Your Favorite Bowie Guitarist

AlexC

Im a huge Bowie fan and recently watched a documentary on Mick Ronson which got me to thinking - one of Bowie's many talents was choosing superb musical collaborators, particularly guitar players. He was no slouch on the guitar himself, of course (that's DB himself playing Rebel Rebel). Who do you rate as your personal favourite from Mick Ronson, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Earl Slick, Carlos Alomer, Stevie Ray Vaughn etc? And Gail Ann Dorsey is a fantastic bass player too. What era or sound of Bowie's gets you going?

richardhomer

I agree he had a gift for finding great talent to collaborate with.

For sheer weirdness - yet perfection within the contest of the song - I think Fripp could well be my favourite. The part on Fashion is possibly the ugliest piece of guitar playing ever but it makes the track for me.

Fretwired

Earl Slick and Carlos Alomar.

AlexC

richardhomer said:

I agree he had a gift for finding great talent to collaborate with.

For sheer weirdness - yet perfection within the contest of the song - I think Fripp could well be my favourite. The part on Fashion is possibly the ugliest piece of guitar playing ever but it makes the track for me.

Good call. I was ten and had been playing guitar for about a year when I first heard Fashion. I couldn't even begin to understand how you could make a guitar sound like that! (still struggling with the idea now TBH!)

Fretwired

And Adrian Belew live ...

AlexC

@Fretwired Cheers for that. Never seen it before. Great song. Belew brilliant, as always.

equalsql

Simple. Ronson. 

octatonic

Favourite for work with Bowie: Carlos Alomar.
Favourite for the rest of their work: David Torn.

JezWynd

Hard to pick a favourite, Bowie picked his sidemen to suit the project in hand.That said I love Man Who Sold era Ronson, he really shines on that record and ones following. Slick seemed a perfect foil for Bowie's more dope outings and Alomar for his rhythmic invention. Bowie always had a great ear for a guitar player.

bingefeller

Mick Ronson.

AlexC

I've just find this - some of the very people we're talking about

bigjon

I've got a soft spot for Reeves Gabrels' work on Tin Machine. Perhaps I should be posting this in the under-appreciated guitarists discussion, or indeed the non-harmful-but-unpopular-opinions-which-other-people-will-despise-you-for Twitter thread which is running at the moment ;-)

AlexC

bigjon said:

I've got a soft spot for Reeves Gabrels' work on Tin Machine. Perhaps I should be posting this in the under-appreciated guitarists discussion, or indeed the non-harmful-but-unpopular-opinions-which-other-people-will-despise-you-for Twitter thread which is running at the moment ;-)

Tin Machine was the best music Bowie produced from 83-93 IMO. And yes - Gabrels made me want to buy a Steinberger, which I see are only about £200-300 now.

RocknRollDave

Brian May

ICBM

Mick Ronson.

I did also like SRV on Let's Dance - in fact it's my favourite work of his. Also don't forget Nile Rodgers played a bit on Let's Dance...

vasselmeyer

AlexC said:

bigjon said:

I've got a soft spot for Reeves Gabrels' work on Tin Machine. Perhaps I should be posting this in the under-appreciated guitarists discussion, or indeed the non-harmful-but-unpopular-opinions-which-other-people-will-despise-you-for Twitter thread which is running at the moment ;-)

Tin Machine was the best music Bowie produced from 83-93 IMO. And yes - Gabrels made me want to buy a Steinberger, which I see are only about £200-300 .

I think you'll find genuine Steinbergers are a lot more than that. The Hohner Spirit clones are about that price but not really a patch on a proper Steinberger. 

Personally I'd go for him "discovering" SRV as my favourite Bowie guitarist but it depends on the period. He had a genius for finding the right musicians for the sound he was creating. 

nocasternoproblem

Mick Ronson gets my vote

Funkfingers

All of the obvious candidates have already been mentioned so I am going to say Trent Reznor for "I'm Afraid Of Americans"

mudslide73

Can't get past Ronno. 

sweepy

Reeves Gabrels for me, blended all of the insanity of Belew and Slick with the sensibility of Ronson

earwighoney

equalsql said:

Simple. Ronson. 

David Bowie was the best vocalist Mick Ronson played with.