Neil Young's lead guitar playing...

One of the best concerts I ever saw was Neil Young and Crazy Horse on their Dirty Garage tour. Neil's guitar solos are heavy, sublime, and wrapped in ominous mystery with wonderful tone. I could listen to him play like that for hours every week.

 

I love Neil's lead playing. Not many well-known electric guitarists have a style that combines country, surf/Shadows whammy-bar
instrumental moves and modal psychedelic pseudo-raga into an emotionally-distinctive six-string attack. When Neil picks straight
12-bar blues he's as tedious as anybody else (short of a Roy Buchanan or Buddy Guy "force of nature" player). But when he cuts
loose on his better songs, he is always interesting and often transcendent...and not being a rehearsed jazz/blues 'technician' is a plus.
That kind of technical approach would not really work on "Danger Bird" or "Cortez The Killer". I like Allan Holdworth's playing a lot,
but I'll be damned if I can think of an actual song title of his without looking at the album covers.

 

His style is all his own. A true artist, IMO. I will take a one-note Neil Young solo over a technically perfect shredder anytime.

 

I love the Beatles and some of George's solo work but his comments bothered me, more than they probably should've. I mean, he puts down Neil but then is all up in Clapton's ****? I've never once been moved by Clapton's playing, even if he is more technically proficient than Neil.

 

I've no musical ability at all. I love Neil's guitar work which to me fits his style/s and vocal abilities. He's got a pretty distinctive sound.

 

To me, the mark of a great guitar player is that you can instantly recognize who's playing. And Neil's lead guitar style is instantly recognizable, so I guess that makes him one of the greats in my book.

 

George's snark didn't really bother me as a deranged Neil Young fanatic, particularly because it was an off-the-cuff passing remark in a private studio moment, if I remember correctly. Partly it amazed me because I didn't realize there were people who couldn't hear the brilliance of what Neil does with Old Black.

But "I've never once been moved by Clapton's playing"????? Not hearing how moving Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is boggles my mind even more than not getting Neil Young' guitar godliness.

 

neil rocks, love to hear him play

 

What do you mean by “unorthodox”? Not following a particular scale progression ? If his playing is unorthodox then that explains why like his lengthy solos that are interspersed with really wild tones. Never dull. Also explains why I’m a huge fan of Sonny Sharrock, Pete Cosey, Thurston Moore, Henry Kaiser, and Zappa. I love these guys tones and how they mold their soundscapes into “melodies” even though I have listened to many of their recordings numerous of times, I’m always amazed never bored. I find myself more easily bored by lengthy scale based solos of any genre; kinda predictable

 

Uh-oh, I touched a nerve!

 

Clapton usually doesn't connect with me on a visceral level at all...unlike. say, Beck or Page or Neil Young.
Trying to think of a few times old Slowhand's solos have ever got my attention:

Yardbirds - "A Certain Girl", "I Ain't Got You" (really concise 'garage blues' blasting) and a few minutes on the Five Live Yardbirds lp.
Cream - "Deserted Cities Of The Heart" (whew!); "White Room" (the 'wah-wah' in the unedited "yellow tigers" verse); Crossroads (2nd solo)
1st ATCO Solo lp: His soloing and vamping at the end of "Let It Rain".
Derek & The Dominoes - "Layla" (studio version). Great rhythm playing on that one, too.
...and maybe a few minutes from his J.J. Cale sessions when those two seem to be really into it.

 

I agree with you 100%. Although, that interview was 1971. I think Neil took his guitar playing to another level in the late '70s and another big leap forward in the late '80s.

I can see how Duane could listen to Southern Man and think "Man, this cat is a hack, and what does he know about the south anyway!"

For me, his earlier guitar playing is akin to great folk art, lacking in technique but powerfully emotional.

 

The Clapton solos that really get the hair on the back of my neck to stand up and tingle are Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad and Let It Rain from Derek & the Dominos In Concert and Badge from Goodbye Cream.
My apologies for the off topic detour but I had to get that out.

 

Forgot about "Badge". What a great performance.

 

I'm not big on extended guitar solos but Neil usually makes them work for me.

 

Staying detoured sorry. I think Claptons playing on Disraeli Gears was out of this world. Restrained, but imaginative and intense. Neil? Not restrained, but imaginative and intense and NEVER boring IMO...

 

The guys in Teenage Fanclub love Neil's playing enough to dabble in his style without disrespect or it being purely a pastiche.

 

Neil is one of my favourite electric lead (and acoustic!) guitarists. I dunno, when he hits a solo, he's at the brink: pure emotion streaming through his fingers to the amps, pure emotion. This is the sign of the TRUE greats (like Jimi and Zappa) and Neil is one of them. Screw precise dexterity (can be nice at times), I want the real deal and Neil delivers it in spades.

 

Apples and oranges. Malmsteen is a born virtuoso. Neil is a born songwriter. Both have their merits but it's silly to compare these two as solo guitarists. Like comparing French cuisine to Chinese. Both great, just very different.

Personally I never tire of hearing Yngwie's solos. But it's horses for courses isn't it?

 

No disrespect intended to the legendary Duane Allman (RIP), but that remark just cracks me up! HEL-lo! A guitar IS a "vehicle for songs." A guitar solo - or guitar break - is supposed to enhance the whole composition, or performance. That's the art of it. What Allman is missing in Young's playing is technique, literally the craft side of guitar playing.

Neil Young, guitarist? Well, I really don't think of him as a "guitarist." He's a singer/songwriter who plays guitar, and apparently has a damn good time doing it. He's not even in the same room as Duane Allman. But he certainly seems to have a good time playing his noisy ol' solos, and he sure as heck can turn one note into a successful guitar solo. A friend of mine who used to run a record shop locally once told me that his guitar "dream team" would be Neil Young and Keith Richards. I do think that would work, in a strange and off beat way.

 

Totally agree with you. Neil's a one off as a songwriter, a singer and a guitarist. No one else like him. He sure as hell can't dance though. LOL.

 

Love Neil's guitar playing. It's distinctive and you always know its Neil when you hear it. He really rocks it on Roadrock live.

 

Any debate over Neil's ability can be ended by listening to any bootleg recording from February 1991 (forget about the Arc reputation, which has absolutely nothing to do with it, seeing as all the solos are edited out from that album). Skip to Cortez if you are in a hurry.

Not just a great guitar player, but at his best, as great and as distinctive as anyone on the planet.

 

I might argue that Springsteen is right there with him as a singer/songwriter and guitar player. Love them both. Also a certain Steven Wilson, some would argue, might fit the mold.

 

I wasn't comparing, I was stating my preference. Huge difference. Clearly our Swedish friend is the more technically proficient player. Give me Neil thrashing about on his guitar any day though.