Bands And Albums.

Randy was a fav growing up... even tho he was probably dead by the time I was 5... while he isn't my favorite guitarist now, having learned a lot of the tribute album, he strikes me as the "best guitarist ever" in terms of holding down both a rythm AND a lead at the same time. Some of his fills are impossibly hard -not in and of themselves... but because he does them while maintaining the rythm gtr part.
What do you think... is there someone who you think accomplishes this duality as well or better than RR? If there is... I'd like to know him/her.

i love randy rhoades id have to rate him as my all time favourite guitarist and hard to play mostly because of his double taps and being that im not that great but yeah id have to say hes the greatest .

Randy Rhodes had a quality about his playing that I have never heard from anyone else. His feel and phrasing are just excellent and that sound. Man I love his guitar sound. He was very agressive, yet tasteful.

The only reason why I feel their are other guitarists today who are better is because he is no longer alive. I can't imagine had he not been taken so early in his career what he would be doing today. I strongly believe he would be at or near the top of the best guitarist list.

you know, so many greats pass in there prime... hendrix, vaughn, rhodes, many others... it's hard to say what would've been. There so many people I appreciate as better now, but then, that's what is so difficult about picking one great. On any given day you'd pick a different one. Randy had very large hands... like wolf marshal sized hands, which likely contributed to his phenominal technical style. His pinky was in shape like no other. Course guys like steve morse have taken that same clean style way past randy's mark. But then randy had a great ablility to solo while he's playing rythm that I have yet to see in any other player. Def not a versatile player by any means... but he did the rock thing about as good as anybody else. still love to play the solo for crazy train... hell the whole song is a solo... so many little fills you'd never memorize em all... and keep em in order, but I'm sure he was just throwing em out "off the cuff".
Don't get me wrong... Randy was no hendrix to me... but then there are so many as good as if not better than both since either met his death... satriani, vai, john scofield, scott henderson, steve morse, chet atkins, the hellecasters, yngwie malmsteen, mark knopfler, joe pass, al dimeola, michael hedges, eric johnson, bb king, mike stern, larry carlton, stanley jordan, ry cooder, jennifer batten, steve stevens, marty friedman, paul gilbert, frank gambale, jeff watson, brad gillis, billy gibbons, jimmy page, reb beach, vito bratta, tony mcalpine, blues serencio(spelling), albert lee, andres segovia, buckethead, Django Reinhardt, al pitrelli, ge smith, jeff beck, ty tabor, nuno bettencourt, eddie van halen, david gilmour, pete townsend, keith richards, reeves gabrial, carlos santana, wes montgomery... (basically anyone but clapton).

Randy Rhodes had a quality about his playing that I have never heard from anyone else. His feel and phrasing are just excellent and that sound. Man I love his guitar sound. He was very agressive, yet tasteful.

The only reason why I feel their are other guitarists today who are better is because he is no longer alive. I can't imagine had he not been taken so early in his career what he would be doing today. I strongly believe he would be at or near the top of the best guitarist list.

He may not have gone on to be anything at all.

For example look at Michael Shenker, his solo on Rockbottom at the tender age of eighteen was absolutely incredible. The man was surely destined for greatness and he did achieve it to some degree with UFO in the 70s but since then he went steadily downhill due to poor mental health and alcholol. He is now not a tenth of the player he was when he was 18. Its sad really, I listen back now and still can't play half the stuff he was doing back then.

In my opinion Rhodes was inferior to Shenker and also to Van Halen and many more guitarists of that era. And as stated in the above post he didn't even come close to any of the names mentioned there. Infact I would put him in the also rans along with players like Slash and Dimebag. Seriously over hyped and led by media hysteria

Randy Rhodes had a quality about his playing that I have never heard from anyone else. His feel and phrasing are just excellent and that sound. Man I love his guitar sound. He was very agressive, yet tasteful.

The only reason why I feel their are other guitarists today who are better is because he is no longer alive. I can't imagine had he not been taken so early in his career what he would be doing today. I strongly believe he would be at or near the top of the best guitarist list.

He may not have gone on to be anything at all.

For example look at Michael Shenker, his solo on Rockbottom at the tender age of eighteen was absolutely incredible. The man was surely destined for greatness and he did achieve it to some degree with UFO in the 70s but since then he went steadily downhill due to poor mental health and alcholol. He is now not a tenth of the player he was when he was 18. Its sad really, I listen back now and still can't play half the stuff he was doing back then.

