Eric Johnson “Cliffs of Dover”. Live at the Bottomline, NY, 1990.
Cliffs of Dover appeared on Johnson’s 1990 “Ah Via Musicom” album. It was voted number 17 in Guitar World magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Guitar Solos and won a Grammy award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in1991.
This is a song which I got to know through playing Guitar Hero with my sprogs. My nephew, Wezside, sort-of adopted it as his favourite Guitar Hero track (well, that and “Freebird”).
The version on this video is FAR longer than on Guitar Hero, which is just as well. My fingers would cramp on Beginner Level in the game, on 10+ minutes. Where do these guys get the stamina, let alone the dexterity ?
He certainly Knows his way around a Strat’ URD.
Something i’ve wondered about. Why is the third pickup offset?
@Cheezepeeze.
Apparently the third pickup is called the bridge pickup. From Wikipedia: “… the bridge pickup … is slanted towards the high strings for a more trebly sound, (and) has no tone control for maximum brightness … the neck pickup has a mellower, fuller and louder sound compared to the brighter and sharper tone of the bridge pickup. The middle pickup provides a sound somewhere between the two”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Stratocaster
Stop wondering. Start drinking
Am I the only one who doesn’t have a clue what these guys are talking about?
Nope – I don’t have the foggiest either!
I do but then Im guitarist and have had guitars in peices before , best way to learn
you are compleatley right URD or Wiki is , depending on what you are playing you swap between pickups eg lead or rythm realy nice video great guitarist
As luck would have it, in town this morning I popped into our (usually terrible) second hand CD shop, and what would be sitting the racks waiting for me but Eric Johnson’s “Ah Via Musicom”. So, going by URD’s description, there was nothing else for it but to grab it was there?
And? Well I have no doubt at all that this guy is a very proficient guitarist. But, after a couple of listens, I was left wondering, is this guy playing for himself and other guitar experts or is he attempting to appeal to a wider audience? Is it possible to be just so technical that casual listeners (or thickos, take your pick) can just get totally lost in all that is going on?
The songs appear to be a bit twee, for want of a better word, and seem to serve only as a basis for him to launch into his, admittedly bewildering guitar solos.
Or then again, maybe this is yet another grower that needs time to fully appreciate?