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Your less-known personal musical inspirations


polara

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1 hour ago, princeofdarkness56 said:

Mike played with Iron Butterfly later on. And Cactus, Ramatam, some solo stuff and a few years with Alice Cooper. If you have that Blues Image album with Ride Captain Ride, you know the album version has about a extra minute at the end with a extended guitar solo that is great. It always gets cut from the radio version and just torques me out. He also sang lead on that song. Very under appreciated talent. 

Yah, I remember his being the ultimate frontman--and he had to be pretty young back then.

I saw them just as the first Blues Image album was out.  Think it was just called "Blues Image..."

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2 hours ago, RobB said:

How is he under appreciated? He’s had more than a few hit albums/bands/singles. Played with the Coop. He may not be well known, but his music is. 

To me he’s the definition of under appreciated. His talent far exceeded his popularity. He’s definitely appreciated in music circles and guitar forums, but unknown by the majority of listeners. And when your music is well known but you are not, that sort of confirms it. 

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I've always loved the early Riot/Mark Reale. He had a style that while not really 'technical', always made me say wow. Loved the early Moxy too, with Earl Johnson and Buddy Caine. 

 

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When I was growing up in L.A. in the 70/80s, there were two brothers, Jon and Richard Blair. Jon played in the seminal surf band, Jon and the Nightriders. Richard had a heavy pop trio called Richard and the Rippers. I was quite impressionable and went to countless gigs to steal riffs. Glen Burtnick (ex-JTull) played with the Rippers for a while. 

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59 minutes ago, DaveH said:

I've always loved the early Riot/Mark Reale. He had a style that while not really 'technical', always made me say wow. Loved the early Moxy too, with Earl Johnson and Buddy Caine. 

 

Yeah, Reale (RIP) was a badass, love his playing.

David Feinstein of the Rods was an influence, too. He played with his cousin, Ronnie Dio, in Elf, but was summarily dismissed when Rainbow formed. 

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41 minutes ago, RobB said:

Yeah, Reale (RIP) was a badass, love his playing.

David Feinstein of the Rods was an influence, too. He played with his cousin, Ronnie Dio, in Elf, but was summarily dismissed when Rainbow formed. 

Oh yeah! I wore out 'In The Raw', especially loved Witches Brew on that album. I read an interview with David and Carl years ago where they said they basically blew their chances on two occasions... One, they were opening for Judas Priest. He said they couldn't hear anything but the roar of the amps, and the set pretty much sucked. The other was a smaller venue where they were supposed to impress a record exec... I think they were basically playing at just below stadium level, and David, being caught up in the moment, started jumping and playing wildly on tables. He landed on the table the exec was at and kicked drinks and stuff all over him. Don't remember a lot of details, hopefully I didn't twist it.

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Thomas Occhiogrosso, Norman Thetford, Bruce Foster, and Richie Sambora during the years he was 17 -22 (well before anyone heard him on the radio and his soon to come fame). 

Growing up on the Jersey shore, Norm Thetford (RIP) was our family doctor. He was also an accomplished musician who played piano and trombone. His exam room and office was in the back of his large Victorian house. To get there you would walk through his living room in which was displayed his grand piano and his shiny trombone which sat atop of the piano. I was mesmerized by them from my earliest memories staring up at them while walking past. By the time I was six, I had my first trombone. I couldn’t reach seventh position yet, but I tried!

I had received a child’s acoustic guitar when I was seven and tried learning American Pie. It was the beginning. 

Thomas Occhiogrosso (RIP) was a friend of the family and was an absolutely incredible guitarist. He was my grandparents’ age but he had my attention. His love was jazz guitar, both gypsy jazz and contemporary jazz of the time. I could watch him play for days. 

When I was ten, I got an inexpensive nylon string classical acoustic guitar. An upgrade, not a great one, but nonetheless an upgrade.

Bruce Foster is a family friend, and an incredibly gifted (and Grammy nominated) musician and songwriter. Bruce is ultimately to blame for my life-long guitar addiction, he helped me pick out my first electric guitar, a Japanese Montaya Les Paul copy. Bruce has had a few brushes with fame, and has recorded with a who’s-who list of artists over his lifetime, as well as several releases of his own. His most successful probably being his “After the Show” album. NYC’s WNEW 102.7 FM gave it some decent air time. His song Platinum Heroes made it on to Billboard, hit number 63, and remained on the charts for several weeks. He plays multiple instruments. He was absolutely a hero of mine. When I was thirteen I got to spend the summer watching him put together a studio in his house. At one of his gigs, during a break, someone from the audience walked up and told Bruce how much he liked Bruce’s music. Turned out he played guitar too. Bruce asked him if he wanted to join the band on stage after the break for a jam. After some arm twisting, a seventeen year old Richie Sambora was on stage jamming with Bruce and his band. They recorded and wrote a lot of music together over the next few years. Richie at that young age had improvisational skills that blew my mind. This was what pushed me over the edge to dive in and take guitar seriously. I wanted to play like Richie!

