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Originally Posted by Woody Sound
Hey at least back then there was *something* to hear on mainstream radio and appreciate the tasteful musicianship.
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07-19-2021 11:26 AM
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Originally Posted by grahambop
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Originally Posted by blackcat
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Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
I'm a guitar guy. I like guitar solos. But the more people are expecting to dance (rather than "rock out"), the less interested they are in guitar solos. (And if there are guitar solos, they're more like structured breaks who keep the groove going.)
Hell, James Brown records rarely had guitar solos on them. Maceo Parker played a lot of 4-bar interludes in songs---as in "I Feel Good (I Got You)"---but those were neither complicated nor improvised. They were little re-sets in between short choruses. The older I get, the more I appreciate those things (and the less interested I am in hearing long solos.)
For that matter, AC/DC was built on Malcolm Young's killer rhythm playing. (They didn't call him The Right Hand of God for nothing.) Angus played very cool parts but they were well-worked out and not all that complicated-----but they absolutely KILL. I love that band. SRV had more "instrumental oomph" than Malcolm and Angus put together but he never made a record that kills as much as "Back In Black" or "You Shook Me All Night Long."
Instrumental oomph is less important than good songwriting and arranging.
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Originally Posted by blackcat
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Great tune, but I got sick of it (like so many other tunes) because it was played to death. Raphael Ravenscroft claimed he wrote the sax solo but the original demo used a wah wah-heavy guitar solo which can be heard here:
Hugh Burns confirmed that Rafferty wrote the solo.
But check out the first few seconds of Half A Heart from a Steve Marcus album:
One more fun fact: Gary Burton (good friend of Marcus) is credited as the composer of Half a Heart but says that he didn't write and would have copyrighted it if he did!
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Rafferty's song was a great piece of songcraft alright.
Solos have come and gone, and are in an uneasy place, at this point--IMO. As a musician, I feel pressure to play shorter solos, with more punch. There is less build up of the story than I would prefer, these days, but audiences seem to want to here an A-section, or an A-Section and B-Section as a solo, rather than one soloist building through two or more complete stabs at the song form. (I judge this from the applause and the tips, and not just for me, but for everyone in the band.)
The exception is when we do a more traditional blues--something from, say, the Robert Johnson to Willie Dixon period. Audiences for this music will listen to a call/response building solo for several choruses of the form and fill the tip jar. Blues are pretty resilient.
With many other genres, though, it's often appreciated by the audience IME to keep the solos to 8 bars or so. "Git 'er done."
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Some other songs named after London Underground stations
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Short solos
Of course this is limited by the format, and more instrumental playing than on a pop cut, but I love this type of thing; it slaps as the kids say. Everything is super exiting and engaging.
I think even though we can record as long as we want now, there’s a lot to be said for keeping studio stuff really focussed. It’s not like live where can feed of an energy, and everything isn’t under the microscope. A solo should do something specific.
you know I’ve had a few comments recently for people saying ‘I wish we could have had more of you’ after gigs… I think that’s the way to have it haha.
Plus I’d rather be thought a musical fool than play five choruses and remove all doubt.
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Originally Posted by grahambop
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Well if we're doing short solos...
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I like a good short solo as much as the next guy. Clapton's After Midnight and Scotty Moore's solo on Mystery Train come to mind.
Some songs--to me--just call out for a bit more in the instrumental category than little bleeps and blurbs. I think if you construct a song with a fairly ornate structure, with a broad narrative focus, it would really benefit from a solo that's more than 8 or 12 bars. At least this was the case in the mid-70's.
Look at Sultans of Swing for instance. Or Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side. Or the Stones' Waiting for a Friend. Or Deacon Blue. (I don't know how long the solos are, they just seem longish.)
Maybe I'm wrong for singling out Baker Street, since it seems to be of a piece if not a bit better than most songs from 1978, but it does seem to be part of a trend at least in more rock-oriented music.
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1978 - Wikipedia
Contrast that with 1977, where you had Hotel California, Barracuda, Southern Nights, So into You, which had more straightforward structures that allowed for more expansive instrumental breaks.
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1977 - Wikipedia
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Doctor Jeff makes a sensible case for longish solos. The songs that he invokes are compelling.
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Originally Posted by grahambop
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Originally Posted by blackcat
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Looking back at the discussions in this thread about solos in pop hits, I don’t think anyone mentioned this great example (by guitarist Amos Garrett):
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Originally Posted by grahambop
Midnight at the oasis
Send your camel to bed
Shadows painting our faces
Traces of romance in our heads
Heaven's holding a half-moon
Shining just for us
Let's slip off to a sand dune, real soon
And kick up a little dust...
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Flick actually up on the podium?
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Originally Posted by blackcat
When rock came along, he had dreams of being the next Duane Eddy, but John Barry destroyed his chances.
EMI came down to hear the JB7, and expressed real interest in Flick, and they asked JB about signing Flick to a recording contract, and JB nonchalantly just said (lied), "Nah, he's under contract with me", and walked away!
When Flick found out, he wanted to kill Barry.
The book is loaded with stories about Barry screwing Flick one way or the other, but Flick never would've played the 007 theme (on an a Clifford Paragon Essex Deluxe archtop) without Barry getting him into the studios for all the early Bond flicks.
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Originally Posted by zdub
All those guys on the Marcus LP were involved with creating Jazz-Rock, especially Mike Nock whose band The Fourth Way on the West Coast were considered the first US Jazz-Rock Band.
Coryell, Marcus and Moses came next with the Marcus alnum "TNK", and The Free Spirits.
A jazz drummer friend of mine got called to sub for Moses on a Free Spirits gig, and all he remembers was Coryell yelling at him in the middle of a song, "More backbeat, man. More backbeat!"
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Originally Posted by blackcat
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Originally Posted by dot75
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Originally Posted by Cunamara
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Originally Posted by citizenk74
Saw him numerous times in the 70's, including 20 minutes chatting about Blind Boy Fuller & Tommy McClennan in the bar while the Student Union rep tried to find dressing room keys (I was carrying LPs I'd just bought) - I had a poster too but didn't think to get him to sign it...
The video of this whole set is fantastic, took decades to get released because of rights issues, (Murray Lerner was only supposed to record a few minutes of each 'non headlining' band but took an executive decision...)
Recorded the day before my own intro to Da Rory, 'Taste - Live at Montreux' still up there, as is 'Irish Tour '74'
I saw Tony Palmer's doc when it came out, at one point some poor fool came out, they muted the sound,
'Would the owner of the white ford, registration...' was as far as he got - rarely been that close to a riot since.
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Originally Posted by blackcat
Charlie Garnett - Franken Tele
Yesterday, 08:52 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos