Reef
Garth S wrote:
On the topic of his image.. I don't think he did himself any good by getting involved with Jessica Simpson ?
“... There are real crises in the world; there are people who are fighting to keep their house warm and I'm not going to sit here and bite my nails because someone says that I might possibly have gone a date with a beautiful blond girl. I'm not going to sit here beating myself up over the head with it. But what is challenging to me is that I have a contract with my audience in a way, that I exist-- I'm their guy who's just here to play music, you know, and that has never changed. That has certainly not changed in the last 2 weeks and I'm here to play music, you know?” - John Mayer
JoeyBones wrote:
I've been listening to John Mayer from the release of Room for Squares.
Continuum is a really enjoyable album ..
JoeyBones
I don't care who he dates. Thats his problem. I just dig his music. I haven't gotten around to buying Continuum yet. I've heard a lot of the songs and I like it. I watched some clips of a show he put together while he was on tour. it was more of a comedy thing, messing the fans and some funny stuff they got up to on tour. I think he's cool. A bit weird at times, but aren't we all.
MiKeZilLA
My thoughts exactly ? He also allows recording at his shows so if you lookin for bootlegs there tons of them..... Go Check out www.mystupidmouth.com there are tons of live stuff up there... Continuum is awesome Get the 2 disc version though it's 30 bucks more and the second disc is all live stuff including a tasty 10 minute live version of Gravity ?
Renesongs
I think John Mayer is amazing and I do think the serious guitarist do take him seriously I mean he got invited to do by Eric Clapton to do Crossroads Festival in 2004 and again in 2007. In the 2007 festival he says " I would like to dedicate every single note I play today to Mr BB King" And i'm sure old BB (who was there) liked every note of it.
MiKeZilLA
Yep he's the reason i'm sitting on this forum at this hour with a guitar strapped to my person rather than in bed dreaming bout one day playin the blues ? but yeah i think in the industry he's arrived however the "serious" (read serious as unsigned) muso's seem to have judged him by his first album which was very acoustic (read an article recently where he explains the only reason the album was as acoustic as it was is that he wrote those songs before he had a band behind him and had to carry the tunes himself) and then apparently never listened to him again. On alot of forums he takes serious serious abuse. Apparently a musician who sells albums is a sell out....
AlanRatcliffe
I've gotta be honest, I don't know much of his stuff, but what I've heard is good. If he's funny live too, I must check him out. Does Humour Belong In Music?
MiKeZilLA
He tries his hand at funny but yeah it's not always uber successful but yeah he's actually gonna be hosting fan recordings from his summer tour on his official site so if ya want a taste oh his live banter and him plundering the SRV and clapton Lick library.
I think there's a place for humor everywhere as long as it's sincere which is why stand up has never been my first choice for haha's
Renesongs
Apparently a musician who sells albums is a sell out....
Yep that's pretty much it, If you a really talented musician you supposed to develop bad acne and market yourself really badly. I mean John Mayer being an excellent guitarist and singer, a commercial success, and a babe magnet (according to my daughter), is just asking to be flamed by us "serious musicians"
Does Humour Belong In Music?
"Now you should know better than that Mr Zappa" - Brother A West
Riaan-Combrink
Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
I've gotta be honest, I don't know much of his stuff, but what I've heard is good. If he's funny live too, I must check him out. Does Humour Belong In Music?
Sure it does, but only if its done well. What first attracted me to one of my all-time best, Warren Zevon,was the humour in his lyrics [although he's a pianist!!]. But its wry, witty, ironic kind of humour, which comes off as entertaining AND full of insight. Contrast that to Adam Sandler, WA Yankowitz, Leon Schuster type musical humour and I run the other way (although I accept that it may work for other people - one of my principles is not to be a "taste" Nazi: as a cover muso I hate 64,3% of what I HAVE to play). Great thing about music is there's place for everyone under the sun. If there's some good humour included WITH great playing, that sun just shines a bit warmer!
