How is Buckethead so good?
Listening to Nostrum - Thanatopsis

His fingers are at least twice as long (and fast) as a normal person's.

I just finished up listening to a 4-disc box set of 1970s Chuck Berry recordings. I've already got his 50s and 60s recordings, so the next step was to wrap it up with his 70s stuff.

For many years, I've been a huge Chuck Berry fan. His work is one of the true cornerstones of American music, and if you can't appreciate it, you really can't appreciate rock and roll music. but he was more than just a rocker; he was a great bluesman and a great interpreter of others' work, taking classic songs and making them great in his own way.

The Complete Recordings box sets are for the truly devoted fans; the 1970s box especially doesn't feature the same continuous high level of greatness that you saw in Berry's early years. But there are many interesting items on it, and I found it a rewarding listen for those. But for those who just want the essentials, a two-disc anthology will serve just fine.

I haven't heard his last couple albums, but I loved Get Out of My Yard and was listening to Lean Into It just today. How's his new one?

"Badge" by Cream. Hard to go wrong with Cream.

"Badge" by Cream. Hard to go wrong with Cream.

Philip C. Spires. <3

I was listening to "I'm So Glad" from Goodbye the other day. That was a peak in guitar playing and all-out jamology that I don't think Clapton reached before or ever did again.

That's a good song.


Except the mid-section. That needs some work.

Everyone should own a copy of All Things Must Pass... sides five and six don't get much love but, armed with a pair of good headphones, it's supreme.

I won't disagree but I will say you should take a listen to "Out of the Blue" on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. This is Harrison and Clapton (among some others) fighting it out on the guitar and, oh my, is it something to hear.

And for the record: I don't believe Eric Clapton v. George Harrison is an even match. Or: Clapton clearly, very obviously wins. Hell, on Harrison's best-loved "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" it's Clapton that owns the track.

Clapton holds his own on Harrison's turf, but what Harrison himself plays on any other given Beatles track is absolutely immaculate. He is perhaps second only to David Gilmour in judging the context of a song and responding with precisely what that context calls for. Clapton does beat both of them in terms of pure chops (and, at least in terms of Cream, balls-to-the-wall passion), but if guitar playing is thought of as a chops game, there are plenty of young guns out there who dust them all.