The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Posts 1 to 25 of 26
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    Fun documentary on the contemporary Wrecking Crew. Worth watching IMHO. Makes Billy Joel look like a real ***hole, so not for the squeamish.

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by lammie200
    Fun documentary on the contemporary Wrecking Crew. Worth watching IMHO. Makes Billy Joel look like a real ***hole, so not for the squeamish.
    Is this different from Denny Tedesco's Wrecking Crew film, the one with Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Glen Campbell, etc.?

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    Yeah, this is mostly about contemporary rock musicians hired for touring gigs and some studio work.

  5. #4

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by lammie200
    Fun documentary on the contemporary Wrecking Crew. Worth watching IMHO. Makes Billy Joel look like a real ***hole, so not for the squeamish.
    Were we under the impression Joel wasn't?

  6. #5

    User Info Menu

    I saw it, great documentary! Alice Cooper is a stand up guy, like I always suspected. And true on Billy Joel, but never thought much of his songs anyway.

    the best line was, you never really fired in this business, you just don't get a call to do the next gig.

  7. #6

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    Were we under the impression Joel wasn't?
    Just being facetious. Not a fan myself and I never really knew anything about his core band during his rise. It all makes for some interesting stories.

  8. #7

    User Info Menu

    It is worth watching but somewhat depressing compared to The Wrecking Crew. It made me think that there are tons of very fabulous guitarists out there, many unemployed.

  9. #8

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Marty Grass
    It is worth watching but somewhat depressing compared to The Wrecking Crew. It made me think that there are tons of very fabulous guitarists out there, many unemployed.
    Yeah, it is even more depressing when you hear that they go out on tour and get paid just enough to live on the tour, then they get let go once the artist decides to change things up. I think that the hired guns should get like a year's worth of severance pay to make their lives right. Can you imagine the stress that you would feel as a family supporting guitar player if you knew that you could be terminated at any time without any additional compensation?

  10. #9

    User Info Menu

    I thought it was too heavy on the metal guys and not other guys that we've heard about. Not much about some of the bigger names, and it seemed odd that the only part with Lukather centered on him writing one song. Funny story though. I'd like to have heard more like that and those hired guns. Nobody like Benmont Tench in it, mostly guitarists and drummers.

  11. #10

    User Info Menu

    I watched about half of it. It didn't really seem to have much of a focus, except for the overall subject. I also thought all the guitarists were playing more or less the same

  12. #11

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by lammie200
    Fun documentary on the contemporary Wrecking Crew. Worth watching IMHO. Makes Billy Joel look like a real ***hole, so not for the squeamish.
    Hey, lammie, I just got around to watching Hired Guns. I really enjoyed the film, and I wouldn't have known about it without this thread.

    Thanks!

  13. #12

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by M-ster
    Hey, lammie, I just got around to watching Hired Guns. I really enjoyed the film, and I wouldn't have known about it without this thread.

    Thanks!
    Pretty cool doc...

    I love the attitude of all of those Glam guitarists, don't need much for a song,
    "Let's do a fast blues in A" and let the bending/shredding/lightning fast licks rip

    And WOW Kenny Aronoff is SO LOUD!!!
    They had the 3 All-star lead guys going at it FULL-BLAST, with Bass
    And all I could hear was Kenny

    My takeaways:
    - I didn't think Billy J came off so badly, could have S-canned his band when George Martin told him to
    - Poor Brad Gillis, not his fault RR died, but fans were hating on the poor guy
    - Best line of the show: David Foster "Good is the Enemy of Great"
    - I had always heard "Beat It" solo was EVH, Lukather sez he played all guitar/bass on that record
    - I've still never heard of Five-Finger-Death-Punch, but they likely don't play them on my "Jobim" channel...

  14. #13

    User Info Menu

    Should have looked this up 1st...

    Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo[edit]


    Eddie Van Halen, lead guitarist of hard rock band Van Halen, was asked to add a guitar solo.[6][16] When initially contacted by Jones, Van Halen thought he was receiving a prank call.[17] Having established that the call was genuine, Van Halen borrowed an amplifier from guitarist Allan Holdsworth[18] and recorded his guitar solo free of any charge. "I did it as a favor", the musician later said. "I was a complete fool, according to the rest of the band, our manager and everyone else. I was not used. I knew what I was doing – I don't do something unless I want to do it."[19] Van Halen recorded his contribution following Jones and Jackson arriving at the guitarist's house with a "skeleton version" of the song. Fellow guitarist Steve Lukather recalled, "Initially, we rocked it out as Eddie had played a good solo—but Quincy thought it was too tough. So I had to reduce the distorted guitar sound and that is what was released."[19]
    Right before Van Halen's guitar solo begins, a noise is heard that sounds like somebody knocking at a door. It is reported that the knock was a person walking into Eddie's recording studio. Another story has claimed that the sound was simply the musician knocking on his own guitar.[20] The sound, however, is that of Jackson knocking on a drum case, as he is credited in the album's liner notes.
    The engineers were shocked during the recording of Van Halen's solo to discover that the sound of his guitar had caused the monitor speaker in the control room to catch fire, causing one to exclaim, "This must be really good!"[21]

  15. #14

    User Info Menu

    EVH did play the solo on Beat It. You don't even need anyone to tell you, it's unmistakable by listening. Lukather played all the rhythm parts and fills.

