That guitarist in Roxy Music

scrumhalf

Anyone who can come up with the riff on "Mother of Pearl" gets my vote. There's a live vesion from Musik Laden on YouTube. The first eighty seconds are incendiary. Shame about the rest of it. 

ICBM

Gassage said:

I've always loved this version of Like a Hurricane- however, Andy Newmark steals the show- as exquisite as ever.

Neil Hubbard plays a lot of the guitar you hear on that. I've always loved that version too - in fact, the whole The High Road EP is brilliant, I had that back in the early 80s and just about wore it out.

I do like Manzanera a lot as a guitarist though, despite his limitations (or maybe because of them). He was a big influence on me to begin with - one of the reasons I've always loved black 3-pickup Les Paul Customs, and still want a Firebird even though I can't play them! The first proper gig I went to was The Explorers, Manzanera and Mackay's post-Roxy band, front row and just a few feet from both those guitars...

Gassage

ICBM said:

Gassage said:

I've always loved this version of Like a Hurricane- however, Andy Newmark steals the show- as exquisite as ever.

Neil Hubbard plays a lot of the guitar you hear on that. I've always loved that version too - in fact, the whole The High Road EP is brilliant, I had that back in the early 80s and just about wore it out.

Hubbard plays the first solo, Phil plays all of the last solo.

TheBigDipper

I think Manzanera is a fine player with a nice degree of taste in his musical choices. I really like his playing on the Quiet Sun album. He also did a great job of supporting his neighbour, Dave Gilmour as the second guitarist when Gilmour was promoting "On An Island". The "Remember That Night" DVD shows it all off perfectly. He doesn't shred, though, and I realise that's very important to some of us - fast is just as a much a musical dynamic as loud, IMHO, so I don't diss shredding, nor do I think it's the be-all and end-all. 

JezWynd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzhAeukF1A

Kittyfrisk

JezWynd said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzhAeukF1A

Excellent. I completely loved Roxy Music from first hearing John Peel play tracks from the first album.
I see Phil still has the much hated Strat ashtray bridge cover in place on that session. Very cool   

CaseOfAce

Thread title is a little disrespectful. You could have just just said "Phil Manzanera ..." and most of us would have had a clue who you were on about !

If he was good enough to go on the road with Gilmour I'm guessing he can't be that much of a hack?
I'm sure that  wasn't Janek's intention...

but anyway... one of those players to me I instantly associate with a Firebird (other than Johnny Winter?) - and a guitarist who features in a band who's greatest hits are absolutely swamped with synths with a unique sounding vocalist... leaving very little room for him to shine.

I'm not the biggest Roxy fan - the early stuff is way too arty for me... and the latter stuff I find a bit bland - but I love More Than This and Jealous Guy but this is my favourite ...and Manzanera plays some tasty licks here as well...

StuartMac290

What a bizarre thread, Phil Manzanera is a great guitar player! Hugely inventive throughout his career.

Litterick

Diamond Head is a superb album, performed by everybody who had played in Roxy Music – except Bryan Ferry.

Until reading this thread, I had never heard anyone say Manzanera had limitations as a guitarist.

ICBM

StuartMac290 said:

What a bizarre thread, Phil Manzanera is a great guitar player! Hugely inventive throughout his career.

Certainly, but not a ‘virtuoso’ in the standard guitar sense. I’m sure he’s entirely happy with that.

ESBlonde

As an aside to this, many of the now classic bands/guitarists feature so called untrained guitarists. Now there are a lot of “untrained” guitarists in the world, but my impression is that there is a disproportionately large number of them in the bands that made it. This doesn’t apply to the guys backing your Eltons, Joels or whatever but the idea that you must be able to perform fingerboard gymnastics seems to be a millennial trend (some always aspired to be an Eric or a Jimi or a Howe). 

I’ve no scientific evidence to support my theory though so feel free to shoot holes in it.

