Lindsey Buckingham is a great guitarist. There's a lot of cool, subtle stuff going on in his playing that isn't immediately evident and can stand the test of time.
But Joe is still better.
And it saddens me that you feel that way about Joe. Although it makes me happy that you even mention guitarists and not...um...ukelele players. That's not to say there aren't any kick ass uke players out there...I'm sure there are.
I saw G3 (Joe, Steve Vai, Yngwie) when they came to town a few months ago. Incredible show. Yngwie was loud, noisy, obnoxious, fat, and can play a Strat like nobody's business. He also has a tone that says to Joe and Steve: "Shut the hell up...I'm still on stage, you insignificant jizzmoppers!"
Steve gets on stage. After yelling at his roadie because his double-neck behemoth isn't in tune he plays an incredible duet all by himself. He then proceeds to masturbate on stage (musically, you lonely pervs) for the next hour-or-so. Incredible musician. He could make God say "what the hell did he just do there in that riff?"
Joe takes the stage. He played eveything verbatim to his albums. Boooring. I could hear that at home and it'd even sound better. And I appreciate the fact that Joe's a "real guy: buy he puts on absolutely zero show. Sorry, Joe. Not terribly impressed even though you could play circles around me any day.
So what's my point in all of this? Who knows? But before you give up on "modern" guitar players (I agree w/ the previous poster that the nue kids don't even have a clue with any of these names) listen to Steve Vai's "Whispering a Prayer." Simply beautiful.
The reason I didn't mention Steve Vai is because he lacks one critical thing: an ability to write lyrics. Vai hasn't grown much in that area since Flex-Able. Satriani isn't really much better here either.
I tend to judge my musicians nowadays by how well-rounded they are, and as such I find that I place Mark Knopfler and Lindsey Buckingham - who can both write evocative lyrics and great melodies - above those who can only do one. I used to frequently joke about the "Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo", which on old Fleetwood Mac albums usually consisted of him plucking the same one or two notes over and over and over. I really had to eat my words when I heard his work on "Out of the Cradle" - he definitely decided to get serious about it.
In hindsight, I probably should have removed the phrase "guitar work" from my entry, but it wouldn't have made as much sense to those not familiar with the two.
Comments
Meanwhile, today's youth look at both those names and go "Who?!" ;-)
Posted by: Alphax | February 10, 2004 01:12 PM
Lindsey Buckingham is a great guitarist. There's a lot of cool, subtle stuff going on in his playing that isn't immediately evident and can stand the test of time.
But Joe is still better.
And it saddens me that you feel that way about Joe. Although it makes me happy that you even mention guitarists and not...um...ukelele players. That's not to say there aren't any kick ass uke players out there...I'm sure there are.
I saw G3 (Joe, Steve Vai, Yngwie) when they came to town a few months ago. Incredible show. Yngwie was loud, noisy, obnoxious, fat, and can play a Strat like nobody's business. He also has a tone that says to Joe and Steve: "Shut the hell up...I'm still on stage, you insignificant jizzmoppers!"
Steve gets on stage. After yelling at his roadie because his double-neck behemoth isn't in tune he plays an incredible duet all by himself. He then proceeds to masturbate on stage (musically, you lonely pervs) for the next hour-or-so. Incredible musician. He could make God say "what the hell did he just do there in that riff?"
Joe takes the stage. He played eveything verbatim to his albums. Boooring. I could hear that at home and it'd even sound better. And I appreciate the fact that Joe's a "real guy: buy he puts on absolutely zero show. Sorry, Joe. Not terribly impressed even though you could play circles around me any day.
So what's my point in all of this? Who knows? But before you give up on "modern" guitar players (I agree w/ the previous poster that the nue kids don't even have a clue with any of these names) listen to Steve Vai's "Whispering a Prayer." Simply beautiful.
Posted by: ibanezsa160 | February 13, 2004 10:53 PM
The reason I didn't mention Steve Vai is because he lacks one critical thing: an ability to write lyrics. Vai hasn't grown much in that area since Flex-Able. Satriani isn't really much better here either.
I tend to judge my musicians nowadays by how well-rounded they are, and as such I find that I place Mark Knopfler and Lindsey Buckingham - who can both write evocative lyrics and great melodies - above those who can only do one. I used to frequently joke about the "Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo", which on old Fleetwood Mac albums usually consisted of him plucking the same one or two notes over and over and over. I really had to eat my words when I heard his work on "Out of the Cradle" - he definitely decided to get serious about it.
In hindsight, I probably should have removed the phrase "guitar work" from my entry, but it wouldn't have made as much sense to those not familiar with the two.
Posted by: Brad Oliver | February 14, 2004 04:20 AM