Pleiades (King’s X ‘Gretchen Goes to Nebraska’)

This is one of my fave albums. I love the sound King’s X had on Gretchen. They were so unique, had awesome songs and could play a little too! Ty Tabor had one of those enigmatic guitar sounds and wouldn’t let anyone in on any of the secrets, although I believe recently he has actually talked through his gear lists for different points in his career. Anyway… there’s some lovely playing on Gretchen but my highlight and still one of my favourite tracks is the awesome Pleaides. So so true that less is more when you hear the solo section but there isn’t a solo. Raw genius. Just check out the video above!!

Peril Premonition (Allan Holdsworth ‘Secrets’)

“Helloooooo, is that the front desk?”. You sometimes hope that Allan gets enough sleep. And listening to this he surely doesn’t because every single hour of every day he must be practicing. His playing throughout Secrets is sublime and the match up with two of my fave drummers in (Vinnie Colaiuta and Chad Wackerman) is just awesome. Usually when I write these little comments I listen to the track and get excited… by the end I’m finished. I got zoned out with this and had to listen to Peril several times. There’s just so much in this that’s inspired me these last 20 years! I love how it gets more and more dissonant as the track grows. But his playing is incredibly expressive. That’s what always excited me about Al’s playing. Yes, he has incredible technique and an unusual sense of note choice (for example, the runs at 2:00 and 2:17 – simply the best legato runs I’ve ever heard in my life) but it was always his expressiveness that enticed me. I was so surprised to see just how physical his playing was when I saw him live! This guy is the master of all those supposed great guitar players. The Synth Axe solo on Spokes is something special too. If you’re still a Holdsworth virgin (shame on you) check out this very brief but sweet video about his guitar that Carvin make:

Riviera Paradise (Stevie Ray Vaughan ‘In Step’)

Shamefully I haven’t yet included and SRV. I know I know, trust me it’s not something I’m proud of. I love In Step, it’s just a no nonsense album with some really great songs and of course some cool Stevie. I love it in Riviera where he starts whacking his trem springs… that’s probably my fave bit!

The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing (Joe Satriani ‘Flying in a Blue Dream’)

I love this album. Joe did so many different things on this that it was just brilliant. Shame peeps don’t really seem to like it that much then isn’t it? Consequently he resumed with a more straight-ahead melodic rock thing on The Extremist and I didn’t buy another Satch record until 98. As you’d expect there’s an awful lot of awesome guitar on the album and it’s hard to pick any individual moment as being one to go and pick up on. There’s the two handed stuff like Day at the Beach and then there’s the all out improv like The Forgotten Pt2. Needless to say Joe was at the peak of his powers and that’s all you need to know. Potato Head had those hard as hell hammer ons so it gets the pick!

Addicted To That Rush (Mr. Big ‘Mr. Big’)

It would be wrong to do 89 and not include Mr. Big. Featuring Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan this was the spiritual succession to the Dave Lee Roth Eat Em thing. Tales of Gilbert playing with drills and stuff (which of course he was doing with Racer X for years) and tearing out his hair still abound. Paul is one of the great rock players and just such an awesome dude that it’s hard not to be inspired by him.

1989 was a weird year. It was like “ok, ok enough!! we’ve heard enough 80s rock guitar”. One of my fave albums of the year was the Badlands album with Jake E. Lee. It was just an absolute monster of an album. Sadly it was a bit late in the day though; there were a lot of bands emerging (Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Primus, Stone Roses etc.) that were going very much against the grain! The saturation of 80s rock guitar meant the music scene needed some kind of big earthquake to shake it up a little and we certainly got to see that at this time. Not that I’m not grateful for the shake up!! I’m still a huge Trent Reznor fan. :o)

Anyway, I’m back from Menorca and back in the studio. My rig sounds better than it did when I left, my guitar stayed in tune, played beautifully (thank you Nexus strings) and I’m all fired up to get some awesome guitar down on disk!!

Enjoy the weekend, or what’s left of it!
:o)

Paul.