After a certain point in a guitar player’s journey you start to reflect back on the influential players, albums, songs, concerts, etc. that made a positive impact on you. You may revisit an album that at one point you thought was solid gold only to find that now, you find it unlistenable. Did you ever listen to bad music for great guitar playing? Are there any skeletons in your closet? Guilty pleasures only safe to indulge in while wearing headphones? I would suggest that if you said no to these questions, you haven’t expanded your musical horizons enough. You have to cast a wide net in order to learn not only what to do, but what not to do. Only with good examples of bad can you appreciate good examples of great!
Now, I don’t want to go to negative-town here. I’m more interested in sharing a few positive thoughts about the seminal albums and guitar players that over the years I’ve revisited, sometimes more than once. With new ears and years of experience I have come to a new level of respect and appreciation for music I listened to when I first started playing guitar. Here’s a selection off the top of my head of go-to artists and/or albums that primed the pump so to speak. I’ll start with the guitarist that for my generation was the sine qua non of rock guitar. He inspired so many of us to take up the instrument and is arguably the guy who opened the door for a generation of virtuoso rock guitar players. We share the same first name and, if isn’t clear yet, I’m referring to Edward Van Halen.
Van Halen is a band that I’ll dive in and dive out of, always coming back to verify if they were really as great as I thought they were back in the day and time after time I come to the conclusion that yes indeed, they absolutely were. Fair Warning is one of my all-time favorite albums. The big revelation about Eddie’s guitar playing for me once I got past being mesmerized by his lead guitar work, two-handed tapping and tasty licks were his rhythm guitar skills. His rhythm playing was overshadowed by the accolades paid to his brilliance as a soloist but anyone who has listened to as much Van Halen as I have must come to the same conclusion I did. EVH’s strength as a rhythm guitarist served the songs and the band the most.
Jimi Hendrix, Axis:Bold As Love showcases his strength as a songwriter but the rawness of his playing on Band of Gypsies and his solo on Machine Gun still gives me goose bumps every time. When I go back and listen to Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell it takes me back to the one and only time I saw them live. I was too young to see the band with Roger Waters but my experience with David Gilmore was sublime, the show was at the old Yankee Stadium and I knew while watching I was witnessing one of the best rock concerts I ever have and ever will experience. A great friend, good fortune and circumstance got me into the now gone Bottom Line club on Mercer and W4th st. in the mid-80’s to have my mind absolutely blown by Allan Holdsworth. His album I.O.U. and the song Letters of Marque still stand up to the tests of time and I’m taken back to that intimate club setting whenever I listen to it.
A journey down memory lane can be instructive and informative; giving a perspective not only of your own musical tastes and how they have changed, but insight into what defined what was good at the time. This can give you a sense of how an artist has developed and how the greats are continuously honing their craft. Ok. I said I wasn’t going to negative-town regarding unlistenable albums but I feel that I’ve demonstrated enough sensitivity and respect to the efforts of others that if I pick out one album, just one, that’s ok right? I’m not a hater! I mean, I’ve suffered criticism for my own work and that’s part of how we grow. I’m not going to bring up an entire band’s catalog like my colleague did when I asked him about now unlistenable albums and he replied ”anything by Poison.”
Ok here goes, and this hurts because I’m a fan of this guitar player! A big fan for many reasons, not withstanding that I saw him at Madsion Square Garden back in ’88 and my face was absolutely melted off. I never saw a band have so much fun on stage before. Funnily enough, Poison opened up for the headline act. I’m talking about the maestro and fellow New York native himself, Steve Vai. He was with David Lee Roth on the Skyscraper tour at the time and I was already enamored of Steve from the Guitar Player article “Zen and the Art of Steve Vai” and Roth’s Eat ‘em and Smile which is a great album. I’m not talking about Dave’s Skyscraper album which, if truth be told, is a close second to Steve’s abortive effort.
See, Steve Vai put together an eponymously named band in the early ‘90’s with Terry Bozzio, T.M. Stevens and Devin Townshend and released one album named Sex and Religion. Truly, a supergroup of monster musicians but it just goes to show that even the greats can lay a massive turd. Sorry Steve, nothing but love and respect for you and to the fans more rabid than myself, I beg your pardon. Steve Vai, at his worst is still one of the greatest and continues to be an inspiration and mentor to me and many others around the world. If anything, Sex and Religion demonstrates that he’s human, fallible like the rest of us mortal guitar players and not actually from another plane of existence. I’ll close by sharing my dorky fan fantasy to buy him a beer say, “thank you man!” then maybe talk about ancient astronaut theories, peace, love and happiness stuff.
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