For sheer impact on the music community as a whole, I have to go with Jimi Hendrix. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to see Hendrix live, but I have seen many recorded concerts. I also have a very extensive collection of bootleg concerts and interviews. He was one of those musicians who, when he was ripping a solo, would go to another level of being; a whole other place. His impact on music and the guitar-playing community is unmistakable. Virtually every great modern guitar player mentions Hendrix as a major influence on their own playing. His innovation on guitar and in the recording studio will live on forever.

For pure virtuosity of playing, I’ll go with Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was a pleasure to witness this man playing guitar…usually with your jaw on the ground. I was fortunate enough to see SRV a couple of times; both times were absolutely remarkable. When he went into a solo, it was impossible to look away. I found myself fixating on his fingers as he climbed around the neck of 1963 Stratocaster. Pure genius! He too seemed to go to some other place when he was shredding. I once heard Eric Clapton refer to SRV as a channel…music just flowed through him and erupted out of his fingers. At times, I felt sorry for the rest of Double Trouble as they tried to keep time and keep up!

For total innovation on the six string, I’m going with Eddie Van Halen. The first time I saw him play with both hands on the neck, I was completely blown away. What was this dude doing? Where is his pick? I’ve seen VH many times and watching Eddie perform his guitar solo is well worth the price of admission. In my opinion, he brought the use of two hands on the neck to rest of the world and into the mainstream. Many modern guitarists added this style to their repertoire, but nobody perfected it, or plays it better, than Eddie.

I could easily go on and on about great guitar players. After all, there are so many phenomenal ones to talk about. From the likes of Django Reinhardt through Les Paul, great guitar players have spanned the generations. Other modern guitarists who easily deserve mention are guys like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Tom Morello, Jeff Beck, Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen…somebody stop me! Let’s all enjoy these guitar virtuosos as they shred their six string things.

The source for the awesome Eddie Van Halen photo is here!

Cover Songs.

I was on the road the other day, and I heard a cover of ‘Hey Joe’; you know, the Hendrix tune. But, it was Deep Purple actually performing the song…and not incredibly well either. I was a little put out by this because I like Deep Purple and I am a rabid Jimi Hendrix fan, but I consider it blasphemous that anyone would cover a Hendrix tune and do it in such a poor manner. That’s not the worst of it; ‘Hey Joe’ has been recorded over sixty (yes, 60!) times since it was first penned and recorded in 1965 (by a group called The Leaves). Say it ain’t so! I haven’t listened to all sixty versions of the song, but I bet that each cover is at a different level of quality. In recent memory, I think the worst version of a song I have heard is Avenged Sevenfold covering ‘Paranoid’; the old Black Sabbath tune. Have you heard this? I think it was recorded for a sound track. Not only is it a piss-poor version of the song, but who told M. Shadows he could sing in the first place.

Just awful!

Of course, not all covers are bad or performed poorly. I thought that Guns N’ Roses did a pretty good job with ‘Live and Let Die’. And their cover of ‘Hair of the Dog’ was decent. I recently heard a cover of ‘Born to be Wild’ that was performed by The Cult. I was never a big Steppenwolf fan and I have always walked the fence on whether I liked this tune or not. But to hear Ian Astbury belt out the vocals and Billy Duffy crush the guitar riffs, I found myself singing that version of the song for the rest of the night! Another great cover that comes to mind was ‘Come Together’ done by Aerosmith. Man, that was a great cover of a great song! No problem with that performance at all. Oh yeah, and how about Stone Temple Pilots cover of Zeppelin’s ‘Dancing Days’; very well done. My all-time favorite cover is…drum roll please: ‘Cross-Eyed Mary’ performed by Iron Maiden. If you can find a copy of this, put it on and crank it up. This version will rock your socks off. It was recorded on one of Maiden’s many EPs, probably some obscure import; I don’t remember. Jethro Tull could never come close to sounding like this! I think Ian Anderson would promptly put his flute away and go back into retirement after hearing this version of his classic.

If you’re going to cover it, play it right! Perform it well. Execute it with gusto! I’m not whole-heartedly against bands covering other bands’ songs. In fact, I’m a big fan of the ‘tribute’ albums that were popular a few years back. Not all of them were good, but I think they’re done with good intention…sort of a cool way to honor a band. And I think one of the best ways to get some air play is to cover a ‘famous’ song. Remember Marilyn Manson doing the Eurythmics tune? Whether you liked their cover or not, you definitely noticed it! If you’re going to do it, just do it right!