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Lerxt's place in "rock guitar" history...


alieninvasion76
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As far as I'm concerned, in terms of emotive guitar playing there are three names in the mix for greatest of all time: Alex Lifeson, Adam Jones, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

 

I have yet to listen to Omar's solo projects.

 

He doesn't see himself as a great musician and while I'd have to disagree with that, I do agree that he's not one of the greats.

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As far as I'm concerned, in terms of emotive guitar playing there are three names in the mix for greatest of all time: Alex Lifeson, Adam Jones, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

 

I have yet to listen to Omar's solo projects.

 

He doesn't see himself as a great musician and while I'd have to disagree with that, I do agree that he's not one of the greats.

His solo work does not blow me away, but some of it is interesting. I would definitely say he's one of the greats though
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Hey let's all quite the bitching. He was 98th on the Rolling Stone all-time greats list. That's stone cold recognition!

Let me guess. He was behind Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Johnny Rotten.

 

Bruce Springsteen is the best...

:facepalm:

 

Sorry...but...but...he's my man! I expect several pages of Segue hate but I stand by my music idol, even if he is over a foot shorter than me...

 

You can love Bruce for all I care... but don't say he's the best when we're discussing guitar gods.

 

I play better than him and I mainly play, well, everything else.

 

My guitar hero is a mashup of Lindsey Buckingham and Mark Tremonti...

 

Really? That's the guy from Creed, right?

 

Creed suck. Hard. They are disgusting. Arg I hate how bad they are.

 

But then along came Alter Bridge. If Creed had never existed, then neither would this band. And Tremonti riffs my face off and I love his work!

 

(Btw Creed had the odd good moment...)

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The coolest thing about Alex is that he's totally fine "backing up" Geddy and Neil, for the sake of the song itself.

 

Take YYZ for example. That song, as is well known, was born out of a rhythm section jam session while Alex was off playing with his remote controlled airplane or something of that nature. When Alex returned, he was introduced to the track, which already included ridiculous bass and drums, both Geddy and Neil soloing like crazy. What does Alex do? Does he pull out a blistering solo a la Freewill, just so that he can "make his mark" too, and not be overlooked? No. Rather, he conjures up something, in his words, "exotic," in an effort to better serve the song, thus attempting to transport the listener to the far-off places one might visit while traveling by airplane.

 

He just doesn't care about being on anyone's "best guitarist" list. He only cares about making Rush's songs epic. And that's why people will remember songs like Limelight and The Spirit of Radio long after they've forgotten pretty much all of Dream Theater's songs.

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The most versatile and technically gifted guitarist in the Universe is a guy called Guthrie Govan! That is all!

 

:notworthy:

 

In what style of playing you may ask? ALL OF 'EM! Guthrie is the best guitar player on the planet right now.

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The most versatile and technically gifted guitarist in the Universe is a guy called Guthrie Govan! That is all!

 

:notworthy:

 

In what style of playing you may ask? ALL OF 'EM! Guthrie is the best guitar player on the planet right now.

 

 

Yes Guthrie is indeed an incredible talent and i urge everybody to check him out, preferably in a live setting! But Alex is great at what he brings to Rush as well as his songwriting abilities and is ireplaceable in the band!

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As far as I'm concerned, in terms of emotive guitar playing there are three names in the mix for greatest of all time: Alex Lifeson, Adam Jones, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

 

David Gilmore has to be on that list. All emotion, that one.

 

As does SRV...both Gilmour and SRV are more emotive than Alex.

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The thing I like best about Alex's guitar solos is that many of them have little moments that make them interesting, from a guitarist's perspective. For example, there's that little pinch harmonic that he puts in the FBN solo after that little looping flurry of notes. A less creative/playful guitarist probably wouldn't have done that. It's rare that Alex turns in a boring solo. They aren't always particularly emotive or technically flashy, but they're almost always interesting.
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The thing I like best about Alex's guitar solos is that many of them have little moments that make them interesting, from a guitarist's perspective. For example, there's that little pinch harmonic that he puts in the FBN solo after that little looping flurry of notes. A less creative/playful guitarist probably wouldn't have done that. It's rare that Alex turns in a boring solo. They aren't always particularly emotive or technically flashy, but they're almost always interesting.

