that not many of these guys seem to go back very far.  Most of the influences were immediate, the stuff heard when they were growing up.  One reference each to Scotty Moore, Chet Atkins and Jimmy Burton.  Only Hooker and Elmore James mentioned from the 50’s Blues greats.

No T-Bone Walker, no Freddie King?  no BB?  no Lightning Hopkins, Son House or Robert Johnson?  No Chuck Berry?  Are you kidding? 

Frampton mentions Django Reinhardt, but no one seems to be digging into the past to learn where their heroes learned their stuff.  That is indeed curious.  I mean, how do you study your idol and try to understand what they’re doing without studying what they were trying to understand?

It’s a short article so maybe lots got edited out.  I hope so, ‘cause it feels like we’re loosing our connections with the past, and that would not be a good thing.  Music has changed rapidly over the last half century, and most of it has been exciting and positive.  But it was also built on a solid foundation that goes back countless generations.

If we lose that the thrill will be gone.

Speechless

The main thing that jumps out at me as I scan Gibson’s 10 Great Rock Guitar Instrumentals is that it would be hard to build on.  The list apparently features pieces known for their “pioneering impact” as opposed to virtuosity or popularity.

But, like, what else would you add?  Is there much else out there to debate?  We’ve got Beck, Page, Edgar Winter, Van Halen, Duane Eddy and The Ventures – like you’d expect.  And we have to dip into The Who’s Tommy to get to 10.

The genre has a major handicap: no lyrics.  Kinda hampers the singing along, which makes it more difficult on the memory, which reduces the odds of a tune being popular.  Not to mention the emotional impact that lyrics can add to a great song.

Make that two handicaps, the second being that instrumentals tend to be vehicles for showing off.  With all due respect to Mssrs. Beck, Satriani, Malmsteen, Johnson and McGlaughlin et al, chicks don’t dig it.  You can’t dance to this stuff.

These guys have an audience limited to mostly other guitarists, which is why the list is brought to you by Gibson as opposed to a popular culture magazine.  The guitar has dominated popular music for over half a century, but it works best in a supporting role.

Shakey versus Bouncy

I recently read autobiographies by two rock giants, Pete Townshend and Neil Young.  The books make an interesting comparison, since their authors are both hugely influential.

They have a lot in common: age (more or less), creative parents, respect and scholarship for the music of both their progenitors and their peers, boats, cars, obsessiveness with the recording process and technology, and – how shall we put it – eccentricity?

Although both books tended to wander, and completely ignore any sense of chronology, both were interesting.  Lots of little anecdotes, some trivial, some meaningless, some cool.  Tons of name-dropping.  If you were around, some great memories and reminders.

In terms, of insight, though, I’d have to give the nod to Neil Young’s book.  Townshend might have shared what he saw, but Young let’s you see with his eyes.  He tells you much more about why he did things, how he was thinking, and what he was feeling.  His persona remains intact; the book confirms that he’s rather shy, somewhat aloof, kinda weird, and absolutely committed to whatever he happens to be doing at any given point in time.  But he explains himself along the way, and manages to become a sympathetic character with a sense of humour.

Townshend?  Well, I always knew he was an angry guy.  His book confirmed that, but I’m really not sure I understand what makes him that way.  He can see for miles, but he can’t explain.

Excitement At Your Feet

I watched a concert of The Who Live in Texas in 1975 the other night, and couldn’t help thinking this is why I wasn’t big into recordings of live music back then.

I mean, the energy was great, but the lighting was terrible, the sound was lousy, and the band was wasted so they didn’t really play that well.  It kinda says something that The Who were regarded by many as the best touring band for a long time, and this is the best they could do?

Oh, excuse me.  Must run.  God appears to be throwing lightning bolts at my house.

Monster Live

The Rolling Stone 10 Best Live Albums list makes the point that a good live album could actually make a career, and that’s true.

The reverse was almost true too.  There were some pretty bad – make that pathetic – releases that seriously damaged the image of some otherwise unimpeachable stars (at least for me).

