TS: Thelonious Monk vs. Alex Lifeson

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Another bogus TS in that I consider persons referred to in question as similar in context of said question! Big fork in road for aspiring musos - does one go for 'fluency' (learning every possible combination of notes and techniques for instant mastery of regurgitation) or 'rigourousness'(everything having its place in a grand design with thematic coherence while working to expand the concept of 'thematic coherence' itself)? 'Fluency' will immediately get the other musos on your side to the exclusion of everything else while 'rigouressness' paradoxically assures one a place in the technical canon (AND sometimes great fame and wealth and stadium-rock glory) while earning the undying enmity of music types who have their charlatan-bullshit-detector set so high that it buzzes whenever anything outside the standard syllabi occurs. E.G. guitarists - "How can you listen to Rush when Pat Travers and Frank Marino are faster and play more 'evenly'", jazzbos - "Monk is crap. Sounds like he's got flippers instead of hands. Check out Oscar Peterson if you're into piano playing instead of mumbling." Never the twain shall meet either, but that's cool because it makes for muso controversy. (Actually this is a pointless extemporization of an old review of Jeff Beck's 'Blow By Blow', along the lines of "No point arguing about this one, the people who are going to like it react as violently to questions about 'point' or 'content' as atheists do to references to God." Which sort of proves in a roundabout way that Yngwie Malmsteen is the ultimate ANTI-rockist! 'Content' relies on perception of performer's personality so I've just done a 180 and realised that maybe the auteur-genii like Monk and Lifeson are actually the 'rockists' and the GIT hordes are ACTUALLY PUNKS! Still doesn't mean I'd rather listen to the latter though. Well, not all the time. And yes, rocklit geeks like myself will notice the Jeff Beck thing is courtesy Xgau, I sent him a Brazen Hussies CD but never got a reply, even an E- would be nice, although I don't know if he uses those anymore, it's that 'sizzling bomb' now isn't it? Look I just made this into yet another shameless publicity bid)

― dave q, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh heh, what I'm RILLY trying to do is surreptitiously establish a canon of guitar players that redefines the whole art form - but make them all Canadian! We come from the lan of ice and snow...Breau, Bachman, Marino, Lifeson, Bruce Cockburn (have you heard his playing, he's really good! If you're going to do protest songs some musical muscle helps imeasurably! ANd sorry Mick'n'Joe, not 'other people's' either), Sundar, dave q, etc. It's July 1 you know!

― dave q, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"what I'm RILLY trying to do is surreptitiously establish a canon of guitar players that redefines the whole art form - but make them all Canadian!" - Christ, isn't Neil Young enough?

― J Blount, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

What jazzbos think Monk is crap? When you're practicing for your piano jury, you might not listen to Monk if you're playing something really techincal and fast, but then again you might (why? because when you get past the point of being asked to demonstrate you can play anything, people start expecting other things). And there may be people out there who are impressed by someone playing all the best licks and whatnot, but I say if you aren't a good musician, ultimately no one is going to care how fast or high you played. I also say that Monk was a better musician than Alex Lifeson, because 1) he sounded like a complex person when he played and Lifeson sounds like a well-oiled machine to my ears -- and 2) Monk never sold out to Summers-patented watercolor guitar.

However, maybe I'm being too harsh on Lifeson. The one thing I can say about him *and* Geddy Lee is that they seem to be able to play off Peart's dynamics very well (can we at least agree that Peart is the center of that operation?). I.E., they seem like they're good listeners, which is a big part of being a good musician.

― dleone, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Has either played guitar for Sophie Ellix-Bextor? If not they should not be discussed on this board, which as you know is I Love Sophie Ellix-Bextor.

― Sophie #1 Phan, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Thelonious Monk's piano style always reminds me of Les Dawson's.

― neil, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave, you somehow forgot Rik Emmett. It's good that Lifeson seems to have reemerged after being wholly swallowed by bad 80's technology (a square like Lifeson's also probably NOT best served by moving onto cocaine from opium). Has a worse diptych of guitar sounds than Signals/Grace Under Pressure ever been released? To me, he always sounds a bit hamstrung by the idea that because Rush is a trio, it's his job to "fill space". The solo on YYZ is really cool, and more of the kind of thing he should have been doing all along. I don't know from Monk, but Greg Ginn's pretty cool too.

― Kris, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and "Fight the Good Fight" (Triumph, right?) has some of the best recorded drums I've ever heard.

― Kris, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

the solos to both the 2112 overture and Limelight are the musical equivalent of pure afghan heroine....

incidently i was considering starting a neil peart vs. jaki lieberziet thread but i think the rush quota on ILM has maxed out

― geeg, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i haven't heard either of those but whatever. can i just have the heroin? there's like 1 really cool alex lifeson guitar solo that i ever heard, it's in "working man", a shitty led zep ripoff off their 1st shitty led zep ripoff album. i like a few other bits of rush records but sure as shit not for gtr solos.

― unknown or illegal user, Wednesday, 3 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

seven years pass...

I entered the Beer Store just as the solo from "Big Money" was playing today. I never noticed it before but it actually reminded me a bit of Frisell (with the ringing harmonics) and (esp) Metheny. Also, the rhythm section is incredible in that part.

― Sundar, Thursday, 3 September 2009 21:10 (fifteen years ago)

Whatever happened to dave q BTW? Does he still post?

― Sundar, Thursday, 3 September 2009 21:56 (fifteen years ago)

I credit Lifeson for finding some nifty ways to rip off Andy Summers without jettisoning the solos. He's one of those weird lead rhythm player hybrids, like Townshend.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 3 September 2009 22:26 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, bring back dave q! (would actually pay good money to read a TS: blog run by Mr. Q.)

― what kinda life is that? (Ioannis), Friday, 4 September 2009 07:11 (fifteen years ago)

i was expecting this to be something like the vangelis-vs-jarrett poll, actually pleasantly surprised

― thomp, Friday, 4 September 2009 12:14 (fifteen years ago)

Dave's old blog was last updated four years back but I've seen/talked with him since -- his Myspace spot was last logged into a month back.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 4 September 2009 13:06 (fifteen years ago)

Alex Lifeson, OF COURSE!

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 4 September 2009 14:44 (fifteen years ago)

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