Song of the Week #41
This week’s guitar hero Song of the Week at Sinner’s HQ probably is a bit of a surprise (or will be until you read next week and it becomes more explanatory). I feel like this guitarist is often serially underrated, but in my mind akin to Carlos Santana, people wrongly brandish him with a singular brushstroke saying he’s a one trick pony.
A good glance through his back catalogue tells a different story entirely however, from his own lesser-known solo work to the extensive discography with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, John Frusciante is one of my favourite guitar players of all time. His musical knowledge (often overlooked) is fantastic, with works like Mellowship Slinky in B major from Blood Sugar Sex Magik demonstrating delicate phrasing and his technical prowess equally so - imagine trying to play Snow whilst singing backup vocals simultaneously.
One of the things I do love best about Frusciante though, is his guitar solos. From Look On out of his own album Inside of Emptiness to his Hendrix-style fuzz tribute in Dani California, one of the key things that makes John’s work stand out in my mind from so many other guitar gods like Joe Satriani or John Petrucci, is that you only need to hear the first 3 notes of any RHCP solo to be able to run through it by memory yourself - think about Scar Tissue or Californication, for example. For me, that’s an incredibly underrated talent in writing music.
Given the size of John’s back catalogue, I had an extensive choice of what to pick from to accompany my Friday night Sinner’s Gin and tonic, but I ended up picking this song for 2 particular reasons. One, was that in the video (as wacky as it is), John plays in my mind one of the best looking Stratocasters of all time, with a silver finish and chrome scratch plate, that i’ve wanted ever since! The other, is that it used to accompany the ring walk to one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time, one who is currently out doing the unthinkable, and defending his country from foreign invasion - Dr Steelhammer, Wladimir Klitschko. Our hearts at Sinner’s go out to Ukraine and the ongoing struggle there against the Kremlin. To succinctly quote Charlie Chaplain “so long as [dictators] die, liberty will never perish”.
The song for this week is Can’t Stop, by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Enjoy!