No, but I second your vote for Joseph Spence. "Happy All the Time," surely...goodness...mercy.

Jon Foster

I don't have heroes, but I still have great admiration for Tom Verlaine. In fact, I'm dead chuffed that there are expanded editions of both MARQUEE MOON and ADVENTURE coming from Rhino this fall. I also hear rumors of more live material...

As for why the guitar can monopolize your listening habits, I don't know. I think it has somethig to do with: 1) all those bent notes; 2) pleasing cascades of woody tones; 3) seismic fuzz and molten-brain distortion (see: Kyuss); 4) air guitar is phallic pantomine in excelsis; air clarinet is just kinda weeny.

Mmm, Spence.

No heroes Joe? Say it ain’t so! I’m not all that familiar with Verlaine beyond those early Television transmissions. Is his solo stuff worth tuning into?

I’m with you on those reasons behind guitar primacy. Bardo Pond is another band I reach for when it’s time for a barrage of cerebellum-melting riffs. Their bag (like any other) can get a bit thin, but in the right doses it does the trick.

I’m firmly convinced that air guitar is an art form, but it shouldn’t preclude such pursuits on other instruments. Why just the other day I indulged in a frenetic air doublebass session aping Dave Holland’s pocket-stretching preface to “Metamorphos” (from his new ECM entry EXTENDED PLAY). I’ve found that these sorts of activities are best attempted in the absence of an audience.

http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/

Obviously, I own a tremendous amount of guitar-centric records. I love playing stuff like Les Rallizes Denudes, or Neil Young's Weld, at internal-organ-shifting levels of volume. The feedback and the distortion and the huge power chords...ahhh, there's nothing like it. (Sometimes I think Neil's soundtrack to Dead Man is one of the greatest "secretly avant-garde" records of recent years; there are parts where it sounds like he cranked the amp to eleven, picked the guitar up and dropped it, strings side down, onto a concrete floor, over and over. Brilliant.)

If you can find it, and you don't already have it, get Azonic's Halo. It's about 10 years old now, if not more - a solo album by Andy Hawkins of Blind Idiot God. Endless wanky arpeggios, framed by dialogue samples from Apocalypse Now and soaked in Laswellian echo (he produced it). Godlike, and works better and better the louder you play it.

Phil, good call on the DEAD MAN soundtrack. I play that one loud every Halloween along with Messiaen’s MÉDITATIONS SUR LE MYSTÈRE DE LA SAINTE TRINITÉ- scares the shit out of the trick-or-treaters. The 14+ minute piece on DM (I think it’s track #11) is an ideal candidate for an infinite loop with those starkly amplified apocalyptic riffs spooling out, flanked with the isolating ambient sounds of seashore, wind, etc. I can do without a lot of the dubbed-in movie dialogue, but on strictly instrumental terms it’s a stunner of a disc.

I lost all my guitar heroes when I was 17 and learned where Jimmy Page stole all his licks (Bert Jansch, Randy California, Bob Mosely, etc.)

As for the Verlaine solo albums -- the first one (eponymous) is very good, ending with a fine reading of "Breakin' In My Heart", a song that really belongs to Television. Later albums are, umm, more hit and miss, though FLASHLIGHT, which has just been reissued, has its moments. Typical 1987 production gloss, unfortunately. Definitely check out WARM AND COOL, though. Great record, all instrumentals.

What do you guys think of Glenn Branca?

Seems a shame to abolish all your idols on the failings of a single diety. Page’s sprawling work on the recent Zep opus HOW THE WEST WAS WON almost made me a believer again (even with the preponderance of copped licks).

I’m not familiar with Branca, other than he has quite a catalog on Atavistic. From what I gather he mixes loud guitars across minimalist symphonic palettes. Sounds interesting, but I’m not sure where to start.

I’ve been trying to resist dropping ducats on the newly released BLIND BLAKE: ALL THE PUBLISHED SIDES from JSP. The Yazoo comp RAGTIME GUITAR’S FOREMOST FINGERPICKER is a treasured disc in my collection, but I’m wondering if the new ‘comprehensive’ set is just plain overkill.

Well, Derek, you could be right... it may be time to come to grips (dude!) with my inner Bill and my inner Ted.

And another minor deity for your list -- Robert Quine!

Now that’s more like it! A little Bill & Ted in the diet never hurt anyone. I’ll throw Quine in the to-listen-to hopper. I dig his work on Lou Reed’s THE BLUE MASK. How’s his album BASIC?

Bob Mould leads my pack of second-string guitarslingers- early Hüsker Dü thru 02’s LIVE DOG 98’. All the electronic-DJ stuff he’s been into lately smacks of wankery IMHO, but the man can still shred on the frets- amplified or acoustic. I’m looking forward to his BODY OF SONG project later this fall.

I really wasn't all that impressed with the Zeppelin live thing. Physical Graffiti (Disc One, anyway) is way underrated, though. For a great amplifier-worshipping live disc, check out Black Sabbath's 2002 release Past Lives, collated recordings from the 1970s - Ozzy's first tenure with the band.

I'd throw in a recommendation here for one of my all-time favorite albums, Ted Nugent's Double Live Gonzo, but I don't expect anyone will take that seriously.

