Guitar Gods

[CovenantJr]

I agree with Lucimay.

and Boston sucks ultra-hard.

of course...anybody in their right MIND would.

Lucimay, you do realise this sounds like you're saying "Anybody in their right mind would suck ultra-hard"

Ok, well as guitarists go...Knopfler and Satriani have been mentioned... I'll throw in Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala. They're from the fast school of guitaring, but when they do it well it can be quite startling - I'm no musician, so I can't say what it is, but they have something that stops it sounding like just a random selection of rapid notes.


Check out the latter part of I Spit On Your Grave by Sinergy if you want an example. One of Lucimay's early criteria was a guitarist you can recognise pretty much immediately. I can usually recognise Alexi/Roope.

I wouldn't propose him as a guitar god, but I want to give an honourable mention to Dino Cazares. He's a git by all accounts and I have no idea whether he's particularly adept (he certainly doesn't use his instrument to the full) but he's fairly distinctive. Ok, his style can be mimicked, but he did it first.

[sgt.null]

Matlock and Cook were competant. Steve Jones, who i neglected to highlight for some reason, was a passionate guitarists who had to work extra to cover for Sid.

[Cail]

Steve Jones was hired by Malcolm McLaren when he was caught stealing guitars. He was a passionate player (I guess), but he certainly wasn't a guitar god.

And given the Pistol's attitude, he'd probably be pissed being thought of as one.

[sgt.null]

he's mellowed. i think the hof snub was mostly Rotten, living the punk dream. and i'll say that Jones at the very least pioneered a movement.

[Cail]

I wouldn't even say that. The movement sort of materialized at the same time, with bands like The New York Dolls and The MC5 really pioneering it. Both The Pistols and The Ramones released their first records in '76; the Pistols got the spotlight, but I'd argue The Ramones were a far, far better band.

[sgt.null]

the Ramones were better, but did have the splash of the Pistols. and we are still talking about the Pistols, although they only released one album. the MC5 never got any airplay. the Stooges were also a better band, but never crossed over. the Dolls never had a chanch unfortunately. anyway the Clash were better than all of them.

[Cail]

Agreed big-time on The Clash.

[CovenantJr]

He's probably not a guitar god in the sense of being unusually good, but he is in the sense that I can tell his playing when I hear it: Mike Oldfield.

If you count everything else he plays, he might be an all-round instrumental god.

[lucimay]

did we really forget the THRASHMASTAH!!!! ???

[dANdeLION]

With all due respect to Jaco, I think his skills are a bit over-emphasized due to his senseless and tragic death. It's the Randy Rhodes Syndrome. Was he good, great even? Yeah, sure. But the best? Don't think so. I'd put Stanley Clarke over Jaco without hesitation.

I used to think this way, but then I started buying the cds (both Jaco's, Clarke's, Jeff Berlin's, Marcus Miller's, Vic Wooten's, etc.; you get the point) and Jaco is clearly a notch above them all. There's just more passion & soul in Jaco's playing; Jeff Berlin probably sounds more like Jaco than anybody, but to me, it lacks everything but the chops. Pino Palladino is another of my all-time favorites. Stanley is great, but while I enjoy his music, it doesn't really touch me. Jaco, on the other hand, is hard for me to listen to without getting totally involved; so much so thatg sometimes I can hardly wait to get off work so I can go home & play my fretless till my fingers get numb.....the only other bassists who make me feel like that are Pino, Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello), Colin Moulding (XTC), String, Adam Clayton, and Geddy.

..but did you ever hear him live? watch him play? i gotta tell ya...never seen or heard anything like it before or since. *shakes head* in a hall, built for acoustics...seated about 1500, 10 rows from stage...i gotta testify here, never before, never since, have i heard anybody else do it like that.

I never got to see him live, but I have some dvd's....if I didn't see it myself, I would have never thought it was possible for one person to contain that much music in him.

[Cail]

Good call on Pino. He's really underrated.

[lucimay]

..but did you ever hear him live? watch him play? i gotta tell ya...never seen or heard anything like it before or since. *shakes head* in a hall, built for acoustics...seated about 1500, 10 rows from stage...i gotta testify here, never before, never since, have i heard anybody else do it like that.

I never got to see him live, but I have some dvd's....if I didn't see it myself, I would have never thought it was possible for one person to contain that much music in him.

and dAN...i don't know if you like joni mitchell at all but jaco's work on Hejira!!! just BRILLIANT. the collaboration btwn jaco and joni...man.

[dANdeLION]

I have Hejira, Shadows & Light (cd & dvd), and Mingus by Joni. And I agree; it's brilliant. In fact, it was Hejira that really turned me around on Jaco; I had heard the Weather Report stuff, but I just assumed that was Jaco's element...when I heard Hejira, I started to realize that all music was his element.

[lucimay]

I have Hejira, Shadows & Light (cd & dvd), and Mingus by Joni. And I agree; it's brilliant. In fact, it was Hejira that really turned me around on Jaco; I had heard the Weather Report stuff, but I just assumed that was Jaco's element...when I heard Hejira, I started to realize that all music was his element.

oh!

Amelia and Coyote my favs!!

[jelerak]

Dave Mustaine of MegaDeth and former fellow guitarist of MegeDeth Marty Friedman.

[sgt.null]

have we mentioned Vernon Reid of Living Colour yet?

[danlo]

Rick Laird
was the house bassist at Ronnie Scott's Club in London from around mid 1964 to early 1966. He backed almost all visiting U.S. Jazz musicians during those days. The likes of Roland Kirk, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery, Zoot Sims, and Benny Golson to name a few.

Rick Laird anchored the Mahavishnu Orchestra, one third of the hallowed triumvirate of seminal '70s fusion bands. Yet unlike Stanley Clarke with "Return To Forever" or Jaco with "Weather Report", Laird never aspired to become a household name -- he just wanted to be himself. "That's the best advice I can give any musician. I loved Scott LaFaro and Charles Mingus, but my heroes were Ray Brown and Paul Chambers." Like his heroes, Laird played a supporting role, forging solid lines out of Mahavishnu's odd-time signatures or doubling only phrase-anchoring notes in blinding unison riffs. With founder/guitarist John McLaughlin, drummer Billy Cobham, keyboardist Jan Hammer, and violinist Jerry Goodman seemingly driven to see who could play fastest and loudest, "someone had to say *one*," Rick recalls, "and that was me."-Bass Player Magazine 1999

[Cail]

have we mentioned Vernon Reid of Living Colour yet?

Yeah, I think he's somewhere in here. He's amazing.

Good call on Marty Friedman.

[sgt.null]

Kim and Kelly Deal of the Breeders.

[lucimay]

Martin Barre - Jethro Tull