Dave_Mc

ESBlonde said:

As an aside to this, many of the now classic bands/guitarists feature so called untrained guitarists. Now there are a lot of “untrained” guitarists in the world, but my impression is that there is a disproportionately large number of them in the bands that made it. This doesn’t apply to the guys backing your Eltons, Joels or whatever but the idea that you must be able to perform fingerboard gymnastics seems to be a millennial trend (some always aspired to be an Eric or a Jimi or a Howe). 

I’ve no scientific evidence to support my theory though so feel free to shoot holes in it.

I wonder would they make it now? Not shooting holes in your argument, just genuinely wondering. Then again, they might... having good songs (if you're a rock band) usually seems to be the most important thing.

imalrightjack

scrumhalf said:

Anyone who can come up with the riff on "Mother of Pearl" gets my vote. There's a live vesion from Musik Laden on YouTube. The first eighty seconds are incendiary. Shame about the rest of it. 

What's wrong with the rest of it*?  Brilliant song and a classic Roxy Music twist from one sound to another (If There Is Something is my favourite example), full of creativity, invention and fun.  Ferry's performance is absolutely wonderful.

* - if you mean the rest of his playing on the song, he does look rather bored - but I like most of what he plays, with his lovely clunky ham-fisted vibrato.

PS - love his playing on In Every Dream Home a Heartache.  Brilliant.

StuartMac290

ESBlonde said:

As an aside to this, many of the now classic bands/guitarists feature so called untrained guitarists. Now there are a lot of “untrained” guitarists in the world, but my impression is that there is a disproportionately large number of them in the bands that made it. This doesn’t apply to the guys backing your Eltons, Joels or whatever but the idea that you must be able to perform fingerboard gymnastics seems to be a millennial trend (some always aspired to be an Eric or a Jimi or a Howe). 

I’ve no scientific evidence to support my theory though so feel free to shoot holes in it.


Most of the best musicians I've worked with over the last 30 years have been untrained. Actually, I've been working a lot with Mark Brzezicki over the last year or so - by any standards one of the very best drummers on the planet, with the CV to match his status as such, and he's entirely self-taught .

Funkfingers

impmann said:

He's not a virtuoso but his playing *in context* with Roxy was great.

I would go further. 

Other than the classically-trained McKay, none of the full-time members of Roxy Music could be described as a virtuoso. That is kinda the point. A band should be greater than the sum of its parts.

northern_guit

I worked in a RM tribute act for years so of course had to study his parts in great detail.
His lead breaks are very interesting. I've always thought he's playing what's in his head because most of them don't sem to follow any scale.!!
Have a listen to If There is Something and work out the lead break in that if you think he's rubbish. It's brilliant and I loved playing it. 

GJK1959

He’s got that red Firebird…..nuff said 

JezWynd

imalrightjack said:

scrumhalf said:

Anyone who can come up with the riff on "Mother of Pearl" gets my vote. There's a live vesion from Musik Laden on YouTube. The first eighty seconds are incendiary. Shame about the rest of it. 

What's wrong with the rest of it*?  Brilliant song and a classic Roxy Music twist from one sound to another (If There Is Something is my favourite example), full of creativity, invention and fun.  Ferry's performance is absolutely wonderful.

* - if you mean the rest of his playing on the song, he does look rather bored - but I like most of what he plays, with his lovely clunky ham-fisted vibrato.

PS - love his playing on In Every Dream Home a Heartache.  Brilliant.

Not sure how much truth there is to this but - recall that he was pissed that Eno was messing about with his guitar signal via the synth.

Bryan Ferry has settled behind the keys as band leader in his most recent band and he looks very at home in the role, surrounded by stellar players bringing his old compositions to glorious life…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d5PENVCZQ8

JerkMoans

Came on to post something about current Roxy rabbit hole, and searched before posting.

IMHO Phil M is great. Subtle, nuanced, unpredictable, and always seems to get his lines so right for the songs. Just the kind of guitarist I’d like to be, if I had a fraction of his skill.

As said above, Roxy Music were certainly more than the sum of their parts. I’m enjoying learning some of the guitar parts, and about to have a stab at the No Church thing…

Seziertisch

Phil’s playing on the song Third Uncle on Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy is like noise rock before noise rock even existed.