Not to mention, this was an era when a mellower, more laid back but well-crafted style of rock, like what was performed by Atlanta Rhythm Section, The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Supertramp, and The Little River Band, was at its most popular. Carly Simon and Linda Ronstadt also peaked around the same time.
Remember, in 1977, rock and roll had only been part of the musical mainstream for a little over a decade. Folks in their 40s grew up with big bands and crooners. Softer rock appealed to a slightly older crowd whose musical tastes weren’t frozen in time, but who didn’t enjoy louder or more chaotic hard rock or metal.
A lot of us older Generation Xers had parents that hated rock, period, or whose musical tastes matured by the late 1950s. In the car, an AM station that played a lot of softer rock was a compromise between Music of Your Life and elevator music stations, and the growing number of album-oriented rock stations on FM.
A followup: It was also a time when very soft contemporary music was extremely popular. We might think Bread, Captain and Tenille, Anne Murray, The Carpenters, and England Dan and John Ford Coley, and Barry Manilow performed mind-numbing pap, but they had a massive fan base among middle-aged adults that were in their 20s by the time Elvis came around.
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. I’m a Jeff Beck guy, and find Steve Howe versatile but flat and John M on another planet and not comparable. I love how Buckingham builds his leads and uses his right hand to build up the sound. It’s hard to do and works perfectly within selling the song - completely different from McLaughlin who uses a song as a platform to launch a solo. Different approaches completely.
As for Green, Kirwan and Spencer - Much more straight-up blues. I love Green and think he should get royalties from Carlos Santana for copping his technique, but he couldn’t do the stuff Lindsey does. Spencer covered Elmore James and Kirwan was fluid and melodic…
Have you heard Spencer’s recentish solo album Precious Little? It’s (imho) a very, very good chilled out blues album. Probably better than any of Peter Green’s comeback stuff.
In a hand-wavy attempt to analyze, I think it has to do with expression of tempo or breaking tempo. Lindsey’s style is very metronomic, which serves him amazingly for the melody and fill parts of his songs, especially combined with his fingerstyle playing. He’s like Malcolm Young ^2. His solos, however, are also metronomic and feel like they’re missing the traditional “bluesy” expression that I personally like in a solo.
Exhibit B: When Chuck Berry tortures a single or double note in Johnny B Goode, I love it.
Interesting discussion - I just assumed most other guitar players would simply respect Buckingham’s playing, even if it wasn’t their fave. No biggie - like No! You’re Wrong! even makes sense ;).
I will say that some other names mentioned, sometimes as contemporaries around the late 70’s - Howe, McLaughlin, Beck - were playing in smaller, technique-driven genres. Buckingham was mainstream player - if you are going to target a comp, it would be Mark Knopfler, I suppose - fingerstyle player that is highly respected as a player of both electric and acoustic, whose sold a metric crap-ton of albums and is woven into the mainstream soundtrack of their eras. Knopfler is a better player along a few dimensions but Buckingham is no slouch and isn’t out of the conversation.
But what’s funny is, as I type that - Buckingham isn’t out of the conversation - I can hear the folks who’ve posted “meh” about him saying “oh bullshit - compared to Knopfler, Buckingham is totally out of the conversation.” I think it comes down to what each player/listener brings to the question of “What is Good”? Buckingham plays intricate, sophisticated fingerstyle - see Big Love (I tried to link to it and YouTube kept hanging up on me) - but his leads are not technically complex, but solidly melodic and sold with a clear crescendo and sustainy physicality to his playing. That approach couldn’t be more different vs. most guitar heroes…I enjoy it for what it is and really respect his playing…
First, music isn’t physics, you can’t really quantify it and measure when it is good or bad. Since this is the case, naming players you think are better doesn’t really diminish Buckingham’s qualities as a guitarist.
Even if you don’t agree with the first statement, I don’t think solos are a good measure of what makes a great guitarist. Solos generally don’t have any real interest or meaning outside the context of a larger work of music, so there’s a lot of places a guitarist can be a monster player before we get to their solos. Even when you’re measuring guitarists by solos, technique alone is a terrible measure of how good a solo is.