As I type this, I'm listening to MP3s of the first six (the only six, really) Van Halen albums. Fair Warning is another underrated crunch-rock classic. "Mean Streets" is metal-disco way before Chuck Eddy put a name on it. One day I'm gonna write an essay on how the Roth-era Van Halen was the spiritual heir to the Beach Boys - their mean little brothers, if you will.

I hear you on the gaffes of the Zep set. The medleys lay bare the excesses of the band in bold relief & the version of “Stairway to Heaven” is cheesy in the extreme with Plant’s “does anyone remember laughter” line hanging in the air like a total Spinal Tap moment, not to mention John Paul Jones schmaltzy keyboard swells. The laidback loopy take on “Going to California” is a low point too. But other tracks like “Immigrant Song” and “Heartbreaker” rock the shit out. Plus the sound quality is unexpectedly top-notch. I don’t have any Zep bootlegs so it was tempered thrill to turn back the time clock to when these guys were kings.

Van Halen? Classic. At least Roth-era vintage.Van Hagar’s another story. Too bad they’re still trying to stay contenders. Eddie should’ve hung up his axe & fully embraced the familial pleasures of married life long ago.

Nuge does next to nothing for me, though I agree there’s some killer guitar work on “Stranglehold”- too bad the lyrics are so lame.

I need to check out that Sabbath set you mentioned.

I've been digging the Zeppelin DVD set lately - is that the same as "How the West Was Won"? - but agree about Page's limitations in general. It's fun to see them bring the rawk (which, of necessity, means bringing the hair and tight slacks).

I'm generally one of those guitarists who doesn't like guitarists, though there are some happy exceptions. And I do return - as Derek does - to my few faves quite regularly and obsessively. Early McLaughlin is the reason I play and still kicks my ass (as does Frisell up to about 1990). Hans Reichel, Joe Morris, Nels Cline, Keith Rowe, Taku Sugimoto, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Bailey are some of the few I'm regularly inspired by.

John Cipollina!

As far as I know the Zep DVD contains concert footage completely different from the cd set. Jason, your thumbs up adds it to my list. What the hell happened to Frisell?

The recent Bad Brains comp BANNED IN DC brings up the dreadlocked visage of the almighty Dr. Know. Not much new in the way of music, but where it wins out is in the selection/sequencing of the tracks- razor sharp & hermetically tight. A near perfect distillation of the band’s peaks & the video footage is pretty spectacular too.

Joe, what’s the skinny on Cipollina & why does he make your grade?

I wish Caroline would just reissue Rock For Light with the songs in the right order (they re-sequenced them for the current CD reissue) and with the bass back in the mix. My old PVC Records cassette version sounds 10x better than the available CD.

I'm listening to Agharta today, so the magic name is Pete Cosey. Why this guy isn't worshipped like a god is beyond me.

Whoa, there's video footage on the Bad Brains comp? Dag!!!! Maybe it's just because I'm a D.C. native, but I love me some Bad Brains. "Rock for Light" is one of my absolute all-time desert island discs; I just listened to it for the millionth time over the weekend and it still kicks my ass. Dr. Know is soooo good.

Derek: see Quicksilver Messenger Service's HAPPY TRAILS (Capitol, 1968).

Tremolo!

All bow to the Brains! ROCK FOR LIGHT, I AGAINST I, & YOUTH ARE GETTING RESTLESS are the trinity for me, but one that surprised me several years ago is BLACK DOTS- a nice cache that predates their ROIR debut w/ live-in-the-living-room sound & a blistering clutch of early tunes.

While we’re still running down the ‘rock’ guitar doyens how about Eddie Hazel? “Maggot Brain” is the obvious opus, but his licks on so many other Funkadelic cuts constitute some of the finest elements of that band. Of his solo work I only have the JAMS FROM THE HEART ep, which is uneven & really more of a jam session than a fully realized album, but I’ve heard about better stuff floating around on various imports.

Along the same lines is Dagger Records’ MORNING SYMPHONY IDEAS: Jimi Hendrix home/studio jams with Buddy Miles, and on one track Billy Cox, working through a litany of song riffs- 2 of the 6 tracks clock in over 20 minutes & sound is surprisingly crisp. Man, there’s just no escaping the guitar.

Somebody burned me a copy of Hazel's Games, Dames & Guitar Thangs a couple of years ago. I haven't listened to it in so long I've forgotten what it sounds like.

Another great lost guitar treasure: Sonny Sharrock's soundtrack to Space Ghost: Coast To Coast. Available only as a promo from Cartoon Network several years ago, it's about 17 minutes long (six tracks), most of which is free-skronk guitar-drums duos. Great stuff, and I think the last thing he ever recorded. When copies turn up on eBay, they're usually pricey.

I really anxious the hear how much MORE Sonny Sharrock there is on the forthcoming Miles COMPLETE JACK JOHNSON box set.

Quite a bit, actually. Four takes, at varying levels of completion, of "Willie Nelson," all of which feature Sharrock, two of which feature him playing alongside McLaughlin.

A copy of Sabbath’s PAST LIVES arrived in my mailbox this afternoon & I’ve been feeding my head on the monolithic riffs of “Sweet Leaf,” “Snowblind” and the rest of their 70s songbook for the better part of two hours. Thanks for the rec Phil, this shit really hits the spot & the sound is much better than I expected. The many photos of skinny Ozzy striking rockstar poses in front of screaming thousands are a kick too.