Remembering Randy.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marshall Law
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jabps said:
As a young player that lived it when Randy hit, yeah he moved the needle. Alot more than Yngwie and Satch did because Randy broke the barrier beyond just guitar music and aficionados. Yngwie was getting little music played on the radio and Satch, I mean great player but really who did he influence. I like Satch but to me, he's just an amalgam and not necessarily unique of everything we've heard before as a player.

As I said in my post above, RR's impact wasn't on the level of EVH or Jimi, nobody has hit that mark but RR took all his influences and combined them into something unique which all the greats do. Then put it in the rock guitar format that had not been heard before. And for two years, he was pretty much it when it came to rock guitar. I can see why Ed was jealous because for that short period of time it was all about Randy and not Ed.

Did his death elevate him more? IMO no as he was about as celebrated as you could get at the time however it did cement it as it does many young artists/actors/sports stars etc... that are uber talented and pass early.
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Yeah the other guys I maybe could see it, but Satch??? I think EVH and Jimi were more influential maybe because to me they were more about pushing things forward in new overall sounds and some techniques, while Randy was more about depth in his musical ideas and that’s a lot harder to emulate well than sound or technique
 
I'm a huge Randy fan but I agree with some of you.. I don't always get why everyone goes on about genius. First album was straight forward and we know he worked a long time on those solos to make everything fit. He wasn't a guy that could improvise and liked to plot out various sections and then live play around them. Diary proves that in the sense that there are a few filler solos that Randy himself is on record as saying he just didn't have time to go back and make better. Listen, it isn't rocket science when it comes to lead playing. If you are a talented guitar player, I am thinking you can throw something down that is better than what he left on Little Dolls.

Now compositionally, there is no question that he was evolving up and Diary proves that. Some awesome stuff rythmically on that one. So when he had time, he could come up with some incredible stuff. But " genius" ? That's a hard one.. they often talk about him like he was Mozart of Beethoven. I don't see it. A lot of the legend comes from his death and the way he died imo. He had the look and the chops though. Awesome live player. None of what I said takes away from his legacy I don't think. He will always be in my top 10.
 
TheBiggestJerk said:
Sorry a bunch of videos doesn’t answer my query. Gotta come with receipts to use the “genius” moniker.
You said it so back it up!
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Sorry if it didn't answer your query after listening to those vids. That is your problem. Not mine. Music taste is subjective apparently. Some people say SRV wasn't great....... and Ingwe moved the needle and Randy didn't. To each's own....
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I'm a huge Randy fan but I agree with some of you.. I don't always get why everyone goes on about genius. First album was straight forward and we know he worked a long time on those solos to make everything fit. He wasn't a guy that could improvise and liked to plot out various sections and then live play around them. Diary proves that in the sense that there are a few filler solos that Randy himself is on record as saying he just didn't have time to go back and make better. Listen, it isn't rocket science when it comes to lead playing. If you are a talented guitar player, I am thinking you can throw something down that is better than what he left on Little Dolls.

Now compositionally, there is no question that he was evolving up and Diary proves that. Some awesome stuff rythmically on that one. So when he had time, he could come up with some incredible stuff. But " genius" ? That's a hard one.. they often talk about him like he was Mozart of Beethoven. I don't see it. A lot of the legend comes from his death and the way he died imo. He had the look and the chops though. Awesome live player. None of what I said takes away from his legacy I don't think. He will always be in my top 10.
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Most guys exaggerate a ton when they call guys geniuses. I don’t know if he really was or wasn’t that, but at least imo had some of the most musical depth of any players I heard in his best moments. At his best moments imo nothing Yngwie or EVH did could remotely touch him in terms of depth of ideas in leadwork and many guys call those 2 geniuses (they’re fortes imo lied elsewhere). I wouldn’t worry about those labels. We can just say they’re all super creative guys that hugely pushed things forward on guitar. Who cares if they technically would be geniuses or not. It’s more about what they did than their natural talent or IQ
 
