Michael Angelo Batio – Nitro Concert Clip (4… by Guitarf101
WOW! A four-neck guitar played by a warrior symbolically slaying the dragon with sheets of notes and riding off with the sonically exhausted virgin, his plectrum plunging through suspended steel as he grips not one, but four, count ‘em four, phallic symbols. No….this is not an out-take from Spinal Tap. This is real. It is one of the best of examples we can find of today’s fail: “More is More.”
How wonderful it must be to live in this world. Not a thought in your head about rhythm, melody or soul. Just a mission to grunt out pent up testosterone by playing as many notes as you can, as quickly as you can, switching from neck to neck with little tone variation AND….did you catch those pick-up configurations and cross arm moves? Kind of like having the loudest fart at a frat party. I suppose if the original Michelangelo had sculpted the Statue of David with the same attitude, David would have had a 12 foot erect member that would have smacked Lorenzo DiMedici on his royal thinker every time he walked through the Piazza on his way to the McDonald’s Di Firenze (we understand they Super- Sized the Cafe Lattes).
Pity the likes of poor Wes Montgomery who developed a style of expression with nothing but his thumb and his heart. If the man had four necks on his guitar (or at least three) and shredded like a cowboy, he would have doubled his income and been a shoe-in to bag Marylin Monroe. And, just what was Neil Young thinking when he left his entire being on the line with his one note solo in Cinnamon Girl? We demand a remix with a four neck guitar, really fast scales, and PLEASE… remove that soul immediately.
This concept of “more is more” is becoming much too common. Let’s look at the culinary world: Being the foodies that we are, we are perplexed by the necessity of things like putting cheese in pizza crust. Pizza Hut and their heinous ilk are guilty of many such crimes. We’re currently debating in which ring of Dante’s Inferno to place them. Their thought process: Cheese is good on pizza so, let’s shove it in the crust. We wouldn’t want any complexity in our flavors. A bite with cheese, toppings and sauce with a nice crusty finish. Nah…let the crust bust a cheese nut when the consumer bites into it after finishing the preliminary lead-in slab of way too salty cheese. We liken this to a plot in a film that has no climax or resolution. What’s next? Buffalo Wing Sushi smothered in jalapeno cheddar sauce on top of a burger bigger than your ass made with moose meat and you get a prize if you eat the antlers? And while we’re on the topic…when did the culinary arts become an extreme sport? You can gussy up Bobby Flay and his pals all you want, with their arms folded and knives in hand, but we know they got their asses kicked on a regular basis. And please don’t mention Andrew Zimmerman. Seriously, don’t… he disgusts us. Why are you watching him eat bugs? What’s wrong with you? And what’s up with this war on how hot (spicy) you can make food? Forgive us for wanting to fill our collective pie hole with a nice, generously spiced chili, replete with complex seasoning and subtle flavors. Instead, we have to blow our heads off because some guy named Thor heard that ghost peppers were the hottest and he likes the way the barbed wire tattoo quivers on his bicep while he eats them. Heat is just one aspect of great seasoning. Making it the primary goal is well… like playing notes really fast on a four neck guitar.
More is not more. Great music and art are a fine blend of great ingredients. Not an overuse of one. People like John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix played with technical prowess and mixed it with soul. They played fast AND deep. The same can be said about production music libraries: Those that boast about having 50,000, 200,000, 8 million tracks etc. are playing the notes but not interested in the substance. Trust us we know, there aren’t 500,000 great production tracks in existence, never mind in one library. More is not more. More gives you a headache. More gives you this guy:
