I believe Yngwie Malmsteem also made the comment about Brian's sound coming from his fingers and his brain, just as much as it comes from his guitar. Somebody on this forum mentioned some time ago.
It's always nice to read good things about the Doctor. With all his Soapbox ranting I sometimes forget he is a personal hero of mine, as well as a legendary and well respected musician among his peers.
The Bonus disc of Meat Loaf's 3 Bats Live 2-DVD set has short interviews wiht many of the poeple who participated in the making of the album Bat out Of Hell 3. As y'all probably already know, Brian played guitar on one of the songs.
One of the peope interviewed is Steve Vai and he says that his most memorable experience of working on the album was workign with Brian. This made me so happy :-)
masterstroke_84 wrote:
It would be out of this universe to have a "May-Vai" album..
Just imagine that!!..
We all know that Vai is in another league, but they would fit very well...
Why does everyone know vai is in another league?....I still havn't heard a guitarist pull off a brian may.....kind words from mr. Vai.
Funky Horsie wrote:
Steve Vai is GOD.
But, from all he says, there is one line which is an undeniable truth:
I don't think enough is really said about the brilliance of Brian May's guitar playing, in the sense that it's overshadowed by the music itself.
what a mature thing to say....Steve vai is god!...No man is god.
i've tried many times to get into steve vai but without success. i must admit i'm not a big fan of ultra fast players. i do have the first few lps of satriani, he seems more melodic. his track 'flying in a blue dream' is my favourite guitar instrumental.
twenty years ago i did have a thing for malmsteen, but after a few years got bored of him, he seems to samey to me. his trilogy album is very good though.
chris the unhappy sheep wrote: i've tried many times to get into steve vai but without success. i must admit i'm not a big fan of ultra fast players. i do have the first few lps of satriani, he seems more melodic. his track 'flying in a blue dream' is my favourite guitar instrumental.
twenty years ago i did have a thing for malmsteen, but after a few years got bored of him, he seems to samey to me. his trilogy album is very good though. ------
Please, name ONE SONG where Steve plays ultra fast licks.
In all of his albums, I wasn't able to find a single one.
Maybe we are talking about different Steve Vai's? (??)
chris the unhappy sheep - I'm not a fan of ultra-fast players either. What ticks me off is when people put Brian down in favour of Eddie Van Halen. I enjoy the Star Fleet EP - a good meeting of them both, but I must say, speed isn't everything. As a guitarist, could Eddie Van Halen ever match the emotion that Brian conveys in Long Away, Let Me Live and Somebody to Love, to name a few? Hell no! Could Van Halen ever reach the true melodic flow that is shown in tracks such as Killer Queen, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Las Palabras de Amor or Friends Will Be Friends? No way in all fiery infernoes! Although, if you are a fan of fast licks, give stuff like Resurrection, Stone Cold Crazy, Ogre Battle, Princes of the Universe, and the opening strains of Brighton Rock (the ones after the fairground intro, and the openings of the main solo itself) a go. And an extra two pennies I thought I'd throw in - a guitar solo that mixes emotional greatness and melodic greatness has GOT to be Lost Opportunity without the shadow of a doubt. I just get lost in it. Very special track for me. Why it was kept as a non-album B-side is a mystery. But I guess that's what makes it such a hidden gem. Maybe (if QP can screw their heads on straight), just maybe, it'll wind up as one of the five bonus tracks on the 2011 reissue of Innuendo - but I'm just dreaming again. That'll never happen...
Eddie Van Halen may not be the fastest player, but he is the one person in rock who has ever made it cool to be technical. Thousands of guys have followed and tried to better him, and most have failed. Plenty of them had better chops, but they didn't have Eddie's accessibility, which is what it's all about in the end.
I don't agree with your point.
Eddie is one of my favourite players, I'd like to say in the first place but making accessible music is not everyone's goal. Not that it's easy to achieve that, of course but writting music is all about being able to put your knowledge in it.
You can be as good as you want to be or you can completely suck but composition is about knowledge. You do what you know how to do. If not... then you just don't.
That's something obvious but, you know... Eddie Van Halen had something which 95% of most guitar players lack: BRAINS. Sure, he was a fucking kid when he kicked everyone's ass by playing in a way that most would have wanted but none had thought about how doing it... but that's just a part of him.
Of course Eruption is a musical revolution itself but that's just a part of him... which is very insignificant compared to his following guitar work because most of the time, he knew what he was doing and played a lot of different things, tried a lot of stuff and that's what makes him the great player he is. When he tried to play things, he succeeded.
Take for example, the solo from Can't Stop Loving You. It's so short and YET, there are so many things going on.
Just 4 bars or so but lots of variations and greatly played.
Most of guitar players just play a solo (which can be awesome or not, doesn't matter) on any song... and they can't justify why it's really there. I mean, you could take it off and the song would be the same.
Only a few guys can make every note count... like, you know it's there because IT HAS to be there. Not just because it's guitar solo time.
This has nothing to do with playing fast or not, because most people seem to think that playing fast is a bad thing.
Have you ever heard of something as ridiculous as that? Not liking something because "it's too fast"?
Whoever heard... of a sad clown!