The pivotal song, really, in my life. I was a 70’s guitar twit, trying to meet girls and sound like Ted Nugent. A substitute teacher and I spoke about music, and he turned me on to the album Truth. This is track #2 but jumped into my brain.
Beck plays nothing difficult - I had been playing maybe a year and could approximate what he was doing. But…wow. His guitar sounds like the lead vocal - simple, articulate, easy to follow. And Rod Stewart, in his first recording, follows Beck and uses his vocals to complement Beck’s playing.
It changed out I listen to music and think about what a guitar can do. I have written about this track on the SDMB before, but, really, how do you write about Aretha adding all her little Aretha flourishes to Respect? You hear it, you get it, but it was just all these perfect little things that add up to brilliance.
Jeff Beck is the Aretha Franklin of guitar playing.
Too funny. I was seriously contemplating posting this song - the Beatles are my favorite band, and this song is thoughtful, offbeat choice that is a fucking brilliant song. But ended up posting the Jeff Beck song because he is my favorite guitarist.
The Jeff Beck song is great. Take no offence, but to me it sounds like a lot of other stuff happening in the era. The Beatles were always on the bleeding edge. Always.
None taken. I wish I could better explain how this song, and his playing, is so very different from other stuff in the era, but words fail me. Clapton, Page, Santana, even Hendrix, don’t sound like vocals when they play the way Beck does. Peter Green had his thing, but wasn’t nearly as aggressive. Try playng it, and his simple notes sound so, so difficult.
Ah. And that’s the difference between a musician (you) and a dummy (me) who just likes music. No, seriously, I get it. I know what I like but can’t describe it in any meaningful fashion.
I have a few favorite bands with no clear winner, but I’ll go with New Realization by Sublime. It’s different than the rest of their catalog and easy to play on my guitar.
I can’t really pick a FAVORITE band any more. In the past, I might say Floyd, Zep, The Doors, etc. . .but not any more. There’s a lot of bands that I love, and while there are a few I like more than most, I can’t pick one.
So, here’s a song I love from a band I haven’t mentioned yet in this challenge. They churned out quite a few hits in the late 70’s.
Little Feat has been my favorite band since the first time I heard them on the radio, and although favorites of the moment have come and gone, I’ve remained faithful to the Feat.
I’ll go with the first song of theirs I ever heard. “Easy to Slip”
