← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
Janda and Christian talk notable guitar solos! (Part 3)
00:22:48
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- [00:02]
Janda
Welcome to the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda. I'm Janda, back again with Christian Lane for round three of this episode of the behind the Song podcast, talking about notable guitar solos. Hi, Christian.
- [00:21]
Christian Lane
Howdy. Howdy.
- [00:22]
Janda
So last go around, we sort of presented a dichotomy between Brian May of Queen and his sort of approach to guitar playing and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and his approach to guitar playing. It's one of the great things about classic rock. There are so many different types of players and so much music to cover that I feel like this is kind of an indefinite list. When you're talking about guitar solos that really make you perk up your ears and remember them, they're memorable, they're notable, and they'll probably stand the test of time, right?
- [00:56]
Christian Lane
Yeah, I think it seems to be kind of an open ended topic now, especially because we're not ranking anything and I think that's important to remember. Remember when we're talking about these things, they're just a jumping off point for perhaps a way of thinking about that guitar player and their approach. I'm gonna just go right in with Joe Walsh.
- [01:16]
Janda
Oh, perfect.
- [01:17]
Christian Lane
Yeah, I, I picked Hotel California. For me, Hotel California is a great way to sort of say what I want to about Joe Walsh, which is personality to me personally. You know, it's like when I listen to you, dj, I can hear the smile, you know what I mean? And when I, when I, when I listen to Joe Walsh play, I can hear the smile. I can hear a sense of mischief, if you will. So like, you know how we compared and contrasted Brian May and Jerry Garcia's styles? This kind of almost has that built in to the song itself because you've got Don Felder going up against Joe Walsh and you really hear Don Felder's technical prowess and then really hear Joe Walsh's personality and the little tweaks that he does on the end of little notes. It's. It's really funny. It's just like his personality. It's a wink and it's a grin. And I can just really tell when Joe is playing versus Don Felder in this one. Based off of the little smile, the little laughter in the style itself, in the playing. He's just so much attitude and so much of his personality comes through. And I think that's what we all respond to because he's a very likable dude.
- [02:43]
Janda
Right.
- [02:44]
Christian Lane
I think that, you know, in his playing that's Kind of what we're responding to is he's likable. His playing has got that sort of sprightly likability to it.
- [02:53]
Janda
This was the first album that Joe Walsh joined the Eagles on, the Hotel California album. And Don Felder would do. I think he would do one more album with the band. I think he would go on to do the long run and then that would be it for Don Felder. You know, from. From that point on, he added so much. It's the personality, it's the spark, it's the tastiness. Right. We always talk about the. How tasty a guitar player is or how tasty a. A player is in classic rock. And I just think he is one of the tastiest. I mean, to me, I can always tell when Joe Wall, like I'll take. Take the Boys of Summer by Don Henley, you can tell it's Joe Walsh. He's. Even if you had no idea that he was guesting on the project, if you. If you know anything about his. His playing or you've heard him enough, you can pick it up. And that is so unique, you know, as far as guitar players go. So I think that this is an absolutely perfect song to pick, to highlight Joe Walsh.
- [03:57]
Christian Lane
Let's not forget the Eagles were one of the most, I say this with all due respect, one of the most calculating bands of their time. And that's why they were, you know, massive and ubiquitous. But as they were getting into, you know, the middle part of the 70s and the country rock thing was kind of waning, they very specifically brought in Joe Walsh for some muscle, for some guitar muscle, and he gives it to him. They are a very po faced band. And now you have Joe Walsh and, you know, I think it's. You got to put yourself back in the time, but like now you appeal to a slightly younger group of people too. And again, I think it's just playing. I think it's his style. It's slightly irreverent.
- [04:46]
Janda
I appreciate how you use the term po faced when talking about the Eagles before Joe Walsh. There's an oldie but a goodie.
- [04:58]
Christian Lane
One thing that we didn't mention, and I must mention, I don't love slide guitar. I just don't. I think it's okay. I feel a lot of times you hear one slide, you've heard it all. You know, Duane Allman, I like listening to and Joe Walsh. Those guys and what you said, tasty. Not everybody is. A lot of the guys that are good at it just don't have the same that taste, they don't have the taste that Joe Walsh has or that Dwayne had. So I just had to mention that because for me, as a guitar player who doesn't love slide guitar, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Joe Walsh's slide guitar playing is superb.
