Word: guitars
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Born in Ealing in west London and self-taught on the drums, Mitchell was 18 when he met Hendrix and bass player Noel Redding (who died in 2003). In 1967, the three put out their first album, Are You Experienced? Driven by Jimi's incendiary guitar-playing and a heady mix of blues and psychedelic rock 'n' roll, the band soon skyrocketed to fame. But turmoil brought on by unending touring and drug binges unraveled the trio after just three years...
...musician Felix Contreras noted, Mitchell held his sticks like a jazz player, lightly between his thumb and two fingers, sometimes losing them during performances, to little negative effect. Still, he could propel a song: on tracks like "Fire" and "Manic Depression" he proved a perfect match for Hendrix's guitar. Even after the band split, the two performed together at Woodstock...
...what's the band been doing? Breaking up mostly. The current lineup has just one original member, Axl Rose. The rest, including guitar savant Slash, departed years ago, presumably too intrigued by the Internet and other human advances to stay locked up in a recording studio with their famously controlling singer. Rose, once as blond and lithe as a stalk of wheat, has suffered the pudgification of middle age and burned through a reported $14 million in production costs, making Chinese Democracy the most expensive record in history. But given the cruelty with which pop culture devours its celebrity eccentrics...
...There Was a Time" has him scampering flawlessly up the vocal ladder from low growls to meticulous high notes. Most of the tracks clock in at about five minutes, with solid melodies and abundant pace and instrument changes. Choirs show up sometimes, as do a mellotron and a Spanish guitar. It's almost enough to keep things interesting. Almost...
...grand and ambitious work to date. Even the album title sets the stakes high, ironically echoing Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” J. Smith’s day begins dramatically in “Chinese Blues” as jabs of distorted guitar accentuate the vaguely Eastern-sounding piano opening. With his voice sounding the thinnest, the roughest, the hungriest it has since “Good Feeling,” Healy sharply attacks the chorus, really laying into lyrics about betrayal: “It’s the knife in your...