Here’s the list:

 1.  The Who – Live at Leeds

 2.  Allman Brothers – Live at the Fillmore East

 3.  Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive!

 4.  Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-ya’s Out!

 5.  Kiss – Alive!

 6.  Deep Purple – Made In Japan

 7.  Little Feat – Waiting for Columbus

 8.  Nirvana - Unplugged

 9.  The Band – The Last Waltz

10. Bob Seger – Live Bullet

I wonder if it helps to have an exclamation mark as part of your title?

Some great music by some fabulous bands here for sure.  Some are amongst my all time favourites.

The write-up talks about the colossal mistake Townshend made by destroying the rest of the recordings from the tour  - featuring mostly material from Tommy, which is what dominated their shows at the time.  But I remember how incredibly refreshing it was to not hear Tommy, how cool it was to hear The Who rock out, simple, pure and raw.

The albums on the list that had the most impact on me were the ones that were accompanied by films.  The visuals helped overcome the poor sound quality.

To be fair, technology, professional standards and perhaps reduced or alternative substance abuse have tremendously improved what can be achieved in a live recording.  But back then, things were a bit rough and uneven.

Speaking of visuals, when I first heard The Beatles at Shea Stadium, I was embarrassed.  It sounded just awful.  Remember, this was released not long after Abbey Road, one of the cleanest, best produced albums of all time.  Now, when I watch the doctored-up clips on Anthology, I’m convinced Shea Stadium was the best concert performance of ever.

And I guess that’s the challenge of a live album: technology and taste aside, does the recording and the performance manage to convey the magic these musicians can conjure up?  

Anyway, this list sure is a good representation of my generation.

Riffer Madness

Gibson’s Top 10 Riffs of the 80's serves as a great reminder that the 80’s weren’t as grim as all that after all.

Here’s the list:

  1.  AC/DC – Back In Black

  2.  Rolling Stones – Start Me Up

  3.  Ozzy Osborne – Crazy Train

  4.  Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane

  5.  Def Leppard - Photograph

  6.  Judas Priest  - Breaking The Law

  7.  Michael Jackson – Beat It

  8.  The Clash – Should I Stay Or Should I Go

  9.  Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child o’ Mine

10.  Rush – Limelight

But …

The preamble talks about riffs really coming into prominence in the 60’s, thanks to the likes of Dave Davies, Pete Townshend and Keith Richards.  Sure, but why is John Lennon never mentioned?  Davies and Townshend had a handful each.  Only Lennon could rival Keef in both quantity and quality.

And why is Jimmy Page not mentioned?  Hello?

Some other tunes with killer riffs I might have nominated include:

She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult

Money For Nothing – Dire Straits

She’s Waiting - Clapton

Would I Lie To You? – The Eurythmics

Paper In Fire - Mellencamp

Every Breath You Take – The Police

Refugee  - Petty

Sunday Bloody Sunday – U2

Owner Of A Lonely Heart - Yes

Sharp Dressed Man – ZZ Top

Pretty good list, reinforcing the immortal songs are built on three chords, the truth, a backbeat, and a great riff.

Living in the Material World

Rolling Stone’s Best Albums of the 80's provided a lot less fodder for argument than I expected.

The 80’s began badly.  After a big tease by Elvis Costello, The Cars and other New Wave arrivals, John Lennon got shot, synth players began wearing strap-ons, the guitars disappeared, and everyone began wearing makeup and stuff.

Rolling Stone notes that there were no big musical revolutions like there had been in previous decades.  Nope, just a bizarre retreat into glam, disco, and Broadway silliness.  So I expected a rather moribund scan over a list filled with the likes of Culture Club, George Michael and The Human League.

To be sure, they are all there, but they don’t dominate as much as I had feared.  Here’s the Top 10:

The Clash – London Calling

What’s-his-name – Purple Rain

U2 – Joshua Tree

Talking Heads – Remain In Light

Paul Simon – Graceland

Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.

