DIRTY Guitar

You are such a Crimsoid Man Tom. (Quite rightly too IMO).
For me there are two men with the axe that sends shivers - well, three really.
Firstly Mike McCready with Pearl Jam, when he goes off on one...well.
From studio albums it has to be Billy Corgan, right from the first Smashing Pumpkins album through to Zwan, with everything in between.
It used to be when I was growing up and wanted to be a guitar god myself, Hendrix, Rory Gallagher & Jimmy Page. I think we have new talent that has taken from that and gone further.
Neil Young off Weld playing Cortez The Killer is my all time fave guitar playing captured on a recording, and I've seen him do it live a few times too that just leaves me standing there feeling numb.

When I was 18 (long-time-ago) I first heard "Magic Man" by Heart in a local Tandy (Radio Shack) on a "hifi" and thought - "WOW"

That started it all off........

Now I still get the "hairs standing" whenever I hear it - the opening note is dirty, visceral, powerful and stays with you. And it's played by Nancy Wilson !

.....gotta dig out the DVD again......

I really wish I could remember that seminal moment that hooked me on guitar based rock. Shadows/Buddy Holly had shown me the electric guitar was the way to go.(I wish I could play the bloody thing.)
Zep was the first "rock" band I remember but there must have been others before. Buffy Saint Marie/The Who/Small faces and Kinks seemed to be the groups of choice.(Us mods didn't listen that American rock and roll stuff.)
Still think the guitar on Hey Hey,My My(Into the Black). is some of the dirtiest guitar ever heard. Mind you I have had Hi-Fi systems that sounded like that with wick turned up!

Howard

As a young kid - 5 or 6, I was hooked by the look of the thing. Back then I was amazed at the Kinks and the Monkees (I suppose we are talking 1966ish) and the length of their hair - especially Dave Davis. Once when I dragged my mother into a local shop that actually sold electric guitars, I stood in front of what I now know to be a cherry SG for what seemed like an age, my mouth gaping. The smell too - that musky guitar shop smell of electrics, sweat, bad breath, fags and polish. I was hooked for life. Still am.
We created Gods ourselves.

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Funnily enough, even as a huge Garcia fan, I wouldn't include him in the list - not dirty enough for this thread!

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I know what you mean Nick, but I was listening to 'Railroad Blues' from the Skullfuck album at full belt in the car yesterday and I have to say that the solo in there gets to the point where even the great players would step back for the adulation but Garcia just shifts gear into turbo and absolutely stuns.

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I really wish I could remember that seminal moment that hooked me on guitar based rock.

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As Rasher wrote above, it was probably the look of it. Or the image, long hair, the mythical talk of drugs (that I, at 8 or 9 years of age didn't really understand) and, of course, the GUITARS. That the parents disliked it just made it better...

I wanted an electric guitar sooooo much, it was probably what I talked about most of the time (think of young boy constantly talking about electric guitars, poor parents). It was hinted to me that one could learn to play an acoustic guitar at school, but no, no, acoustic guitar was for girls!

So it's been, "God gave r&r to us", for most of my life.

JohanR

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Originally posted by long-time-dead:
When I was 18 (long-time-ago) I first heard "Magic Man" by Heart in a local Tandy (Radio Shack) on a "hifi" and thought - "WOW"

That started it all off........

Now I still get the "hairs standing" whenever I hear it - the opening note is dirty, visceral, powerful and stays with you. And it's played by Nancy Wilson !

.....gotta dig out the DVD again......

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Hmm. Roger Fisher? I know Nancy played the guitar parts in live shows after Roger left the band, but I'm pretty sure Roger played it on the record.

Doesn't in any way lessen the "whoa!" factor of Nancy Wilson, though.

Being the man who introduced Nick Lees to Quicksilver Messenger Service is hard to live up to, but.....

I'd say that dirty guitar has to be very simple - something like Pink Faries' 'Snake' or the glimpse of nirvana that is the guitar break in Flamin' Groovies 'Slow Death'. It's really all about context, I think and is usually performed by someone who isn't that hot on skill or technique, and who just happens across that certain something through sheer attitude & wishful thinking - Eddie Cochran, Marc Bolan ..that sort of a thing...

throb

Pretty Vacant

DS

*** All the views expressed within this e-mail are the sole responsibility of DS, or the other person in his head ***

About everything by the Stooges and Iggys; raw power

I tend to like the sound of vintage guitars/amps begging for mercy. I nominate "Just Got Back From Baby's" off Z.Z. Top's First Album. Oh, and Stevie Ray's solo on Bowie's "Let's Dance".

I grew up near Philadelphia and remember all the mowtown stuff, and other groups, but when I heard the Beatles' Lady Madonna I was hooked on gutsy music. It was so alive Then came Sgt. Peppers and I was hooked for good.

I was just taken last Sat. night about hot guitar licks from those first three I posted. I'm glad eveyone is so responsive to this post. what prompted it was hearing Paul McCartney talk about guitar work once and he called it dirty guitar work.

I also heard a story about Lennon in the studio when they'd recorded Revolution and he turned the dial over all the way into the red so the guitar recording was totally distorted. an engineer said "Hey you can't do that!!!? and Lennon just looke at him and said "I can't huh?" He certainly got he sound he wanted. It's still one of my favs after all these years.

Life is analogue, enjoy it while you can.

London Calling was my first Clash album back in 1980 (ish). It was released as a low priced double album, which appealed to me as a skint 13 year old. I played it to death but I must have looked after it reasonably well because it still plays OK today. My 12 year old daughter recently bought a remastered version on CD. Our favourite song? Brand New Cadillac...thats what I call a dirty guitar!