- [05:39]
Janda
Well, and talking about tasty instrumental players, and by instrumental I mean crucial to the band's sound, the next one on your list has certainly got many, many notable guitar solos and riffs.
- [05:53]
Christian Lane
So my next pick is Mike Campbell from Tom Petty's band, the Heartbreakers, and it's Running Down a Dream. It's the solo and Running Down a Dream. Tom Petty's first solo album, Full Moon Fever. The thing about Tom Petty's solo albums is the Heartbreakers play on them. Except for Stan, basically. Ben Montagench plays keys and Mike Campbell plays guitars. And that's basically the sound of the Heartbreakers, you know, because they had a couple different bass players. No offense to either one of them, but, you know, if you've got those three guys, Tom, Mike and Benmont, that's. That's the nucleus of the Heartbreakers, sure. On the musical side, and they go along with Tom to make the solo records. I don't think Tom chickens out. I think it's more like, well, you know, you go with what you know and you grab the people that you know are going to do the job. And my assumption about Tom Petty's solo records were that it was more about the writing as opposed to who played on it. It was more about, these are not for my band. These are just my personal statements. If you're going to make a personal statement and you it to be the strongest statement, you get, the strongest players, you know, and of course, in any class, in any generation, Mike Campbell is one of the best. He just. He just really is. So the main thing that I really will note about Mike Campbell is that he's from the George Harrison school of guitar solos. So he's playing for the melody. He's often reinforcing the melody, or he's at least using that as a starting point. And he said, you know, his. His favorite guitar players and bands. It's the 60s guys, is what he says. And by that he means the Birds and the Stones, the Beatles. But then he said, I also like the American guys, Mike Bloomfield, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia. So in just in his influences right there, you can kind of get an idea of what he's going to be like. British Invasion with the American roots rock sort of Influence. And I think that kind of sums up his playing. It's wonderfully melodic, but it really belies how technically proficient this guy is. So you've seen him do. What was it? Flight of the Bumblebee.
- [08:25]
Janda
Yeah. The one and only time I saw Tom Petty and the heartbreakers was in 94 on the wildflowers tour. And Mike Campbell came out, like, in the middle of the set and did the Flight of the Bumblebee on his guitar. And every jaw in that whole arena was just wide open, just dropped to the ground because he just whizzed through that. You were kind of like Eddie Van Halen, who. You know, I mean, this. It was amazing. It was amazing to watch him do the Flight of the Bumblebee, for crying out loud.
- [08:59]
Christian Lane
Right? It's funny, you name check Eddie Van Halen and you wouldn't think of, you know, Eddie Van Halen doesn't necessarily come to mind when you think of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Right? He is that technically, he could do it if he wanted to. He has the taste to know when to lay out. And, you know, you think about Breakdown, just how sparse he's leaving a lot of space. The way he sort of interjects a little guitar after one of Tom's lyrics, it's just a wonderful little exclamation point on some of the lines. He's just great at playing for the song, but as a guitar player, I just know he can do whatever. And there's that tension. There is, like, that tension in his playing because he could just rip, but he often doesn't. But he does at the end of Running Down a Dream. And that's part of why I picked it. He just goes off. He's just shredding. It starts very melodic, and then it just picks up and ramps up into fireworks. It's great.
- [10:11]
Janda
So when you're talking about Mike Campbell in this song, like, what you have in mind is actually that solo riff at the end of the song.
- [10:19]
Christian Lane
Yes.
- [10:20]
Janda
Okay. Let's hear a little bit of what that sounds like.
- [10:29]
Christian Lane
We call it a vamp. He starts vamping at the end. Yeah, goes for it. Apparently he was given one note by Jeff Lynn. He just looked at him and he goes, eric Clapton. That was it. Mike said, any ideas for what I should play? And he just said, eric Clapton. And Mike said he took three passes at it and they comped, meaning compiled. They comped the best bits or the bits that work together. So he literally just went nuts three times, and they recorded all three passes, and then they took the best bits. And, yeah, you can tell. I mean, you can tell he's having fun and just going off and whatever. Whatever his interpretation of Eric Clapton as direction for a song is. That's. Apparently, that's what it is.
- [11:25]
Janda
I love it.
- [11:26]
Christian Lane
And we all get to benefit from it.
