__________________ From the b***s of Hancock's junior's to the shores of misery, we will curse our country's leaders cross the stars on land and sea, first to fight the distant corporate wars, spill our blood for a sheaf of green, we will do or die, we ask not why cuz we're colonial marines!
It's an image worth pondering for a moment. Maybe, when you cut past the instrumental and songwriting virtuosity, the funny voices and characters, what is left is a man alone in his recording studio for days at a time.
I think "noteable" and "impressive" don't begin to describe his talent, but I know how you are, Alpha, so I'll take what I can get.
Hendrix was an innovator and changed the musical world as we know it. I'm arguing that Schon was - again, I must use this irksome word - a technical beast. I'm not comparing the two of them, still, it doesn't detract from Schon's brilliance.
No, you are actually. Having the kind of ability to be realised and respected by such legends like Santana and Eric Clapton (to such a degree that they both asked him to join their band respective bands, and view hims as a sort of equal really) speaks heavily for how gifted he was.
I'm not saying Schon isn't technically talented. I found it impressive, especially at such a young age, you don't hear things like that often, but you're forgetting something; It's entirely possible they were shocked at the fact that he possessed that talent at 14. If you put the talent he had at 14 into a 30 year old man, back then, they wouldn't have given him a second look, I'm willing to bet.
Having great talent FOR AN AGE does not translate to great talent overall. Jimi Hendrix was doing things in his early 20s that Clapton and Townshend (Two guitarists revered as the world's best at the time.) were in awe of because he was better than them. Clapton and Santana were just impressed that Schon was good for his age. Go on YouTube, there are untold amounts of videos of early teen shredders who can play things that appear to be amazing, but aren't. It just stands out more cos they're young.
Gideon is rating him highly NOW because he WAS brilliant for his age...at 14, and that's just silly. It's not relevant to now. He's not great now because he was good at 14. It doesn't work like that.
When Maurice Greene is old and grey, you won't say he's still one of the fastest runners on Earth because he was at some point.
Actually, I'm rating him highly "now" because Neal Schon is still a technical beast, and I can provide dozens and dozens of videos from Youtube to prove it. In fact, I prefer his guitar licks now much better than the '70s and '80s days where Steve Perry (skilled vocalist he may be) put Schon in a creative stranglehold as far as his rock taste is concerned.
Edit: I know for a fact that Sammy Hagar (who is a guitarist himself) says that Neal can play "as good as anybody", Brian May refers to Neal as a "guitar god" and a "guitar extraordinare" on his website when he visited Journey backstage, and Phil Collen from Def Leppard considers Neal to be a "much, much better" guitarist than he is.
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Oct 9th, 2006 05:35 PM
