Strange Conversations: Part Two Hundred and Ten
Posted 15 October 2009 in Strange Conversations by Catriona
Catching up on the “Rage Gets Hairy” special, which I’m too lazy to tweet tonight: by this point, we were up to “November Rain,” and Nick was washing up, necessitating a certain narrative role on my part.
ME: Ooh, look! It’s the symbolic, melancholic, windswept guitar solo!
NICK: Is this song still going on?
ME: Oh, this song goes forever. I think it’s still going on, somewhere.
Slightly later:
ME: Slash is standing on a grand piano for the guitar solo.
NICK: Awesome.
ME: Not that it’s a guitar solo.
NICK: How isn’t this a guitar solo?
ME: Because there are other instruments.
NICK: That’s still a solo.
ME: It’s not!
NICK: Solo doesn’t mean solo. Solo means that a single instrument comes out to take the main melodic role in a composition.
(Pause)
ME: You know, that’s really not what the word “solo” means. I think the world needs to know about this.
And now you do.
Share your thoughts [13]
1
michelle wrote at Oct 15, 10:39 am
Funny how that had never ever occurred to me before, either.
Nor did it occur to me that guitar solos performed in abandoned desert churchyards by spread-eagled, big-haired musicians lacking amps look completely ridiculous.
And, finally: wtf happened in that clip? Did Stephanie Seymour die of rain??
2
Catriona wrote at Oct 15, 12:08 pm
I know! I was thinking that myself—while I was looking at her in her coffin, and wondering why half her face seemed to be made of metal all of a sudden.
Have to say, though: some seriously awesome hair-metal bands in that selection.
3
Tim wrote at Oct 15, 11:42 pm
Nick’s right, though. In opera and choral music, a solo singer often has orchestral accompaniment. In jazz and subsequent modern music, a solo passage may have quiet accompaniment from other instruments.
4
Heather wrote at Oct 16, 12:57 am
Axl got angry that there was November Rain and then smashed a JD bottle into her face, which is why she died.
5
Catriona wrote at Oct 16, 06:44 am
Well, Michelle tells me she looked it up, and you’re supposed to assume that they lived a long and happy life together, before she died of natural causes, which, of course, doesn’t explain
a. why they’re exactly the same age at the funeral as they were at the wedding,
b. why someone thought putting a pair of glasses on Axl would suddenly make him look forty years older, or
c. why half of her face is made of metal.
6
Catriona wrote at Oct 16, 06:46 am
And, Tim? You’re being too sensible.
;)
If I’m listening to a guitar solo from a hair-metal band, I expect pure guitar. What other purpose is there to hair metal?
Plus, bear in mind that I am (just to continue today’s obsession with lists)
a. not musical, and
b. easily bewildered.
7
Wendy wrote at Oct 16, 08:35 am
even if it was a guitar solo i would expect at least the bass and drums to continue…even for a hair metal band…although they are extremely bewildering. particularly guns and roses.
8
Catriona wrote at Oct 16, 08:42 am
See, the windswept guitar solo (in which, as Michelle points out in #1 above, he doesn’t actually have an amp. Or a reverb pedal, despite what I’m quite sure I remember, reverb-wise) is pure guitar. I know nothing about music, but I do know what I think a guitar solo should be!
Otherwise, they should call it something else, like . . . a guitar primary. (Or preferably something better than that.)
9
michelle wrote at Oct 18, 08:04 am
This is actually Heather…
…and I have been thinking about this whole ‘solo’ business for a couple of days now. I was certain there was a musical term for a piece where an instrument ‘comes to the fore’ whilst other instruments play in the background. I suddenly remembered, from wayyyyyyyy back in my Symphonic Band days that this is called a ‘concerto’. A solo, as you say Catriona, is for a single piece only…no other instruments.
But, in fairness Nick, I’m not sure if “GUITAR CONCERTO” sounds nearly as cool…
:)
10
Catriona wrote at Oct 18, 08:28 am
Aha!
So we have a symbolic, melancholy, windswept guitar solo, and then a standing-on-a-grand-piano guitar concerto?
I can live with that.
But then, as I say, I know nothing of music.
(You know, you could just change the commenter’s name, there. You’re not obligated to post as Michelle.)
11
michelle wrote at Oct 18, 08:39 am
Clearly, Heather learned nothing from my hilarious imposture of earlier this week …
12
Catriona wrote at Oct 18, 09:42 am
Your imposture that has now been revealed—did you see?
13
michelle wrote at Oct 18, 09:54 am
Yes. Heheheh.
I must say, it’s much less fun pretending to be oneself.
Must investigate pen-name possibilities and read up on Neruda.