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Andy Summers


Hardtail

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Any Andy Summers fans out there?

 

I was a big Police fan in the 80s. Some things Summers did with them was awesome and some was a bit garbled and hard to understand because he loved his stomp boxes.

 

Overall though, I loved the guy's harmonic textures. He's a very talented player (Stu Copeland rocked on the skins too).

 

Anyone else like him or did you find him uninteresting?

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I was him with his jazz trio at Birdland two years ago. If you have been there... I sat at the table right in front of him, so I probably could have touched him without much trouble.

 

I have to say that I didn't enjoy him or the bassist, but the drummer kicked ass.

 

I really like the textures of the Police guitar work. His jazz work, to this uneducated-in-jazz ear (I listen, but I don't follow the field) was not unique, interesting, engaging, or particularly impressive. Bummed me out.

 

Bill

"I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot."

 

Steve Martin

 

Show business: we're all here because we're not all there.

 

 

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He's mentioned in interviews that he felt way too reigned in with Sting calling the shots, but the commercial success was undeniable. On his own, he prefers to stretch instrumentally, and I suppose the endless instrrumental stuff can get hard to listen to, just like Jeff Beck, Vai, Satch, Yngwie... these are fabulous players, who will always have a small, but loyal niche of fans. I'm not stating that Summers is in their league, but to many fans, I'm betting the music is hard to warm up to, just like that of the aforementioned greats.
Never a DUH! moment! Well, almost never. OK, OK! Sometimes never!
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Andy Summers was brilliant with The Police. I was so enamored of his unique style I bought his first solo album. Big mistake.

 

Without the melodic sensabilities Sting brought to the group, Andy's guitar playing was repetitive (And redundant! ;) ) and boring.

 

I'm told he's had some better music, but after wasting $16 (and that was almost 20 years ago. :eek: ) on his first dreck, I've never worried about checking him out again.

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Yeah, I must admit, I tried to like his post-Police output. There's plenty worse to hear out there, but, there's much to enjoy, as well.

 

I love the Police; I grew to like their music even more after they had called it quits. I think it'd be great if they got back together again and put out new material.

 

I think that they made such great pop/rock partly because they had each other to bounce off of, both being inspired by each other's ideas and tempered and influenced by each other.

 

Stewart Copeland is one of my three favorite rock drummers, too, along with John Bonham and Bill Bruford.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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There was this weird post-Police thing where I saw him quoted (misquoted?) putting down Larry Carlton's playing, then shortly afterwards I saw him on the Tonight show playing a 335 and doing Larry Carlton imitation type stuff but poorly.

 

So I wrote him off completely.

 

Then way weirder was when years later I heard Pat Metheny on the jazz station playing with his trademark sound, and I was thinking "OK, now I'm warming up to Pat Metheny's style, that's sounding good". So I listen to the end to find out what album it is, and the DJ comes on and says" "that was from the new Andy Summers album".

 

Me: "NOOOOOO!!!!! :eek::eek: "

Just a pinch between the geek and chum

 

 

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I've heard some (but not a ton) of his solo stuff; I take it for what it is. Like the Summers/Fripp albums- if you're expecting to hear anything close to The Police, you've gone to the wrong place. He had a duet album with John Etheridge that was really nice; acoustic, "light" stuff, but enjoyable for what it is.

"Am I enough of a freak to be worth paying to see?"- Separated Out (Marillion)

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I do like his Golden Wire album, and am looking forward to hearing his duet with Ben Verdery, a very creative classical guitarist (yes, Virginia, they DO exist!) The two men were interviewed in a recent GP on the subject.

 

Also, there was an interview earlier with Andy on the subject of his chord voicings, which I gotta excavate sometime soon. So many GPs laying around, so little time...

 

The Police, well I enjoyed the Synchronicity album and some of the radio hits like "Don't Stand So Close To Me." They certainly had a fresh approach at the time!

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"Roxanne" is a great crash-course for the beginner in barred m7 and Maj7 chords, etc. Kinda pointed the way away from playing all garden-variety Major and minor "E" and "A" shaped barre-chords and root/5th/root8va for me waaay back inna day... :cool:

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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