Posted 2013-09-25 6:05 PM (#476423 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: September 2013 Posts: 22
Location: Charlotte, NC
Oh $#%& Damon, that's awesome! Right place at the right time, huh!
From Eric Johnson I quickly discovered Satch, and he's another who shattered my idea of what was possible, musically.
You had the chance to study with him but didn't, did you ever play with Joe though?
Posted 2013-09-25 6:09 PM (#476424 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: August 2007 Posts: 494
Location: Location Location Location
'Turned my head around.' That was the key phrase. It was a guy in a music store who just picked up a guitar off the rack and played a beautiful fingerstyle rendition of The Entertainer.
Posted 2013-10-18 9:01 AM (#478049 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: January 2006 Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains
Too many to recall, but from the late 1950's, mostly CW and RR studio musicians backing up a headliner who was in one of our shows, going off on some adlibbed instrumental riff in the middle of a hit song. I was absolutely fascinated by their ability and sound, particularly the pedal-steel guitars. Then came the Ventures.
Posted 2013-10-25 12:13 PM (#478293 - in reply to #475250) Subject: RE: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: March 2007 Posts: 843
Location: CA
Probably the first was instrumental: Wipe Out. Loved that thing and still do. I understand the drums on that song were also a major influence on future drummers.
Also really liked the intro to "Turn Turn Turn" by the Birds, and the simple riff in "Sounds of Silence".
Later on, I thought "Going Home" by 10 Years After (immortalized in the Woodstock movie) was as good as rock and roll got.
To this day, my favorite guitar song is Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, especially the live version on Distant Sound of Thunder.
FWIW, I eventually was able to learn the first few songs there, but never had the lightning fingers of Alvin Lee on Going Home.
Posted 2013-10-25 3:26 PM (#478297 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: March 2005 Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho
Nice one, Brad. I hadn't listened to that in years and didn't know or remember it was called Angie. I probably had forgotten it by the time I became interested in guitar, or I probably would have thought it was hopeless.
Posted 2013-10-25 3:34 PM (#478298 - in reply to #475250) Subject: RE: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: August 2005 Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio
"Lady of the Island," from the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album. I heard it played by my friend Jody (who I still play in a band with 42 years later). It was a great tune, but what "turned my head around" was the way all the teenaged girls reacted to him singing and playing it. They listened in rapt attention, and he took one of them home with him. I went out and got my first guitar the next day (a Yamaha FG-160) woodshedded like crazy 11 hours a day and three months later we were playing live gigs as a duo.
I think most of us guys who learned guitar in those days (the dawn of the 1970s) used playing guitar as a vehicle to meet and (hopefully) impress girls. But then we realized how great the music was (and those were great days for acoustic music). On that CSN album alone you had "Lady...", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Long Time Gone," "Wooden Ships," "Helplessly Hoping," "Guinevere" (one of the all time greatest acoustic tunes), and "You Don't Have to Cry." A veritable greatest hits album all by itself. Then james Taylor came along, and Neil Young (and CSNY), and Eagles, Jackson Browne, Lightfoot, Jim Croce, John Denver, Cat Stevens, Loggins & Messina, etc.
That's what REALLY turned my head. But my first clue was "Lady of the Island."
"The brownness of your body in the fire glow,
Except the places where the sun refused to go..."
Posted 2013-10-25 5:55 PM (#478304 - in reply to #478298) Subject: RE: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: January 2009 Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw
rick endres - 2013-10-25 4:34 PM
I think most of us guys who learned guitar in those days (the dawn of the 1970s) used playing guitar as a vehicle to meet and (hopefully) impress girls.
Yup. My college bar playing days were very fruitful....
Posted 2013-10-25 8:27 PM (#478313 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: July 2004 Posts: 812
Location: Hicksville, NY
For me it was "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce. At that time, a family friend inserted the cassette in the tape player and encouraged us to check him out. At that time, I never paid much attention to people I knew nothing about, but then the song played and I got drawn into it. I picked up an acoustic guitar, learned some chords and never looked back.
Over time, I eventually learned to play Mr. Croce's timeless classic, and then some.
Posted 2013-10-26 12:25 AM (#478317 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: August 2011 Posts: 887
Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah
Last Thing On My Mind. I was in college and heard it performed by a group of two men and a woman. They played it at a student body assembly and I was hooked. Got a guitar and played all through finals week -- came very close to flunking out of college but couldn't put that guitar down.
Posted 2013-11-09 3:42 PM (#479828 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: October 2012 Posts: 349
Location: Denver, CO
Ok, since I'm not really a "guitar guy," I laid off this thread, but today I had the local classic rock station and "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty came on. I immediately thought, THAT'S THE ONE! Here's a pretty cool youtube clip. This is the first guitar song that really screamed at me. I remember that summer clearly. Funny thing is, I don't think my dad ever had it on the pool hall jukebox. Can't imagine why! Guitar solo starts at about 3:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo6aKnRnBxM
Posted 2013-11-10 8:33 AM (#479840 - in reply to #475250) Subject: RE: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: August 2009 Posts: 120
Location: Miami
Anyone heard of Wishbone Ash? They were a one-hit wonder band that produced an album called "Argus" in the early 70s which I still think has some of the most beautifully melodic rock guitar I've ever heard. The two guitarists, Andy Powell and Ted Turner, did a kind of Duane Allman-Dicky Betts thing where they'd play crossover lead lines. The songs on the album all have a mythical-folkloric theme. There's little improvisational feel - the soloing seems to have been worked out quite carefully, but boy does it sound good! I heard the album when my brother bought it. I was 13 at the time, and it was thee lead guitar album for me.
Posted 2013-11-11 10:12 PM (#479854 - in reply to #475250) Subject: Re: First guitar piece that turned your head around?
Joined: January 2006 Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago
Big Wishbone fan (as are all the serious guitarists I know!). I also highly recommend their first LP "Wishbone Ash" as well as "Pilgrimage." They did album-oriented rock and were consistently awesome for at least five records. A FIVE hit LP wonder, more like. Here is the bandleader (Steve Upton) leading the boys through a key track on "Pilgrimage"
First guitar piece that turned your head around?