 

ETA: Just read the first post, was under impression the thread was asking for unknown musicians that inspired you to start playing and influenced your playing when you began. The folks I mention above were that.  I’ll come back to this. Dinner time now!

 

OK, I’m back. Current players that are not household names who inspire and influence me, would be Josh Smith, Greg Koch, Richard Thompson, and Jimmy Herring. There are several more of course, but these guys have my full attention. I’ve been a fan of Josh for twenty-plus years. He was gigging in south FLA when was 13. Just an incredible talent. Jimmy Herring is such a diverse player, what can’t you learn from him? Greg Koch and Richard Thompson, just two masters of the instrument who can put a spin on a tune through their playing like no one else on Earth.

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On 10/16/2019 at 4:07 PM, Funky Chicken said:

 

I saw Adrian Legg when he was supporting Joe Satriani for  his 1992 tour when he'd released his album  'The Extremist'.  His talent and ability was obvious and at the venue where I saw him the crowd was very respectful and appreciative, even though his material was a mile and then some apart from  the music Satriani plays. We'd gone to see an amazing guitarist and been given two.

I can't say the same for other supporting acts - one time I saw this 3rd-rate metal band called 'Vardis' supporting Hawkwind.  I can't remember the year I'd eaten some mushrooms on the way to the gig.  The guitarist tried to do this 'leaning over backwards' thing during a solo and he fell over,  a real 'Spinal Tap' moment if I ever saw one.  The crowd hated them from the start and after the guitarist fell over everyone was laughing at them and they were boo'd off stage in a hail of beer bottles, while one of the band was shouting at us through a microphone 'Manchester,  you're all a load of cunts,' hilarious.  I guess I'm saying it can go either way for a supporting act!

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Not sure of their record label but you're spot on, they were a NWOBHM band omg It's so long since I've seen that acronym! anyhoo yes I thought getting put on supporting Hawkwind wasn't exactly going to be a marriage made in heaven. Now I think about it I wonder if they got that treatment on every date of Hawkwind's tour, that couldn't have been good for morale! 

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I'd have to give Roy Harper a mention in this thread.  A recording artist in his own right since 1966 who never became mainstream, perhaps out of his own choice.  He sang the vocals on 'Have a Cigar' on Pink Floyd's album 'Wish You Were Here'  and he released an album called 'Whatever Happened To Jugula?' 

in 1985 that was a collaboration with Jimmy Page and a co-writer's credit is given to Dave Gilmour for the song 'Hope'.  Page has occasionally played on tracks on other albums under assumed names to avoid contractual troubles. Harper has been amongst and performed with and appeared on the same bill as many artists who were either already famous or went on to fame and has also been quoted as an influence by many famous recording artists. Many of his own gigs are played in small venues a little off the beaten track, but normally filled to capacity. They're quite intimate happenings, sometimes his son Nick joins him on stage, they're both accomplished musicians.  Most of his gigs I've been to people will walk onto the stage between songs to give him spiffs which he will light and smoke while he's talking to the audience, which he does quite a lot of in between songs.  He's a real Gem of a performer, a superb acoustic guitarist and songwriter.  I'm surprised his song from 1990 'The Black Cloud of Islam' never got him into trouble with some ayatollah or other but perhaps his lack of mainstream-ness worked in his favour, unlike the author Salman Rushdie.  Some of his work, especially his earlier stuff reminds me of days of my youth, lying around stoned in a field or a park with my friends, I didn't appreciate his political messages and social comments quite so much until I'd got a little bit older, in my haziness I was just enjoying the music.  He is both perceptive and incisive in his songwriting and has earned enough from his musical career to live his life on his own terms.  I have never been without some Roy Harper in my album/CD collection since my mid-teens and as I've aged his songs have developed ever deeper meaning and significance.  A few of my own favourie albums would be 'Stormcock' (1971) 'Flashes From The Archives Of Oblivion', (double live album, 1974) 'Flat, Baroque and Berserk' (1970) for me these albums are and have been essential listening since adolescence and I still rate as some of Harper's finest work.  50 years after making 2 of those albums he's still working and tours most years. 

 

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Rick Witkowski - Crack The Sky

Greg Humphreys - Dillon Fence

Tim Rogers - You Am I

Jon Brion

Mitch Easter

The more well known guys would be Johnny Marr, Elliot Easton and Nielsen, but there are tons more.

