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That's a real art, up there with The Beatles, Crowded House and Steely Dan, in their own different ways.
Try playing this is a low live and make it sound as 'together' as this with the same feeling and dynamics (I love the evil look at his amps at the beginning of the solo - I was there that night and he was having trouble with them, one was frying bacon most of the night)
My dream supergroup would have Bernard Butler and Graham on guitars - probably with Alex on bass (criminally underrated).
Coxon's brilliance comes from being able to craft quite obscure-sounding guitar parts around the accessible, hummable vocal melodies that Albarn came up with. The yin-yang relationship essential to any successful songwriting partnership. Every Blur album is a stylistic shift from the last, with perhaps the partial exception of The Great Escape which could be argued is simply Parklife part 2.
I'd put Coxon up there with any non-instrumental/band-based guitarist of the past few decades. He's sustained Blur for thirty years, along with his own solo stuff which is brilliant of itself. Even his singing voice, never his strong point, makes sense in the context of his own songs.
I can't see much of a difference in the tumultuous relationship between Butler and Anderson compared to Coxon and Albarn. It's practically the same thing - ego-driven singer seeks to control band's artistic direction, genius-level guitarist objects to being pushed around. It's always going to be the same.
As for your last line - when Bernard left Suede they went on to have a massively successful career with his replacement which still endures to this day, while Bernard has never really regained his status as a guitar hero. When Coxon left Blur they floundered around and never recorded an album without him, and he's been back in the band for nearly ten years. While I agree that Bernard leaving Suede was a shame, in my opinion he needed them more than they needed him, which is the opposite to Blur and Coxon.
https://youtu.be/tBG2_MYdTS4
...perhaps?
GC’s solo stuff is actually pretty damn good, and there are 8 albums of it!
A
Oddly enough I only discovered GC as a guitarist (as against someone who plays guitar in a pop group IYSWIM) after I’d bought a Graham Coxon signature Telecaster, (which I got because it was a really useful, appealing spec at a great price point rather than because of the artist connection). Subsequently Mrs JayGee (who’s taste in music tends to run somewhat ahead of mine) left a copy of “Happiness In Magazines” in the car CD player, “Freaking Out” came on when I turned the ignition, and I became a bit of a fan very shortly afterwards...
It was absolutely awful to be honest. I much prefer Marr's style over the blues/shred guys.
He then went on to work with Duffy (albeit mainly as a writer/producer). I get the feeling that these days he feels he doesn't have anything to 'prove' and for the record Suede may have had a lot of success in the charts with Richard Oakes on guitar but frankly the music wasn't anything like as good (Brett has even said as much in an interview for the stuff he did with Bernard for 'The Tears'). The later Suede was more pop-oriented and whilst it had hum along bits, I wouldn't put any of it in the same league as The Wild Ones or So Young. But that's just my opinion.
And I think we can all agree that the only thing Oakes could beat Butler at would be a pie-eating contest, but the band remain brilliant with him in it, so what to make of that? Suede's ability to continue regardless of losing one of the best guitarists of a generation is one of the great musical paradoxes of our times.
Everything you say here is correct. Couldn't agree more.
I think we just assume technically gifted shredders and bluesman types can pull anything off after a couple of listens. Doesn't work like that.
Aye!
I love both's outputs afterwards. Bernard hasn't done much in recent years but his two solo albums (especially the first) are must-listens for fans (I adore the singles), and both McAlmont and Butler albums are good. "Yes" and "You Do" remain masterpieces.
As for Suede, "Coming Up" is a favourite of mine, but "Head Music" and especially "A New Morning" are ropey for long stretches, though perfectly listenable. However, Suede's two albums since their comeback are both really, really good IMHO.
https://youtu.be/svrg0SCxxN0
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