Who Is The Greatest Guitar Player

Cezanne

Well-Known Member
Listen to Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs" and Lou Reed's live album "Rock and Roll Animal". Reed used two detroit studio guitarists who nailed it, believing thier names were Hunter or Wagner. Really dating myself consider both these albums were released in "73".
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Listen to Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs" and Lou Reed's live album "Rock and Roll Animal". Reed used two detroit studio guitarists who nailed it, believing thier names were Hunter or Wagner. Really dating myself consider both these albums were released in "73".

Speaking of Bridge of Sighs, Swedish Progressive Death/Black Metal band Opeth is doing a cover of this iconic piece on their forthcoming album Watershed. Of late I've noticed lots of various metal subgenre bands doing covers from Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild, to Genesis Land of Confusion which I thought Disturbed heavier guitar ladened cover was actually better than the original by Phil, Tony and Mike. Now I heard the other day a cover of the Doors LA Woman.

If you like old Black Sabbath, I'm talking the title track Black Sabbath, Children of the Grave and Hand of Doom, go to youtube and type in Black Sabbath Fantasia Synch and watch Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Some took these 3 songs and synched them up with the video of Hall of the Mountain King from Disney's Fantasia. It's fun to watch and amazing how some aspects of it match up.

yes, Eddie Van Halen started MANY things, like the hammer on's.

Well not quite. A hammer on is called legato with stringed instruments and was used by violinists before it was popular among shred guitarists. Eddie also seems to get credit for tapping in rock music but in fact Steve Hackett of early Genesis can be heard on such albums as Foxtrot (1972') and IMO their best of all, Selling England By the Pound (1973')using the tapping technique. Hackett as well used legato in it's hammer on and pull off forms. Legato meaning slurred can be heard quite often in music where the obvious picking or sliding sound is missing. Eddie did however exploit and popularized tapping to the larger guitar world and as such he does stand alone as a major influence.

The following video clip is of the band Genesis from a Belgium TV appearance just after the release of their 1971' album Nursery Crimes performing the song Musical Box. At about the 4 minute mark, Steve breaks into a guitar solo and watch his hands on the neck. You'll see hammer ons, pull offs and some tapping. Obviously not a flashy and flamboyant as Eddie but clearly several years before young Edward hit the scene. And no Hackett didn't invent it either as it's been around for a while.


And yes, that was Phil Collins with hair on the drumkit and a young Peter Gabriel behind the mikestand. I was and still am a huge fan of that era music so if you wanna know what I was listening to in 1971' there you go!
:happy-very:

And for those who were big fans of the 80's and 90's Pop music version of Genesis, as Walter Cronkitt would say, "and that's the way it was!" back in the day.
:wink2:
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
OH COME ON BROWNCAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reason the Genesis You Tube link doesn't work is because in the original link it contained the following 3 letters in order

W
T
friend

and therefore we must be engaged in dirty talk.

Turns out someone else posted the same video with out the offending letters in the link so here you go!
 

DS

Fenderbender
holy double barrel purple acid wkmac!
that was like going back in time.
Here in Toronto in 1969-70,there was a band we worshiped called nucleus.We recently got together and re-did 2 of the songs.I didn't even realize they had a website,but apparently
they do! The songs are all there to hear,but they suggest you buy them from i-tunes if you like 'em.:wink2:

http://nuke.afootincoldwater.com
 

The-UK-Guy

Tea anyone ?
Clapton of course and I always thought Brian May from Queen was pretty good also. In Guitar Hero 3 though Slash Rocks and Morrilo
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Clapton of course and I always thought Brian May from Queen was pretty good also. In Guitar Hero 3 though Slash Rocks and Morrilo

Excuse me, that's "DR." Brian May as he just earned his Phd in astrophysics.

Every heard Slash do Flamigo guitar?

http://www.last.fm/music/Slash/_/Obsession+Confession

Top of the page is and audio player with the full song. He was commissioned to write and record this song for a 1996' movie. The guy is talented and writes some great monthly columes in one of the guitar magazines.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
holy double barrel purple acid wkmac!
that was like going back in time.
Here in Toronto in 1969-70,there was a band we worshiped called nucleus.We recently got together and re-did 2 of the songs.I didn't even realize they had a website,but apparently
they do! The songs are all there to hear,but they suggest you buy them from i-tunes if you like 'em.:wink2:

http://nuke.afootincoldwater.com

Purple Acid! I was more an orange sunshine man myself!
:rofl:

I watched a program the other day about Syd Barrett, original guitarist/song writer for Pink Floyd and how acid/LSD destroyed him. Well known in the Floyd world. A lot of Syd is written into Darkside of the Moon, Wish you Were Here especially and the character of Pink from the Wall is based on Syd. Roger Waters said the lyric line "black holes in the sky" were taken from Syd's appearance of his eyes after the ravages of acid and LSD and taken their toll.

Yeah that era of Genesis was my fav. and I was able to see them live in 73' and again in 75' just before Peter left. Saw them once more before Hackett left and after that the band went in a more commericial/pop direction that just didn't hold my interest. I found out about Genesis thanks to a Jethro Tull Soundman in 1971' who was wearing a Genesis T-Shirt and when I asked about the religious statement, he filled me in and even pulled up a song called the Knife from their Trespass album and played it over the house PA. It has this real heavy plusing, almost metalish rythem to it but contains a soft melodic feel as well. I was hooked from the get go. Lyrics are political/social in nature as the song is about revolution and how generally revolution ends in tyranny and despotism thus the name, "The Knife!"

