This morning, while driving to the office I was listening on the radio Aerosmith and Run DMC with Walk this way. I love this song and the guitar riff is one to always remember, in my opinion. Joe Perry is one creative guy, I won’t discuss this.

Just that when the song reached the solo, I asked myself the same thing I keep on asking each time I listen Aerosmith songs: does Joe Perry know his solos? Can he play the same solo twice? I asked myself this question when I listened Crying, Crazy and now Walk this way because his solos always seems improvised right the very moment he’s in the studio, recording.

I can imagine Aerosmith recording a new song: OK, guys, let’s go. Hey, Joe, did you have time to work on that guitar solo? Aaaa..uh…yeah, I tried like a couple of times…don’t worry, I’ll work it out there as I do all the time…

I realize that maybe this is the exact thing that makes his solos recognizable. Not necessarily the solos but his musical style, his way of feeling the music, but I could bet that he can’t remember the exact solos he played on the record.

The fact is that the structure of his guitar solos is not fixed, we don’t speak here about a short, fix form solo like let’s say, Bon Jovi, for ex.

However, the question still remains, does Joe Perry know his guitar solos or is he’s just working around a theme every time he faces the moment? It must be interesting to improvise over the same theme for over 30 years…

What do you think?

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Every rock star, every guitar legend becomes a parent when time comes. Joe Perry of Aerosmith was no exception. He is the proud father of 2 out of 3 members of “TAB the band” members, namely Adrian Perry and Tony Perry. Adrian is the vocal and bass player while Tony is the one who continues the family tradition as the guitar player. “Pulling Out Just Enough To Win” is the name of the album they released.

The interesting thing (and at the same time a fact that honors them) is that,even if following a musical career, they didn’t want to use their daddy’s fame to get through this tough business and managed to built their own way. I think that it is better like this, to prove yourself that you have your own identity and that you’re not just a shadow of your famous father, because this will be something that a lot of folks will throw in your face over time.

However, when asked by Joe Perry to help him with a concert, they didn’t say no, so they’ll be together on February 8th at Fox Theatre at Foxwoods playing together. By the way, if you want to win a ticket to this show, hurry up and get one here!

You can find more about them on their website here and on their MySpace page.

By the way, here in Romania they are not known at all, how known are they in USA? Beside being daddy’s kids, I mean.

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What really makes a guitar player? Is his unique playing style, along with his own sound?Is it creativity? OK, if I think about it, creativity helps defining the style. And sound also, so I think I can stick to this “style” thing. It is about being recognized (again marketing?!) out of the crowded space of guitar playing.

Let’s think for a bit and create an artificial environment where you put a guitar player in a closed box, so you can’t see him, don’t know who’s inside, give him all his equipment and let him create a piece of music.

Can you tell who the guitar player is just by listening the musical piece he created? If you can, you probably have a great name there, a guitar player that is sure of himself, with strong roots, a real “guitar hero”.

I think of a few that I would recognize in such a case:

• Joe Satriani - one of the most creative guitar players IMO, close to my heart since a long, long time. His own high tech guitar sounds and his unmistakable riffs put him there as one of the main guitar icons of the last 20 years
• Steve Vai - OK, maybe this time it is me not being that creative, probably you think that sure, this guy is some kind of Satriani fan, how could he not like Vai? And so it is, but this is not the reason I put Steve Vai here. Now really, can you have Steve Vai playing in that closed box and not recognize him? I think that those long-finger licks he patented make him sure of his place here.
• Slash - I don’t particularly find Slash to be such a great technician, but his fat Gibson sound and the way he always falls on his feet when soloing, plus his licks of a particular sweetness ask for a place here.
• Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Well, I can only think of the ending of songs such as Crazy, Crying and I could tell he’s in the box, no doubt about it.
• Frank Gambale. Here’s the fact that he started to study guitar by listening to keyboard players so his way of playing the guitar is quite unique. If you also count his personal method of fast picking and his upside-down scales, he’s there!
• Gary Moore - He’s got the blues, man!! I know I would recognize him in a moment. Wouldn’t you?
• Stevie Ray Vaughan- I would have put here also SRV from the start but after listening Andy Timmons playing “I remember Stevie” I was amazed by how he managed to catch that particular style of SRV. OK, I said above that each artist should play his own style, not try to sound like somebody else, so SRV should be put there also
• Brian May - no need to say more, he’s there.

Yngwee Malmsteen - no doubt, one of the most powerful influences for skilled players with his own sound and style. However I don’t add him here since too many guitar players copied him that you can not say anymore who’s ho nowadays. But if the list was made 20 years ago probably he would have been the first.

Who did I miss?

Later edit:

• Yngwee Malmsteen - for creating an unique style, neo-classic rock, even if so many followed him that today they assimilated his style that you can not tell the difference. Jon of GuitarNoize.com convinced me to add Yngwee.
• Jimi Hendrix - OK (still Jon)
• Paul Gilbert (Jon)
• B.B. King (Jon)
• Carlos Santana (thanks Pilgrim)
• Albert King (Pilgrim)
• Glenn Kaiser (Pilgrim but I don’t know him so…)
• Fank Zappa (thanks Dr J)

Anybody else?

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