Friday, December 21, 2012
Bah Humbug
Tis the post title, only a little tongue in cheek. Sorry folks, I'll fake a lot of things but this year I'm just not in a Christmas mood. I wish I were but, I'm going to let it ride and wait until next year. I have however been nostalgic lately for the "guitar god". "There is no guitar god" you say? Oh ye of little faith.
For this post I have two goodies. The other day I attempted to make a list of my top 10 favorite guitar solos OF ALL TIME but, I failed. Because I could never narrow it down to 10 I ended up with almost 18 minutes of some of the greatest moments in music history. I hope you enjoy that, if you have the patience (pun). My other goodie is the guitar god that I speak of. There are humans that are extremely proficient at the guitar these days but, I would not call them gods. I call them guitar heroes. A wise and awesome movie once said that, "Heroes are remembered but, legends never die." The guitar gods...legends, may not have played as many notes as some of the new guitar heroes but they somehow took the notes that were available to everybody else and played them like nobody (not even the guitar heroes) could play them. They changed volume knobs forever (car & home stereos, Walkmans, Discmans, iPods, etc). There haven't been many guitar gods/legends in the last 20 years but I'm convinced that Derek Trucks is one. Here is another great example of one of the guitar greats. The guitar solo fun is at the bottom but only in flash for those that aren't slaves of the evil apple mobile empire.
The Derek Trucks link on Youtube was removed
Link to guitar solos mix
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What a great post, and a delightful 18-minute listen. The guitar god is definitely an endangered beast.
ReplyDeleteAs I was listening to your selections, I started making my own list. Let's just say that the list below was more than twice as long, but I had to keep taking songs off because you already included them.
Some of my favorites are:
Presence of the Lord – Blind Faith
Sweet, pretty hammond organ and soulful lyrics... ...then comes the crunch of the wah-wah. Amazing.
Blue Sky – The Allman Brothers
For my money, the best two-guitar licks of all time.
Since I’ve Been Loving You – Led Zeppellin
Basically, the whole song is a solo, but still - epic.
Sample In a Jar – Phish
His tone is insane. Go to 3:20 on the track and tell me it doesn't make you shred a little air guitar.
Somebody to Love – Queen
Another tone angel. This one's short, but it perfectly echos Freddy's wail.
Impossible Germany – Wilco
Frenetic, drawn-out, schizophrenic, and perfect.
Man In the Box – Alice in Chains
Perfect grungy crunch mixed the right amount of hammers and pinched notes.
Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits
Some of the best licks ever, with a prolonged memorable solo to match.
Daughter - Pearl Jam
Simple and purpose-built. Not a single wasted note.