Mar 202009
What’s that you say? Steve can SHRED!
No doubt about it but, the FNCMFPECDAA wants to know…
Steve Morse or Steve Vai?
What’s that you say? Steve can SHRED!
No doubt about it but, the FNCMFPECDAA wants to know…
Steve Morse or Steve Vai?
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As it turns out, I’m listening to Vai right now. G3 tour with him, Satch and Eric Johnson.
Of course, both of ‘em can play. You hold the RItchie spot in Deep Purple, you better be a player. You hold the stunt guitarist in the Zappa band, you better be a player. Make a song called Tumani Notes and you better be a player. You get cast as Papa Legba’s own shredder, you better be a player.
I could say “Michael Lee Firkins”, picking a favored Shrapnel player who kinda sits between their worlds, but that would be wrong. Because …
I have a magazine, Guitar Player or Guitar World, that came out after TWA 800 crashed. Marcel Dadi, the French travis-picker, was killed on that flight. I had only heard the name, but Steve Morse used his column inches to talk about Marcel Dadi and the loss he felt. That was over a decade ago and I’m still moved.
I’m going to go with Morse on this one.
Both are monsters with very interesting achievements and skills beyond guitar playing. Both have contributed enormously to guitar music culture.
I could waffle. Very easy to waffle!
I’m going with Steve Morse because of all that Dregs material preceding his solo albums. Also because both with Dregs and solo, Morse always puts his trademark eclectic range format into every album. You always get classical and country stuff in addition to high energy rockin’ fusion. Plus, he’s capable of mixing several genres within a single tune and making it sound natural. Steve Morse is a monster composer. Vai is too, but Morse has a broader palette which he uses routinely without riding a hobby horse, a whammy bar or posing as fans blow his hair.
I’d even pick Morse over Metheny for eclectism.
Vai is a kick with no small skill set, but for the long haul Steve Morse packs a lot more musicology. He can sit down and duet on steel flattop or nylon with Albert Lee or Steve Howe. He can alternate pick with DiMeola. His vibratos are diverse too, going from rapid-shallow BB King & Trower to wide crazy Schenker-Malmsteen-Zal Cleminson.
I love ‘em both, and they’re both very important!
Next week, how ’bout:
Paul Simon or Donald Fagan
or
Frank Sinatra or Ray Charles
Steve Vai; he has good taste in upholstery patterns. (original JEM guitar)
I do like that. Evidently, that was the same as the curtains in his house at the time.
I got to meet Morse a few years back-nice guy. I also think style-wise, he covers a wider range, so I’d go with Steve M.
Although my grandfather teacher of electric guitar has judged Steve M — I am using one of my life lines —
I called Pete Doherty who was at Southampton Guildhall trying to find one of his prized cats, and performing his solo act March 19th.
I wanted a purely objective point of view to try to make a less qualitative decision about these two Stevens… Because, well, it seems they are Even Stevens.
Nevertheless, Pete — who now wishes to be known as Peter – obliged me this: “I regret burying my dead cat in the pond.”
Then I heard him saying to his audience: “I drank Guinness through this performance and I’d forfeit my gig fee for a cigarette.”
Then he got back to me: “Is that good enough for you, Paddy me Boy?”
“Yes, Peter,” I reply, “and here is tomorrow’s headline: ‘Doherty flits through genres on his solo album like a junkie discovering what’s been buried in his pockets all these years. In a haze of lounge blues, gauzy retro soul and guitar pop, he has made the most compelling record of his career.’ ” [Doug Brod, spin.com]
“Sounds Great; okay I have to finish this set in the dark; the bloody bastards turned lights out on us… bye now.”
[bleeding useless waste of International minutes...]
Steve M. final answer. pdnf\ Pat. Pend.
Vai, Howe, Hackett, Morse, Lukather, Kaufman, Stevens, Vaughn, Cropper, Jones, Van Zandt: you can get quite an education on guitar without leaving the Steves.
keyboards: Wonder
http://stratoblogster.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-steves-play-guitar.html
Amazing-I’m trying to think of guys named Steve that don’t play guitar and, having trouble with it.
Steve McQueen
I know one thing for sure; I want Steve Morse flying the plane.