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Mine is Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Linkous

He was a true musical artist in that he did his own thing regardless, maybe even went too far to flip off the industry and even so was talented enough to make multiple major label records, though not too many people ever knew of him/them.  He said he found his favorite microphone at a landfill.   Sadly he was troubled and addicted and died too young.  

So inspired though, I've spent the last few years holed up in the studio whenever possible writing and recording songs, playing all the instruments into a 2006 era IMac with Garageband using whatever cheap, and good, gear I have making all kinds of noises and embracing imperfections.  So often those "mistakes" make me happier than anything else.    

 

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When I was in fifth grade (9 going on 10), I started taking drum lessons in elementary school.

So when I finished elementary school in 6th grade I'd taken drum lessons for 2 years. This was mostly drum-only simple exercisess. For Christmas in 6th grade, I got a beginner's 3-piece drum set with one cymbal (no hi-hat).

Then when I finished 6th grade it was 1965 and my older sister sent me a Gene Krupa album for having "graduated" from elementary school. There are two numbers on that album that really captivated me. The first one was "Drummin' Man," a featured song of Krupa's big band. I was astounded that he could play rim shots as accents in his solo when I could practice for an hour just to land ONE rim shot. Krupa's solo starts at 2:18.

Also on that record was a song called "China Boy," harkening back to when Gene was the drummer for Benny Goodman. This song and his solo was wild and fast like I'd never heard up to then. Solo starts at 0:57:

 

 

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I just remembered a couple of other artists that I feel are in a class of their own. One is the late Dave Brubeck's late drummer, Joe Morello, who soloed/riffed on their 1959  crossover hit, Take 5. Joe was new to the 5/4 time signature, and for that one, Brubeck laid out a 5/4 pattern on the piano to keep Joe anchored. By 1961, the Brubeck Quartet came out with their follow-up album, Time Further Out, which explored time signatures in 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 74, 8/8, and 9/8. By this time Joe was had completely mastered 5/4 and played an extended solo (no riffs) on his own:

The other artist is vibist Gary Burton. I started in on mallet percussion in 8th grade and I have never heard any vibist play like Gary Burton. He also has an ear for guitarists. His first quartet album, 1967's Duster, featured Larry Coryell and is also considered one of the very first jazz fusion albums, years ahead of Miles Davis.

220px-Duster_(album).jpg

Later on his guitarists included John Scofield and Pat Metheny. 

My first Burton album was a collaboration with Keith Jarrett who brought in his guitarist, Sam Brown, who had a great raw sound on his Telecaster. Burton's virtuosity on the vibes sent me into sensory overload. There is an interlude of interplay between Burton and Jarrett at 3:08 which displays the virtuosity of these two. Burton always played with four or six mallets whereas other famous vibists--Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Dave Pike, Cal Tjader, etc.--generally played with two mallets, just one for each hand. And if they (rarely) played with four, it was not with Burton's speed and precision.

Vibraphones are fixed pitch instruments, but somehow Burton figured out how to bend notes on the vibes, starting at 2:11 on this number:

 

 

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On 10/29/2019 at 2:32 PM, robbie said:

Mine is Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Linkous

He was a true musical artist in that he did his own thing regardless, maybe even went too far to flip off the industry and even so was talented enough to make multiple major label records, though not too many people ever knew of him/them.  He said he found his favorite microphone at a landfill.   Sadly he was troubled and addicted and died too young.  

So inspired though, I've spent the last few years holed up in the studio whenever possible writing and recording songs, playing all the instruments into a 2006 era IMac with Garageband using whatever cheap, and good, gear I have making all kinds of noises and embracing imperfections.  So often those "mistakes" make me happier than anything else.    

 

Loved him. Do you have that collaboration he did with Dangermouse? I think it was called Dark Night of the Soul... really good stuff.

 

ETA: My Mac thinks "dangermouse" should be "dangerous"

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Big in the acoustic circles but virtually unknown elsewhere, the two biggest influences for me are Laurence Juber and Tommy Emmanuel.  Laurence is classically trained where Tommy is road trained, both bring so much style to acoustic guitar, I just watch in awe.

Here's a rarity - The two of them together as they jam before a joint recording session:

 

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4 hours ago, Teh said:

Big in the acoustic circles but virtually unknown elsewhere, the two biggest influences for me are Laurence Juber and Tommy Emmanuel.  Laurence is classically trained where Tommy is road trained, both bring so much style to acoustic guitar, I just watch in awe.

Here's a rarity - The two of them together as they jam before a joint recording session:

 

Mr. Juber is flat out amazing. Long time fan here.

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