8 0 s G u i t a r i s t s
For many, the 80s - the "MTV decade" - were a total wash musically. To me, it was a treasure chest, producing some tremendously inspiring music. Musicians - guitarists in particular - were focused more than ever on technique, tone and vocabulary. My appetite had begun to expand, embracing a wider menu of pop, jazz, rock and fusion, and that may explain the jambalaya of artists below.
CONNORS
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DI MEOLA
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FANNON
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FARREN
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HEALEY
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HOLDSWORTH
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KEAGGY
LUKATHER
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MACALPINE
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MACLEOD
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MALMSTEEN
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METHENY
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MOORE
NOVA
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PACK
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PRINCE
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REID
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RITENOUR
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SPINKS
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STERN
STEVENS
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VAN BERKEL
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VANDENBERG
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ZAPPA
~ D U O S ~
.38 SPECIAL
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DONNIE IRIS & THE CRUISERS
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HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS
GAMALON
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JUDAS PRIEST
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NIGHT RANGER
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SURVIVOR
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YES
So is my initiation into a corner of Bill Connors' sonic world. The tune was A Pedal from his '84 effort entitled Step It. I bought the LP within days, and it became a soundtrack to my life until it would no longer play. Tom Kennedy's bubbling bass and Dave Weckl's dextrous drums provide the perfect backdrop for Connors' often strange (but always inspired) explorations. If your thing is adventurous jazz-trio guitar fusion - brimming with solos that display colossal tone, shocking speed, prodigious technique and exhilarating creativity, look no further! Since that lonely night so many years ago, I have only heard Step It and its '86 followup, Double Up. Both are highly recommended.
JOHN FANNON
CHARLIE FARREN
It is with great sadness I mention here that Jeff lost his battle to cancer and left us on March 2, 2008.
.38 SPECIAL:
DONNIE IRIS & THE CRUISERS:
HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS:
Maybe it's an oversimplification to call it jazz-rock, but Brucato leans toward the funkier jazz element while Puleo brings the searing rock goods to the table. Both have chops that can tear your head off, but each is capable of deeply tasteful rhythm and texture as well, working together as few duos can. Aerial View hit the stores in '90 with a leaner, meaner sound than ever. That Gamalon can hold its own with any of the monster guitarists of the 80s and 90s is no exaggeration. 1991 saw the release of their final CD with this lineup, High Contrast. This effort, their only CD with vocals, tended more toward pop (a band's gotta make money), but didn't compromise the incendiary prog-fusion they'd become known for. These four CDs are among my favorites, and are worth tracking down.
JUDAS PRIEST:
b r a d ' s w e b s i t e
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j e f f ' s w e b s i t e
SURVIVOR:
t r e v o r ' s w e b s i t e
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s t e v e ' s w e b s i t e
BILL CONNORS
It's a late Spring evening in early 1985, and I'm renting a room in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone. Having been bitten by love I've become something of a hermit. A chilly breeze wafts through the window over a wheezing radiator. I'm working on a freelance project between sips of a microbrew and listening to one of New York's great jazz stations. My focus is riveted on a fusion tune that opens with crystalline chords floating eerily over a restless sea of bass and drums. Fascination mounts as chorusy waves of harmony form a ringing waterspout. What happens next sends shivers up (and down) my spine: a lead break rises from the foam like an immense serpent, weaving its sinuous way through a stormy sky and diving back into the black deep. My blood pressure rises and I'm pinned to the spot. Dark billows roll as Leviathan again rears its glistening head to thrash in the spray.
AL DI MEOLA
I've always been an independent listener, intersecting various circles of friends. One such early circle was deep into bands like Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever, and of course Di Meola's solo work, and I was exposed to all of it. Though I could respect genius and virtuosity, the music was far too quirky for my pop-weaned tastes. Then came Electric Rendezvous - an exotic jazz-rock record with world rhythms, huge sounds and crisp, hair-raising lead guitar work. I saw him on that tour at Philly's Tower Theater and that sealed it. I've picked up several of Al's CDs since. One that deserves particular mention is Winter Nights ('99). It's a wonderful Yuletide CD, as he takes on some standard carols, but it's so much more. Elegant, mysterious and understated, it's refreshing to listen to all year.
