I think i'm in a very low percentage here but the metal fatigue with vocals i liked a lot. And Level 42 Guaranteed is brilliant to my ears. Holdsworth is off the charts brilliant on that album. Very small solos and snippets of pure gold, good God, to quote Joe Jackson "He can bring a tear to a glass eye!"
And i think as mentioned above, anyone to me that sounds like Holdsworth is just that, they sound like Holdsworth. And there's only one Holdsworth godammit!
No one has mentioned it, but one of the 7 string beasts from Meshuggah can bring some Holdsworth to the table. If you can get past the vocals to get there that is!
That would be Fredrik Thordendal - this can be heard also without vocals in a somewhat Sci-Fi-Fusion context here:
Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects - Sol Niger Within
Missing Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dLm_JunVwY
He plays more staccato, but the note choices and music just sound like early 90s Holdsworth, like e. g. the two Chad Wackerman soloalbums that he played on
Last edited by sphinx; 07-17-2014 at 11:08 AM. Reason: typos
^^^Thanks sphinx, so I heard it too then!?
Of course!
Or try this, a demo for his custom breath controller, which he uses to shape the lead guitar sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYkSb7wtj0E
I really wish he did more in that vein!
Good Christ that was awesome! 8 stringed bastard!!
The closest thing we'll ever get of Eddie outside the confines of Van Halen was that old Starfleet Project of Brian May's. I remember that Pete Townsend told Eddie he needed to cut a solo album as well but Eddie said he didn't have the time.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
The Star Fleet record was pretty cool. The title piece in particular is really awesome. I remember Dr. May being interviewed in Guitar Player at the time, and saying that the reason the track goes on for 8 minutes or whatever it is because they got to the end of the arrangement, and the other musicians had actually stopped playing, but Eddie kept going so they just started jamming.
As for why Eddie never did a solo record, as was said, Eddie felt Van Halen was "enough" for him, and I think liked the idea of sticking stuff like Spanish Fly, Cathedral, 1984, etc into the Van Halen mix, to change things up, rather than doing an entire album of all that stuff. I think a more guitar oriented solo record, or something where he did more keyboards stuff or whatever, but I don't think he was into it.
Likewise, I always wish Van Halen had done a live album back in the 80's. I've got a few bootlegs where you can really hear Eddie take off on some of the songs, really stretching out and so forth, but I remember he was asked about it in at least a couple interviews, and his response was usually something like, "We play live in the studio, so we're already making live albums", apparently missing the point that it'd be nice to be able to some of the different stuff he played onstage.
Well said. Ollie is one of my all-time favourites. I'm sure you're aware of it but there's a compilation box set of the two studio albums by Tempest, which also includes a fantastic live gig at the Beeb, featuring both Allan and Ollie playing together. Astonishing stuff. I believe Allan was showing Ollie the material, as he was about to head off and join Soft Machine (this was right before Bundles)
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