#44 Guitar Monsters

Best Song: Brazil

1.) Limehouse Blues
2.) I Want to be Happy
3.) Over the Rainbow
4.) Meditation
5.) Lazy River
6.) I'm Your Greatest Fan
7.) It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing)
8.) I Surrender Dear
9.) Brazil
10.) Give My Love to Nell
11.) Hot Toddy


I was going to start by saying that Les Paul and Chet Atkins where the greatest early era guitar players, but that isn’t right. Les Paul and Chet Atkins are two of the best guitarist to every live. And Guitar Monsters, their second collaborative album, displays this perfectly.

Now I believe I need to clarify something before I move forward. Being a good guitar player does not mean that you can play hundreds of notes per second. Being a good guitar player means not having a single note out of place; it means always getting the right tone for the song. And lastly it means letting the instrument construct a song and not just play for the sake of playing.

Moving on. Guitar Monsters not only displays great technique but is also has a great sense of humor and is just plain fun. The opening two tracks may not be the best but they defiantly set the tone of what the album is about. "Limhouse Blues" is a swinging instrumental that alternates between Les Paul’s ringing runs and Chet Atkins’ twangy licks. "I Want to be Happy" is more of the same but this time with some banter before and during the song that lets you know how relaxed these sessions where. “Dolly Parton is big on TV” “She’s big everywhere isn’t she?”

Their version of Over the Rainbow and Meditation are both fine, nothing fantastic but perfectly listenable. It is with the 4th track Lazy River were it really starts to get good. The jazziest track on the album, it builds slowly till about a minute into the song when the guitars really starting singing, and I mean singing. Who needs a vocalist when you have Les and Chet playing in concert. Next we have I’m You Greatest Fan which is one of the best on the entire record. It has Les Paul and Chet Atkins telling each other that they are the others biggest fan, but pretending they don’t know any songs the other did. Really it is just 4 minutes of two people who admire each other making fun of each other, which is awesome.

"It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing)" is a Duke Ellington standard being performed by there two; ‘nuff said. Now before we can move onto my favorite we do need to sit through the one stinker on the album, "I Surrender Dear" isn’t bad, just boring. So, in the context of the album is it a downer. It slows the pace and just makes you want to hit next.

Which is a good Idea considering Brazil is the best song here. The first time I heard a version of this song was in the Terry Gilliam film Brazil (which I highly recommend) and it is probably one of the catchiest, earworm inducing songs ever. And this right here is my favorite version. I am dancing in my chair just thinking about it which I bet makes me seem strange if anyone was watching me.

The last two tracks are both good, "Give My Love to Nell" is the only one that has them singing …which is fine since neither of them have good singing voices, especially since Chet Atkins was in his 50’s and Les Paul was in his 60’s. It is still a charming track, mostly because it is a traditional song so not being able to sing well doesn’t really factor in too much.

Now out of all the records on my favorites list this is one of the ones that I would not be surprised if most people didn’t like it. Being almost all instrumentals will be enough of a turn off for most people, and the fact that it is two old geezers will scare the rest away. But give is a chance…you might be surprised.

# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American made, world played - Les Paul (and various others)

# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American Made, World Played

Best Song: Fly like an Eagle


Les Paul is the father of modern music. That is a plain and simple fact that everyone needs to know. He invented multi-track recording and overdubbing and many many other things. He is the most important man in rock and roll and he never played it until very late in his life. He was a phenomenal guitarist who went from country to jazz and his best work can be found on his albums with Chet Atkins (which we will talk about at a later date).

But right now I am talking about this little album, released when the man himself was 90 years old and most of the time he gets lost underneath all the classic rock big names showing him what they have done with his techniques. Now I am going to be honest, this is not that great an album in general. It includes some very good covers but very few are essential, and it even contains a butchered version of “How High The Moon”. But the tracks that stand out are worth everything else and hey now a days it is so easy to skip songs why bother focusing on the bad and the few good are so good that they make this album jump from good to great.

Now the song everyone needs to hear is the version of “Fly Like An Eagle”. I can already hear people going “Oh no not that song I am so sick of that song”. Well listen to the original and in can almost tell that Steve Miller knew he was going to be sick of that song too. But here is a fun little fact: Les Paul was Steve Miller’s godfather. The track starts with a clip from some family gathering when Miller was about 5. Steve says singing makes him embarrassed and Les tells him that he should keep doing that and that he is going to go places…and then a Les Paulified version of the intro to the song takes you into a version where you can tell that Miller is actually having fun with the song again, playing with his mentor.

Another essential is the version of the “Caravan” where everyone spends time making guitars not sound like guitars, which of course is what Les Paul was famous for. He would take a guitar and make it an orchestra. The second best track though is “69 Freedom Special”. All the other tracks are labeled as “w/ (insert name here)” but this one is w/ Les Paul and Friends and is shows. This is all the greats coming together to have fun and jam, not just record.

As I said the other tracks are all good (except “How High The Moon” I don’t actually know who is doing it but they are no Mary Ford). If I was to pick one that represented the over all quality it would be “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo”. Really if you want to just get the highlights I would not begrudge you that but if the only way you can locate them is to get the full album don’t hesitate just get it. It really shows how talented Les Paul is even at 90 to be able to just blend in to all these styles.

(It is actually pretty hard for me to find the versions of the songs that are on the CD so I will add them as I find them)