Your Random Musical Thoughts

[wolfking]

Malmsteen is maybe the greatest guitarist ever

T

Incredible for sure but technically I personally would say no one comes close to JP. I had Randy Rhoads as my favorite in the countdown and JP second but technically I have never heard anyone out play JP.

JP is a fucking Frankenstein. The guy can pretty much outplay anyone in their own style.

I don't agree with that at all.

10000000000% agree with TAC! When he plays bluesy, its not a shredder playing bluesy, its fucking blues and this applies to neo classical as well. It's not even close at all.

I can't recall a time JP played the blues. 

Prove me wrong but whenever he goes more into a blusey passage he ends up tremolo picking a fast shred line or a three note per string type of passage.

I'm open to interpretation when it comes to the Blues too however.

[Glasser]

Malmsteen is maybe the greatest guitarist ever

T

Incredible for sure but technically I personally would say no one comes close to JP. I had Randy Rhoads as my favorite in the countdown and JP second but technically I have never heard anyone out play JP.

JP is a fucking Frankenstein. The guy can pretty much outplay anyone in their own style.

I don't agree with that at all.

10000000000% agree with TAC! When he plays bluesy, its not a shredder playing bluesy, its fucking blues and this applies to neo classical as well. It's not even close at all.

Can you give me an example of a song where JP plays the blues and does zero shredding?

Note: Out of the Blue is not a good example, since he does shred a bit in it.

 When I saw him on ADToE tour I remember a bunch of his improv soloing to have really nice bluesy parts mixed in. He's also a huge fan of Neal Schon. I remember hanging with him right after I&W came out and we were playing Learning To Live and when the solo came up after James' high note he asked me to guess who influenced the solo? When he wrote that solo he was listening to "Late Night" by Neal Schon a lot and that was the influence. Also listen to the solo in Goodnight Kiss.... I'm just saying he can do it all without it sounding forced. JP is in my opinion, the best guitarist on the planet today.

[KevShmev]

So then, the answer is "no," you cannot give me an example of a song where JP plays the blues and does zero shredding.

Note: no one is doubting JP's skills or awesomeness, but the idea that he can play any style better than anyone is just crazy talk.

[TAC]

I'm in the minority it seems. 

Yeah sorry mate, can't quite back you up on this one either.

So you think JP could do Gary Moore better than Gary Moore?

Could he? Hmm... If there's one person that could, I would trust it to be JP. I hear Gary Moore in JP's playing a lot, which is weird because I have never heard him reference him. I feel like I hear more Gary Moore than any other guitarist in JP's playing.

[Glasser]

So then, the answer is "no," you cannot give me an example of a song where JP plays the blues and does zero shredding.

Note: no one is doubting JP's skills or awesomeness, but the idea that he can play any style better than anyone is just crazy talk.

Kev, I'm just saying he is not a one dimensional talent. Bottom line.

[KevShmev]

Okay, but who said he was a one dimensional talent?  It feels like the goal posts are being moved here.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

There's a massive difference between having a dash of influence of a style in your playing, and being better at it than someone else who has spent their whole life training specifically to play that style.  There are lots of others, classical, jazz, flamenco, country, bluegrass, fingerstyle, etc., each with their own unique set of techniques and vocabulary.  No one can ever completely master each, there just isn't enough time. 

[Glasser]

I didn't take Tim literally when he said JP can outplay anyone in their own style, I took that as hyperbole. JP is just superior.

[Architeuthis]

I conclude that JP has held the throne as King of Strings for quite some time now. There's a lot of great guitarists out there but nobody has de-throned him and probably won't for a long while. 💫💪

[wolfking]

I'm in the minority it seems. 

Yeah sorry mate, can't quite back you up on this one either.

So you think JP could do Gary Moore better than Gary Moore?

Could he? Hmm... If there's one person that could, I would trust it to be JP. I hear Gary Moore in JP's playing a lot, which is weird because I have never heard him reference him. I feel like I hear more Gary Moore than any other guitarist in JP's playing.

Interesting, big call.

[wolfking]

So then, the answer is "no," you cannot give me an example of a song where JP plays the blues and does zero shredding.

Note: no one is doubting JP's skills or awesomeness, but the idea that he can play any style better than anyone is just crazy talk.

Kev, I'm just saying he is not a one dimensional talent. Bottom line.

I'll agree more with this statement.