- [11:29]
Janda
Yeah, that's a great story. And it's one of my favorite Tom Petty songs. Tom Petty. Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker songs. Yeah. I mean, Mike Campbell, man, I think he is the shining example, I think, of your sort of criteria, if you have one, for all of these notable guitar solos and the players in question. He supports the song. He supports what is needed in the song. And I was just thinking while we were talking about that, wouldn't the world be so much better if everybody had somebody in their life that, you know, knew when to lay back, knew when to bear down and knew. Knew when to hold them and fold them, as it were, in every aspect of everything. That gift that Mike Campbell gives to any project, I'm sure he comes across, especially though back with Tom Petty, that would be such an amazing thing to impart, like, as a life lesson, you know.
- [12:30]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [12:30]
Christian Lane
I mean, he was the ultimate advocate for Tom Petty.
- [12:34]
Janda
Correct.
- [12:35]
Christian Lane
Like, while he was doing the Tom Petty projects, solo or Heartbreakers, he was backing up Tom Petty. And in a very selfless, but also in a very gallant way. He was very proud and did it really well. And like you said, you know, knowing when to hold them and fold them is a huge thing. And having somebody in your corner that seems like almost. Mike Campbell gave him, like, outside counsel, even though he was very inside.
- [13:07]
Janda
Right.
- [13:08]
Christian Lane
I just think what a great teammate. So, yeah, man, as far as greatest teammates in rock and roll, he might be the greatest, you know, is. As far as supporting his boy. I just love it. I think that's great.
- [13:24]
Janda
He's the real mvp.
- [13:25]
Christian Lane
Yeah, he's the real mvp. That's right. That's right.
- [13:29]
Janda
Mike Campbell, man. I could. I could probably listen to him play guitar. There's. There's just a few guys that. That I think are like that. Mike Campbell, of course, Joe Walsh. Eventually we're going to get to one of my favorites, Mark Knopfler. We'll get there. We'll get there with Mark Knopfler.
- [13:47]
Christian Lane
Let me just finish up today with somebody that I know much more and that I'm much more comfortable talking about in this moment. Look, most classic rock for people our age. It has been there our whole lives. This one has been. His solos have been banging around in my Head at least since I'm 13. One of the more underrated lead guitar players and band members and teammates, Mick Ronson from David Bowie's band the Spiders from Mars. It's almost a disservice to his memory to just say he's a lead guitar player because he learned how to score strings so that he could write the string parts for David Bowie. Usually you would have to go to an outside source to get somebody to write your string parts and they might not understand exactly where you're coming from. It's a lot of back and forth and it's an expensive proposition because arrangers in the string world, they don't come cheap. And, you know, again, it's that communication in rock and roll. So Mick Cronson learning to score strings and do that for David Bowie meant that he knew exactly what Bowie wanted. He knew exactly what he was doing. And I kind of think about his guitar playing. His solos in particular, they resemble string parts to me. I'm going to go with Moon Age Daydream, okay? It's iconic. It's one of the set pieces that they did live. Obviously, the entire quote unquote, documentary on David Bowie was called Moon Age Daydream. It's a.
- [15:33]
Janda
It's an important song for Bowie fans.
- [15:35]
Christian Lane
So hopefully for Bowie fans, you can hear it in your head. He does these very lilting bends. He does these one note things. But I talked about Neil Young doing the one note thing and Neil Young lays on it and kind of Mick Ronson will do the one note, but he'll go, so his. It's one note, but it's long and he's holding it and it's this stain and it's lilt and it's. To me, it's very violin. It's very upper register cello.
- [16:13]
Janda
Yeah, I hear what, I hear what you mean.
- [16:15]
Christian Lane
So on the technical end, how. How he achieves that to me is very interesting. For one thing, he likes an unfinished guitar, which some people believe that an unfinished guitar lets the wood vibrate more. I can't argue with it in his case because he does get an incredible amount of sustain and that's kind of what we're talking about. It's a little bit tone, but it's a lot for sustain. It's a lot for being able to hold one note, Spinal Tap style, you know, for a bite, come back. So that's one thing he does. The other thing is he uses a Wawa pedal. But unlike Jimi Hendrix, who was it and you know, makes it, he uses it Strictly for tone. He finds a spot he goes through. So you can. You use your foot on the pedal, and it's kind of like a seesaw. And that's what's opening and closing these oscillators that's allowing for the. He goes through and he finds the one spot that he likes the tone for a particular song. Maybe it's because it cuts through this song. Maybe it's because it's complimentary to the. The chord or the tone, and he can actually sort of match the pitch. I don't know. I mean, I'm sure other people have done it, but he's the one that brought that to my attention as even a possibility, and it's incredible. So it's like. It gives him this whole range of tones, and then he doesn't have a lot of gadgetry going on, but he's got this whole range of tones live. And he can change it up song to song. He can do it, you know, certainly on album, he can spend the time. But it's just a fascinating way of looking at this Wawa pedal that everybody was doing these tricks with. And he thought, I'm just gonna. Just. Strictly for the tone. It's very, very workmanlike, which. He's from Hull, which is. David Bowie. Says Hull. They're from Hull, I guess, meaning they're kind of meat and potatoes. Hull is a sort of meat and potatoes town.