braintheory said:
Most guys exaggerate a ton when they call guys geniuses. I don’t know if he really was or wasn’t that, but at least imo had some of the most musical depth of any players I heard in his best moments. At his best moments imo nothing Yngwie or EVH did could remotely touch him in terms of depth of ideas in leadwork and many guys call those 2 geniuses (they’re fortes imo lied elsewhere). I wouldn’t worry about those labels. We can just say they’re all super creative guys that hugely pushed things forward on guitar. Who cares if they technically would be geniuses or not. It’s more about what they did than their natural talent or IQ
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I'd disagree in the sense that if anyone had to be called genius? It would be Yngwie. That guy could drop a solo inside of 5 min on anything and call it a day when he was in his prime. He truly was unique and if people don't hear the depth of his classical playing throughout the acoustic sections of his early work, then I don't know what to say. There is tons of depth there. But I guess you are right, what is "genius" anyways... when someone brings small crushable beer cans to hockey wrapped in an ice pack we call him " genius" in the dressing room after a beer league game. So maybe all these guys are geniuses in comparison lol.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I'd disagree in the sense that if anyone had to be called genius? It would be Yngwie. That guy could drop a solo inside of 5 min on anything and call it a day when he was in his prime. He truly was unique and if people don't hear the depth of his classical playing throughout the acoustic sections of his early work, then I don't know what to say. There is tons of depth there. But I guess you are right, what is "genius" anyways... when someone brings small crushable beer cans to hockey wrapped in an ice pack we call him " genius" in the dressing room after a beer league game. So maybe all these guys are geniuses in comparison lol.
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I love Yngwie for his tone and feel, but musically I haven’t heard anything in terms of his ideas that really moved me and in many ways he was sloppy (I’ve explained this to you more before in depth with unevenness in note spacing and extraneous noises in many passages). My background is classical as primarily a classical guitarist that got my grad and post-grad in it and would say musically (like Randy) he’s really not as interesting and very predicable when he tries to be more classical. Both guys have much more to say imo when they’re more bluesy in nature. I actually hate when guys in this genre try to be classical. It usually just comes off to me contrived and like a poor man’s version of it, while when they take a more bluesy approach it’s like blues on coke in a way and much more emotional and real/less formulaic in what they have to say. I think it also just fits the electric guitar so much better. If you listen to a few modern classical composers that wrote for electric guitar they actually make it a bit more bluesy with a lot of bends and stuff to fit the guitar and utilize what it uniquely does. They don’t try to make it sound as classical because they know it doesn’t fit as easily
 
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Kapo_Polenton said:
I'd disagree in the sense that if anyone had to be called genius? It would be Yngwie. That guy could drop a solo inside of 5 min on anything and call it a day when he was in his prime. He truly was unique and if people don't hear the depth of his classical playing throughout the acoustic sections of his early work, then I don't know what to say. There is tons of depth there. But I guess you are right, what is "genius" anyways... when someone brings small crushable beer cans to hockey wrapped in an ice pack we call him " genius" in the dressing room after a beer league game. So maybe all these guys are geniuses in comparison lol.
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My opinion of Yngwie is he played really fast and had nothing to say. All sounds the same to me with no character. Randy's leads had something to say. More poetic I guess to find a word.
More notes doesn’t make a solo better. It’s about what's behind the notes and placement.
Lol but that is just my opinion!
My #1 was EVH. #2;Randy. Then after that Lynch, Vito, Criss Oliva and SRV.
 
Briman24 said:
My opinion of Yngwie is he played really fast and had nothing to say. All sounds the same to me with no character. Randy's leads had something to say. More poetic I guess to find a word.
More notes doesn’t make a solo better. It’s about what's behind the notes and placement.
Lol but that is just my opinion!
My #1 was EVH. #2;Randy. Then after that Lynch, Vito, Criss Oliva and SRV.
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I agree. He had mainly feel and tone going for him. Many guys could player faster with a lot more accuracy too if that’s what one really cares to hear. Randy was one of the few who could play fast with something to say with it. There was this stupid saying how it’s harder to say more with fewer notes, but I think it’s the exact opposite as so few shreddy passages are musically compelling