Michael Jackson – Thriller

R.E.M. – Murmur

Richard & Linda Thompson – Shoot Out the Lights

Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman

Pretty good.  And the rest of the list didn’t give me too much of the creeps.  It’s got Midnight Oil, The Pretenders, more Bruce, Tom Petty (though not near high enough), AC/DC, Lennon, Peter Gabriel, Squeeze, Travelling Wilburys, and Pete Townshend.

Lots of artists get on more than once: Springsteen, Gabriel, U2, The Stones, R.E.M., Talking Heads.  Some should have: Petty, Def Leppard, Townshend.  But overall the synth, dance stuff does not dominate, and much of what was selected actually ages well.

As with most such lists, you get the feeling that there’s an arbitrary pick of some album or other just to include some of the big names.  Take Freedom by Neil Young (#85) for example.  Then as now, Neil put out an album every 9 months or so.  Why that one?  I mean, why not, but …

Biggest surprise: Captain Beefheart was still around in the 80’s?

Disappointing that neither August nor Behind the Sun from Clapton made the list.  Speaking of omissions, no Phil Collins, with or without Genesis?  I was lukewarm on him, but Collins was everywhere that decade.  He was inescapable.  Singing, playing, producing …  Not finding him on the list seems to be against all odds.

Rolling Stone Reacts and Revises

A while back Rolling Stone published senior editor/writer David Fricke's version of the 100 Greatest Guitarists (DF version). With all due respect to Mr. Fricke, I know I had lots of issues with the list. I wonder if others did too, because Rolling Stone assembled a panel of experts and came up with a new list, 100 Greatest Guitarists (panel version).

The fun with lists is that you get to disagree, but I must say the 2nd list defies the camel-is-a-horse-designed-by-a-committee business. I mean I like it better.

Let's compare the top 25:
     DF Version                       Panel Version
 1. Jimi Hendrix                     Jimi Hendrix
 2. Duanne Allman                Eric Clapton
 3. B.B. King                         Jimmy Page
 4. Eric Clapton                     Keith Richards
 5. Robert Johnson               Jeff Beck
 6. Chuck Berry                     B.B. King
 7. Stevie Ray Vaughan        Chuck Berry
 8. Ry Cooder                        Eddie Van Halen
 9. Jimmy Page                     Duanne Allman
10. Keith Richards                Pete Townshend
11. Kirk Hammett                  George Harrison
12. Kurt Colbain                    Stevie Ray Vaughan
13. Jerry Garcia                    Albert King
14. Jeff Beck                         David Gilmour
15. Santana                          Freddy King
16. Johnny Ramone             Derek Trucks
17. Jack White                      Neil Young
18. John Frusciante              Les Paul
19. Richard Thomson           James Burton

20. James Burton                 Santana
21. George Harrison             Chet Atkins
22. Mike Bloomfield              Frank Zappa
23. Warren Haynes               Buddy Guy
24. The Edge                        Angus Young
25. Freddy King                    Tony Iommi

I definitely prefer the content and the sequence of the 2nd list.

David Fricke did have some cool inclusions, like Robert Johnson, Ry Cooder, Jack White and John Frusciante. But those inclusions came at the expense of Albert King, David Gilmour and Angus Young. Nice to see Derek Trucks on the panel's list too.

You could argue that panel version is safer. I mean with the exception of Keef, who seems to gain more respect with each passing decade, the panel list looks a lot like the list has looked for over 40 years: Clapton, Page, Beck, Hendrix ... all at the top.

So hats off to David Fricke for maybe stimulating some controversy. Like I said, the fun with lists is that you get to disagree.

Talking About My Generation

I have always been a Who fan.  I respect Pete Townshend as a guitarist and as a composer.  They are terrific performers.

I was pleased, therefore, to see (Half) The Who at the Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics.  The show was meant to showcase the best of British music, and The Who definitely belonged there.

