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ovalvox

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DandelionPowderman

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Redhotcarpet
Brian wasnt a lead guitarist, Keith wasnt either but he did the solos in the Stones and became the only guitar player. But the main guitar in Mona is the rhythm, In Rooster it's the slide, I cant be satisfied is all about the slide and the bass. Last Time is all about the main riff. And so on.

There is a guitar solo in TLT that also deserves a mention, imo

I'm assuming you mean the Last Time. Brian plays the main repetitve riff that dominates the song. Keith plays the rythmn and overdubs the lead in the middle. Still Brian's part completely makes it a classic. And Bill stated that Brian came up with that part on his own. Sure would have liked to see him get a song writing credit for it. He deserved one.

There's an argument that none of the Stones really deserved a writing credit for The Last Time, though I guess Mick did a rewrite on the lyrics as used by the Staple Singers.

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Mathijs
In my humble opinion, Brian was a very mediocre guitarist, with only very basic chording skills. His slide playing was a bit better, but I have never rated it any higher than 'decent'. To play lead guitar, you need a bit more technical skill than Brian ever had -in my opinion.

Mathijs

I mostly agree with you, but musicianship isn't all (or even mostly) about technique. Brian's part on No Expectations is haunting and beautiful, technique be damned.

The odd thing about Brian from what I've gathered is that he grew up with Jazz.

Cannonball Adderley etc.

I think the Blues came later.

Apparently Stu said that Brian could play some Django like guitar.

Just say that Brian could play Jazz style guitar a bit, well where would this fit into the Stones?

I don't think it would when the solos were Chuck Berry like, but Brian seems to have focused somewhat on slide Blues after already growing up with Jazz and occasionally that would fit into the Stones.

Maybe slide blues was what caught his ear.

I think early Brian might just have been more of a player than what we get with the Stones where Chuck Berry solos are the go and the solos have to be short and sweet for those times especially for the radio (a bit different for some other bands in the later 60s/early 70s and the Stones start doing longer solos with Taylor because they had become the go after Clapton etc).

There are other accounts of him knowing at least some music theory and possibly being able to read music a bit and Brian talks some theory when he tries to explain some Sitar techniques and his explanation is from a person who at least knew some music theory.

If someone knows a bit about music theory and has a good ear, then they can possibly jump instruments and play them to an ok level like Brian did.

Music theory is a common thing to Jazz students.

Brian did seem to lose interest in the Stones though and so it got to a point where I don't think he cared about contributing much.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2013-01-06 09:42 by howled.