TS John Lennon vs. Lou Reed: Who Is The Better Rhythm Guitar Player?

im sure others will disagree ;)

Reed has the advantage because it's hard hearing Lennon's rhythm guitar on those early Beatles records ("All My Loving" is one exception).

It must be said that both Reed and Lennon could really WAIL when they played lead (I prefer Lennon to Harrison in this respect).

that said I agree that I've never noticed john's rythm guitar.

that said I agree that I've never noticed john's rythm guitar. He was a lousy musician, anyway, wasn't he ?

John was a fantastic rhythm guitar player (actually Carlos Alomar, who played the main riff on "Fame," has talked about what an inspiration John's rhythm guitar playing was to him in general). "Some Other Guy," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Taxman," etc.--really crisp sharp attack.

I always thought Lennon was a great acoustic rhythm guitarist. According to Revolution In The Head, Lennon had atrocious timing and a very poor sense of rhythm.

But I'd take Townshend or Alex Chilton over both of em.

Without going through every song to find examples, I'll just say that I think both of these guys were very aware of the varied expressive capabilities of the electric guitar and were very conscious of what their parts were doing to make the songs MOVE.

I mean, of course you don't always NOTICE what the rhythm guitarist is doing, but Beatle songs are often propelled by Lennon on rhythm guitar.

but lou reed's infamously crap at guitar
I thought what happened was that he decided he didn't like being the kind of "inspired primitive" guitar player he was and wanted to go the muso route, with the unhappy result that he ended up neither fish nor fowl. Also playing that fast rhythm guitar requires "practice," and the rock star of a certain age may have difficultly applying himself in this manner.

For those think Sterl played the rhythm guitar, I thought you could tell from the live stuff- often you hear these conventionally pretty leads and fills, which Lou just wouldn't or couldn't be playing, therefore, by process of elimination, it's Sterl on lead and Lou on rhythm.

According to Revolution In The Head, Lennon had atrocious timing and a very poor sense of rhythm.
This seems to me to be insane.

Yeah, you know, that comes from a couple of instances on bootlegs or wherever (maybe on a track on the Hamburg Star Club tapes? I'm not sure) where he comes in with his vocal at the wrong time. That has nothing to do with his rhythm guitar playing.

if you compare solo careers et al lennon takes it easy - his solo on "walking on thin ice" is incredible.

Chilton is a deadly rhythm guitar player! Listen to Radio City in it's entirety. O My Soul, Way Out West. Absofuckinglutely brilliant guitar playing.

i'd say, au contraire, that lennon's playing is so ingrained into the song itself that it's hard to actually hear it as rhythm guitar playing. it just sounds like part of the songwriting. which is one of the things i like best about the beatles; they knew how to arrange songs and play their parts to maximum effect.

i love the deliberate acoustic guitar rhythms that shape the best songs on all those mid-period albums ("no reply" is a good example). my impression is that it's sometimes lennon and sometimes mccartney (and maybe sometimes harrison, too), so it's to know who to give the credit to. but there's some genius rhythm playing in there.

"Getting Better" is a good one.

Rarely have I read such piffle in my life:

Ostrich guitar on "The Velvet Underground and Nico" = LOU
Lead guitar on "The Gift" = LOU
Lead guitar on "I Heard Her Call My Name" = LOU
All of the really weird and imaginative guitar playing on "Sister Ray" = LOU
Lead rhythm guitar on "What Goes On" (Live 1969 version) = LOU (tho Sterl's there as well)
Lead rhythm guitar on "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together" (Live 1969 version) = LOU
Rhythm guitar on "Foggy Notion" = LOU

... etc etc etc

So. That settles it then, right?

Is there a TS: Mo Tucker vs. Ringo thread?

That is absolutely 100% Lou Reed - nobody else can play the guitar simultaneously that badly and that brilliantly. Everybody else was well pissed off with Lou on that for track for sneaking back into the studio and mixing the lead guitar 10 times louder than everything else on the track - which I don't see Lou doing if it was Sterling Morrison on lead guitar, do you? Sterl's lead work is very distinctive also of course - see "Foggy Notion"!

I remember something about Lou mixing the guitars way high, but I didn't know it was specifically to do with that track.

x-post: Lou played solos on the reunion tour. That's him on "Hey Mr. Rain."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGC3p5ASZus&feature=related

Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy

Your Alex Chilton link doesn't work anymore

Really? Hold on.

Here is what happened when I discussed "I Heard Her Call My Name" with Mr. Alex Chilton

I'd have to say John Wicks (from UK bands The Records and Kursaal Flyers) is a better rythm guitarist than John Lennon or Lou Reed. English guys seem to have an inherited feel for rythm.
― David Duran, Thursday, June 1, 2006 8:37 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"English people got natural rhythm" is one I haven't heard before.
― Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Thursday, June 1, 2006 8:42 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is a friggin hilarious exchange.