Peter Gabriel was the founder and lead singer of Genesis, until 1975 when he left the band to pursue a solo career.  Gabriel is known more recently for producing and promoting world music.

 World music, for people who are unsure, is music from cultures other than the Western world.  World music is generally derived from Africa, Asia and Latin America, however it can and does come from anywhere.

Peter Gabriel is the driving force behind WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance) and has created a record label called ‘Real World Studios’ which aims to promote world music and educate the Western world.

World music encapsulates the heart of sound, listening to a noise that is as old as man does something deep within my core.  Listening to this music helped me to realise that we as a Western world are only skimming the surface of possibilities.  Perhaps we missed the point when it came to creating sound, focusing more on the superficial.

Just a thought… Listen to some of this, see what you think.

From Slash to Jimmy Page to David Gilmour to Hendrix to Mark Knopfler to Clapton to BB King, how can I pick one guitar solo which kicks arse over all others?

These men can all hold their own and then some, they are all musical geniuses in their own right.

Slash, the shy man with a mop of curls to hide his face allows you into another world with his deeply rich and soul penetrating solos; this is a man of sickening talent.  He was the quiet backbone of Guns and Roses whilst Axl sucked up all the glory, the man made the band what it was. He has played alongside some other serious talent over the years including Bob Dylan, James Brown, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, to name a few.  Slash can be found still making musical history today, with his band Velvet Revolver.

Check out Slash
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Jimmy Page and Stairway to Heaven, my God, this is a serious contender for number one.   Strapping on a double necked guitar and playing it like a weightless extension of his own arm, Page’s solo takes the song beyond anything Led Zeppelin could have ever become without him.

Check out Jimmy Page

Here I am confused again.  David Gilmour in the opening solo of “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” is just… mesmerising, entrancing, tear invoking.  Nobody can argue against the brilliance of Pink Floyd.

Check out David Gilmour

Hendrix, yeah we all know he was a-fucking-mazing.  In 1966 he was quoted as saying “I want to do to my guitar what Little Richards does with his voice”.  Well, you got there Jimmy and then you steamed rolled right over the top of him.

Check out Jimmy Hendrix (playing a solo with his teeth)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsgHyauIUZY&feature=fvw

Dire Straits are one of my favourite bands of all time.  Mark Knopfler and his guitar solos make me weak at the knees.  He has to go down in the hall of fame for ‘Sultans of Swing’.

Check out Mark Knopfler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j34gG2xR3I

Good old Eric, the self taught guitarist who everyone holds close to their hearts, even through seeing him in concert and realising his insane lack of people skills (sore point).   The man can play!  Check out ‘Layla’.

Check out Eric Clapton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIBxn8arV3w

And finally, BB King!  Watch the big man play in ‘The Thrill is gone’.  His facial expressions speak for themselves, he is pouring out his soul through inspirational guitar blues.

Check out BB King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtm66Z3lebc

If I had a gun to my head and had to pick just one from this selection… I’d go with Gilmour, followed by Slash, followed by Hendrix, followed by Page… ARGH I can’t do it.  Wouldn’t you like to see them all on one stage ripping each other apart with their guitars?  I fear that would be the only way to tell.

Hendrix stands out as the greatest guitarist to ever grace this planet, but like many other virtuosos he was a one man show, with a band built around him to show off his talents.  His songs were emphatic and his solos even more so, the guy was on another level and an early death to drugs secured his immortality.

Mesmerising solos are all good and well but they are always best served on a platter of equally exuberant musical talent.

Radiohead are one of the bands, of the last twenty years, their consistently magical records, unique sound and emphatic live shows, have earned them a spot with rock’s immortality in a different way to Hendrix.

Paranoid Android is their magnum opus, their Bohomian Rhapshody, where wild key changes and weird time signatures take us on a dark journey far beyond the realms of any other pop group’s musical capacity.

The apocalyptic vision of 97’s OK Computer is embodied in this epic, which took the band a year and a half to master for the live front. The build and crash style of the song sets the perfect backdrop for Jonny Greenwood’s otherworldly guitar hammering.

When he lets rip on his Telecaster sparks fly, the song crashes and burns around him and the whole world goes up in flames. Thom York then brings it back from the dead with his haunting vocals and acoustic picking on a mesmerising sing-a-long coda before Greenwood hammers the final nail into the coffin through one more monumentous electrical outburst.

 

This is what really makes an epic guitar solo, when the song that it is built around is equally as breathtaking.

 

 

 

 

Remember the songs that bring back amazing memories? Maybe when you met your first love …. when you bought your first car … ok I know they’re a bit cliched but Pearl Jam’s Better Man does that for me. Being a babe of the 80s and a child of the 90s with a fairly influential older brother – Pearl Jam, Live, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine were my lullabies.

The guitar solo in Better Man I admit, isn’t exactly up to par with Elvis and Hendrix but it does it for me.

