the thing with guitar is, composition is impressive but it isn’t where you show your greatest skill… because all these masters know and play all the same standards. each of these guys in these last videos could read and play every bit of that composition. it’s the soloing that you look at. unlike the composition, each of these guys might not be able to play a particular lead that another can play. those 64th notes paco is finger picking, for example, are extremely difficult to pull off.
Right, showing off.
Sometimes, there is a reason they all play the same standard. That’s where you really prove your skill. Where you can really compare. No tricks. No pretty flowers. Concierto de fucking Aranjuez, play it. see what you got.
If I want skill for skill’s sake, I’ll listen to Chilean progressive death metal. But only for 10 minutes, then I’m like “what in the goddamn fuck is wrong with a central plot? I get it you’re cool, you only believe in endless progressions of increasingly complex musical structures. Ugh.”
ah jeez… they already got you. you spent so much time watching guitarists with big hair waving their guitars around on MTV, that you think all guitarists suffer the same complex. i can assure you paco is nothing like those clowns. he’s the real deal dude, the studious studio musician who comes on stage, sits his ass down in a chair, and performs an fucking exorcist on that guitar. no posing or posturing or jumping around. that’s amateur shit for rock stars.
Interesting, you helped me notice something. I do am a sucker for composition, virtuosity says basically nothing to me.
In my opinion, greatest bit of guitar music ever recorded. Feeling, heart, technique, complexity.
Four guitars. gtfoh.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avAUIf5ts9A[/youtube]
I mean musical showing off.
I can’t explain it man. It’s just the vibe he gives me. When I listen to him, not when I look at him.
It’s like… Blegh. He’s extremely talented, I see it. But extremely talented at fatuous flowery nonsense. It takes decades of work and study and subtle understanding of music to make something that bothers me at that level. I’m not saying he doesn’t know the guitar. He knows it enough to be supremely rude to it.
Wait, I thought I posted the whole album there for Quarterstaff. Apologies. Lemme try to remedy that. It’s really one single piece, the whole album. Hold on.
Hmm… They took down the whole album video. Here is the playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZCUBnhcm1w&list=PL9DFE94599E242DEC&index=2.
I respect your mastery and understanding of music. Doesn’t mean I have to respect your taste.
Fucking Paco de Lucia. And Jazz Fusion on top of it? Want virtuoso motherfucker? Find me the dude can play THIS.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXP84ijiLbg[/youtube]
wtf… i go looking for ‘passion, grace and fire’ played by di meola, mclaughlin and de lucia, and i find di meola playing that fucker by himself. well he plays the melody for a minute or two but then goes back into improv. listen to the studio version if… here i’ll just post it.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkql5cZym0U[/youtube]
there was a thing between mclaughlin and di meola in the seventies; who was better was the big question, but it’s the kinda thing where masters are ambivalent toward each other in that respect. di meola is more text book while mclaughlin has a certain edgy nuance to his playing. but di meola is so perfect at it, it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t deviate as much as mclaughlin. both of them are monsters.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np3Qr4SKlJU[/youtube]
p.s. your recent reply: paco isn’t showing off. he’s in that shit, feeling it… that’s not ‘oh wow look at me shred’. that’s ‘holy shit what a rush’.
Lol, I can’t. I listen to the first 6 plucks of the guitar and I’m already like Blegh.
I get it, this guy just wants me to know how good he is.
I can’t man. I wanted to do it, for you. But I just can’t.
The musical version of first you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women is first you get the heart, then you get the composition, then you get the virtuosity. Like Coltrane did, Like Charles Mingus did.
I can’t stand dudes masturbating on stage.
Here’s what I can give you:
I understand, from a muscician’s side, how it can be a thrill to see a guy do things that shouldn’t be able to be done.
Like how true metal dudes think Malmsteen is a god. Fine, ok. But me, just a music lover, I listen to him and I’m like this is just corny.
Paco de Lucia is that x1000000000
Lol, for some reason you reminded me of Rhapsody. I get the idea you never got into metal. But I like guys who get into it, go deep. Deez guys go deep.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz98MWnvyM0[/youtube]
Lol, fucking Rhapsody.
I had a metalhead nerd cousin, that’s why. Mexicans love them.
I never picked it out myself to listen to.
But the point is, music needs soul. Soul.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTaMPkdOE1c[/youtube]
malmsteen is everything that is wrong with the shredders. i agree, total cornball, but he’s badass, so he can be one and his shit still sells. of that era i prefer satriani and vai. satriani can go a little overboard with the whole lead guitarist image but he’s really a modest guy. vai is a genuine angel who truly enjoys all the weird shit he does for arts sake. plus he was raised by zappa which has something to do with his eccentric nature. if you ever aren’t doing anything, listen to ‘flexible’, vai’s first solo album after he stopped playing for frank. in fact, check this crazy shit out (the whole album is great). this is what happens to you when you work for frank:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Sv5bAKS4s[/youtube]
“… light without heat-t-t-t-t-t-t…”
Another thing I’ll give de Lucia.
I remember hearing a guy once play spanish guitar at a party. I was like what is this shit. Went searching, quickly found de Lucia. Listened for alike a good minute and was like "I see the skill but… Fuck, is this what spanish guitar is? There’s no… It’s not… It doesn’t elicit anything, it’s like a super elaborate soap opera. Then I dug deeper and found the real shit, and understood. So Paco did get me into Spanish Guitar.
Yeah, Vai and Satirani I know, and I have some respect for them. But it is also the case that I can’t get past 30 secs with them. It’s too… Too indulgent. Where’s the meat?
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wniXxeTJlyM[/youtube]
Lol, this is my kind of virtuoso.
They are still showing off, but it is somehow not about THEM.
The bass players is basically playing a harp. You might think they’re a joke, but they are actually very good.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXi-sydxtVQ[/youtube]