I love most of those players too, but for musicality in leadwork wouldn’t say they were within light years of Randy. I love a bunch EVH’s riffs with their rhythm and swing and sound stuff he did, but for leadwork many 5 year olds could compose stuff more musically coherent
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I'd disagree in the sense that if anyone had to be called genius? It would be Yngwie. That guy could drop a solo inside of 5 min on anything and call it a day when he was in his prime. He truly was unique and if people don't hear the depth of his classical playing throughout the acoustic sections of his early work, then I don't know what to say. There is tons of depth there. But I guess you are right, what is "genius" anyways... when someone brings small crushable beer cans to hockey wrapped in an ice pack we call him " genius" in the dressing room after a beer league game. So maybe all these guys are geniuses in comparison lol.
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I'm neither here nor there on declaring someone a genius but if one is going to declare Yngwie as such then Rhoads is there as well.

Again, it's all about the timeline. Sure guys coming out now are just insane off the charts with what they can do but "at that time" nobody sounded like Randy in a rock guitar context. Not only from a playing standpoint but most important, compositionally. To me when I listen to Randy again it's all in the perspective of the timeline and it's crazy because in that regard, it was no different than what Ed had done years before. In fact with Ed you even questioned was it even a guitar at times, that's how advanced it was.

The beauty of Randy to me as a fan is you listen to the stuff with Quiet Riot and no wonder they never got signed, it was terrible. Then to make that jump with Blizzard and Diary in that short time span is incredible. The ability to energize standard blues parts, his staccato pentatonics, the crescendo's, make it sound fresh and then put a classical slant on everything, then all the little nuance parts and pings - it blew our minds at the time. Then right when you're catching your breath Yngwie hits and everyone was like wtf full on classical.

Great times for a young guitarist for sure. Talk about woodshedding all the time. Honestly back then was like discovering gold every time someone new came out.
 
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Kapo_Polenton said:
I'd disagree in the sense that if anyone had to be called genius? It would be Yngwie. That guy could drop a solo inside of 5 min on anything and call it a day when he was in his prime. He truly was unique and if people don't hear the depth of his classical playing throughout the acoustic sections of his early work, then I don't know what to say. There is tons of depth there. But I guess you are right, what is "genius" anyways... when someone brings small crushable beer cans to hockey wrapped in an ice pack we call him " genius" in the dressing room after a beer league game. So maybe all these guys are geniuses in comparison lol.
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Problem with Yngwie is Uli did his thing 10 years earlier.
 
braintheory said:
Yeah the other guys I maybe could see it, but Satch??? I think EVH and Jimi were more influential maybe because to me they were more about pushing things forward in new overall sounds and some techniques, while Randy was more about depth in his musical ideas and that’s a lot harder to emulate well than sound or technique
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The way Satch would have been influential /genius is in the songwriting and accessibility to instrumental guitar music to non players.

What I mean is that the instrumental rock song becoming mainstream was imo due to him. Sure there were a few instrumentals prior to him getting some radio play, but nothing like he has been able to do.
 
Greazygeo said:
Problem with Yngwie is Uli did his thing 10 years earlier.
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Musically I much prefer Uli, but he sounds very different to me than Yngwie. Sometimes I hear actually some flamenco influence in some of his ideas
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I'm a huge Randy fan but I agree with some of you.. I don't always get why everyone goes on about genius. First album was straight forward and we know he worked a long time on those solos to make everything fit. He wasn't a guy that could improvise and liked to plot out various sections and then live play around them. Diary proves that in the sense that there are a few filler solos that Randy himself is on record as saying he just didn't have time to go back and make better. Listen, it isn't rocket science when it comes to lead playing. If you are a talented guitar player, I am thinking you can throw something down that is better than what he left on Little Dolls.

Now compositionally, there is no question that he was evolving up and Diary proves that. Some awesome stuff rythmically on that one. So when he had time, he could come up with some incredible stuff. But " genius" ? That's a hard one.. they often talk about him like he was Mozart of Beethoven. I don't see it. A lot of the legend comes from his death and the way he died imo. He had the look and the chops though. Awesome live player. None of what I said takes away from his legacy I don't think. He will always be in my top 10.
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As much as it pains me, I have to whole-heartedly agree....

I still miss Randy though.... SATO!!!
 
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