GUITAR TONE OF THE SUN PT. II

It's obvious I'm going to return to guitars in a million different ways: riffs, styles, solos, interplay, tones and all that. But I'd like to mention one piece right now, as a corollary to the previous post on this awesome, solar guitar sound I was talking about. Funny enough, this track by Space Opera doesn't even employ that precisely played, but highly distorted, harnessed-fire sound built by McLaughlin, Fripp, Duhig, and currently developed by Tim Green. If anything, Space Opera's sound is more generally categorized into "country rock," like the Byrds, Poco or CSN. Their guitar sound usually features more 12-strings than Les Pauls. However, on "Over And Over" they pull out the guitar stops unlike few tracks I've ever heard. If last post's Jade Warrior piece was a noble sail to the infinite horizon, this Space Opera track is a southwestern stellar supernova. The first firework goes off at around a-minute-and-a-half and then the piece proceeds to peak and peak, yes, over and over, for the next four minutes. Those are four ecstatic and astonishing minutes.

Space Opera -- Over And Over

GUITAR TONE OF THE SUN

Being able to play the right note in the right place is still pretty much the indicator of greatness in an instrumentalist. Sometimes it's lots of notes, sometimes not playing any. However, I've come to increasingly feel that TONE takes the great instrumentalist to the realms of the sublime or genius. Funny enough, the masters of one are often the masters of the other. Here, I'm thinking of Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd ("Shine On," "Dogs"), Brian May of Queen, Robert Fripp of King Crimson, John McLaughlin of Mahavishnu Orchestra, Tom Scholz of Boston and a bunch of others. These guys play with a tone that, for me, cuts through any questions, ambiguities, uncertainty, and crises of meaning. They each direct their light in different directions and with different intent but they all come to a sound that embodies the "guitar tone of the sun."

One of my favorite current embodiers of that sound is Tim Green, a San Francisco-based guitarist/producer. Somehow, I think through overlapping several guitar lines, he can get a sound that's laser-like yet rich, full, and vibrant. Sometimes, the guitars will be in harmony, sometimes in polyphony, but always with a soaring/searing light to blaze the way.

Here are a few, lesser-heard examples of the awesome guitar tone I'm talking about. The first three feature Tim Green. The last track shows where this sound started opening-up and is close to perfect bliss for me:


The F***ing Champs -- Air On A G String (adapted from Bach's "Air in G").

The multi-voiced arrangement is beautiful on its own. Not surprising considering the composer and the piece's renown in wedding circles. But it's the resonant, restrained-laser sound of the guitars, as though several streams of fire have agreed to cordially minuet with each other, that makes this more than a mere cover.


Citay -- Vinter
What Never Was And What Should Have Been

Tim Green from the above-mentioned F***ing Champs is applying some of that awesome guitar production to another band's compositions. The guitar is high but meaty, substantial, as if it could knock you flat, just as easily as go through you, or all around you. The second track is notable for its Zeppelin-reference title but also for how it echoes much of the great Jade Warrior track that follows below.


Jade Warrior -- Borne On The Solar Wind.

Simply, one of my favorite instrumentals of all time. It's a rare kind of piece that I could listen to endlessly. The guitar-choir comes in at around 1:20 and doesn't "do" all that much, except gently but surely blow the wind and the shine the setting sun of the infinite horizon.

HOW TO BECOME AN OBSCURITY IN 10 STEPS

Terry Reid is exactly the kind of artist I'd like to highlight in Pockit Rockit: an artist with all the talent in world, with a voice that could belt and rasp like a young Rod Stewart or Steve Marriott and search or wail more like Tim Buckley--simultaneously gregarious and introspective--who could have had the world at least twice, yet who ends up in deep (but not yet hopeless) obscurity.

Intro: You're a hugely talented kid starts rising through the scenes in England. Everyone who hears you sings your praises. You're soon opening up for Cream and the Stones. You're 18.

Step 1: Sign a management deal with the biggest, most happening guy around.

Step 2: Have him bungle your first two records with uneven material and sub-par recording that doesn't present you at your strongest.

Step 3: Watch him not even release your debut in your home country, where you've probably built up the greatest number of fans.

Step 4: Get approached by Jimmy Page to become the vocalist for the New Yardbirds (i.e. Led Zeppelin), but turn it down due to your budding solo career and the threat of massive legal repercussions from your manager.

Step 4: Add insult to injury by recommending your replacement, in this case, Robert Plant.

Step 5: Perform the same trick twice by turning down the Deep Purple vocalist position, also largely due to the threat of massive legal action by your manager.

Step 6: Finally sue your manager to get out of his contract and poor management. Lose much of your money and don't release an album for 3 years, in the process. You're maybe 21.

