Marty Friedman is one of the finest shredders to come out of the ’80s, and one of the survivors from that age. The two albums he released with Cacophony (also featuring the great Jason Becker) are still influencial today. After Megadeth, he became very popular in Japan working on TV and in the local “J-pop” music scene as producer and musician.
The Foo Fighters’ boisterous 1997 hit “Monkey Wrench” features driving guitars and power chords that jump all over the neck, all recorded by Dave Grohl. The drum part, while played by Taylor Hawkins in the music video, was also played by Grohl on the recording. The song, while not sounding the part, is actually very bitter, with lyrics like “I’d rather leave than suffer this” and the hook “Don’t wanna be your monkey wrench.” Dave Grohl wrote it about his turbulent marriage with Jennifer Youngblood.
“Learn to Fly” is the first single off of the Foo Fighter’s 1999 album, There is Nothing Left to Lose. It was their first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, and coming from a band that has come to have a long history of rock radio hits, “Learn to Fly” is still one of favorites. Set in E Major, the song has lyrics conveying optimism for the future in the face of hard times at the present. The key changes dramatically at the bridge, right when singer/guitarist Dave Grohl sings, “Fly along with me, I can’t quite make it alone,” and the song goes back to the E Major before ending on a hopeful
three chord chime.
Grinding rock n roll classic, “Slow Ride,” was British rockers Foghat’s, top single, topping out at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Released as a single from their album Fool for the City in 1975, the single version had over half the material cut out, as the album cut was over 8 minutes. Featuring both distorted electric and fuzzed-out slide guitars, an interesting effect is achieved when they both play the same lines, one in each speaker. “Slow Ride” has been featured in many movies and TV shows over the years, including “Seinfeld,” “House,” and Dazed and Confused.
Written by Stevie Nicks, “Landslide” was a single off of her band’s self-titled album, Fleetwood Mac. She wrote it while visiting Aspen, Colorado and she was thinking about how things were crashing in around her like a landslide. “Landslide” features a wonderful melody over beautiful fingerpicked guitar chords, and has proven a great cover song for many other artists, including the Smashing Pumpkins, the Dixie Chicks, and the cast of Glee.
“Tears in Heaven” is a tender ballad written by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings, appearing on Clapton’s record Rush, which was the soundtrack to the identically-titled movie, and later on Unplugged. Written after his 4-year-old son fell to his death out of an apartment building window, “Tears in Heaven” is about the pain he felt and as a way to shape grief into something beautiful. The song, which went on to win three Grammy’s (Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance), features appropriately melancholy chords to go along with the heartfelt lyrics. Clapton stopped playing “Tears in Heaven” in 2004 because he didn’t feel the grief from his son’s passing anymore, and that was such a huge part of playing that song.
In this lesson I want to give an introduction to the topic of intervals and begin by focusing on a particular interval known as a ‘third.’ Let me begin by explaining what an interval is. An interval is the difference in pitch between any two notes, and is used to measure the difference between those two notes.
Originally written and performed by JJ Cale in 1976, “Cocaine” was made famous by Eric Clapton, who recorded and released it on his ’77 album Slowhand. The JJ Cale version was popular in Europe and New Zealand, and Clapton’s version brought it to North America.
Although at first listen, the song sounds like it’s pro-cocaine, but a closer look reveals that “Cocaine” is actually cleverly anti-coke, with several telling lines, including “If you wanna get down, down on the ground, cocaine.” Clapton wouldn’t play this song very often at concerts because he didn’t want people thinking he was a promoting cocaine use, but later in his career he would add in “the dirty cocaine” to the lyrics to make the message clear.
Guitarist David Lindley is a pioneer of international music who led one of the first world music rock groups during the ’60s called Kaleidoscope. He would later work with singer-songwriter Jackson Browne starting in 1971 and his staggering solos can be heard ripping through such hits as Jackson’s classic “Running on Empty.”
In the third and final segment of our three-part interview with Les Paul’s son, Rusty Paul, Rusty delves into how he plans on perpetuating Les Paul’s legacy, the early days of Fender, competition between the guitar makers, Joe Satriani, and the magic that inherently came along with Les wherever he went.