Those really aren’t his shining moments in that compilation reel, but I don’t think anyone was saying he was a great improvisational soloist. He’s quite good, and could probably have made a living on it, but that wasn’t where he actually seemed to apply himself.
To address your three examples: I haven’t really heard the Steve Howe riff that I like. I think it’s a pity Chris Squire played with him so much, really. I don’t get anything more from what I’ve heard of John McLaughlin’s playing than I get from Yngwie Malmsteen’s playing. He’s fast, I’ll give him that. I’m not saying you’re wrong (see first paragraph), but they aren’t even my barrel of whiskey, much less my cup of tea.
Beck probably has the most skilled pair of hands crafted in England to ever touch a guitar. Where I personally think he lacks in comparison to Buckingham is in his ability to write a song. It’s nice that he can play the guitar so well, and do it naturally. By his own admission, he doesn’t like to practice much. But your solo usually is much more listen-able if it’s in the context of a song. Even Beck’s greatest record, Truth ,has exactly 0 songs penned by him. Even “Beck’s Bolero” is credited to Jimmy Page (who I do think is better than Buckingham or Beck, but that’s another thread). If you can’t come up with even one catchy riff and string some chord progressions together, how good are you, really?
On Preview: Yep, Knopfler is certainly a better comparison. Even if you think that Knopfler has more skilled hands than Buckingham (as do I), it still doesn’t diminish his playing one whit.
Ooops, I went off there, “Jefferey Rod” is a pseudonym of Beck and Rod Stewart. I still stand by my contention that on every moment leading up to the solo, Buckingham is better at it than Beck.
No wonder we’re sympatico - Truth is my favorite, too (did you ever see my rant on Let me Love You, or was that before your time?). Beck is the best ever, but yes, as an interpreter and Buckingham’s songwriting is huge in respecting him. Again, as a crossover guy, he has figured out - along with Stevie and Ms. Perfect (Christine McVie - maiden name Perfect - I love that) - how to write a truly broad-appeal song. And Buckingham’s leads are great for his songs.
We disagree about McLaughlin - he’s amazing to me; just much less accessible because he chooses to “play out” a lot. But have you heard Miles Davis’ album “A Tribute to Jack Johnson”? That is the shit - some of the only fusion I can not only handle but love
Thank you! I had been looking for a live acoustic version - to showcase his playing. This is the one I want to check out to see if his playing is featured well:
Wow, this is a lot to respond to, so please forgive the delay. Well, here goes:
Hmm, fair enough. But if it’s fair to call L.B. a monster guitarist, judging by subjective criteria, *and *it’s fair to say that we agree that he’s a great fingerstyle player (and we do), then it’s also fair to use subjective criteria to judge that he lacks skills as an improvisational soloist.
Believe it or not, I agree with that, so some degree. I think that they’re only a* part *of what makes a great guitarist. But, like it or not, a great Rock guitarist is expected to be a great soloist if he’s going to be considered a monster player (unless he’s referred to as a great rhythm guitarist). And I think you’ll find that improvisational soloing is a featured part of the vast majority of upper level guitar syllabuses (or is that syllabi?), at least, unless we’re talking about Classical guitar.
Yep, as I said, soloing is only part of the package, but…
See, I absolutely agree with this. That’s why I picked guys who have good technique, but who also chose interesting notes. If I wanted to cite a guy from '77 who was only just fast, I’d have picked Al DiMeola, who, frankly, bores me.
Now, you may say - and some have - that Steve Howe wasn’t an inspiring player, but I’ll maintain that the first few minutes of Close to the Edge was about as inventive as rock guitar got in 1972, and had, basically, no precedent except in jazz (but if I’m wrong, feel free to point out who sounded like that first).
And WordMan will know exactly what I’m talking about when I say that it wasn’t just McGlaughlin’s fingers that make him special, the guy’s brain is just wired differently. A drummer I knew described his playing as “pure thought”, and I think that’s apt.
And Jeff Beck? 'Nuff said.
