Customer Reviews

Deluxe Edition

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been a huge fan of Roy Buchanan since the seventies. I was lucky enough to see him perform at the old Rainbow Music Hall in Denver during his Atlantic years. The man was unbelievable! So cool on stage and the playing was superior to anything else at that time. Joe Walsh and Jeff Beck were talking him up at the time and for the guitar worshiping faithfull that was enough of an endorsement to seek him out. Sadly, he was unable to put it all together for a serious run to the masses before his death. However, for those who were experienced there were offerings out there to become mesmerized with. This past decade there has been now three compilations released. "Guitar on Fire-the Atlantic Sessions", the essential "Sweet Dreams", and this fantastic offering from Alligator. Roy deserves to be listened to as often as possible, but if you can't get hold of all his individual offerings then these three are must haves. This Deluxe Edition showcases all of Roy's styles while including some previously unreleased tracks. "When a Guitar plays the Blues" is arguably Roy's best track from these final years in the Studio. Now if Alligator would only release some of Roy's live cuts from his tenure with them on CD all would be right in my "Sweet Dreams". Bottom line on this offering is you need to order it now and remember what all the fuss was about. The man could make that guitar cry.

Simply put if this album doesn't grab your soul your dead! This latest offering by Alligator Records has a great selection of tunes and the sound quality is great. If you love great bules/rock guitar this album will fully satisfy.

Deluxe edition a Roy compilation on the alligator records label has been taken from three of his best albums on that label HOT WIRES,DANCING ON THE EDGE and WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS.Roy was a very much underated guitarist like the late RORY GALLAGHER another fine guitarist from Ireland.This compilation features some of his finest material in PETER GUNN,FLASH CHORDIN,CHICAGO SMOKESHOP,WHIPLASH and WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS.Very highly recommended.

They say that he is the best unknown guitarist in the world.
I Think he also could be the best wellknown guitarist in the world!
Quite good booklet and small poster with extra information.

Buchanan could lay down an aerial concussion that could rival the 15,000-pound nightmares that were dropped on the Taliban--and when he felt like slowing the tempo ("Mrs. Pressure"), you felt like your feet were in quicksand-while a raging fire trapped you in a circle. He also had a delicate touch that was almost angelic ("Matthew") and a love for overdrive power {"Whiplash" and "Hawaiian Punch"). Like his friend Jeff Beck, he had an unbelievable technique on the volume control knob, whipping up unholy cries of pain. Sorry, Eddie Van Halen, but I don't think you could carry Roy's guitar case, let alone play his Telecaster.

That's what Buchanan said.
Bear in mind, these are late career albums, aimed mainly at readers of Guitar Player.
These aren't the recordings that made him legendary. He meant these to be an improvement over those out of control days.
Too many notes? Occasionally. Just like the old stuff.
Icepick tone? Hello, it's Roy Buchanan. "Ranked #57 on the Rolling Stone list '100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time,' Guitar Player praised him as having one of the '50 Greatest Tones of all Time.'" (Note that the list is padded with young players that don't really belong, and the order is wrong. Jeff Beck, in a glaring example, doesn't make the top ten.)
Rockabilly? Never heard those recordings, glad to hear they're good.
Times changed, rock took over.
Buchanan wasn't just a good rock guitarist, he was a founding father.
Stylistically...Buchanan occupied odd places. His early albums were country. The Byrds and other bands made "country rock" ok, so that wasn't a problem. (In the long run, "country rock" became more commercial and less cool.) He made a few fusion flavored albums with Atlantic, which didn't go over well. Roy switched to the blues on these recordings; its a much better fit, but I wouldn't recommend this to a blues connoisseur. Guitar connoisseur, yes.
Criss Johnson (rhythm guitarist on this album) was amazed by Roy's outward calm after hearing him tear through Chicago Smokeshop. "Yeah," replied Roy in his slight Southern accent, "but I'm screaming inside."
Jeff Beck dedicated "Because We've Ended As Lovers" to Roy.
"I play the way I do because it allows me to come up with the sickest sounds possible. That's the point now, isn't it?" Jeff Beck

I've heard rave reviews about Roy for years so I decided it was time that I find out what all the fuss was about. Well, I've only listened to this album twice so far, but it made my ears bleed each time. Is that a good thing? To be honest, in places, it's almost painful to listen to. The equalizer controls on the recording board must have all been cranked so high that only a dog could hear it. Man, I know a tele is piercing, but this thing is an ice pick. There is no separation between any of the instruments either, it's just one big mess of jumbled distortion. There is probably a bass guitar in there somewhere, but you'd never know it.

Oh yeah, Roy's playing - it ranges from simply sublime genius at one end of the spectrum to absolutely over indulgent "stuff every freaking note possible into every single measure" chaos. No dynamics, no phrasing and virtually no melodic content in many of the tunes. I can hear this kind of guitar bashing any day of the week at Guitar Center for free. I'm not yet sure if the few, select cuts that are excellent justify the purchase price. This will probably be the only RB album that I add to my collection.

The material on this CD comes from Buchanan's last 3 albums that (according to the booklet) contained music he had always wanted to record. Seems so, coz the playing is passionate and heartfelt. Besides that the quality of the performance is excellent. Although some songs may seems quite similar when listening to them couple of times, others like Peter Gunn can knock you right off your feet. An interesting CD to make you wanna check out more of Buchanan.

I first looked into Roy after I read about him teaching/tutoring Robbie Robertson on guitar. I knew they both played Teles, and after reading about Roy's assertion on his biological makeup (that he's "half-werewolf"), I figured this was going to rock. I was expecting some hot rockabilly-infused blues rock. So, does it rock?

Nope. It doesn't. As one other reviewer wrote, Roy basically plays as many notes as possible in each bar, to fast, loud beats that don't vary. There's no building on a riff because each song starts at 60 mph right out of the gate, and stays there. No build whatsoever. And the entire band plays at full volume, so there's no subtlety to any of it. This isn't music; this is what frat boys in the 80s would have popped into their cassette decks to hear a "guitar god at work." It just sounds like fake, white blues played stodgily, loudly, and with every bit of effort to take it past the point of SRV self-indulgence. I like SRV, don't get me wrong. But in the world of "guitar for guitar's sake" music, this is king. And that ain't good in my book. Roy's no doubt an amazing guitarist, but it's hard to appreciate the notes he's playing without the rests he ISN'T. I may still check out a different album of his before passing judgment.

When I found out Roy played with Dale Hawkins, I listened to those songs on the Hawkins album featuring Roy and was impressed with what I heard so I bought this album.
This is totally different. It is not the rockabilly I was looking for but is straight-up blues, kind of like what I would expect to hear in a tourist trap bar in Memphis or at an open blues jam where every guitar player who goes up on stage tries to fit as many notes into their performance as possible. Distorted guitar, lots of notes, and what I consider self-indulgent playing. I should have known since it is on the Alligator label. I have a compilation by them, and it includes this same type of blues.
I'm not saying he's not a great guitar player, just completely not the style I was looking for. I'm going to give it a few more listens to see if I can pick up any techniques to suit my style of playing, but after that it will quickly be up for sale.
I wish I knew he changed his style so drastically from the stuff he did with Hawkins. If you have other stuff on Alligator, I'm sure you know this style of blues, and will probably love this stuff, but if you're looking for clean sounding rockabilly runs and picking look elsewhere.