Monday, August 17, 2009

Because of Him :: Greatest Guitar Riffs

This morning, our local oldies station (KRTH) was asking its listeners to call in and list their favorite guitar riffs in honor of the passing of another music legend. Lester William Polsfuss, also know as Les Paul, passed away on my birthday last week. And without his creation of the electric guitar, I don't think rock 'n roll happens without that single instrument. The Rock and Rock Hall of Fame has him down with a permanent exhibit and honors him as one of the architects on their website.
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16 comments:

  1. I hate it when you do this to me! I'm still at least two posts behind on book reviews, and now you've sidetracked me into thinking about guitar riffs. This must be what is meant by guilty pleasure.

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  2. Sorry, Corey. [wife: "see, you don't do this to friends!"] But, I blame Gary Bryan for causing this on my drive in to work (he was playing cuts all over the place) ;-)

    But, it's my guilty pleasure when I read your comments/post on music :-)

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  3. When I want to hear electric, my vote goes to my on personal rock god, Neil Young, all of his jams, #1 Hurricane. If you like George, who doesn't, get Concert for George on dvd and watch the whole thing, beautiful (not the theatrical version). So I'm big on concert dvds and Claptons are the best, any of his Guitar Fest, particularlly the Chicago event. How many quarters went in the juke box for Layla? And maybe I should get a med bracelet, play "Green Grass and High Tides" to revive. I'm sure it'll work. The Outlaws were known as the "Guitar Army"

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  4. Some great stuff you got there, HnL. I've placed the Concert for George and Guitar Fest '04 in my Netflix queue (can't wait for these). Many thanks for the recommendations and your comment.

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  5. For those who are interested, Corey has posted his magnificent list here. Both HnL and Corey have some great cuts, and I thank them both.

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  6. I don't know music well enough to hang with this exchange, but I can tell you three artists I think work magic with their guitars: Vince Gill, Brad Paisley (who played at Carnegie Hall), and Steve Warner. I know...it's all country, but that's what I know best for guitar...if you ask me about the piano, though.... ;)

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  7. Doesn't matter if it's country, Jen. Great riffs are great riffs. If you have any specific songs/cuts, I'm interested in them. Thanks, Jen.

    p.s., we should move on to piano licks, but I promised Corey ;-)

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  8. I gotta agree with you about George Harrison. It's amazing how you can recognize every Beatles song for its first notes... specially the ones displaying GH's skills! And I think you left a lot of my faves out of yours (Hell! Why don't we name all of the discography?).

    But you also gotta give it to those songs who became so popular because of the riffs: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Whole Lotta Love and others.

    And call it national pride or whatever, but I really do love Santana. Smooth has to be one of my favorite songs (give it to me, I'm a 90's guy -with an 80's soul).

    Great post by the way! I was beating my air-guitar while watching the clips.

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  9. Poncho: I agree it would have been better if I just said the whole GH catalogue. And I completely understand your sentiments about Santana. Hell, you're talking to a high school sophomore who spent his lawn-mowing chore money to purchase that original Santana album and prominently displaying it on his chest of drawers. And Smooth is one of my wife's favorite albums.

    I'm a 90's guy -with an 80's soul

    Great words to live by, Poncho. Thanks for your comment.

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  10. BTW, my 9 year old daughter (who learned it this summer) asked why I didn't list Smoke on the Water. See, you can't win...

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  11. And you then explained to her about some things being too obvious to mention, right?

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  12. Okay, Michael. I'm caught up and working on a review of my most recent read, so -- resume firing, sir!

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  13. Good timing. I have one in draft, and I'm doing an interview for another, this weekend. Thanks, Corey.

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  14. Good music blog again! I feel so far behind....loved Corey's blog too. Thanks to Corey, I have discovered Eddie Hinton, who is amazing on the guitar. Music, and sharing it, is a guilty pleasure indeed. Thanks.
    (Can you tell I am playing
    catch up?)

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  15. Moondancer, seems like I can always count on Corey to bring a great music gem to the forefront. I love it that we are sharing some gems and wonderful aspects of the music realm among us via the ether. Thank you.

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  16. I enjoy it too. It's a lot of fun. Of course, I have some blogging to do :-)

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