Step 7: After years of litigation, finally release your finest album, a quiet, introspective, non-rock star, folk-blues album that your label barely supports.
(Courtesy of Paul Toms)

Step 8: Drift into obcscurity playing solid-quality, but relatively modest, soul/r&b-based rock/pop to a small group of devoted fans through the 70s.

Step 9: Fall off the Earth altogether in the post-punk, alternative/indie rock eras of the 80s/90s.

Step 10: Hopefully, start to get reappraised as your work is slowly reissued and insightful blogger write about you in the 00s. You can check out what Terry's up to these days at his website.

(Courtesy of Paul Toms)

Here are a couple of rare live tracks and two tracks from my fave Terry album, River:

Silver White Light -- A soaring rocker recorded live in San Francisco around 1969/70. Originally on Terry's second album, Terry Reid. Pretty easy to picture Terry with Zeppelin at this point.

Changes/Stay In My Home -- Terry did a rapturously well-received set at the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre. This is one great piece that I found from that show.

Things To Try -- This shows that Terry had not lost his joy for life during his legal battles with his management. Great country, blues, folk-rock piece.

Dream -- One of my favorite Terry songs. It's very difficult to channel bits of solo Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, and even some bossa nova in one track.

WELCOME TO THE POCKIT ROCKIT BLOG!

For kicks, here are a couple of options for background music/downloading. They're meant to feel good as you read the blog intro. To be clear, these tracks are meant for discovery purposes. So, if you like any of these songs, you are warmly encouraged to buy as much material as possible by the artist in question. Artists: if you do not wish for your songs to be presented here, please feel free to contact me and your song will be removed immediately, with respect.

Nostalgia Track: Free To Be You And Me by Marlo Thomas and Friends. I never realized this song's associative power until I started getting responses after I put it on my wedding CD. They used to play this movie for us in grade school.

Uplifting Indie Pop Track: Tonight We Fly by Divine Comedy. Well-known to legions of (primarily European) fans, this is too life-affirming of a song to fear its familiarity. In that sense, it's similar to Earth Wind & Fire's "Fantasy."

Out-Of-Print Funk Track: Shoot-Kickin' Instrumental from the Chains & Black Exhaust compilation. No idea who recorded this. What is clear is that it has one of the coolest intros in funk history. Kicks my booty every time and it always feels great.

Underrated Alternative-Era Classic Rock Track: Stardog Champion by Mother Love Bone. Theoretically, these guuys woulda been the bridge between Guns 'N Roses and Pearl Jam. The band did, in fact, become Pearl Jam, after their star front man OD'ed and they recruited a new vocalist, Eddie Vedder.


I'm Ari and, towards the end of 2005, I compiled a Zagat-like music guide book called The Pockit Rockit Music Finder 2.0. The gist was to make music discovery as fast, fun, and easy as possible by using the classic, "if you like X, then you might like Y" methodology. I've decided to put together this blog as a sort of backwoods and sideroads appendage to that book and its web-site, pockitrockit.com. While on that site, I'm trying to compile every conceivable musical connection that you and I can think of, this blog is where I can focus on highlighting a song or two a day. Songs that strike me as special in some way. Songs that I'd like to share. Songs that might connect to something you already know and love and help to take you down roads you've never explored. Songs that might simply connect to a certain mood and the feeling that it conjures. The goal is still the same: getting turned on--discovery.

A friend of mine has records worth over $2500. I don't. He looks for albums that have been printed in editions of four and a half copies. I don't. When I think of spending $2500 on an album, my mind immediately turns to the comparable value of 400 hypothetical CDs I could explore instead, hopefully unveiling some mysterious revelations that could never be forseen: the disc with the bizarro-bikers-in-space artwork, to the disc whose band lists 15 vocalists, 10 keyboardists, and a drummer, to the disc from 1972 that was never officially released but lists Black Sabbath's guitarist, Tony Iommi, as its producer. I'd have no idea what any of these discs would sound like but I'd be very certain that I'd really, really like to know.

So that's what it's about: that kind of curiosity and the ultimate thrill of discovery. That thrill 's where most of the fun happens, more than in prizing obscurity for its own sake (as tempting as that can be). The discovery I'm hoping to share could be in the shape of a lesser-known song by a very well-known artist. It could be a track by an artist you may have heard of, but never really listened to. It could be a track by a band known well within a little niche but not so well-known outside of it. And, then again, it could be a completely, hopelessly, out of the blue rarity. If I can be at least useful on a daily basis, while providing a little dusting of magic every now and then, then we're on the right track.

Last note: if you're really trying to find tasty stuff that's similar to some of your favorite artists, definitely let me know. No promises but, if the inspiration kicks in, I'd love to help you find what you're looking for.

Cheers,

Ari