Somewhere on the brink of the 90s I heard a song on the radio that glued me to my spot until it was over. Its name was Don't Ever Wanna Lose Ya, by a Boston band called New England, from their self-titled first album. It's gourmet ear candy, with a delicious guitar riff, churning synths, a relentless rhythm section and a bittersweet lyrical idea. It's graced with a short but well-crafted guitar solo that still gives me shivers when I hear it.
Another Boston band that looms from the mists of time is Farrenheit, a peerless hard rock trio. I picked up a used tape of their self-titled album and wore it out. Razor-sharp songwriting wit, impassioned vocals and very tasteful guitar work make this an essential disc if you can find it.
JEFF HEALEY
I was living in Boston and working in a gas station the first time I heard Confidence Man on the radio. How apropos: Healey's playing is like a gasoline fire, and his feel for a ballad positively smokes. Another criminally underrated (or underexposed?) guitarist. That Jeff is legally blind adds to the mystique - he plays the guitar on his lap, much like a steel guitar - his technique is therefore difficult to emulate in the standard fashion. Healey possesses that enviable combination of dirty tone and clean touch, with often breathtaking speed. Essential listening: See the Light, Hell to Pay (oh, what a great cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps), and Cover to Cover.
ALLAN HOLDSWORTH
Unfortunately, my familiarity with Holdsworth only goes as far as his 1985 release Metal Fatigue and a hard-to-find collaboration with Frank Gambale called MVP: Truth in Shredding. These two recordings are sufficient to place him here. I'd read about him in an early 80's issue of Guitar Player, and snatched up a used cassette copy of Metal Fatigue after hearing the title track on a Boston FM station. Many guitarists create sounds that, even if my hands cannot mimic them, I can usually get a mental picture of what's going on. Allan is one of a few players, though, who defies my imagination completely.
PHIL KEAGGY
When you really get a good look at the breadth and depth of Keaggy's artistry, you can't help but agree that he's among the most shamefully unknown and underappreciated guitarists in the history of the instrument. I don't know if it's because of his Christianity, but I believe it's his very devotion to God that elevates him to the plane where he exists musically. Never one to bend to the whims of corporate commercialism, Phil follows his heart and faith. Whatever it is that keeps him from the audience he deserves, people are missing out on some astounding music.
STEVE LUKATHER
I was awestruck the first time I heard Lukather's majestically understated solo on Rosanna. And that was merely the radio edit - when I heard the jam on the LP version I was blown away. Several years before I had liked Toto's Hold the Line, but I wouldn't totally appreciate the ferocity of Steve's playing until I was a dyed in the wool fan. Their 1982 release Toto IV has got to be one of the most exhilarating pop/rock ventures ever produced. Since then I've picked up several more Toto and Luke solo and side projects - worth mentioning: Kingdom of Desire, Tambu, Los Lobotomys Candyman, Santamental and perhaps my favorite, No Substitutions: Live in Osaka, wherein he trades scorching fusion chops with fellow axemaster (and mentor) Larry Carlton.
YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
I recall seeing a short bit about him, then 19, in an "up and coming players" column in a magazine, and within months the L.A. band Alcatrazz hit the scene with No Parole from Rock 'N' Roll. This album had a similar impact on me that Ozzy's Blizzard of Ozz had a couple years previous, with its impossible sounding guitar pyrotechnics and completely over the top vocals - Graham Bonnet was like Ozzy on steroids, and Malmsteen was every bit as amazing as Rhoads, but his sound was somehow even meaner. I caught him at a small Brooklyn club in the mid 80s and again in Denver on the 2003 G3 tour. Whatever else might be said about him, he is deadly serious about his music.
PAT METHENY
I saw him live at the Santa Monica Civic Center in 1978, and was knocked out by this jazzer who, for all intents and purposes, put on a rock show. In 1981, at the suggestion of an acquaintance, I purchased my first - and still my favorite - Pat Metheny record (yeah, it was an LP), As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, and I was hooked. To the casual listener his music may be light jazz (some have even misnamed it new age). What I found was a rare depth of musicality, a unique voice, astounding technique and a talent for creating provoking melodies and chord changes. He built a bridge for me to the strange land of jazz. I caught him again in Boston around 1990 and came this close to selling my guitar afterwards.
