Sunday, January 23, 2011

Jeff Sunday Jan.23/11



Today in Jeff’s Guitar Player’s Corner we are looking at the Deep Purple classic , “Hush”. A great track from 1968 featuring that memorable naananaana hook. Ok, here’s a link to that track to start with…

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=eLzqQupzzmA&feature=related.

A very cool song right? Great organ track by Jon Lord who was, in my opinion, one of the best rock Hammond players ever. Super percussive parts and always that tone! Beautifully matched Richie Blackmore’s guitar (Richie is one of my all time favs). Also featured Rod Evans on vocals who went on to Captain Beyond and the incredible Ian Paice on drums. Ok, ok.. AND Nicky Simper on bass. Deep Purple became more popular later on in their career and are more likely remembered for “Smoke On The Water”, but I really loved their early stuff and every time I hear one of DP’s early tracks, it reminds me of hanging around the local pool hall dreaming of being in a rock and roll band while the old Wurlitzer jukebox blasted out great tracks like this… (picture a 12 year old kid going on 18, smoking cigarettes and playing 8 ball). Not exactly a role model by today’s standards, LMAO, but I am trying to give you an idea of where I was at!

So, we’ve established that this was/is a great song (unless you hate this song then WTF are you doing still reading this lol).

However, yesterday I discovered/found on YouTube, Richie Blackmore’s isolated guitar track from Hush which is way too cool. It’s a guitar player’s thing I know but, it’s really great hearing just how he structured his guitar parts. You can hear the punches when he changes tones for the different parts of the song and his execution is excellent overall. You can even hear the bleed/overlap of the punch-ins and partial doubling that adds that bit of funky X factor missing from a lot of today’s sometimes too pristine recordings. The ending is oddly cut off. Don’t know what that is. On the original it sounds like he hits the downbeat on the end but it’s not on this track. Anyways, Here’s that link… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYzEBQKMWc&feature=related Cool huh? For me, it is amazing just hearing something like this and I hope some of you dig it. If you don’t, at least you get an insight into how I spend my Sunday mornings. (I’m not 100% sure whether that’s a good thing or not!).

Alright, one more connector here. Back in the early 90’s, PM Dawn used a sample from Hush for their single "Downtown Venus". They slowed it down a whole tone which also brought the BPM’s back. I liked this track, mostly for the loop, but it was a cool song and a great example of recycling the past. Bought the CD as well called “Jesus Wept”. Very underrated band PM Dawn. Here’s a link to that for you… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S9obcQ6b00.

Ok, that’s it for now and I hope some of you enjoyed this. Remember to love rock and roll and don’t let your kids smoke or hang around in pool halls…

Rock on,

J.

4 comments:

Albert Bannatyne said...

Jeff, that's great stuff, glad to hear it - oddly the youtube comments say that Jon Lord thinks that audio track is faked. Beats me, I don't know - I'm wondering a) how would someone get that isolated track to post, and b) how would Jon Lord be able to tell the difference at this point.

As an aside, have you heard the isolated Motown bass tracks and alternate (bass-heavy) mixes from Rick Suchow? I don't have the download password but a google search finds the tracks.

Read All About It... said...

Well, if it is faked it is extremely good! Question is, who would fake a track so well and take no credit? Most guys post YouTube clips of themselves playing a part. Anyways, the beauty of the internet! Thanks Albert!
Jeff

Albert Bannatyne said...

Hey Jeff, thinking about this great audio you posted a link to, what would it take to get Jeff Neill to post recordings showing how he plays his own songs? :-)

I mean, if Kim Mitchell can do it...

But this guy's pretty cool too! And he even covers some good material!

Read All About It... said...

Thanks Albert.
Good idea and I will try and get some of these clips done as well. I really like Kim Mitchell and like what he's doing. Thanks for the feedback. Rock on!
Jeff