Great Unsung guitar moments..
Not the usual candidates, more the special moments that lay fallow, undetected by guitar pundits.
My nomination is Robert Fripp's extraordinary showing on "A Sailors Tale" from "Islands," not a great Crimson record, but rife with cracking axe moments.
After a squally inro featuring atonal chattering between sax and guitar, the groove settles into something that may be called "funky" if played by almost anyone other than King Crimson.
Over this Fripp's guitar, ambiently mic'd and compressed in that good old fashioned way, plays some wildly synchopated chordal clusters that sound like they were played completely on the fly. It's quite mad and totally brilliant.
Elsewhere on the truly awful "Ladies Of The Road" Fripp redeems the song with a concise and punchy solo.
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The twang's the thang
Technically it's probably nothing, but I swoon at the Hawaiian guitar sound on Richard Hawley's "Hotel Room", from his "Coles Corner" album.
The 2 note "solo" in bordem
The 2 note "solo" in bordem by Buzzcocks is good
The Shins - Turn on Me
Has a great simple solo, nothing noodley or show-offy, but works a treat.
Great guitar moments..
are rarely noodly and show-offy in my experience.
Wilko Fripp & Thompson
Wilko on I'm a Hog for you Baby on Stupidity. Not too many chords, but by God its brilliant.
At the other end of the plectrum spectrum is Fripp on Frame by Frame. Saw this on a OGWT DVD and it's awesome (to me as a non-guitarist) in its speed and complexity. And he's not even bloody looking at what he's doing.
Oh and Richard Thompson on the live version of Hard on Me from Semi-detached Mock Tudor
Wilko..
..was, and is one of the British greats. Much is mentioned about his manic stage manner, which saw him walking back and forewards like a speed addled and slightly autistic Hank Marvin, but his raucous, highly charged riffing was right on the money, and it has to be admitted, much needed at the time.
..which of course didn't excuse the phalanx of lame no-playing motherf**Kers who followed.
Thompson
Pretty much anything by RT will have brilliant guitar playing and will almost certainly be relatively unsung other than by the smallish but deeply loyal fan base! "Vincent Black Lightning" is is a stupendous bit of acoustic guitar playing, and trust me bloody hard to play (I've tried)! But the simplicy and pure rightness of the solo on "Turning of the tide" gets me too.
Tune..
DGDGBE, capo third fret and off ya go.
(It is hard, I admit)
Tune II
Hate to disagree but from memory it is CGDGBE isn't it? ;-) Pretty sure that's how I play it........(scurries off to Beeswing to check) but yes it's dooable but tough, esp trying to do a solo whilst maintaining the bass part, unless you're RT of course who appears to have about 4 different brains running in parallel....
Sorry, y're right...
(Tunes "E" string down another step...)
Wilko and Norman
The Wilko Johnson Band are brilliant live - and you get two legends for the price of one. Not only Wilko but Norman Watt-Roy as well.
I defy anyone to come up with a better bass line than Hit me with your rhythm stick
OK..
What about the same man's "I wanna Be Straight? (It's got Wilko to boot!)
A couple for the list
My Fave bit of Frippery is the solo on Eno's St Elmo's Fire
But few more guitar based gems are;
Billy Gibbons - harmonics at the end of La Grange
James Jamersons bass on almost all Motown tracks, but Berndadette, I Was Made To Love Her, What's Going On
Neil Young the one note solo on Cinammon Girl
The Rikki Don't Lose That Number Solo
Almost any John Martyn but those ghostly notes when Small Hours starts - and the fiddly bits at the end of Head and Heart
The way the Macca and Bongo lock in on Rain
All sterling, and overlooked) choices, sirrah..
"Small Hours" is as good as British guitar gets.
(Never use an effect unless you have the imagination to actually do something with it)
small hours
I read recently - might even have been in Word - that this was recorded live in the middle of the night at the side of a lake
Is this actually true?
One World recording
Phil Brown who engineered the sessions said in the notes to Another World that recording took place between 2 in the afternoon and 6 in the morning. There were mikes placed outside for the ambient effects. Early morning was, he says, the best time but the heavy dew could play havoc with the mikes.
Not sure about "unsung" but..
... I have always thought that Bernard Butler's guitar playing on Suede's "The Wild Ones" was pretty special.
How about Robert Cray?
He seems to have slipped permanently out of favour now, which is a great shame; last I heard he was still making good records. Anyway, for a masterpiece in concision and restraint, may I commend the solo on The Last Time (I Get Burned Like This), from the Robert Cray Band's third album, False Accusations. Sheer perfection.
On the subject of perfection, Shawn Colvin's guitar playing on her gorgeous version of You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go never ceases to make me sigh.