From a freezing Cape Town,
Cheers
Riaan C
AlanRatcliffe
I love music with humour (although I'm afraid Schuster doesn't count). Wierd Al is amazing in the way he copies the music perfectly and his own stuff is amazing - check out the tracks Hardware Store and Genius in France (which is a perfect Zappa ripoff) on his Poodle Hat CD. Sandler I regard as a comedian who also plays guitar (he does a perfect Axl Rose ripoff, BTW) - he has moments.
Going back a bit, the classical pianist Victor Borge was really funny and played a mean piano. He's most famous for his "phonetic punctuation", but there's one where he does "Happy Birthday" in the various styles of the different classical composers, which is my favourite of his.
My old man listens to both The Barron Knights and the Wurzels (who are both kind of uniquely British Wierd Als), not to mention Ivor Biggun...
Also a nod of the head goes to the amazing composers who used to do the music for the Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons - have you ever listened to how well integrated and funny those soundtracks are?
Of course the king of Does Humour Belong In Music? (which is the title of one of his DVDs) is Zappa. Don't get me started...
JoeyBones
Does anyone else feel completely disgusted with the solo he did on the repro of Beat It. I can't believe they left it like that.
Reef
I wasn't disgusted as such .. lol .. but I hear you Joey. I was expecting something completely different. Tighter, cleaner, I don't know .. maybe a little bit less out of time. Apparently he went out and bought the van Halen replica guitar for the solo. Let this be a lesson to all of us.
I blame Fall Out Boy for the entire fiasco. No good can come of hanging out with people who wear mascara 24/7.
On a more serious note though, John does some very, very good work with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan. It's quite fitting that they should do a Hendrix cover or two .. they got good energies together just like The Experience.
tyrone-govender
Yo Guys...
You gotta check out his new live cd, its called where the Light is, its got an acoustic set, the John Mayer Trio with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan
and a set with the live touring band.. honestly i found his earlier albums, room for squares and heavier things rather questionable..
no doubt he has talent.. but boxing it into something so poppy and putting a bow on it.. has no appeal what so ever..
but what was interesting was the interim between Heavier things and continuum was his lean towards the blues.. which really i think what
makes him stand out now, continuum was a huge improvement on his older albums..
but try and get hold of the new live album.. ei that beat it solo was terrible.. but then again.. any rendition of a Eddie Val Halen solo is no where
near right unless Eddie is playing it...
JoeyBones
I bought the new DVD on Friday, got home at 12:00 from a night out with some work buddies and got straight into it. Finished watching around 3 Saturday morning. It was well worth it.
I loved it the first time I watched it, started analysing it and comparing it against Any Given Thursday and the launch on Continium over the weekend. Brilliant work ! I love the trio, Steve Jordan is one amazing drummer. Definitely worth the R220.
tyrone-govender
Ah Gud one mate.. yeah man.. i managed to get the blu-ray copy and man
WOW.. i reali get to see how versatile his music style is.. from the acoustic
to the trio and his band stuff.. def worth the buy.. or wortwhile to watch..
he is an extremely talented guitarist... wicked concert..
i have not seen the Any given thursday.. is it any good??
lightspeedchili
his little trio on the new dvd is super tight!
dyllels
yeah im sure there are many guitarists out there who have said it before and will agree with me in saying.. this guy is SUPER underrated. got 'any given thursday" and "where the light is"
Great selection of music. Cover of Tom Petty's free fallin' is really good i think and the Trio is amazing. one of favourite DVD's i must say ?
JK
A really great Mayer quote, which sums up his playing-
“Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix. And that's who a lot of people have become. However far you stop on your climb to be like him, that's who you are.”
tyrone-govender
wow.. thats pretty profound.. bt i think some how i can relate.. its who we all are..
we idolise someone, and we want to play jis lyk them..
Free falling is an awesome song on the disk.. ders and awesome tab at ultimate-guitar
its pretty easy to play as well with the picking...
his transition from the poppy stuff to blues was unbelievable.. and he has earned alot of
credibility and respect in the guitar fraterinities for it..
i still havnt seen any given thursday.. is it more his pop stuff?
dyllels
'any given thursday' is more of the pop songs yeah.. nice guitar playing on the songs tho and he does a cover of stevie ray vaughns 'lenny' before 'man on the side'. it is amazing i think. worth a watch but maybe not a purchase unless you a fan of his pop songs as well.
