Guitar Today

It would be impossible for me to make a post today without mentioning the sudden death of Michael Jackson. There is no way that I, writing any kind of music blog, could talk about music today without mentioning the loss of someone who has had such a tremendous effect on all music. They called him the King of Pop, but Michael Jackson’s influence can be seen in almost all forms of popular music today. So many artists have borrowed from his repertoire of moves, developed vocal melodies and methods modelled from his phenomenal voice and covered his songs.

Just a few of the things that Micheal Jackson gave us that will never die:

• Crotch-Grabbing - This dance move and possible vocal aid coined by Michael Jackson was hijacked by rappers everywhere
• The Moonwalk - Although he is often credited for coining the moonwalk, Jackson himself attributed the credit of this move to other sources. The moonwalk has been recorded as early as 1943. However, MJ is definitely the one who brought it to the mainstream when he first appeared to defy gravity as part of his incredible live show and had the whole world trying to learn the dance.
•   Dancer Face - Another signature of Jackson’s was his facial moves while he danced. When many of us were kids (I know not all of you were kids when Michael Jackson was all over TV but bare with me) and we thought of imitating Michael Jackson we didn’t just dance around. We made the faces and made the noises. I don’t think there is anything out there more imitated.

Although it has been difficult to look at Jackson’s success in recent decades without the many contraversies surrounding the man coming up, his influence on not just his generation but popular culture can never be forgotten. However, its pretty easy to be a target for scrutiny when you are one of the most recognized people in the entire world. Say what you want about him, but this was a man who knew how to do things right. From his song choices, to his businness decisions, there were no notable flops in this man’s career. He has also worked with some amazing guitar players. And, although his music was considered pop, after listening to a few of these you will have a hard time denying that pop music can rock. Here are some of his greatest guitar driven songs.

Black Or White - I could spend the better part of a week looking for a guitar riff more simple and catchy than the main riff for Black and White. This is just a really great feel-good song. Heres a video of MJ playing it with Slash.

Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson’s music has always had infectious beats, but one of the pinnacle’s of that signature trait comes to fruition in the main riff of “Smooth Criminal”. It is one of Jackson’s most popular songs and it was covered by Alien Ant Farm in 2001. The music video for this song is highly influential in today’s music industry. Michael Jackson’s choreography and extravagant multi-player dance routines are one of the things he is best known for. And they are probably one of the things he is least credited for when people mimic his material. Listen for the great guitar contribution by Billy Idol’s Steve Stevens.

Billie Jean - This song is one of the singles that sent Thriller to its’ commercial success and was one of the best-selling singles of 1983. The song is about a crazed fan who claimed that Jackson was the father of one the woman’s twin children. Here we can see how Michael Jackson fathered one the most well-known rock and roll stereotypes. Who hasn’t seen a reference to the groupie shouting out or holding up a sign “I’m having your baby!” Although the song is most well known for its’ bass-line and the vocal melody, it can still be a lot of fun to duplicate on your guitar. Sungha Jung has a great cover over Billie Jean.

Beat It - Released on Valentine’s Day in 1983, Michael Jackson’s “Beat it” has probably one of the best guitar solos of the songs in his career if not in all of rock music. The song was covered by Fallout Boy and it was a hit song for them as well. Metallica also worked the song into one of their live medleys. Beat it was one of the best-selling singles of all time and went platinum in ‘89. The guitar solo on the album version was recorded by Eddie Van Halen but for the Bad Tour in 1987 Jackson recruited Jennifer Batten. The following video shows a performance of Beat it with Jennifer playing guitar. Its also one heck of a performance by MJ and the band.

This video is a live jam where Batten really shows her chops while Michael dances. Watching these videos makes me miss Michael Jackson already. What a showman.

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Who is the best guitar player that Michael Jackson worked with?(survey)

This clip from Wayne’s World originates a joke that runs through many guitar shops even today. Because Stairway to Heaven was considered a classic song that was classicly easy to play, it become a wound in the ears of guitar techs and shop owners all over the world. The story goes that these types of signs originated in the UK long before the Wayne’s World motion picture brought the joke to the mainstream. I can’t really say for sure, personally I’m willing to bet there is not a single guitar shop in the world that had a ‘No Stairway to Heaven’ sign before that movie came out. There is also a bit of a ’sub-text’ joke here that I bet a lot of people missed. One of Jimmy Page’s guitar of choice was the very model of strat from this clip. No doubt Mike Myer’s was throwing a wink to the band by picking up a ‘64 strat and immediatly starting to play Stairway to Heaven. However, one fact that was apparently missed is that Jimmy Page actually used a Fender telecaster in the recording of that song.

