The Logic Off Topic list

While we are at it: I hate those hyped Mr. Speedfingers. Thanks god the era
of Mike Varney and Shrapnel records is over. I can't believe how many kids
there were following the spirits of Yngwie Malmsteen and the likes a few
years ago. Btw, I once say Yngwie Malmsteen live (no, I didn't pay a penny
for it! Was at Frankfurt/Musikmesse) and he was like one of the most
disgusting persons I ever "met" (I've been hanging out backstage so I had an
even better impression) and his music was just the same.

What I wonder about is that almost all of the mentioned "gods/heroes" are
like wellknown for mostly their soloing. What you hear on records 95% of all
the time is rhythm playing though - or let me better say accompanying.
IMO the folks usually doing the background stuff are way underrated. Just to
drop a few names that roughly fit into that category:: Paul Jackson Jr. (pop
guitar master), Jimmy Nolen (James Brown guitar player), Neil Rodgers
(Chic... now that guy has the funk!), Robert Fripp ("Discipline" of King
Crimson with him, Belew, Levin, Bruford has got to be one of my alltime
favourites), Joe Pass (the duets with Ella Fitzgerald IMO are like the best
examples how jazz standards can be interpreted without any wasted note),
Malcolm Young (still hard to find a tighter rhythm section for straight 1/8
beat stuff than AC/DC), WahWah Watson (I love the stuff he played for Herbie
Hancock).

I find it somewhat amazing how guitarists are allways practising licks and
speed patterns without ever taking care about the basics of accompaning a
tune. Almost all of the jobs I am asked for are dealing with ryhthm guitars,
knowing some tunes and chords. Additional soloing allways only happens to be
the icing on the cake.

Sascha