Re: Enthusiasm for Hendrix' technical ability - Those under (edit: 80)...who's your guitar hero?

[kebabage]

Hey, ofcourse I have seen this video! I was very close to buying the dvd once!
As for my favourite guitarists:
J Mascis - Dinosaur Jr, not the best singer but my fave guitarist of the generation, screaming solos!
Stevie Ray Vaughan, really soulful song writer, not so original but amazing at what he did, brought some good music to the 80's
Mike Mcready - Pearl Jam, along with Stone Gossard they made some incredible songs, especially from the Ten album. Great at solos too
Jack White, though I prefer his voice over guitaring. I like his unique selection of guitars and sound. He seems to be good live and started off with alot of bluesy licks.
Jimmy Page - Had a phase of being a big Led Zep fan, but since moving from humbuckers to single coils, I've listened and played along with them less lol
Neil Young - Seen him twice and each time hes blown me away, his guitar old black crashes like thunder on stage!
Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins - Back in the day when he had hair and recorded albums Gish and Siamese Dream - he distinguished two unique sounds, the first album being more tinny, the other punchy. He also devised some amazing, unforgettable solo's!

At the end of the day, they are all somewhat inspired by Hendrix, who was inevitably the best guitarist of his generation. There are much better guitarists than him around today, but they owe it all to him for starting off the scene.. The new sound, unique chords, solos, phsychadelic riffs and setting guitars on fire!

[anaerobe]

Cool. Thanks Kebabage... I was hoping you'd chip in!

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OK... my son and I, together with a few buddies came up with these lists:
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Ian and son:

Good Old guitarists - Randy Bachman, Alex Lifeson, David Wilcox

Good younger guitarists - Gordie Johnson, Ian D'Sa, Jag Tanna, Mike Turner, The Guy from Silverchair (??)

Good Old Bassists: - Greg Goddovitz, Geddy Lee, John Entwistle, Sting

Good younger Bassists: Victor Wooten - beyond most stuff I've seen.

Check this out - a rendition of Norweigian Wood.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en&q=victor%20wooten&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#


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40-something buddies picks (in addition to those mentioned)

General category great guitarists - Pat Travers, Kim Mitchell, Jeff Healey, Frank Marino, Frank Soda,
Lenny Breau, Bruce Cockburn, Liona Boyd, Tony Springer, Amos Garrett, Domenic Troiano, Joe Rico, Sue Foley, Kenny Greer,
Jeff Waters, Billy Gibbons.

Here's a very young Jeff Healey with SRV, ripping up "Look at little sister":

http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en&q=Jeff%20healey&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#

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Guys who influenced the greats - John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Les Paul

Video of a young Howlin' Wolf:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux6N00CwudA

[hendrik]

Just run into a few more, particular during achieving some 12 string sounds with my EHX POG:

Peter Buck

Roger McGuinn

Tom Petty and Mike Campbell

Lindsey Buckingham

Singer/Songwriter electrical:

Billy Bragg

And the Sonic Youth's:

Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo

My favorite bass player, probably completely unknown outside Germany, but this guy is a living bass:

Jäcki Reznicek - he wrote a few bass books, which belong from my understanding to the best educational books for bass
players


H.

[anaerobe]

Hendrik - absolutely -all those guys...

[norfolkngood]

Not under 30 (closer to 30 twice over) but for what it's worth... my ramble in A minor.

Probably a hanging and flogging offence on any guitar-related forum, but I don't rate Jimi Hendrix as a player. His genius and his mark in history is that he led the way for all who followed in terms of exploiting the potential of the electric guitar. I do like some of his songs (oddly I prefer some of the slower stuff like "Little Wing") but I don't think he was anywhere near his playing peak when he left us. One of the great unanswered questions, except by me after a beer or several too many, is where some of the died-too-young musos would be now if their lives hadn't been cut short. Think Jimi, John Lennon, Janis, even Elvis (but not Michael Jackson!). Would they have gone on to reverential status like BB King or just been content to make a good living from song-writing credits interspersed with the occasional comeback tour? There's no right answer.

Much harder to list who I do rate as there are so many and, as I'm not in the first flush of youth, the faves have changed as the years have rolled by. Not just because he's died recently, but Les Paul is on the list. The Chester & Lester album he did with Chet Atkins is a regular listen. Totally unrelated, but Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple is in there, as is Jimmy Page. Eric Clapton for sure, although I think he's now reliving past glories (certainly he's can't be gigging for the money). SRV was unbelievably good and hadn't peaked musically when the plane went down.

And the big 3 for me...