The thing that gets me about this clip is that whatever Wayne has started to play is, it doesn’t sound a thing like the song, “Stairway to Heaven”. Rumour has it the theatrical release of Wayne’s World did had Myer’s playing the opening riff to the song in the No Stairway scene, but when it was released on video they had to replace the riff with some random notes because of copyright issues. I didn’t see this movie in theatres, but those random notes are the ones I always remember hearing in this scene.

This clip got me thinking about some of the songs I find really typical of beginner guitarists and musicians. There are plenty of songs that bug me when amatuers try to play them because it never quite seems they are playing it right. It got me to wondering what some other people might not want to hear in their shops. The sign below appears to be from a german guitar store and outlines a few overplayed songs of today.

If you had a guitar store, what songs would be on your “No Stairway” sign? What would absolutely hate to hear played day after day in your shop? What song will have you ready to snatch your guitar out of the hands of another guitar player and tapping the sign?

Guitar Player’s Center has an interesting theory on the alleged murder which involves the CrossRoads theory we discussed earlier this year in a post called Devil in Music , in this post we learned about a guy named Robert Johnston who is said to have sold his soul to the devil at a place called the crossroads. From GPC:

Is the crossroads hypothetical ? Can we prove that the musicians who went to the crossroads all met the same fate? Was Jimi’s manager, Michael Jeffrey the devil himself? Only to die in a plane crash after he allegedly murdered the greatest and most prolific guitar player ever. Was that his due? It was well deserved if so…Read the rest.

The author published these remarks in response to comments surrounding the release of a book by author James “Tappy” Wright a former roadie. Rock Roadie is a book detailing many of Wrights’ personal experiences as a roadie. One such incident has been stirring a lot of contraversy outlines alledged details of the Murder of Jimi Hendrix by his manager, Micheal Jeffrey. In response to the article published on Guitar Today about this particular part of the book, a representative from Borkowski PR posted some quotes from a statement made by the book’s author, James Wright.

I knew what Mike Jeffrey had done and I kept quiet for all this time because I was terrified. It wasn’t just me and him involved – the Mafia were part of this and Mike owed them money. He was paying out $30,000 a month to pay back the money he’d borrowed

Wright also indicated that he didn’t go public with this story before because so many lives were involved with hiding the truth.

If I hadn’t kept quiet, you’d have been reading about me in the obituaries.

Read more of author James “Tappy’ Wright’s reactions to the blog posts here.

“I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I’d lose everything.”  Micheal Jeffrey is quoted as saying in a new book by one of Hendrix’s roadies James “Tappy” Wright.

Wright says that Jeffrey confessed the crime to him a year after Hendrix’s death, during a drunken session at the roadie’s house. Hendrix’s manager is reported to have filled him full of pills and booze with plans to kill him and collect his life insurance plan of $2 million dollars, naming Jeffrey as the sole beneficiary. Jeffrey himself died in a plane crash years ago.

It is well known that Jimi Hendrix’s manager, Micheal Jeffrey cheated Hendrix out of much of his earnings. When he heard that Hendrix was planning on dumping him he alledgy formed the plot to kill Jimi. The official cause of death was documented as barbituate intoxication and vomit in Hendrix’s lungs. If his manager truly did pour wine and pills into his windpipe it would rhyme up with the coroner’s reported findings.

Was a rock legend truly assasinated by his own manager for money?

The QuantumDrive is a versatile and unique overdrive and distortion unit that uses a patent pending process to dynamically shape the sound of the guitar by means of a quantum tunneling device. Quantum tunneling is a curious physics principle which allows matter to “pass through” other matter which would normally be impenetrable. Acoustic Imaginearing has developed a means of using this effect to modify a guitar signal in unique and previously unheard of ways.

The quantum distortion appears to add a vowel sound to the signal as well as emphasizing the consonant, fricative guitar distinctiveness. Affecting the edge of the waveform and not just the peaks, the result is a very expressive tone when played “in the zone.” Of course the pedal is also capable of wild and quirky, outside the norm distortions — each distinctive to the instrument processed by the Quantum Drive.

The effect is well suited for both guitar and bass, as bass frequencies are retained without becoming muddy. It has been used by Tony Levin on the latest King Crimson tour.

In addition to the distortion channel, the pedal has a solid overdrive channel, also uniquely designed, that can be used independently or chained together with the quantum channel

Ever tried to make your own guitar picks? I did a few experiments with melting things into picks with custom logos on them. Wanna’ know what I found out? Nothing I can make is as cool as this thing. The pick puncher costs just $24.95 and is now pre-ordering.

This is pretty great. Make your own picks from almost anything. Whatever can be punched can be a pick. You can make picks out of credit cards, plastic lids, everything you can imagine is now a free guitar pick. If you’re anything like me you might have one or two picks under your couch cushions if you’re lucky.