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Giant: Where's the Guitar Love?


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I've been looking for a tab book for Giant's first album "Last of the Runaways" for a few years now...can't find one.

But that is one of the best albums of guitar work I know...with the stipulation that you like hair band shreddish gymnastics.

He's got the chops, so there are great solos throughout.

But he also comes up with some great riffs to build the songs on.

He really knows how to get a great groove.

And then on some songs the number of little licks and fills are so dense...most bands/guitarists would just hold chords more...he seems to always be moving.

Here's a great riff with an amazingly cool groove:
http://youtu.be/YR_WxCB_ivE

The lines while singing the chorus are pretty tough, too.

Then there's this one with "wall of sound" fills and a great great double-stop riff:

Love the harmonic lick at 1:47-1:49

This was 2-3 years before grunge killed hair metal.

"In My Dreams" was a big hit.

Why isn't Dann Huff seen as a guitar hero, or someone whose songs/licks/solos are worth emulating/learning? Nothing on eBay, even with the Guitar Pro software CDs...

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Sounds good. But thousands of great bands get passed by all the time. Sucks for those of us who want to listen but it happens.

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I can find some great overpriced Night Ranger, Tesla, Ratt, and even Journey (know how hard it is to get a tab transcription of Journey's "Dead or Alive"?!?!??), but no Giant. At all. Anywhere.

I don't think they even had any songs in Young Guitar, Guitar for the Practicing Musician, Guitar One, or Guitar World.

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He's got the chops, so there are great solos throughout.

But he also comes up with some great riffs to build the songs on.

He really knows how to get a great groove.

Little known factoid: Dan Huff plays the amazing, melodic outro solo on Whitesnake's, "Still of the Night." Take that, Mr. John Sykes!

Guess it shows how much control a hotshit producer can have over the final "product" of a major release. Obviously, Sykes can play nearly anything, but the producer brought in some "mercenaries" to sweeten up the tracks. Weird, but this has been going on in pop music for decades.

Why isn't Dann Huff seen as a guitar hero, or someone whose songs/licks/solos are worth emulating/learning? Nothing on eBay, even with the Guitar Pro software CDs...

Ask anyone "in the know" (or any player in Nashville/LA/NYC) and they'll tell you what a total MFer Huff is. Not just session playing, but producing, engineering, he's the total package. He transcends the term, "guitar hero." "Musical God", is more like it...

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I never got into the groove of this type of music. The guitar is good (ibanez?) but the drums are too programmed sounding with forced flow. I think Mr. Big, Satriani, and that other bloke. And the secondary singers have a common Joe Lyn Turner, Sammy Haggard clone sound and persona.

This is the opposite of raw and rude, it's slick and too friendly.

I know everyone has their niche, but this is on the other side of the moon for me. Nameless all star band with no chemistry.

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The guitar is made by James Tyler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tyler_Guitars

The drummer is Dann Huff's brother...not that it makes it any better or worse.

I just have a weakness for late 80s hair metal/hard rock. That's one style of guitar playing I appreciate.

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I wonder how the good LA metal bands of the 80's feel about being labeled in the "Hair Metal" genre, I have heard from a few and it's not positive. Like Dokken, LA Guns, Motely Crue etc. The term originated during the late grunge, early nu metal days as a derogatory term to group a lot of bands, many that were not like Poison. I have noticed that the name Glam Metal is making a comeback.

I was 18 in 1988, and loved all metal from all around the world. I have always taken offense to calling LA Metal Hair Metal, am I going overboard?

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I can remember it being called "hair metal" prior to nu metal. That term itself didn't really become popular until Limp Bizkit released Three Dolla Bill, Y'all, even thoug Korn was really the pioneer commercially.

While "hair metal" may have happened after Nevermind, the term "Glam Metal" didn't, and I think everyone knew they were basically synonymous. I certainly remember referring to bands like Warrant and Winger as Glam Metal around the time of Nevermind.

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Ask anyone "in the know" (or any player in Nashville/LA/NYC) and they'll tell you what a total MFer Huff is. Not just session playing, but producing, engineering, he's the total package. He transcends the term, "guitar hero." "Musical God", is more like it...

I used to do studio work in Nashville, and yep, you're right. The guy was definitely the MFer, at least back when I was recording on the row between 2001 and 2003.

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Dan is still all over the place (in Nashville rather than LA). You'll see his name on tons of stuff coming out year after year, but (as above) everything from musician to producer to...

I remember when Giant put that album out, much was made of his biography. For whatever reason they just didn't take off. Coming late to the party didn't help things.

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I always thought that Dann was a genius. Yes, he was quite late to the poodle-hair party, but he'd long since built a rep as a dude with serious chops and engineering/producing acumen. When he established himself in Nashville, post-Giant, I knew he'd played a strong hand. Most of the LA shredders went broke during the grunge era, but Dann had learned that the real money was in being the guy behind-the-scenes who would outlast the flavor-of-the-month behind the microphone. Think about how many country artists have peaked and plummeted while Dann has consistently made money, year after year, playing the role of Mutt Lange.

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Yep.

And having been a session guitarist, he got to learn how dozens of different producers approached recording an album.

Invaluable experience.

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I can remember it being called "hair metal" prior to nu metal. That term itself didn't really become popular until Limp Bizkit released Three Dolla Bill, Y'all, even thoug Korn was really the pioneer commercially.

While "hair metal" may have happened after Nevermind, the term "Glam Metal" didn't, and I think everyone knew they were basically synonymous. I certainly remember referring to bands like Warrant and Winger as Glam Metal around the time of Nevermind.

I liked Limp Biskit. In a way the term Hair Metal might have helped with the revival. Seems like people started rediscovering the genre in the early to mid 2000's and the bands starting touring again, still are.

So they could probably care less what you call them as long as they are being referred to period.

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