Paul Kossoff of Free; another genius who died too young
Mark Knoffler/ Dire Straits (really wish that he'd find a severe need for a few more £millions and get DS back together for a tour)... and

Gary Moore. Followed his career from Skid Row through Thin Lizzy and then his solo years, saw him a few years back at Birmingham NEC when he was support for BB King's last UK dates. He still seems to want to move on musically, his work has alternated between blues & rock and back again, I've got all the albums and DVDs and will probably be buried with them!

So who's out there now? Well for me, Joe Bonamassa keeps the flame burning. Looking forward to seeing him in December when his UK tour brings him to Norwich. And for home-grown talent I recommend a young lad called Oli Brown (check out his vids on youtube and you'll see why). I'm also catching his local gig in December, Norwich is now officially the centre of the musical universe!

[grogg]

Looks like us old fogeys have hijacked this thread. Good to see BB King get a mention, saw him recently, still a great performer. Wilcox brings back some memories, gooduns. Heres a couple of others worthy of some honours:-
Nils Lofgren, used to do somersaults off a trampet mid solo without missing a note
Santana - cant believe hes not been mentioned or did I miss him?

[anaerobe]

Thanks Grogg - Santana took the harmonic scale and blew it to pieces!!

Norfolkingood - Yep.. Ritchie Blackmore was insanely fast - and moreover I always felt that his riffs "had direction" if you know what I mean. My favourite by him is LAZY - from Machine Head.

And I would say Les Paul was a great (have said it too) - and the album "Chester and Lester" is brilliant.

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Also - I've edited the thread title a bit - now we don't need to feel guilty.

Speaking of harmonic scales....

I can't believe that I forgot Buck Dharma

of Blue Oyster Cult.

Epic solo on "Veteran of the psychic wars" - note this is 80's music - what a ray of light that was IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrd2xf5DIlU

As someone said "Makes Stairway to Heaven sound like the theme from Gilligan's Island."

[corsair]

Right-o chaps, I feel that we've probably done this one to death... and that we're also probably pretty bloody close to having the thread locked; this IS a Westone forum, when all's said and done... but I'll get mine in before that happens....

1. James Wilkinson - a NZ guitar player whose technique, phrasing and humility are beyond compare. Really, I've seen a lot of the players mentioned here over the years and James is easily their equal. "Trimming hedges"

2. Ian Moss - Aussie player with the band Cold Chisel; never ever lets the guitar or the solo get in the song's way and when he rocks, he has feel and technique in spades. "Star Hotel"

3. Kenny Burrell - jazz player, chordal melodies, jaw-dropping ease and fluidity. "Bye and bye"

4. Randy Bachman - best work with Guess Who; simply stunning song writing and playing skills; none of his stuff is easy to play, just easy on the ear! "Undun"

5. Wally Bryson - the Raspberries' guitarist; rarely took a solo but his rhythm phrasing and chord structures are just SO easy on the ear. Used a twin neck 6/12 onstage... "Go all the way"

6. Rory Gallagher - Irish bluesman. Another messy, all-over -the-place player, but God, he was good! Meet him backstage in 1979, and a nicer guy you'll never have met. "Shadow play"

So there's an arbitrary top 6 from me; a list like this changes for me evert day but today, at this moment, all of these guys are an inspiration to me, but that said so is anyone who plays an instrument; and that includes singers.

Rock on...

[grogg]

Under 80?! Feel comforirritablenow, where me teeth?

[Steve777]

Mmmm, so many good guitarists, and so many names I saw in lights during the 70's and 80's. Hendrix was way ahead of his time and has a selected place in my LP (Long player !!!) collection. I'm also partial to Joe Walsh from James gang forward, Andy powell from Wishbone Ash, Leslie West from his Mountain days, and Santana. Saw Santana in 2006 at Wembly ... outstanding. Billy Gibbons from ZZ top ... very unique ... also saw them at Wembly.

Met Blackmore and team in "72", got his autograph somewhere! Tony Mcphee ... also met him after a Groundhogs gig in the local SU building in "72". Nice blokes!

Thin Lizzy live were a joy to behold as was the Sensational Alex Harvet Band ... Zal Cleminson .. Great! Saw Rory Gallager at the local theatre in Coventry ... the loudest gig I have ever been to .. deaf for days after. Sabbath also were entertaining.

Saw Queen on their first tour and Brian May, well, he had / has talent a plenty. Strangely, I saw 10cc in the 70's and both guitarists were polished and new their stuff.

