Gypsy guitar solo
 

For you musicians... Is the guitar solo that's played on the studio recording hard to replicate onstage? It has sounded different every time I've heard it onstage. Why is that?

It's very fast.

http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Portraits...nricoPinto.jpg

Also, because the studio version is various riffs all layered over one another, so it would be practically impossible to reproduce it exactly. Plus, why would any guitar player ever want to play the exact same thing on stage as he recorded in the studio? Yaaaaawn! I think Lindsey enjoys reworking his songs a little to get a different live sound, early Gypsy being a good example of this (although, the early live versions were far inferior to the masterful studio track--but now its gotten pretty good live).

Adam

One person's opinion...many would disagree...like me, for instance. The song is a studio entity, keep it off the stage. It just doesn't translate well to a live situation.

UNLESS, they just change the thing altogether...such as the AHI "acoustic" version. Now THAT worked.

Dude, I agree with you 1000%! Although the SYW live version was ok, I could live without it. That AHI version was inredible! I was there, and it sent chills up me!

I don't think it's that fast. When compared to lots of lead guitarists it's not that fast at all. And then there are the "Shred" guitarists (if you have the stomach for things like that :distress: ) that make him look like a snail.

AHI is Arizona Heart Benefit, yes? Can someone post, please? I'm curious now!!

Oh yes, that was sheer brilliance. I wish they had brought it back into the set like that, but I guess there's always hope for next year. (Are you listening, Lindsey?!)

It sure sounds fast to me. On paper**, it's 16th notes with heavy syncopation & dotted eighth notes in a sort of counterpoint. I don't maintain that there are not guitarists all over the place who can play faster. I'm sure there are. But the Gypsy outro solo is some wicked picking. I mean, come on!


**I'm looking at the Warner Bros. book Guitar Anthology Series notation of the solo.

IMHO, the reason that so many live versions of Gypsy don't translate well is because Stevie's voice really wasn't all there on the Mirage tour. The best part of those bootlegs is definitely Lindsey's guitar work. Everything else just seemed to suffer.

BUT...I am a huge fan of The Dance version of Gypsy. It's just very light and very soothing and also a very tight performance (yes I'm aware that there was likely overdubbing).

Ya-huh.. I was watching from the lip of the stage in Auburn -SYW 03, he went into a transe during that part of Gypsy... so I did this... :wavey: and he popped out of his transe and did this... :D ... he was definitely doing some fancy finger pickin, but I couldn't tell if one of those shadowy guitar players in the back was filling in at the time or not. I'm not the type to think of those things when I'm standing 3 feet in front of The Man.

Thanks! Don't have time to listen right now but I'm looking forward to it!

Oh, I'm not saying it's some good playing. The rhythms aren't exactly "standard" which is bound to make it tricky enough, but I was just saying it isn't that fast. I don't really want to get into any arguments, so I'll maybe conceed defeat :p

It's a fantastic solo, and subtle as well. It does beat you over the head. Hell, first time I listened to the song I didn't really notice it.

P.S. David, why does no-one on the internet give note durations their proper names? I never see people use "quaver", "minum" etc. It's always 8th notes and 1/2 notes. Why? As a classically trained musician I'd always been taught the proper names and had never heard "8th notes" until I started reading music related things on the 'net. Is it just for brevity, or is there another reason? Just wondering if you can shed some light on this because I've been wondering about it for ages.

I was thinking the Gypsy solo was hard to reproduce, too. Even when Rick Vito did the solo on the Tango tour, it sounded different from the studio recording, despite trying to stay true to the originals.

I don't think it's a question of arguing or of conceding defeat. "Fast" isn't an absolute. It's a relative. I was just playing this solo on the piano last night. To me, it's fast. To you, perhaps not.

According to my Harvard Dictionary of Music, published in 1960, "whole note," "half note," "quarter note," "eighth note," "sixteenth note" & "thirty-second note" are the correct American terms, whereas "semibreve," "minim," "crotchet," "quaver," "semiquaver" & "demisemiquaver" are the correct terms in English-speaking Europe.

My classical training in piano encompassed study with Barbara Edmundson of Juillard, Blanche Nissim (a student of Ralph Berkowitz & Josef Hoffmann) of the Curtis Institute, & Janet Vrudny of the Idyllwild School of Music & the Arts, an afiliate of the University of Southern California School of Music. The American terminology in my training was far more prevalent than the European terminology. I think it would be perfectly legitimate for us here in this country to regard "quarter note," "half note," "eighth note," etc., as the accurate, correct terminology--at least for us. Of course, we haven't switched over to metric yet, either. :lol:

That was really nice ... very different from the other versions but it still works so very well.

Thank you!

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I didn't realise that it was just a cultural difference. I'd assumed (wrongly in this case) that they were just simplifications. It was never really made clear to me, and having never encounter the American terms in my studies I didn't even know they existed until I saw them.

I'm going to start using the British terminology.

I've been watching BBC Shaw productions on DVD, so I'm good & ready.

Thus making us American musicians feel even more distant from you....:confused:

Wow, I'm a music major and I did not even know about the English names. I guess they don't even teach it or put it in our books.

Cool. I suppose it doesn't really matter what terminology you use, but the European ones do sound so much posher :p