 

That being said, he is still capable of shredding like a mofo.

 

See Freewill or The Analog Kid :haz:

 

In regards to what you're saying about his solos being interesting, I couldn't agree more.

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As far as I'm concerned, in terms of emotive guitar playing there are three names in the mix for greatest of all time: Alex Lifeson, Adam Jones, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

 

David Gilmore has to be on that list. All emotion, that one.

 

As does SRV...both Gilmour and SRV are more emotive than Alex.

 

Maybe in the soulful sense, but I think Alex emotes in the crazy, out of the box maniacal sense where no one else can. La Villa, Xanadu, YYZ... all way far left of center but very emotive.

 

Not sure if I explained that well.

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The thing I like best about Alex's guitar solos is that many of them have little moments that make them interesting, from a guitarist's perspective. For example, there's that little pinch harmonic that he puts in the FBN solo after that little looping flurry of notes. A less creative/playful guitarist probably wouldn't have done that. It's rare that Alex turns in a boring solo. They aren't always particularly emotive or technically flashy, but they're almost always interesting.

 

That being said, he is still capable of shredding like a mofo.

 

He certainly ripped a few technically impressive solos back in the day, no doubt about it. I like those kinds of solos when he does them, for sure, but I love the ones where he plays stuff that makes me think "now why didn't I think of that" vs. "man, that was ferocious playing", know what I mean?

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As far as I'm concerned, in terms of emotive guitar playing there are three names in the mix for greatest of all time: Alex Lifeson, Adam Jones, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

 

David Gilmore has to be on that list. All emotion, that one.

 

As does SRV...both Gilmour and SRV are more emotive than Alex.

 

Maybe in the soulful sense, but I think Alex emotes in the crazy, out of the box maniacal sense where no one else can. La Villa, Xanadu, YYZ... all way far left of center but very emotive.

 

Not sure if I explained that well.

 

I suppose. Alex has always been more cerebral than emotive when compared to certain other players.

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The most versatile and technically gifted guitarist in the Universe is a guy called Guthrie Govan! That is all!

 

:notworthy:

 

In what style of playing you may ask? ALL OF 'EM! Guthrie is the best guitar player on the planet right now.

 

 

Yes Guthrie is indeed an incredible talent and i urge everybody to check him out, preferably in a live setting! But Alex is great at what he brings to Rush as well as his songwriting abilities and is ireplaceable in the band!

 

Hell yeah, I saw him perform with Steven Wilson in April of last year. He was phenomenal. Totally reinvented Steven's solos in a great way.

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The thing I like best about Alex's guitar solos is that many of them have little moments that make them interesting, from a guitarist's perspective. For example, there's that little pinch harmonic that he puts in the FBN solo after that little looping flurry of notes. A less creative/playful guitarist probably wouldn't have done that. It's rare that Alex turns in a boring solo. They aren't always particularly emotive or technically flashy, but they're almost always interesting.

 

That being said, he is still capable of shredding like a mofo.

 

He certainly ripped a few technically impressive solos back in the day, no doubt about it. I like those kinds of solos when he does them, for sure, but I love the ones where he plays stuff that makes me think "now why didn't I think of that" vs. "man, that was ferocious playing", know what I mean?

 

Absolutely. If he was only the latter I as well as most other guitarists would probably just lump him in the group with all the other guys.

 

Even today he's still able to display his quirky style of playing, which I notice best on his solo in The Garden.

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Someone who rarely (if ever) gets mentioned around here, but who has always impressed the hell out of me is Steve Stevens. He's got the technical chops and a real creative disposition. Edited by JARG
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Someone who rare (if ever) gets mentioned around here, but who has always impressed the hell out of me is Steve Stevens. He's got the technical chops and a real creative disposition.

