rankmanugly said:
ok, i like the fact you respect this harvey gerst dude, im sure he's done plenty of great things. but i just read a PDF file that was about mics from him (after googling his name like a member suggested) and was immediately unimpressed by him.
he said nirvana, smashing pumpkins proved you do not need to be eric clapton to write hit songs. excuse me mister recording master, but billy corgan and james Iha both shred on the guitar. have a look at some of their live shows. both of them rip out some incredible improv solo's.
and i believe they are called "greenday" not "green days"
Yes, they're called Greenday, not Green Days, and I happen to really like them, along with nirvana and smashing pumpkins. My point was that while their stage shows might indeed be killer, their hit records were more about the lyric and less about introducing another guitar god like Van Halen or Eric Clapton.
I wasn't trashing them; I was pointing these groups out as good examples, for people that think they need a 2 minute guitar solo as the intro to every song. They don't mess around with long intros - they get right into the meat of the song, which I admire.
Those 10 sayings actually have nothing to do with the big mic thread - they're simply some things I posted on the recording studio wall to help new groups focus on making some great recordings.
Two of my friends were Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia; both brilliant guitar players, but when their songs got up to the 15 minute mark, I would usually head outside for a cigarette. I'm not slamming them; it was just too much for me.
Neil Young (another old friend from the Buffalo Springfield days) is a special case. He's an amazing songwriter and singer (yes, I said singer), but his guitar playing can go from erratic to brilliant (for his songs). He was a loose cannon in Buffalo Springfield and in C,S,N,&Y. Sometimes, he could drag the whole group down, and at other times, he could take them to unimagined heights.
I've been on more than a few stages in my life playing music, and I don't "promote" my website here, or anywhere on the Internet.