6 Strings in the Shadows

What is it about human nature that renders everything down to a shorter, smaller, more obvious list?  Bad memory?  Laziness?  Brainwashing?

Guitar Player’s 53 Not-Forgotten Guitar Greats and Heroes is a case in point.

“Seminal movers and shakers who were not blessed with massive or on-going pop-culture fame.”  “Players who float just under the popular radar.”  It’s quite an impressive list.

A whole bunch of blues and jazz that have all but faded from memory.

Some “so that’s who that was” players, like Robert Blunt or Jake E. Lee.

Too many “how did I forget those guys?” guitarists, like Tommy Bolin, Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton, Randy California, Terry Kath, and Roy Wood (well not exactly forget, but …).

And quite a few more I need to check out.

Thanks for the public service, Guitar Player.

Mission Impossible

Now here’s a list that nicely demonstrates how North American monoculture has shattered into a million fragments.  The Recording Industry Association of America actually compiled a list of the Songs of the Century (20^th).  So it’s gonna reflect a whole bunch of tastes and styles over an entire hundred years.

And be agreed to by … no one, not even the most broad-minded, culturally curious, historically informed I-love-everything kinda person.  Up until about 1970, which incorporates all but two of the songs, you would have got reasonable support for this list, but no more.

The top three are probably hard to argue:

1. Over the Rainbow, Judy Garland

2. White Christmas, Bing Crosby

3. This Land Is Your Land, Woodie Guthrie

After that, it’s hard to keep your personal biases at bay.  Mine kicked in big time.  For example:

- American Pie is #5.  Really?   Ahead of The Beatles, The Stones, Chuck Berry?

- Elvis is missing?

- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?  Seriously?

I mean, I know they had to include big band, jazz, ragtime, tin pan alley, patriotic songs and all that.  I get it.  But only two country songs?  Only four songs from England?  Tina Turner beats Fats Waller and Hoagy Carmichael?

And, hey!  There is some cheating here:  The West Side Story and The Sound of Music full soundtracks are on a list of songs?

You’ll find your own issues, outrages and mysteries, I’m sure.  Brave people, the RIAA.

Mind-Blowing Music

Gibson has a list of 10 Classic Albums to Expand Your Musical Horizons, and a message:  get outside your comfort zone.

The list includes work by the likes of Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Black Keys and Tom Waits, with whom I easily relate.

But it also includes artists I have shied away from, such as Coltrane, Hank Williams and Brian Eno.

And, sadly, it contains a few artists I had never heard of but probably should have, like Sonny Sharrock, Junior Kimbrough and Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

Reading the write-ups, I can see that each of these artists would have something to offer that relates to genres and styles I like, but pushes me past where I normally go if left to my own devices.  In terms of lighting that creative spark, it’s a great idea to immerse yourself in something new.

And if I think about it, most of my heroes did/do just that.

Thanks, Gibson.  You’ve given me some homework to do.

The List of Indulgences

Sounds rather medieval church-like, don't it?

Rolling Stone has this list of The Best Prog Rock Bands Of All Time. And, you know, I'm a fan and all, and when the only alternative was disco I was a really big fan, but self-indulgence is a hallmark of prog rock.

Here's the list:
1. Rush
2. Pink Floyd
3. Genesis
4. Jethro Tull
5. King Crimson
6. Yes
7. Emerson, Lake and Palmer
8. Tool
9. Mars Volta
10. Dream Theater

See what I mean about self-indulgence? Lots of interesting music and great musicianship on this list, but also rather too much "because we can." ELP best representing that attitude - or is it worst?

By the way, I keep seeing definitions of prog rock that talk about a big jazz influence, but I just don't hear it. Sure there's a lot of improvisation in jazz, but that's true of blues and rock too. Folk, for that matter. I hear lots of classical and a bit of folk influence in most prog rock. Jazz, not so much.