The strangest gig I went to was in the late 70's when punk was at its height. The Sex Pistols were banned from most places but we heard that they were to play a night club in Coventry under another name. The place was packed solid with punks, safety pins, spittle ... and who walked on to the stage .... Alvin Lee. I think he was just as surprised as we were.

I went through a Jazz phase after that Earl Klugh, Johnny Smith, Wilbert Longmire and so many others. So clever and so way ahead of anything I could do or imagine. Not sure there are many guitarists who can make the transition from Rock to Jazz. As far as bassist go , there is only one Jaco Pastoris (I think that's how its spelt?) If I remember correctly, didn't he play the Voodoo Chile guitar part on the bass?

As for Buck Dharma, "Dont fear the reaper" is coming with me to my desert island.

And now, well, I listen in the car to a range of guitar technologists ... Vai, Satriani, etc. Still go back and listen to SRV now and again.

Good thread this ...brought back names I'd ... err ...forgotten!

[grogg]

One of my fave guitar plays, not the best but I love it. Skip forward to about 2.30 mins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZeHnEOV1T4
Ooh we're all wavering around the 50 mark.

On to bass next.

[anaerobe]

Grogg - Lofgren was great - gosh I forgot about him.

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Steve777 - thinking about some of my old Rory Gallagher vinyl locked away in the basement. I've got to find one of those USB-friendly turntables.

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John, mention of the Raspberries got some gears grinding.....

<BANG>, ow. OK I also forgot Pete Ham, the guitarist in this band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C53QAuOoSgc

I think the music was backtracked in this version with live vocals... <sigh>... still it was an amazing song... etched in my mind. Badfinger was one of my favourites from the 70's... I remember listening to this stuff on AM radio in my Dad's Pontiac "Safari" wagon, on trips to the lake.

Power pop at its best.

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More forehead thumpers: Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick - perhaps rock's first anti-hero. As well as David Grohl from the Foo Fighters.

And also: Django Reinhardt

[anaerobe]

Here's a representative vid of Jack White.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg1stuzGmz0&NR=1

The drummer has a .... unique style.

[corsair]

OK I also forgot Pete Ham, the guitarist in this band:

Yeah; Badfinger were a great band: Pete was the rhythm player, Joey Molland did the good stuff. Odd that both Pete and Tom hung themselves though.... perhaps being the first to sign to Apple wasn't all it was cracked up to be!!? McCartney certainly had numbers on himself: he made Badfinger record and release one of his tunes - the execrable 'Come and get it', when Pete Ham already had 'No matter what' written. And he's still a prat...

The Raspberries - yes indeedy; Eric Carmen at his sleazy best before he went all 'cabaret'; Wally Bryson is such a tasteful player...

I also like Glenn Buxtons work with Alice, and Mick Ronsons with Bowie...

[kebabage]

I'd say the drummer, Meg has a minimalist style (purely due to lack of skill hehehe)
Jack relies on alot of effects but does rock, quite the eccentric!

[anaerobe]

For all of you who are wondering about Django Reinhardt, here he is (be patient he will play eventually on this track):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpO5xIltlyU&feature=fvw

He liked to play with Stephan Grapelli, a great violinist and pianist in his own right.

...and this is a very clear vid of Django shredding with some friends in NY... solo after solo... brilliant stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a64uyOUw_A&feature=related

[anaerobe]

Kebabage, quite right about Meg, I believe. I heard somewhere that White asks her NOT to practice, for the sounds he wants.

[grogg]

Reinhardt and Grapelli, what brilliance.

[norfolkngood]

... and Django played with a damaged hand (there was a fire in his caravan, left him with two fingers partially fused together). Much of his stuff with the Hot Club is bar chords; it was easier for him to move his hand than his fingers.

Puts my "haven't played much lately, losing my callouses" into context!

BTW, liking this thread, got me blowing the dust off some of my old CDs (I flogged all my viny after my old Dynatron, there's a name from the 70's, finally died but I've replaced most of the good stuff on CD)

[corsair]

Django was cetainly one of a kind! You've gotta wonder about deals with the devil and crossroads at midnite when you hear his playing and realise that he's only using 2 fretting fingers due to a fire in his caravan! And he literally wore out a guitar every six months...

[anaerobe]

Shifting gears again... I found a pretty obscure clip of Frank Zappa live. This is a basic blues progression, and for his solo, go straight to 5:40.

I've yet to hear anything quite like it eg, this depth of eastern fusion injected into a blues format:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4cjNUgZFr0&feature=related

And the somewhat less frenetic "Black Napkins" ..live - I really enjoy his use of the low E string on this tune, he strangles it for all its its worth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c-NMnYhM3Q&feature=related