6 String Therapy

Guitar (1 of 7),
originally uploaded by shadowbox.

Aaagh! I just totally arsed up this blog for 10 minutes or so because I left a tag open in this post. Blogger always warns you if you forget to close a tag, but flickr doesn't; so I arsed it up and then messed around with it so much I ended up changing the template. Again. Apologies.

Anyway.

We've been running one of those typically boys-only challenges in the office: create a compo with 10 songs which exemplify the best-ever guitar tracks. I started with a shortlist of about 20 and wittled it painfully down to just the 10 required. Quite a challenge, but I do think about this kind of thing quite often. Which is probably not entirely a good thing.
Mine goes like this:

• When I Start Walking - Jonathan Richman - JR has more entertainment value in his little finger than in a multitude of angry young men who-think-they-are-Jesus


• You Look Good in My Shirt - Keith Urban - "In the beginning was the Telecaster..." and this is how it's supposed to sound


• New Morning - Bob Dylan - Dylan's voice never sounded better than this - and the lead guitar has a nice, loose, improvised feel. You get the feeling this is around the second take; you can hear the musicians working towards something, giving each other space, and the solo at the end rises up out of the mix like magic.


• I'm Mandy Fly Me - 10cc - In the 70s, there were two British bands renowned for the studio trickery - Queen (who I never liked), and 10cc. Queen had Bohemian Rapsody and 10cc had I'm Not in Love. After that came the arch and knowing album How Dare You with this track, which is a long-term favourite. Knowing 10cc, the acoustic rhythm guitar on this was achieved with some studio trickery - still great though


• Even The Losers - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - for when your teenager asks, "What was the greatest rock & roll record of all time?" Along with Jonathan Richman, Mike Campbell is probably among the most under-rated guitar players


• Get Real - Kelly Willis - it just goes round and around, but it builds up beautifully with layers of guitars


• Every River - Kim Richey - this is a songwriter with some session musicians - but can you really tell? Guitar and song are one.


• Shut Up & Kiss Me - Mary Chapin Carpenter - John Jennings is a guitar god and this is one of his better collaborations with MCC


• The Sun's Gonna Shine on You - Vince Gill - Who wins out over Brad Paisley, that other great country guitar hero, because Gill has more soul & feel


• No Next Time - Allison Moorer - great breakup song - and the overdriven lead guitar against the strings at the end sounds wondrous

Let me know if you want a copy.