Is SPIN really circling the drain?

Steven Lee "Luke" Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. A prolific session musician, Lukather has recorded guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums representing a broad array of artists and genres. He has also contributed to albums and hit singles as a songwriter, arranger, and producer. Lukather has released six solo studio albums, and he is currently working on his seventh.

holy shit

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--nqmyHzq-7w/TV1N3xUA02I/AAAAAAAAAug/eC1-LSfiRtI/s1600/luke%2Bweb.jpg

cool forehead

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Steve_Lukather_with_guitar,_singing.jpg

you'd think guy fieri wouldn't use an alias for his career as a guitarist, but i guess the world is just a weird place

Hah! And wow, an Ovation and 50 guitar picks on the mic stand. Can one possibly drop/shred through that many picks in one show, especially if someone is a professional?

I think there's a tendency for the older Gen X'er to adopt the fake-out punk attitude of "pink floyd sucks" which in its way is bleed-over from the boomer attitude against 50s music, but I think more and more people are seeing music as a cultural continuum and not some identity war. I live across the street from a high school and I see a wide spectrum of eras and styles represented on t-shirts when class lets out: Beatles, Misfits, Iron Maiden, Cure, Led Zep, The Who, etc.

Sounds just like the 60s and 70s to me.

there was one kid with a Nirvana shirt as well

classic rock will always have a home with white kids who are slightly uncool

Hah! And wow, an Ovation and 50 guitar picks on the mic stand. Can one possibly drop/shred through that many picks in one show, especially if someone is a professional?

― grandavis, Friday, May 4, 2012 1:37 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

One can when one is constantly tossing them to the audience.

BTW this high school is 99% mexican american.

Lukather really is a monster & I have him to thank for turning me on to Allan Holdsworth so he's cool w/me

lol bernard sumner

i love JD but c'mon, dude was barely a step above sid vicious in terms of suckiness

he is a truly terrible guitarist who's made some life-changing records for sure

I think there's a tendency for the older Gen X'er to adopt the fake-out punk attitude of "pink floyd sucks" which in its way is bleed-over from the boomer attitude against 50s music, but I think more and more people are seeing music as a cultural continuum and not some identity war. I live across the street from a high school and I see a wide spectrum of eras and styles represented on t-shirts when class lets out: Beatles, Misfits, Iron Maiden, Cure, Led Zep, The Who, etc.

― Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Friday, May 4, 2012 4:17 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

lol this is otm, and also explains this list made by older gen x'ers

to be fair, though, bernard sucks even worse at singing. hahaha!

but its all moot. dude played guitar on ceremony! he belongs on every greatest list ever written.

wtf people his solos in "Shadowplay," "Ceremony," and "Age of Consent."

you don't have to tell me. he was in my 2nd fave band ever. i love him. even if he sucks.

two of our students snuck backstage to see New Order when they played Ultra. He and the ugly Hooky replacement praised their ingenuity and the four of them had beers on the lawn for a good half hour. Barney even recorded a station ID.

Steve and Gillian didn't make an appearance.

the primary word in "SPIN's 100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time" isn't "All-Time" but is, in fact "SPIN"

that caveat puts it on a par with Dr Morbius' 100 Greatest Comic-Book Movies

plus prince is a lame inclusion cuz he's such a classic rock showoff anyway, he's totally RS bait

if youre not gonna put son house or jimmy page on the list then for christ's sakes don't put jack white on it.

This is basically why the list seems so weird to me. It would actually be interesting to see a list of avant-garde guitarists (where you'd include some of the people MFB mentioned) or a list of postpunk guitarists but including Prince and Eddie Hazel in the top 10 (who are really obviously Hendrix-influenced) and then excluding Jimi Hendrix altogether just seems perverse. Like, Frank Zappa was egalitarian and humble? Really? He was not so far off from Jeff Beck's aesthetic, really, only with less taste and restraint.