And it was cool - until they went into My Generation.  Daltrey is 68.  Townshend is 67.  I hope I die before I get old?  Moon and Entwhistle did die!

They had so many great songs.  It didn't have to be My Generation.

The things they do look awful cold.

The Rhythm Is In The Guitars

So said The Beatles before they had a steady drummer.

I'm starting to believe that I prefer short lists to longer ones. For example, Gibson's 10 Greatest-Ever Rhythm Guitarists, has less to take issue with than Guitar Player's 50 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists.

Maybe it's that on a shorter list, you lower your expectations; like, gee, there's only room for 10 so I can't expect all my favourites on the list, right? So the Guitar Player list is easier to pick apart.

For starters, John Lennon doesn't make the Top 50? You kidding me? (He is on Gibson's Top 10. Well done, Gibson.)

And is the Guitar Player list the 50 greatest guitarists who happened to do some cool rhythm work, or the 50 greatest guitarists who specialized in the role? I mean, does anyone seriously consider Jimi Hendrix a rhythm guitarist? Sure he played chords, and yes he had some funky rhythmic chops, but Jimi's idea of chords was to hint at one while he hammered on, pulled off, slid up, skipped down and bent into all kinds of notes decidedly not in the chord. His idea of not soloing was to solo less, not play rhythm. Jimi was Jimi.

Both lists have Chuck Berry, Angus Young, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and of course Keith Richards - although Guitar Player ducks the issue of who's in the top 10 by listing the players alphabetically.

I guess the longer list does allow for more names, so it was nice to see Bo Diddley, Steve Cropper, The Edge and Bob Marley on the Guitar Player list. In fact, I would argue that they all belong on Gibson's top 10 list.

Oops! Just argued with the shorter list, didn't I?

Less Is More

Speaking of Guitar Heaven ...

Technical prowess is impressive, but musicality is something else.

Take the case(s) of three rock icons who are not typically thought of as guitar heroes:  John Fogerty, Pete Townshend and Neil Young.

All three are more known for their songwriting than their guitar prowess.  All three were constrained in what they could do because their instruments carried the song (and the band).  And all three excel(led) at simple.

Fogerty's songs aren't much more than campfire folk songs, but they feel more complicated.  Dead simple chords, but lyrics and melodies that keep things interesting.  And his guitar solos never stray too far from the chord - in fact, they often are the chord (we're pretending the aimless wandering on Suzie Q and Grapevine didn't happen here).

Townshend's best songs are a little more complicated, but not much.  And again, his best solos are chord based.

Maybe Neil Young is in another category, now that I'm writing this.  His acoustic playing is superb, and often intricate.  His electric work is simpler, though (and noisier).  His soloing is neither simple nor complicated - it's just, just  … just downright weird. 

Every time I listen to him solo I think "this is so bad, why does it work?"  He has this uncanny knack of not sounding good but still sounding right.  Like he's deliberately saying, "I'm not Santana, Clapton, Hendrix, Beck, Vai or Malmsteen.  So what?  Doesn't this fit the song?"

Different styles, to be sure, but all three are skilled guitarists.  And all three let the song do the work.  And that, kids, is alright.

Favourite Songwriters - Part 2

Going back to a previous post  ...  whenever you cut a list short at 10, you start feeling guilty about who you have omitted (well, I do, anyway).

So, some honourable mentions:

Influential blues greats:  Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Leadbelly, Willie Dixon.  See?   There are too many to squeeze into a top ten.

Pete Townshend.  You could say he's uneven, but his best material is huge, and massively influential.

Paul Simon.  Ditto.

Neil Young.  I mean, Neil Young is Neil Young, and even if he didn't make my top ten list, he should be on yours.  Who said this had to make sense?

David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler and Warren Zevon.  My holy trinity of under-rated songwriters.  You can decide which is father, son and holy ghost.

Yikes!  And so I just remembered I forgot - completely forgot - about Bruce Springsteen.  Too late to revise the top ten, so let's put him in with Neil Young and say he should be on yours.