Here’s the live version of this song – at the beginning chorus the crowd are more in unison than the performers … it’s amazing. The song spent 8 weeks at number 1 so it’s gotta be popular.

Jeff Ament is the guitarist here … and yes it is short …. and it isn’t magnificent … but he performs his craft to make it look like every guitarist should – easy.

Rocknroll is primal and gut-felt; forbidden rhythms and percussion stemming from black America that have, in a variety of forms, scared the bejesus out of the mainstream since slavery. Its descendents are punk, rap or any other kind of music that reaches inside and grabs something and forces you to move and do its bidding.

Classical music, that most establishment of cultures, is the opposite; it is to be admired from a cool distance – it isn’t engaged but appreciated. When rocknroll behaves like this it is a betrayal to its roots outside of decent society. Rocknroll is participatory and inclusive. Observe: (and thanks to Everett True for putting me onto this)

The very notion of rock “gods” before whom we should genuflect flies in the face of the egalitarian nature of rocknroll; at any show the crowd and its energy should be at the very centre of the live experience, not an awed and appreciative or thankful mob, gaping like children at the superior man, and these wankers are almost without exception men, deigning to perform for them.

That’s why the earnest rock gods are so eminently piss-takable: they’re smug and pleased with themselves. Eric Clapton, David Gilmore (and apparently it must be David and never Dave) and Jimmy Page: they can all fuck off. It smacks of a deep-seated belief in the inferiority of rocknroll compared to classical through its desire to replicate the musicianship and appreciation of ‘real’ music. Thus when you decide you’re too old or too dignified to leap around and dance, you can retreat into ‘good’ music by ‘real’ musicians while believing you’re still retaining your rock cool.

Just buy the Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtrack and be done with it. There’s dignity in honesty.

I can’t imagine music any less engaging than shit like this:

However this is not entirely true of all soloing, although they should always be approached with scepticism. It’s hard to dislike Kiss and their ilk, bands that walk onto the stage every time with the intention of partying with their fans. Dull and uninspiring for me perhaps, but keeping a flame burning for rocknroll as fun above all else for their fans. Perhaps GunsRoses et al once served a similar purpose, but there was such a streak of nastiness running those cock rockers it was hard for me to notice.

But ultimately, if you’re standing and appreciating rather than leaping and feeling, you’re watching wankers and probably becoming one yourself.

Which of the above gigs would you rather have been at?

I wasn’t around in 1986 so I’m living vicariously with the power of the internet – here’s my top 10.

 

1. That’s What Friends Are For , Dionne Warwick, Elton John, and Gladys Knight

Although it was first recorded in 85′, it was the No. 1 hit of 1986. The song was originally released by Rod Steward in 82′ but this cover version was put out to raise money for America Foundation of AIDS Research. And raise it did … $3 million to be precise.

2. Whitney Houston – How will I know.

Claimed the No.1 place on Billboard Charts in February 1986 – bumping my number 1 pick out of first place.

3. Hands Across America

At least 5,000,000 people formed a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California, to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.

4. Madonna

One of the many magazines she graced the front cover of. In 1986 Madonna relased her third album True Blue and had three hit singles in the same year.

5. IBM releases the first lap top

Imagine swinging this over your shoulder as you get on the bus.

6. Pet Shop Boys released their debut album – Please

They’re a UK duo and since 1986, they’ve had 22 Top 10 hits in the UK … and they’re still going … the boys released their latest album, Yes, in March of this year.

7. Commercials

If you look at the adds here – most of them are still brands now.

8. The first 10 musicians were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

Here are the best ….

James Brown

Ray Charles

Elvis

9. Pretty in Pink soundtrack released

This album was released for the movie, Pretty in Pink and featured songs like Do Wot You Do by INXS and the title song Pretty in Pink by the The Psychedelic Furs, which was the actual inspiration for the movie.

10. Prince and the Revolution released their album, Parade.

If I had to pick one song that made the top 100 in 1986 and still gets played constantly at full volume on my CD player, it would be ‘Walk of Life’ by Dire Straits.

 The song was originally released in 1985 and featured on the ‘Brothers in Arms’ album, however in 1986 it was released as a single and proved to be one of their biggest commercial hits, making it up pretty high in the charts (#7).

The intro (like almost all Dire Straits songs) makes the song.  ‘Walk of Life’  is original and so different to everything else that was offered in 1986 (a year with way too many a love ballad).

Dire Straits were not about just making a dollar, they put their passion and insane talent for sound and rhythm into songs that don’t date, go out of fashion or die unnoticed deaths.  They were musical storytellers.  They are musical Gods.

They are rumoured to have explained when the song was released that ‘Walk of Life’ in the context of the song, is a journey taken by a storyteller through the British countryside, in which he went from town to town telling stories in place of TV or radio.

