Home Forums Guitar Discussion Guitar The Quintessential Guitar Song

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  • #23171
    Guitar Expert
    Keymaster

    Is quintessential the right word?

    What song/piece of music do you think sums up the guitar? For example, if aliens came to earth and wanted to hear just one song to represent the guitar, what would it be? And I don’t know why aliens would ask that, but if they did.

    Hard I know, but imposible?

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    • #70079
      kgammon
      Participant

      Derek & The Dominos… but, as I’m known to play unplugged, I fancy that as well…

    • #70065
      Michael
      Participant

      Derek and the Dominos vers or unplugged?

    • #70067
      kgammon
      Participant

      Quintessential, to me, screams for someone like Clapton… Layla comes to mind. Oldie, but OMG, what an incredible song!!!

    • #70054
      lee_UK
      Participant

      To recreate that tune live on stage would take, a sax, guitar – electric and steel string, a bass, a drum kit (16 peice), piano, elctric piano, organ, banjo, pedal steel, the wind a string ensemble of a classical orchestra, marimbas, zither, lute, xylophone, paper clip and paper blown at an angle, and of course Gerry.

      Like i said, it has everything on it, its the Wendy Burger of the pop world. 😆

    • #70064
      Michael
      Participant

      Baker Street popped up on the radio yesterday, so I gave the guitar a closer listen. Lee’s right, it isn’t all sax. Still, the quintessential guitar song, Lee? I dunno.

      Nevertheless I enjoyed it enough to do a bit of research. The solo was played by Hugh Burns, who apart from working with Gerry, has also played for George Michael a fair bit. Macca too.

      “Like many players, as a teenager Hugh started out as self taught in the blues/rock style and was comfortable with a loose and semi-improvisatory style of playing. Once he decided on a career as a serious session musician he quickly realised that to be successful in this area he would need more formal skills. He rapidly became a fluent sight reader, writer and transcriber of music and embarked on a serious study of music both in practice and in theory that continues to this day. His early studies of plectrum style were with Ron Moore and he later studied composition with Oliver Hunt.” Source: http://dundeeguitarfestival.com/txp/index.php?id=19

    • #70085
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Mustard Mitt, “Ace of Spades” – I’d fight to the death to defend anyone’s right to declare that a top tune. I don’t have to, though, because a very scary bloke from the Stoke-on-Trent area will do it anyway. Still have a soft-spot for the Phil/Eddie/Lemmy trio.

      My Physics teacher at 6th form was “Mr Clarke”. Tweed jacket; sober, drawling voice. How did I make it stick that we all called him “Fast Eddie” ❓ 😆

    • #70089
      lee_UK
      Participant

      [quote=”1bassleft”]Baker Street? You cannot be serious?? (McEnroe also doubled up as a guitar player. Good job he was pretty handy at tennis). Also, hairy faced “comic” Billy Connelly (the one who laughs at his punchlines about ten years before one or two in the audience do) played banjo with Rafferty in a band called, I think, “The Humblebums”.

      Banjo… now there’s an instrument for Room 101….[/quote]

      Listen to it with new ears Bass, forget Gerry and the banjo, put the headphones on and give it a fresh listen, Its all in there, the answer to the meaning of life is ‘Baker st.’

      Also Ace of Spades – Motorhead.

    • #70056
      glw
      Participant

      [quote=”1bassleft”]Banjo… now there’s an instrument for Room 101….[/quote]

      Gotta confess, I’ve got a guitar banjo. I don’t play it much (and, boy! is it loud!). It’s good for those banjoey type sounds. As you may have guessed.

    • #70051
      Michael
      Participant

      Surely he picked it as a joke. To rile us up.

      Big Log – Robert Plant.

      Nice trivia about Bill too.

    • #70061
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Baker Street? You cannot be serious?? (McEnroe also doubled up as a guitar player. Good job he was pretty handy at tennis). Also, hairy faced “comic” Billy Connelly (the one who laughs at his punchlines about ten years before one or two in the audience do) played banjo with Rafferty in a band called, I think, “The Humblebums”.

      Banjo… now there’s an instrument for Room 101….

    • #70099
      Michael
      Participant

      I don’t have Gerry at work.

      Honourable Mention for one C. Frogetty with Axel F.

    • #70050
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Give it a play Mike, it says it all.

    • #70095
      Michael
      Participant

      It’s all sax.

    • #70034
      lee_UK
      Participant

      ‘Baker Street’ by Gerry Raferty.

    • #70058
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Bah, goalpost-moving mod types 😆 . “Name one song” type of threads are always difficult to answer. I shall have a thunk… 🙂

    • #70040
      Michael
      Participant

      Yeah, it is just one song.

    • #70055
      glw
      Participant

      That’s cheating! I thought it was supposed to be one sone, not a whole album!

    • #70044
      1bassleft
      Participant

      “Watchtower” may just infect those aliens with Bob Dylan’s nasal problems, though. Might wipe them all out as they mistake a harmonica for some sort of mechanical antihistamine.

      I’d probably give the little green dweebs a compilation album; “Now That’s What I Call Earth Guitar Music 1”

      Featuring “Kashmir” (yep, Page isn’t a great soloer but it’s a good riff), Kinks “You Really Got Me”, and Editors “Munich” amongst other things.

      Disagree all you like; the Dweebs might just pick me as Leader of the Free World as that other bloke 😆

    • #70068
      Michael
      Participant

      Michael Angelo Batio’s 42 Inches of Sweat, Love and Tears

    • #70046
      glw
      Participant

      Not the most original choice, I know, but I’d probably choose “All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix. It’s a pretty good showcase having acoustic guitars, electric, a little bit of slide and some nice wah wah work.

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