  16. #15

    User Info Menu

    I swear to God, for the 1st few months after that song came out, no clue it was MJ
    I was SURE it was Pat Benatar!!!

  17. #16

    User Info Menu

    I believe this is the entire video documentary from Youtube. Very entertaining but long...


  18. #17

    User Info Menu

    I will have to give this a watch, as I love rock music docs, even the bad ones.

    Having been to many, many shows over the years, I have seen some great journeyman musicians supporting the stars. Some like Nils Lofgren even get made part of the band, though not always with the same pay and benefits as the original guys...

    This could be a whole thread in and of itself.

    A couple of my faves are Rick Leisz--steel and Tele twanger extrrordinaire--and Earl Slick, frequent Bowie collaborator. The best can play anything at the drop of a hat, AND add a little something extra to whomever they're playing with.

    I will have to look up the names, but the guitarists supporting Heart and Rod Stewart were very young and quite good. Paul McCartney's guys Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray are no slouches, as well.

    I saw Blake Mills backing Lucinda Williams, and he has since gone on to bigger things, including solo work and producing some of the best albums of recent years (Alabama Shakes for instance).

  19. #18

    User Info Menu

    my favorite was Rudy... as he states, he was in 3 huge bands, Quiet Riot, Ozzy, the Whitesnake...
    What cracked me up was his photo for Whitesnake, he was a blond!!

    Hired Guns on Netflix-blonde-rudy-png

  20. #19

    User Info Menu

    I just knew I had seen this, but I couldn't recall details, until it was mentioned how much of a a-hole Billy Joel was, then I remembered it !!

  21. #20

    User Info Menu

    '20 feet from stardom' is another good one, backing singers telling their stories....not sure if it's on netflix tho'

    Twenty Feet from Stardom (2013) - IMDb

  22. #21

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by dot75
    '20 feet from stardom' is another good one, backing singers telling their stories....not sure if it's on netflix tho'

    Twenty Feet from Stardom (2013) - IMDb
    "20 Feet from Stardom" was fascinating and very well done as was "The Wrecking Crew." IMHO "Hired Gun" suffers from that jump cut style of editing which, for some reason, seems to be popular today. It doesn't focus on any one person for more than a few seconds at a time. I found it frustrating to watch even though I was interested in the subject.

    The biggest eye opener for me was that Ted Nugent didn't sing. I never saw him play live and always assumed he was also the singer.

  23. #22

    User Info Menu

    As with the backup singers in 20 Feet...there's a reason most of them don't front their own bands. Much of the time they like being a hired hand and appreciate the flexibility and lack of responsibility for running the whole show.

    The smart ones, like Earl Slick, Nile Rodgers, etc., make an entire career out of being out of the spotlight.

    A couple more great hired guns come to mind...

    Rick Derringer (and pretty much anyone who's ever toured with Ringo Starr LOL...)
    Elliott Randall
    Dean Parks (saw him with Lyle Lovett)
    Waddy Wachtel (saw him with James Taylor)
    Mike Landau (also James Taylor)
    Billy Preston
    George Duke
    Nicky Hopkins
    Chuck Leavell
    Derek Sherinian (saw him with Joe Bonamassa)
    Bobby Keys
    Dick Parry
    Lou Marini (James Taylor)
    Steve Gadd (James Taylor)

    A lot of these musicians have had hit records, played in great groups, etc., but touring with a more established artist seems to pay the bills.
    Last edited by Doctor Jeff; 09-19-2018 at 09:04 PM.

  24. #23

    User Info Menu

    Earl Slick!! That dude is unreal, on Bowie live video, playing a Peavey on "Stay"... Classic

  25. #24

    User Info Menu

    Stay:



    I think Earl and Carlos Alomar came up with the guitar riffs for Golden Years, which is worth some kind of award in my book.

    That reminds me of Steve Hunter--his work on Lou Reed's Rock'n'Roll Animal is iconic. Sometimes the sideman just takes the original up to another level. Robert Quine also did some stellar work with LR.

  26. #25

    User Info Menu

    Like him or not, Billy Joel wrote one of the truest love songs of all time. There's an honest lesson about what it truly means to love someone in that song if ones heart is open to hearing it. And jazz saxophonist Phil Woods solo kills it. I've got a transcription of his solo somewhere.



    Attached Images Attached Images