Prince and Eddie Hazel in the top 10 (who are really obviously Hendrix-influenced) and then excluding Jimi Hendrix altogether just seems perverse

agreed

yeah and zappa i really like high level guitar mag stuff, what you get into once you graduate from the entry level guitar mag jackoff stuff

tbrr I can barely make it through an entire Hendrix album, while Prince and Hazel are like all-time godz to me so eh I don't really see the problem

no randi? no zakk? no satch? no eric FRIGGIN clapton? this list is a joke. it is meaningless to me.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/images/1030-02.jpg

these jokers at spin must be hipsters with no understanding of music.

saw that comment a lot "they dont understand MUSIC"

david t chastain was robbed

free paul gilbert

no alex skolnick, no peace
know alex skolnick, know peace

really think Whiney should've put Chris Carraba on the list

when they came for the gary moore records......i said nothing

guitar chapter eleven, verse 55:

tony macapline wept

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zmhY20ZZkY

y'all forgot about GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology)
http://www.mi.edu/guitar?gclid=CPa40OiI768CFQYKKgode3AX7g#program-overview

its funny because i remember from my spin reading youth when they used to like to include public enemy or whoever under the heading of 'rock' and now look theyre still doing it, its a spin tradition

I think the definition of "rock" is much more ambiguous than the definition of "guitarist" though.

(Btw, J0hn, do you ever read music theory? There was an all-rock issue of Music Theory Online some time ago you might like.)

y'all forgot about GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology)
http://www.mi.edu/guitar?gclid=CPa40OiI768CFQYKKgode3AX7g#program-overview

― tylerw, Monday, May 7, 2012 4:01 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dogg i never forgot about GIT! it was going to my ticket to a record deal with Shrapnel :(

(Btw, J0hn, do you ever read music theory? There was an all-rock issue of Music Theory Online some time ago you might like.)

rarely, but it's always something on my "more of this" list, which every year looks more and more like the "list of things you're going to rue not doing more of on your deathbed" list. given that about 70% of my listening is classical now & the other 30% is largely stuff by dudes whose work will be enriched by deeper grounding in theory, I kind of ought to get my theory chops in better shape

i've always felt there was some interesting music writing to be done by the right person about the intersection of high-level music theory stuff and 80s metal guitar playing, like it was so odd in retrospect, all these dudes in what was perceived as sort disposable noise that were digging into (in strange sort of misguided or superficial way) into like modal scales and shit like that...like as a kid i couldn't really play for shit but somehow I knew all the modal scales like from guitar mags

who got hard rock guitar headed down that road, zappa? van halen?

definitely Van Halen

yeah EVH is a pretty major touchstone. I feel like 70s post-Hendrix dudes like Robin Trower also sort of are important to those guys, like they're listening to that stuff & Black Sabbath & playing scales and it all comes together in a giant frenzy of awesome

EVH has readily identifiable precedents but none of them had the similar "classically trained" + rock cred combo that spawned the industry as we know it

oh you know what? I didnt end up reading all of it, but that whole E-Hazel-&-Prince-but-not-Hendrix would've been redeemed if SPIN had included Trower as well, but I'm guessing that didn't happen...?

I like that the "most heroic moment" listed for Zappa is a Beefheart showcase song with no guitar theatrics to speak of.

who got hard rock guitar headed down that road, zappa? van halen?

― some dude, Monday, May 7, 2012 6:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd guess Ritchie Blackmore, he was the first guy that made a big deal about being classically influenced, and I'd say that if Iommi was the prototype for metal riffing, Blackmore was just as much the prototype of metal soloing

^^^yeah can totally get with that. Blackmore was def on some "check out at ye olde medievel melodies in yonder solo" schtick. somehow his appeal and range seem more, I dunno, restrained? limited? than EVH. Blackmore wasn't pop the way EVH was.

You can throw Uli Jon Roth in the mix too. He's a logical precursor to EVH and that pop pyrotechnic style.

FUCK YOUR BLUES-ROCK PARADIGM!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpxMr6J3UHM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugY9CwhfzE