Although, I personally don't think he has a ton of variation in his playing though.  These days anyway.  He was quite diverse in the early Ibanez days.

[WilliamMunny]

So then, the answer is "no," you cannot give me an example of a song where JP plays the blues and does zero shredding.

Note: no one is doubting JP's skills or awesomeness, but the idea that he can play any style better than anyone is just crazy talk.

Kev, I'm just saying he is not a one dimensional talent. Bottom line.

I'll agree more with this statement.

Although, I personally don't think he has a ton of variation in his playing though.  These days anyway.  He was quite diverse in the early Ibanez days.

This.

No doubt the man can literally play anything he wants, but I feel like JP’s bag ‘o tricks rarely gets dumped anymore.

I personally consider his solo on “Anna Lee” to be one of his best, but I sincerely doubt he would be able to hold back like that today—he’d get past the slide part and there’d be a burst of notes, which seems to be a go to move that he can’t help himself with.

That said, my thoughts are less a reflection on JP and more an indication of where my personal tastes have shifted to.

[KevShmev]

No doubt the man can literally play anything he wants, but I feel like JP’s bag ‘o tricks rarely gets dumped anymore.

I personally consider his solo on “Anna Lee” to be one of his best, but I sincerely doubt he would be able to hold back like that today—he’d get past the slide part and there’d be a burst of notes, which seems to be a go to move that he can’t help himself with.

That said, my thoughts are less a reflection on JP and more an indication of where my personal tastes have shifted to.

To be fair, the "I can't help myself but shred" mentality has seemingly be ingrained in JP's head from the start.  Take songs like Another Day and The Spirit Carries On, which are two of his most melodic solos ever, but in both he felt the need to shred it up a little, almost, like you said, he couldn't help himself.  Same goes for that live Hollow Years solo that everyone genuflects to; it is a very good solo, but the shredding he throws in there is a bit of a wet blanket, and it takes away from it a little, IMO.

Also, I do not subscribe to the idea that player a being able to play anything by player b, but not vice versa, makes player a automatically better.  A guy like David Gilmour has never been about a lot of notes or anything like that, but no one, I repeat NO ONE, can play his guitar solos as good as he can.  JP is one of my favorite guitarists ever (I think I ranked him 4th when we did that countdown for guitarists), but his lack of restraint at times is one of his very few cons.

[hefdaddy42]

A couple of years ago, JP won some Guitarist of the Year award at the SEGA awards.  At the show finale, he and his wife and the house band played "Jessica" by the Allman Brothers Band, which is pretty different than most things he has played publicly before.  Here is the performance.  Not saying he played it better than the Allman Brothers, but I was excited that he did it at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Qh9bJWVQI

[nick_z]

Not quite a random thought, but I somewhat randomly came across this new song Iotunn released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aG4SSPAVNo



Pretty epic stuff. It has a bit of recent Borknagar vibe. The melodic guitar leads past the halfway point are real nice.

Hopefully this means there's a new album in the works.

[TAC]

Not quite a random thought, but I somewhat randomly came across this new song Iotunn released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aG4SSPAVNo



Pretty epic stuff. It has a bit of recent Borknagar vibe. The melodic guitar leads past the halfway point are real nice.

Hopefully this means there's a new album in the works.

I listened to this yesterday and it's awesome. I loved their last album. Great band.

[TAC]

6 MILLION??

https://bravewords.com/news/molly-hatchet-flirtin-with-disaster-album-artwork-sells-for-6-million-us-at-heritage-auction

[wolfking]

Someone spending that much on a painting is just taking the absolute piss.

[TAC]

Don’t know much about Ed Sheeran but he’s in town this weekend and this is pretty cool.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/ed-sheeran-surprises-young-boston-musicians-at-their-concert-gifts-tickets-to-his-gillette-show/ar-AA1djrmW?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6d9e4eebff644cc29a5ac70a325fa6af&ei=20

[nick_z]

Carpenter Brut live at Hellfest 2023 - I believe I remember there a couple of fans here on DTF 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6U8Nki1G8Q

Didn't realize they had a drummer and guitar player live. Also cool that there's a bunch of songs with the actual guest vocalists (Gunship, Greg Puciato, Johannes Andersson from Tribulation...). Would have loved to see Sylvaine on Stabat Mater, but no luck. And gotta love Maniac as the closer!