- [18:35]
Janda
Working class guys.
- [18:36]
Christian Lane
Working class guys initially were not interested in doing the makeup. And then the. The first show where they did the makeup, the girls went crazy. Then all of a sudden, they were into doing the makeup.
- [18:49]
Janda
Right, right.
- [18:50]
Christian Lane
Makes sense. You know, young men, but. Yeah, so very, you know, very working class. His guitar Setup is a 200 watt Marshall. A chord and. And an unfinished guitar is very like workman with a lunchbox and a hard hat. And I'll use the Wawa pedal to get this sound. It's just. It's.
- [19:16]
Janda
Yeah, it's very like, let's get the job done. And then, as you pointed out, at least with Bowie, you know, there for a while, he was standing up there dressed like Little Lord Fauntleroy, which is very.
- [19:34]
Christian Lane
Thanks. Now, I can't unsee that.
- [19:38]
Janda
So anyway, I mean, that's what. Honestly, I'm. I'm about to cry. But honestly, you know, that's. Honestly, that's one of the great things about this genre of music. You know, you have these. These weirdos, you know, come together to make this awesome racket together. And in the case of some of these Guitar players that we're talking about. It really, really helps make or break the whole sound of everything. It's such an important instrument, which is why we talk about guitar solos and, and guitar players, you know, so much and. And have. And have no end to it. I don't think so.
- [20:19]
Christian Lane
You know, as noted, I think it's a really open ended topic. And I think that's because. Well, there's a lot. There's a lot of material which. Thank goodness for. For all of us. Not for. Not for this, even for this conversation, but just for all of us. To have all this material is such a gift because personalities come through so often with guitar players like this. I don't want to sell any bass players or drummers short.
- [20:49]
Janda
Of course not. Yeah.
- [20:51]
Christian Lane
But it does seem like guitar playing is where a lot of the personality comes out in a lot of the playfulness. And so, yeah, I think we're always going to be able to talk about this because there's as many approaches as there are songs practically.
- [21:06]
Janda
Well, I couldn't agree more. And I think these were some awesome examples today. I mean, Mick Ronson with Bowie and as an arranger, you know, he arranged the strings for Lou Reed's Transformer album. He's the guy that put the baby rattles on Mellencamp's Jack and Diane. I mean, a highly underrated musician, producer, and certainly guitar player Mick Ronson.
- [21:28]
Christian Lane
I mean, when Pop Dylan came back on the road, he took Mick Ronson as his lead guitar player in 1975.
- [21:35]
Janda
There you go. And then we also talked about Mike Campbell, which we could do an entire episode on all of the projects that Mike Campbell has touched, aside from Tom Petty solo albums and with the Heartbreakers. And then of course, Joe Walsh. I mean, one of the greats, you know, in every single way. And that's just three guys right there. I mean, you know, so we got to add to the list, Christian. We got to keep going.
- [22:00]
Christian Lane
I kind of just want to talk about those three guys some more. When you get home, we're going to talk about those three guys some more.
- [22:06]
Janda
Okay, perfect. I'll take you up on that. And then we will come back and do another bonus round talking about notable guitar solos for the next bonus episode. How about that?
- [22:17]
Christian Lane
I think, you know, given that I have to get to Mark Knopfler, we will come back.
- [22:24]
Janda
It's a must. It's a must. All right, well, thank you, Christian, as always, for joining me here on this chat and for all the work you do on the behind the Song podcast. You're awesome. And we'll we will definitely keep on chatting about classic rock guitar.
- [22:39]
Christian Lane
Yes, we will. Thanks for having me.
- [22:41]
Janda
It was fun and on the way. Much more classic rock and roll.
- [22:49]
Unknown
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