But please don’t get hung up on specific examples; I think there were lots of players who could’ve put together a far more creative or emotive solo than Lindsey B. No need to start naming them, really, so I won’t.
We can agree to disagree on that last point, I think. Let me say it again: the guy has a superior right hand, and I can also agree on his considerable compositional/arranging talent, even though I’m not a big fan of the music (well, they do have a couple songs I like). But the solos are, well, mediocre.
Yeah, I agree with this, too.
It kind of baffles me how a guy in his shoes, with his obvious talent, playing concerts with Fleetwood Mac, can’t seem to deliver a really good solo whenever he wants. So maybe his heart just wasn’t in it, and he only partakes because the audience expects it.
Fair enough. After all, no one expects Yo-Yo Ma to improvise, and he’s a monster cellist, right? Maybe it’s not fair to ask L.B. to crank out something as moving as (insert your favorite solo here), if, perhaps, he envisions himself as more akin to a classical musician.
But then, can we call him a “monster guitarist” when he’s got a hole in his game? And if we do, aren’t we doing a disservice to guys like Lenny Breau, Scotty Anderson, Danny Gatton, et al - guys who have dynamite in **both **hands, and know how to use it? What should we call those guys? Super-monsters?
Maybe not. After all, people rightly call Alan Holdsworth a monster, and he can’t fingerstyle his way out of a paper bag…
OK, on second thought, you guys were right. “Monster” it is.
I was 12 in 1977 and I’ll grant you the clothes were wince-inducing along with the fact the decade’s cars were crappy and that an aura of seediness seemed to be everywhere but there was at least some good music put out then (e.g., Elvis Costello’s first album). I think Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” is a good album but its cuts were overplayed so much it was easy to get sick of.
All those guys made me nauseous. I was into roots (blues, country & modern-ish versions of same). And found the new stuff coming out of NYC & London rather refreshing. Nick Lowe was a fave; Stiff Records…
But I bought Rumours because I liked the way “Go Your Own Way” sounded. And thought the rest of the LP was pretty good, too. Still do.
I can’t vouch for what anybody else thought, though.
Vynils were often used as “masters” to be copied on tape: this let you leave out any song you happened to dislike, mix several sources you liked, and put your music in a portable format that you could play at a friend’s house or in the car; later, you could play them in boomboxes, walkmans… When a tape broke, you made it again, something you wouldn’t have been able to do with a pre-recorded tape. My family must have bought about twenty times as many blank tapes as recorded ones.
Your post is fun and thoughtful, Flagon - thanks. I guess I would say that Buckingham has monster technique - i.e., he is a top-shelf guitarist with capabilities at the top of the game - who chooses to play melodic leads that fit the song and sell them as they are. When Eddie Van Halen plays the expected leads in Runnin’ With the Devil or Ain’t Talkin’ 'bout Love (we’ll pause for a minute while we all run them through our heads ;)) - he’s doing what Buckingham does - plays the lead that is called for in that song. EVH freestyles in most other songs - Buckingham either doesn’t or does it while playing fingerstyle. All good.
Missed this; I haven’t, but heard good things about Spencer - his cult hasn’t apparently killed the blues. Green’s issues appear deeper, but when he was good, he was amazing. The Super-Natural, off his last album with Mayall, A Hard Road, is master-class sustained, melodic wonderful instrumental sixties guitar. Santana’s blueprint, just add a Latin beat.
It’s definitely worth checking out. His first post-Mac album, Jeremy Spencer & The Children Of God isn’t bad either, it’s more Byrds-ish psychedelic folk-pop, although obviously with strong christian themes. He had another album out last year, I’ve not listened to that. I might have to track it down.
I think it comes down to what each player/listener brings to the question of “What is Good”? Buckingham plays intricate, sophisticated fingerstyle - see Big Love (I tried to link to it and YouTube kept hanging up on me) - but his leads are not technically complex, but solidly melodic and sold with a clear crescendo and sustainy physicality to his playing. That approach couldn’t be more different vs. most guitar heroes…I enjoy it for what it is and really respect his playing…