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Joined: June 22 2004
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 16130
Posted: April 19 2009 at 03:02
Lifeson is recognised as an excellent guitarist by his peers, and by those who understand music, beyond shredding and heroics. Those who understand composition, and have an ear for originality and sensitivity in playing, know the score with Lifeson.
The fact that 'joe public' may not think he is as good as Slash (for example) is because he is in Rush, who are by definition not as cool as G'n'R et al, and have prpobaly had considerbaly less MTV and 'Rolling Stone' coverage. If Rush pumped out hit singles, and were all a bunch of smackheads, they'd be widely acknowledged as geniuses. It's just the way things work.
Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
Status: Offline
Points: 5208
Posted: April 19 2009 at 07:44
As perhaps the biggest guitar nerd on this board not named Hughes, Lifeson is much more respected than Slash in the guitarist community. His solo on "Limelight" is so simple and so perfect. He had many great bits. I've seen him live twice in the 90's and he's never been sloppy. The part of Spirit of Radio is not hard at all for anyone who has any kind of chops. The problem is I've heard lots of version where they're really rushing the song. People think that part should be faster than it is. It's just straight sixteenths....well anyway.
There are guitarists out there who just blow everyone away in terms of talent and the general public knows none of them. Shawn Lane, John McLaughlin, Tommy Emmanuel.
IMO the guy who combines unbelievable tone, expression, and chops that are as good as anyone besides the top tier of shredders is Chris Poland. And his expressive ability is pretty much unsurpassed ever. The first Ohm: album is a must have for guitar lovers. I'll be reviewing it soon.
Rhoads was probably the best for his time on the big stage. He was not a savant like Lane but worked and worked and kept working to where he probably was the best rock guitarist out there at the time of his death. Eddie was ahead of him in the 70's but Randy understood music so much more.
Lane is the only one who deserves demigod status, IMO. He was just wired different than other men.
You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
Joined: April 05 2006
Location: Vancouver, BC
Status: Offline
Points: 35951
Posted: April 19 2009 at 13:51
Because he isn't Robert Fripp.
I'm not saying Fripp is the best, I usually have voted for John McLaughlin in polls, but in Prog circles, Fripp is more likely to be given godlike status. Outside of Prog, in rock circles, Jimi Hendrix, or Eddie Van Halen etc. In classical guitar, Andres Segovia, John WIlliams, Julian Bream etc. Anyway, Alex Lifeson is pretty much a household name amongst my generation where I live, in my experience, unlike Aleksandar Živojinović. People like David Glmour, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, and David Glilmour are better-known still.
Lifeson makes many best lists (especially Prog lists, along with Hackett etc.), and though he has the reputation as a very good guitarist, he doesn't seem to have the reputation as a very innovative/ groundbreaking guitarist.
Joined: July 29 2005
Location: None
Status: Offline
Points: 24429
Posted: April 19 2009 at 14:59
someone_else wrote:
Alex Lifeson is a great guitar player indeed, Not my favourite, but definitely in my top 5.
But I don't think that any guitar player or anybody else with extraordinary skills should be worshipped or even looked upon as a god or half-god.
Quoted for truth.
Anyway, Lifeson may not be as technically gifted as other guitarists mentioned in this thread, but his contribution to the Rush sound as part of a whole (as opposed to a self-centred soloist) is invaluable. He puts his skills at the service of his band, and not the other way round - as too many shredders are prone to doing.
Joined: February 06 2004
Location: France
Status: Offline
Points: 8138
Posted: April 19 2009 at 15:03
MisterProg2112 wrote:
He simply isn't as good as others. Neither is Slash, Jimmy Page, Randy Roads, etc. they're all looked upon as "gods" in the mainstream music world. Listen to Jason Becker, sure you might say I'm just saying he's a god because of his speed, but his music is very...musical too, it's not just random playing.
Becker is a "shredder", like many others who signed on Mike Varney's Shrapnel label. He is of course a very talented guitarist (well, was because now he can't move a single finger of his hands) but one cannot expect some excessive originality in his music.
To be excellent at guitar is a thing, to be original is another one. Unfortunately, Mr Becker possesses only one of those two qualities.
"Magma was the very first gothic rock band" (Didier Lockwood)
Joined: December 24 2007
Location: Ukraine
Status: Offline
Points: 25210
Posted: April 20 2009 at 02:41
Raff wrote:
someone_else wrote:
Alex Lifeson is a great guitar player indeed, Not my favourite, but definitely in my top 5.
But I don't think that any guitar player or anybody else with extraordinary skills should be worshipped or even looked upon as a god or half-god.
Quoted for truth.
Anyway, Lifeson may not be as technically gifted as other guitarists mentioned in this thread, but his contribution to the Rush sound as part of a whole (as opposed to a self-centred soloist) is invaluable. He puts his skills at the service of his band, and not the other way round - as too many shredders are prone to doing.
And as too many blues guitarists, rock guitarists and jazz guitarists are prone to doing as well. It's not exclusive to shred, I'm sorry, but I've heard blues guitarists w**king away with the some mediocre pentatonic box shape and bend-up-the-same-note licks for way too long when they should have realized they have said everything they can say with the guitar in about 30 seconds, but they feel the need to drag on for 10 minute solos. There are jazz guitarists that have no idea when to stop and let other members show their potential. Jimi Hendrix himself was even prone to just mindless pentatonic w**king away when clearly he should have just stopped and gave the song a chance to breath. I can't sit through the whole performance of Voodoo Child (Slight Return) because he just keeps going and going and going and going and going for ages jamming away and he seems to forget he's even playing a song, and my god, it's just goddamn boring. People that don't play guitar seem to have this thing were shredders are an evil force or something and are worse than other kind of guitarist. Hell, the only people that always know when to stop are classical guitarists because they have a set piece which means they aren't going to endlessly jam out with streams of boring licks. It doesn't matter what genre of music you play, you can suck ass at it, or you can kick ass at it.
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Alex Lifeson...why is he not looked upon as a god?
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WalterDigsTunes wrote:
True, and his friend, erm, Mr. N. Ellwood P. who was well respected despite not having snazzed his name up for living in the limelight.
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