In my opinion Rhodes was inferior to Shenker and also to Van Halen and many more guitarists of that era. And as stated in the above post he didn't even come close to any of the names mentioned there. Infact I would put him in the also rans along with players like Slash and Dimebag. Seriously over hyped and led by media hysteria

You may be 100% correct but Rhodes was just getting out of the box when he was killed. His playing evolved so much from Blizzard to Diary it was amazing and that was a very short period of time. IMO had he been given more time to find himself and his style which he admitted he was working on he would have gone on to be one of the greatest. He also never liked playing for Ozzy and wanted to do something else, but again was killed so early in his career and never had the chance.

I was into Shenker. I have the album Assault Attack. IMO opinion he was not on par with Rhodes however that is MO. Eddie V had 20+ years to get it together and IMO his playing did not evolve much, his song writing however amazingly did. Where would Rhodes be if he had 20+ years is my point taking into consideration how fast his playing was evolving.

The fact that we are even discussing him 20+ years later after his death and that he is still considered quite good says something for his ability at the time.

Randy Rhodes was just as big 'In this day', As Zack Wylde is today. Yet both are, Two different levels of talent, & style's of lead & rythym, Guitar players. I liked 'Jake E Lee's technique & style also. {Although alot of others dont}. Ozzy has played with some good guitarist in his time, Beginning with 'Black Sabbath' through the years. But just like 'Ozzy', Is not 'Ronnie James Dio'. Can one honestly say who is the best ???... Or are they simply two different style's, Of lead vocalist, Guitarist, etc. Still.... [We all have our favorites!]...........Later.

you make a good point wegman... vanhalen def had more influence on rock/was more innovative w his rhand technique... but if you listen to him at the begining of his career and towards the end there is little difference...
can't really talk about what randy would have been... but afa what he was... he had a much better technique than van halen. I've learned several of eithers' songs and I would say randy's solo technique was much better... but then vanhalens rythm technique is really surpassed by none. Panama for instance... simple but rythmically very good.
Love both guys and both do different things well...
but the original question was "is he master of the fill"...
Look at "aint talkin bout love..." some nice combo rythm/lead fills... but no where near as difficult as the stuff you see in "flying high again".
AFA solo style in general - look at rhodes use of mode change and his phrasing... van halen is a "noodler"... you never really get an impression of where he's going...
now shenker... (MSG?)... love his phrasing... great player... but again... the stuff I've heard leaves a lot to be desired in terms of "changing key while soloing"... which is the mark of someone who really understands theory... based on that alone... I don't find him all that interesting.(IMO)
But compare randy to slash or dimebag... that's just sillyness. DO YOU PLAY GUITAR? IF SO, HAVE YOU EVER LISTENED TO RHODES? You are so far off the mark on that comment I'll have to just sustain my disbelief. Neither player has good technique (randys IS among the best). slash has a nice phrasing but he is sloppy like jimmy page - and not nearly as good. Dimebag has OK technique but no where near the phrasing. Again he's ok... have you ever listened to dee?
It's your opinion and you have every right to stick to it, but forgive all the actual guitarists in here when we laugh at you.

Dimebag had excellent phrasing - his style just changed to fit within the context of the music as it got heavier from album to album. He never lost his style, though, and he never felt he had anything to prove. Had he felt as such, he MORE than had the technique to do so. Go listen to his solo on Pantera's rendition of Planet Caravan and tell me that isn't some of the sweetest phrasing you've heard. Comparing Rhode's technique to Dimebag or Slash is definitely laughable. You're going from a neo-classical-ish rock guitarist (Rhodes) to two guitarists whose styles are heavily rooted in southern rock and transposed into 80's rock and 80's/90's metal.

Dimebag overrated? When? Where? If anything, I always thought he was UNDERRATED! But... I'm bias because Pantera used to be one of my favorite bands and I knew every song in the discography PLUS everything else Dimebag ever laid down. Yes, there are a lot of songs where his phrasing is simplistic and one could hear only those solos and think of Dimebag as overrated but he could REALLY turn it on when he wanted to. Besides, Rhodes was one of Dimebag's favs and Dimebag used to cover that material with ease. You owe it to yourself to check out more of his material if you haven't heard anything past the occasional popular Pantera song. Get on YouTube. There's tons of stuff out there these days with him really ripping it up like you wouldn't believe as well as playing some incredible phrasing.

