Blues Headlines
Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks
Snakes (Still) Alive Having looked at the earlier days of British blues rock last issue, we can now turn our attention to more recent times, perhaps ’83 or ’84 up to the present day.
To briefly look at the historical context, in the ‘rock’ world Gary Moore’s fiery, fluent playing had certainly raised the bar, especially when he hit the mainstream with Parisienne Walkways, plus Eddie Van Halen was constantly spawning legions of imitators and giving players who had settled into any kind of complacency on the technique side a firm kick in the pants... While technical excellence was no more essential to the blues then than it is now, there was definitely a shift towards this kind of playing that has continued – Joe Bonamassa being a prime example with his dexterous phrasing, paying homage to Gary Moore and Eric Johnson, in addition to the classics such as BB King, and so on.
David Coverdale was astute enough to see the direction in which guitar playing was headed, so having seen the young John Sykes rejuvenating a flagging Thin Lizzy on tour, was swift to make him an offer. Some might say Sykes took Whitesnake further from the blues, with his enormous double- (possibly triple-) tracked rhythm guitars and screaming solos dominating the 1987 album, but there was still a blues element present in many of the tracks – and the US audience certainly sat up and took notice.
When Steve Vai joined for the following album (Slip Of The Tongue), Whitesnake were virtually unrecognisable compared to the blues rock stalwarts they had been 10 years earlier. Before I go, I really should acknowledge Doug Aldrich, too, who has been doing a sterling job of carrying the torch – much more in the style of the supercharged blues rock of the Sykes era. I hope you enjoy these licks and see you next time!