 

Steve Stevens never gets mentioned because he's playing "glam punk" for Billy Idol. He is vastly underrated for sure. I still think one of the more recent greats is Frusciante.

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Someone who rarely (if ever) gets mentioned around here, but who has always impressed the hell out of me is Steve Stevens. He's got the technical chops and a real creative disposition.

 

I saw a live version of Mony, Mony where he just went off. One of the coolest vids I ever saw. Could never find it again after that.

 

All white jump suit thing back in the day.

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Someone who rarely (if ever) gets mentioned around here, but who has always impressed the hell out of me is Steve Stevens. He's got the technical chops and a real creative disposition.

 

There is a video on YouTube of him and Eddie ( VH ) jamming at some event, trading solos, and he more than holds his own. He's a monster player.

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Someone who rarely (if ever) gets mentioned around here, but who has always impressed the hell out of me is Steve Stevens. He's got the technical chops and a real creative disposition.

 

There is a video on YouTube of him and Eddie ( VH ) jamming at some event, trading solos, and he more than holds his own. He's a monster player.

 

Maybe this?

 

http://youtu.be/RKjjIT1V5vo

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Someone who rarely (if ever) gets mentioned around here, but who has always impressed the hell out of me is Steve Stevens. He's got the technical chops and a real creative disposition.

 

There is a video on YouTube of him and Eddie ( VH ) jamming at some event, trading solos, and he more than holds his own. He's a monster player.

 

Maybe this?

 

http://youtu.be/RKjjIT1V5vo

 

Yup. That's it.

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As far as I'm concerned, in terms of emotive guitar playing there are three names in the mix for greatest of all time: Alex Lifeson, Adam Jones, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

 

David Gilmore has to be on that list. All emotion, that one.

 

As does SRV...both Gilmour and SRV are more emotive than Alex.

 

Maybe in the soulful sense, but I think Alex emotes in the crazy, out of the box maniacal sense where no one else can. La Villa, Xanadu, YYZ... all way far left of center but very emotive.

 

Not sure if I explained that well.

 

I suppose. Alex has always been more cerebral than emotive when compared to certain other players.

Alex will sometimes play something, like a little arpeggiated chord progression or something, and it will make me feel an emotion that I've never felt before. Not many musicians do that for me, I think it's an incredible thing. That's why I would put him up there as one of the most emotive
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I used to think Alex was overlooked / underrated but not anymore... It's just that there's a lot of undeserving guitarists who get the spotlight instead.

 

Also, Neil and Geddy have great placings in "top so and so" lists which they're deserving of. Naturally, Alex will gain recognition through this. Geddy and Neil are top-tier musicians, and Alex is... Almost there. But not quite.

 

But, returning to the “Multifaceted” thing, if there's anyone whose a better balancing act of shredding, melody, soul, phrasing, and just sheer "balls out" guitar playing than Alex "Lerxt" Lifeson, they must live on another planet!!

 

Disagree

 

I often argue that Alex gets overlooked partly because his two band mates are considered to be so stellar. What is overlooked in that line of thought, though, is that Alex keeps up with those two virtuosos night after night.... thus he must be in their relative universe.

 

I also think Alex gets knocked a little because his live work can sometimes be sloppy.... but I also think that is foolish. Watch Page play live.... he's so sloppy you'd swear he is drunk half the time.

 

But I think the greatest reason Alex has often been knocked over the years is Rush haters had to find something to hate musically in each member of the band. With Neil, they hated his high brow lyrics. With Geddy, the voice. With Alex, well, they just came up with "he sucks".

 

Time, though, is looking favorably on this band, and equally favorably on Alex. He is finally getting the nods he deserves. I have met many young guitarists who speak very highly of Alex. The youth aren't as jaded toward the Trinity.

Edited by WorkingAllTheTime
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I agree that his phrasing is what makes him stand out in the crowd. He doesn't play what you'd expect. I remember back when I was first getting into the band that his playing really had the "wow factor". He plays tastefully, not just a flurry of notes, but he obviously puts thought into how he can make a song sound unique.
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