DAVID PACK
I bought the Ambrosia LP in 1975, on the strength of their FM radio staples Nice, Nice, Very Nice and Holdin' On to Yesterday, but it would be years before I truly appreciated their talent. In '84, in a Brooklyn record store, I picked up a used copy of their '76 effort Somewhere I've Never Travelled - and I was simply blown away - I hadn't heard such daring variety and virtuosity from a band since Queen. A couple years later I heard 1982's Road Island (aptly, on a road trip), and that's when Pack earned his place in my pantheon of players. He's never positioned himself as a "guitar hero" but his playing is skillful, expressive and tasteful. He's a phenomenal vocalist, writer, composer, arranger and producer as well, and it saddens me that Ambrosia hasn't had more of an impact, being known primarily for a few soft-rock ballads.
VERNON REID
Living Colour: a hard rock juggernaut wrapped in black metal. A blend of stellar musicianship, socially conscious writing and a hefty amount of incisive humor secure their place as one of the hottest - and smartest - bands ever to emerge from the late 20th century. As a guitarist, Reid is exciting, with eclectic taste, style and vocabulary not matched by many. I recently picked up LC's "comeback" CD, Collideoscope, and quickly recalled why I liked them so much through the 80s and 90s: Reid's brutal, pummeling riffs, his busy, articulate rhythm work and his quirky, lightning-quick solos dance with a slick, perfect rhythm section augmented by a startling array of effects and samples. Over all of it, Corey Glover delivers his bluesy, gospel-tinged, streetwise and often otherworldly vocals. Certainly one of the best male vocalists ever.
MIKE STERN
Jigsaw 89
HARRIS VAN BERKEL
Skywalk - Silent Witness (83) First heard in 86
JEFF CARLISI & DON BARNES
MARTY HOENES & DONNIE IRIS
JOHNNY COLLA & CHRIS HAYES
GAMALON:
GEORGE PULEO & BRUCE BRUCATO
One of the luckiest finds I ever made was Gamalon's first, self-titled release. From the moment the needle hit the wax (we're still in the 80s here) I knew I had something special. The blazing twin attack of Brucato and Puleo left me with butterflies in my stomach. I saw them in a small club in Cambridge. A couple years later, quite by accident, I happened upon Project: Activation Earth by sax master Ernie Watts, with Gamalon backing him. While predominantly a horn-driven record, Bruce and George get plenty of room to flex, laying down fusion grooves, blistering solos and ethereal ballads with equal sincerity. The album positively burns.
GLENN TIPTON & K.K. DOWNING
I was never a rabid fan, but You've Got Another Thing Comin', from 1982's Screaming for Vengeance, was strong and quite nicely-written for a hard rock song. For a while there I couldn't get enough of it, playing it over and over, anticipating the goose bumps I got hearing the bridge building to Glenn's supple, flat-fifth-laden solo.
NIGHT RANGER:
BRAD GILLIS & JEFF WATSON
Night Ranger was one of an elite few who successfully fused nitro-burning rock with vocal-heavy pop, and took it consistently to the level that they did. What's remarkable is the presence of two gargantuan guitarists, working so seamlessly that only the most obsessive fan knows who played what solo! Their first three releases, Dawn Patrol, Midnight Madness and Seven Wishes, were strong, but as the 80s progressed, my attention turned to Steve Morse and Joe Satriani. However, it's worth mentioning that Morse has enough respect for Watson that they've guested on each other's CDs (Jeff on Southern Steel and Steve on Lone Ranger) - and on a recent Satriani/Vai tribute, Gillis tears up a version of Summer Song that sounds to my ears like he could have written it!
JIM PETERIK & FRANKIE SULLIVAN
What can I say? I have a soft spot for over-the-top, saccharine pop rock with power chords, perfectly phrased melodic solos and melodramatic vocals. These guys dished it out in spades!
YES:
TREVOR RABIN & STEVE HOWE
I can't say enough for this re-incarnation of Yes. Already a fan from ancient times, I fell even further under their spell as they emerged with 90125 in '83, with a tougher sound and AOR song structures. They had the guts to roll with the times, and it paid off big time. I'm awed by both Steve and Trevor's astonishing technique and creativity, and deeply respect the way they worked together. Their live show left me breathless.