You should check these guys out being you live in Toronto.
http://www.themusicalbox.net/
They play the Danforth Music Hall on 6/6/08 and 6/7/08.

They are based out of Toronto and I saw their Selling England By the Pound show 5 or 6 years ago and having seen the original, I can say it was spot on! My wife and I started dating about the time Peter left the band in 75' so she never got to see them with me but I told her after that night that IMO she can say she saw Genesis. Those guys were that good and the real Genesis gave the band their old costumes, stage backdrops and they even use the old instrumentation including the bulky, cantakerous mellotron which I happen to just love to no end but thank God for computer software now. LOL.

Check em out if for a couple of hours you wanna go "back in the day" and see an advant garde band who incorporated symphonic rock with mime, theater and a bit of opera! Genesis used the visual along with the music to tell the story of the music and this was what set them apart from other bands in the day IMO.
 

Cezanne

Well-Known Member
Wkmac, have you ever heard of the british folk group "The Strawbs" (Strawberry Hill Boys), they formed about the same time as "Floyd" and "Genesis". Pretty much stuck to the folk theme, working with vocalist Sandy Dennis in the middle and late sixties. If you have can we have your take on the songwriting abilities of David Cousins, if not take a listen. If you like early Genesis you might find them interesting. Saw them in concert in a small venue, just showed up with guitars and small amps. Put on a hell of a performance, something about musicians who survive to their 60's that changes them from rock stars to artists.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Wkmac, have you ever heard of the british folk group "The Strawbs" (Strawberry Hill Boys), they formed about the same time as "Floyd" and "Genesis". Pretty much stuck to the folk theme, working with vocalist Sandy Dennis in the middle and late sixties. If you have can we have your take on the songwriting abilities of David Cousins, if not take a listen. If you like early Genesis you might find them interesting. Saw them in concert in a small venue, just showed up with guitars and small amps. Put on a hell of a performance, something about musicians who survive to their 60's that changes them from rock stars to artists.

Oh yeah, very familar with the Strawbs who bought a background of folk/bluegrass to the progressive rock (prog) music scene. Cousins is an excellent writer and over the years has done a lot of work in radio (broadcast/production) but the Strawbs of recent years have become more active again. A huge boost was in 2004' when they played Nearfest in Pennsylvania that they recorded and made into a live album, Strawbs at Nearfest.

I think you mean Sandy Denny but I knew what you meant. The late Sandy Denny was a wonderful singer and for Zep fans she is the female voice with Robert Plant on the song Battle of Evermore. Some have speculated that Plant's recent work with the amazing Allison Krause is a reaching back to the lost opportunity Plant and Zep had with Sandy. Seems Plant wasn't going to let this one slip by and thank God he didn't.

Yeah that era with bands like the Strawbs, Genesis, Yes, Floyd, Tull, ELP and then the Canterbury Scene with bands like Soft Machine who gave us the great Allan Holdsworth and Andy Summers who went on to Police fame. Many people don't know Andy and Robert Fripp have a very connected early history together. Add in Camel, Caravan, Nectar and then move into the French and Italian music scene with bands like Magma, Banco and Premiata Forneria Marconi or PFM for short. All 3 bands in recent years have played the infamous Nearfest to rave reviews.

I'm enjoying a variety of music nowadays including european black/death metal of all things. I know, you gotta kinda be there so to speak but through it all, late 60's early 70's progressive rock still rules and is my first love of music so to speak with Gabriel/Hackett era Genesis probably being my alltime fav. band.
 

DS

Fenderbender
Always loved"strawbs"...we used to play "the hangman and the papist" off from the witchwood ...at parties and the line
"forgive me lord I hang him in thy name" always put chills down my spine...and I loved hero and heroine...Hey I heard on the radio that Bill Cosby,at 70 years old has just finished his new hip hop cd,heavy on the no swearing...that'll sell....
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
I can't believe no one has mentioned the "great caped one" who played keyboards for the Strawbs early on. I speak of course of the great Rick Wakeman!

One of my favs was Hero and Heroine.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Probably not the greatest, but one of the best in country music...Brad Paisley!

I'd concur with that. I'm not a country fan by any stretch but I'd go see Brad as I appreciate what he brings to the craft. I got to go see Keith Urban a couple of years ago in a one off concert he did in Atlanta just within weeks of going into rehab and he also is a very good guitarist. The downside of the Urban thing however was having to sit around 30 and 40 something year old women who sounded like they were having multiple orgaisms everytime Keith moved, looked or did anything a certain way.

Several friends of mine who knew I went asked me about the show and I told them it was good but that I learned something I never knew. Of course their reply was, "what's that?" My answer, "I never knew until that concert where porno films get their special effects sound tracks from!"

:rofl:
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Now this is one awesome death metal band with a monster shredder on the axe!


A muppet death metal special.


:rofl:
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
I just got an email from a european music friend who informed me that Brian Davidson, percussionist for the late 60's band The Nice passed away on Wednesday from cancer. For those who are unfamilar with The Nice, you many be familar with their keyboardist who went on to be an important part of one of the 70's iconic rock bands in Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Here's a 1969' video of the Nice with Emerson on the piano.


THE NICE - Hang on to a Dream


For those unaware, Greg Lake came from King Crimson and Carl Palmer from Atomic Rooster.

RIP Brian and thanks for being apart of a band that was on huge influence on me!
 
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