great albums with only 1 guitar track

MichaelAlan · Post by **MichaelAlan** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:01 am

Andy Mckee....

ledogboy · Post by **ledogboy** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:12 am

kayagum wrote:Other "no overdub" classics:

Television- Marquee Moon (pretty much the whole album, but especially the title track)

Maybe not much dubbing, but most certainly a two guitar band.

Kindly Killer · Post by **Kindly Killer** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:42 am

Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall "The Bridge"
John Williams "Echoes of Spain"

In the right hands the guitar is a miniature orchestra. Lots of famous composers have called it exactly that. I like hearing the detail of the sound of one guitar much more than the thickness of doubled guitars. IMO loudness/thickness/BIGGness is a quick high, but detail - audio detail revealing a detailed harmony - is a sustaining meal.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:59 am

How about all the Basie records with Freddie Green and no amp? Of course that big band jazz not rock...A totally different world where there was plenty to fill up the sound. They were 18 guys in one room, it better already sound big.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:57 am

I seem to recall some Husker Du and Geo. Thorogood, as well as Buddy Guy, Trower, Bolin, Scofield, Big Black, Black Flag, even Nirvana at times, etc.

And no one mentioned Cream?

Seems like the classic power-trio stuff should be...

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:20 am

vvv wrote:And no one mentioned Cream?

Good point, that.

8th_note · Post by **8th_note** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:21 pm

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned James Gang. Oh wait, most of you punks aren't old enough to know who the hell they are. Anyway, Joe Walsh could play guitar so that you sure didn't miss additional parts. Damn that music was good. Maybe I'm just nostalgic because I'm drunk.

MichaelAlan · Post by **MichaelAlan** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:44 pm

A lot of Primus.

lg · Post by lg » Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:57 pm

kayagum wrote:Other "no overdub" classics:

Television- Marquee Moon (pretty much the whole album, but especially the title track)

Lou Reed- New York (OK, there were 2 guitar tracks, but there are 2 guitar players- famously Lou on the left)

Richard Thompson- a lot of his stuff sounds like overdubs, but that's because he's a monster guitar player. Check out "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" from "Rumour and Sigh". Or the title track to "Shoot Out the Lights". Or....

hate to jump on Marquee Moon, 'cause it's one of my all-time favorites, but there are actually plenty of overdubs- not Verlaine, who couldn't, or wouldn't, on account of his solos' piquant idiosyncracy, but i've read that Lloyd double-tracked pretty much all of his solos; supposedly he liked the denser sound, and since he wrote everything out beforehand, it was much easier to accomplish...

New York- great album, great guitar sound.

1952 Vincent Black Lightning- probably my favorite RT tune. wonderful.

how's about Tantilla, Monkey on a Chain Gang- House of Freaks (RIP Bryan Harvey+family).

anything by the Mermen.

oh, and going back a few years, Hot Tuna's first (live, acoustic) album.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:11 pm

8th_note wrote:I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned James Gang. Oh wait, most of you punks aren't old enough to know who the hell they are. Anyway, Joe Walsh could play guitar so that you sure didn't miss additional parts. Damn that music was good. Maybe I'm just nostalgic because I'm drunk.

Oh hell yeah. Not only great guitar playing, but a wonderful tone as well. Plus if he broke a guitar string he could change it while playing.

crow · Post by **crow** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:05 am

When my bandmates and I were freshmen in high school, we made a "record" playing live into a boombox. Our singer at that point couldn't sing and play guitar at the same time, so i would play rhythm guitar for most of the song, and when the solo came he would start playing the chords while i staggered around pentatonically, and then he would stop playing when the solo ended. it always sounded really funny to me to hear a brand new guitar sound come in and then disappear.

it's good to hear the minutemen getting some shout-outs.

VelvetoneStudios · Post by **VelvetoneStudios** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:02 pm

Damn I could do this all day,THANK YOU for starting this thread!! Really gets your mind in a good place and reminds you that, as a "Producer" the almost mandatory hard panned doubled chorus guitar didn't always exist. Thanks, and thanks to those who remember The Minuiteman. Sometimes I tend to forget about some of the bands that really made me stand up and take notice when I was first grabbed and sucked(willingly and with innocent eyes) into this profession. Before I start listing the songs that crashed into my head upon reading this thread, I gotta ask.....if youre cutting a sparseish track with a single guitar, where do YOU tend to pan the guitar and or effects applied to it???????????
O.K.

Big 2nd for the Ramones and George Thorogood mentions.(Lonesome George never gets enough credit!)
My picks.....ANY Junior Brown record...Hendrix Live at Winterland,and Live at Woodstock and the "Live" studio version of Voodoo Chile with Steve Winwood on Hammond. Live Stevie Ray, MERLE TRAVIS!!!!!!!!!! any solo John Lee Hooker, (the man can groove on tricky rythm parts and still sing across it, and oh my god the foot!!) CHET ATKINS AND JERRY REED!!! Mills Brothers, any early Elvis with Scotty Moore(especially "Mystery Train") Harry McClintock "Big Rock Candy Mountain"...try to play it and sing it!
Jazz cuts.. Wes Montgomery...any track
Dead Kennedys "Police Truck" Bob Dylan "Don't Think Twice" Any overdubs on "Ace Of Spades" by Motorhead? Beastie Boys "Sabotage" and "So Watcha Want?",
Tony Joe White...any track, but check "High Sherrif of Calhoun Parrish" and "Polk Salad Annie" Hubert Sumlin, especially on Muddy Waters version of "Manninsh Boy" This has to be the BY FAR the greatest song ever to have only one riff troughout....any one know a better one, I'd LOVE to hear it.
The Ricky Lee Jones version of "I Won't Grow Up", Dead Milkmen "Punk Rock Girl" and "Stuart"
I'm sure that's enough for now but those ALL popped into my head from this thread, and once again thanks for putting my head right where it should be!!!
T.

VelvetoneStudios · Post by **VelvetoneStudios** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:03 pm

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ginn........... Black Flag.........Sorry to have forgotten!!!!!

crow · Post by **crow** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:23 pm

That's funny, I was thinking of Live at Winterland also, but wondered if it "counted." As far as panning, I wouldn't be afraid of hard-panning the guitar. A lot of 60's stuff has much more extreme panning than one usually notices (listening to the kinks or beatles on a stereo with one channel broken will certainly hip anyone to that quickly), and on Van Halen 1, the guitar pretty much occupies the left speaker, and I never noticed that until I read about it on the TOMB. I went back and listened to it and was surprised, but I guess it goes to show that hard panning the guitar can work in more situations than a "retro 60's" vibe.

VelvetoneStudios · Post by **VelvetoneStudios** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:42 pm

I know man, and I Love the 60's explorations of the New and Magical World of Stereophonic Recording, but as I have to get stuff past A&R's and other such daring risk takers more often than not...are there other panning tricks up anyone's sleeves that really work and still wont give a Marketing exec a hemmorage???
You know, shades of the great recordings that still fit into the Modern Standard of Sameness to an acceptable degree????

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great albums with only 1 guitar track

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