Read the lyrics:

Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I Say
Here comes Johnny singing I Gotta Woman
Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh yeah the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

He do the song about the sweet lovin’ woman
He do the song about the knife
And he do the walk, he do the walk of life
Yeah, he do the walk of life

Here comes Johnny goin’ tell you the story
Hand me down my walkin’ shoes
Here come Johnny with the power and the glory
Backbeat the talkin’ blues
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh yeah the boy can play
Dedication, devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

He do the song about the sweet lovin’ woman
He do the song about the knife
And he do the walk, he do the walk of life
Yeah, he do the walk of life

Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I Say
Here comes Johnny singing I Gotta Woman
Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh yeah the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

And after all the violence and double talk
There’s just a song in all the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, yeah, you do the walk of life
Hmm, you do the walk of life

Listen to ’walk of life’ on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_lfqKbOvTk

If you don’t already have a deep love for their music, get one
(if you can’t… theres something wrong with you).

In 1986:

• Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys broke up, but on the bright side Dolly Parton finally opened Dollywood…

• Belinda Carlisle got married and Sammy Hagar started playing with Van Halen, but on the bright side the Monkees reformed…

• Bon Jovi released Slippery When Wet and Dionne Warwick released an album co-produced by Barry Manilow, but on the bright side Wang Chung arrived on the scene…

Mind you, as bleak as it all that seems, I see all the garbage and waste and raise it The Triffids releasing Born Sandy Devotional. And then nothing else seems to matter.

Metal is a rare point of convergence in music – where the alternative and underground music worlds nod approvingly at the same time as the suburbanest bevans of all.

At its finest metal is so inaccessible that the underground has to show due respect to an uncompromised world that rejects any norm of social acceptability presented to it.
Punters come to metal from a variety of angles – the neo-goths who seek blacker and more nihilistic emotions than medieval and existential naval-gazing, the Rawk! boys who need ever harder and faster songs to find satisfaction and the anonymous suburban kids for whom only the most anti-social of all messages will carve them out an identity in some way separate from the mall-mobs.
Perhaps the golden rule to distinguish quality, uncompromised metal (Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse) from “just far enough from the mainstream that you can feel cool, but still close enough that you’re comfortable” (Metallica, Parkway Drive) is the presence of pressure relieving light moments. Tinny solos for pretty haircut kids with perfect sleeve tatts to show off their finger-speed and fuckability.
Watching metal kids circle-pitting at festivals is disconcerting. Intense metal doesn’t provide any sort of danceable rhythm – it’s generally too fucking fast and intense, which is why the crowd at serious metal gigs stand stone-footed, observing.
When metal bands are writing verse-chorus-verse with foot tappable rock solos, the battle has been lost and the banal mainstream has conquered yet another area of outsiders’ music.
The beauty of metal though is that no matter how many bands get dragged toward the mainstream, there is such a reliable production line of genuinely dark and hateful teenagers that the blackest edges of the genre will always survive.
Wacken festival may become entirely commercial and change its lineup accordingly, but in bedrooms and garages in the Logans and Cabooltures of the world troubled teens are writing ascerbic songs about the powers of darkness with the intent of offending everyone. Metal is unkillable.

Metal derived from rock music and started off back in the 70s with bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.  (God how I wish I’d been a teenager in the 70s.  I dream about riding around in a green Triumph Spitfire and listening to Stairway to Heaven).

Motorhead rocked up, added a little punk to the mix and led Iron Maiden down a similar path – introducing to the world to the ‘metal-head’.  This is where things started to get dark, violent and a little sordid: crazy fucking Lemmy, he really took metal to a whole new level.

The day I sit down and listen to an entire Motorhead CD is going to be one intensely angry, aggressive and venomous day.  The genre became what it needed to be: it began to become an expression of anger and frustration with the world, it was a way to relate.  But as well as expelling the aggravation people felt, it also causes (if not in the correct frame of mind to listen to it) a severe amount of aggression and anger.

Maiden extended Lemmy’s cause, but somehow weren’t so intense, lyrics weren’t/aren’t thrown in your face with the same amount of intensity.  Don’t get me wrong Maiden rock, but they are no Motorhead; although they never claimed to be.

Metal continued to morph when Metallica and Motley Crue decided to jump on the band wagon and glam things up, lessening the amount of filth that attached itself to you after listening/watching someone like Motorhead (commercialisation!).

Here is where I bow out, Death Metal is introduced.  Fuck me, I physically feel like throwing up with the intensity of this sound.  There are distorted guitars, smashing drums, screaming front men and continually changing tempos.  It’s intense, it’s angry and it’s far too much for me and my sensitive stomach.

Check out slayer, if you dare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUDWLp1yIWw

Metal is and always has been a loosely labelled and continually changing genre.  I would never claim myself to be a metalhead, but I use it when I need to.  I listen to Zeppelin for pleasure and pump out Lemmy when someone runs over my cat, but as for listening to the stuff on a daily basis, count me the hell out.