Mahavishnu Orchestra - Live at Shibuya Hall, Tokyo, Japan (9-19-73) 1 - 2 - 3 - 4I got into John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu before I got into Hendrix. In fact, I resisted Hendrix for many years (sorry, Larry, I know I made so much work for you!).
I didn't want to admit, from my punk-o-centric universal world view, that there were earlier, better guitar gods than those of my generation. Hendrix is better than Bob Mould? Fuck you! Eric Clapton is better than...anyone? Double-fuck you!!
I was stoopid. I started to learn though. I found John Fahey. I found Django Reinhardt. I found Steve Tibbets. I found James Blood Ulmer. I found Tisziji Munoz (who, you say?)
In other words, I grew my musical horizons. One early exploratory trip was picking up a cut-out cassette of Birds of Fire. Wowza! Them boys could play all over the place. And I liked it!
Still do like it. I hope you do too.
Don't forget: Buy shit!
Art: "Through Birds Through Fire But Not Through Glass" by Yves Tanguy
2 comments:
Been a fan ever since getting "Inner Mounting Flame" back in 1972. Love the long workouts on this where the band really get a chance to shine. Can't see the kids of today going for it though – they haven’t got the staying power to stick with it.
I am a jazz, old school rock, funk/r&b and lounge lizard music fan who enjoys your blog a great deal.
One of the nice things about hitting middle age is that, when it comes to what music genre or player is better than another, the point comes where you just don't care. You just don't give a shit anymore and that is a good place to be. So, Hendrix, Mould, McLaughlin, Chilton, Django, Muddy Waters, Les Paul, Ron Asheton, Joe Pass, Robert Quine, Peter Green, Howlin' Wolf, etc. . . love 'em all.
The guitar players who strike me as quite under-rated are all those who recorded and toured with Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band. They made amazing music which is very difficult to play.
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