My rant on Dimebag wasn't meant to take away from Rhodes' proficiency by any means. Yes, he was a great guitarist and who knows where he would be today. The same argument can be said for Jason Becker and any other guitarist who was great at the time. Most might say Shawn Lane trumped them all but all of these incredible guitarists have styles all their own. It's pointless to compare guitarists if you haven't the WHOLE spectrum of their playing and even at that, there are too many things to take into consideration, I feel. That's another reason why I feel like the top whatever guitarist polls are fruitless. It's all just a matter of personal preference. If you want to get down to technique and literals, then this discussion will be taking a drastically different turn.

-Stephen

Thats the exact point I was trying to make 'PhrAilGuitarist'. Its not viable to suggest that one talented musician is better than another. Different styles, etc. All the greats can copy each others style & technique. 'Big Dawgs', Its not who's better than the other. Instead, A gift from God with the Love of music. [Just like Religion] Music is our Church of worship. Love, Faith, Commitment, Prosperity, etc..........

Before I get started. Phrail, I have a copy of Guitar magazine from Feb 1998 that has an interview with Dimebag. If you interested I can try to scan it and make arrangements to get it to you. Your call. Anyone else for that matter.

All points taken and I agree. Comparisons are in the eye of the beholder and each person will gravitate toward a player for whatever reason.

In my case I have a couple Pantera albums and Dimebag is very very good. I like him alot. But, he doesn't blow me away. Rhodes did, still does. I am not dissing Dimebag, he is very very impressive but not my brand of Vodka in the same vain as Randy is. Dimebag also sites Rhodes as one of his biggest influences in the article I spoke of earlier (pg 62 paragraph 1)

Mr Mike you hit on some good points. To guitarists, and theory educated guitarists Rhodes is pulling of some incredibly difficult stuff and I further agree with your synopsis of VH.

I have the live Mr Crowley Picture disk of Rhodes playing with Ozzy and he is 100 times better then anythng off of Tribute or any album I have ever heard him play on. I was actually disappointed with Tribute. I don't think that was Randy's best night. I also have a couple of other recordings and he is unbelievable.

To stay on topic of Master of the Fill allow me to comment. He could be playing a tune and just go off an play the most off the wall wicked scale, and come in right on beat and key back into the rhythem section. I had never heard a rock guitarist do anything like that. Not just the scale mind you, but the type of scale in conjunction with the rest of the composition. In one solo he would shift through 3 or 4 different scales. This is where I feel Rhodes claim to fame is and why Mr Mike gave the monacher to this thread he did.


There is another consideration that needs to be taken into account. On the albums he over tracked almost all of his solos 2 and 3 times. How he was able to play those solos /scales and overtrack multiple times without being even a millisecond off is beyond me. Listen to the solos in SATO, Good Bye to Romance, Tonight or Over the Mountain and realize those solos are over tracked 3 times. Ozzy used to go to Max Norman (producer) and tell him to stop him. Max knew how good Randy was and told Ozzy to let him go. Check out the outro on Tonight. That still gives me goose bumps and was over tracked 3 times. I also feel that Max Norman needs to be credited for Randy's success as much as Randy. Randy told Max what he wanted, and Max would capture it. I read an interview with Max Norman and he said he would talk with Randy about what he wanted for sound and Max would step outside, smoke some hash and then come back in with all these ideas. Max said that was the best guitar sound he has ever been able to capture since. I believe in my studio I still have the magazines with the interviews.

One other tidbit. Rhodes worked his pedals board as much as the fret board on his guitar. He was constantly kicking pedals on and off and had a custom built pedal board just for that reason. I never saw him live but friends of mine did and they said the way he was kicking pedals on and off was amazing.

Lastly he did all this by the time of his death at 26.

Perhaps I am more partial to Randy then I should be because that music has alot of great memories for me and he was and is still one of my top influences, so forgive me for that.

I loved RR. I remember the day he died. I was devistated. What I like the most about him was how he recorded Blizzard and Diary. Every guitar rif and solo you hear is him playing the exact thing 2 to 3 times. He doubled everything! That's how he got that great sound.
He was also going to give up metal an continue his studies on classical guitar. So who knows what he'd be doing today.