Steve Morse is the guitar player that guitar players love to watch! My buddy in HS turned me on to the Dixie Dregs What If album around '79 '80 and I was blown away! Every note and beat on that album is perfection! Still one of my all time favorites!
Probably one of Morses most difficult songs for anyone to cover...only proving once more what most musicians already know...Steve Morse is the way, the truth and the light and no one becomes a good guitarist except through him!
Steve saved me. When I was younger and loved Bach and Led Zepplin people thought I was crazy. You can't like them both. Steve's music basically said said, Ya no problem.
People talk about time signature in this tune, and I myself transcribed the first few minutes using what I thought was rapidly changing meter. However it has dawned on me after many years that he's just playing syncopated in 4/4 time for the most part, until the end, when you might be hard pressed to make a case for 4/4. Breathtakingly difficult song to play as a quintet, let alone as a trio. This is just showing off! LOL
Steve the man...you go Steve!!!!!!!!! One of my favo guitar heroes =D =D =D. and also unfortenaly a very underrated guitarist =( . Should have been in the top 10 greatest!!!!
Uncle Steve has been a fav of my musical family for many years, he's one of a kind, a wonderful talent. I love who ever said there's no violin or keys part in this.....lol...best keep listening brother
Hey...that would be me! :) I never did finish transcribing this one, and in fact the file's still stuck on my old PC from the 90's, but I can't access it. This has always been one of my all-time favorite compositions from Steve. I saw the Dregs ~25 times from 77-81, and remember the first time I saw the trio and he started to play this piece. I said there was no way he could pull this off with a 3-piece, but of course he did!
Excellent observations... He is a hugely talented guitar player, but even more so as a composer. It is not music everyone can appreciate, but it was never intended to be.
Well, time signature is not only the problem here, if you listen to the original one, he's playing parts that the violin and synth would have a difficult time playing it live...basically he's covering for half of the band.....and every time I listen to this song I get this sense of hopelessness, realizing that I'll never be good enough to play it... .......o_O
Wel, if i have to believe The Rolling Stone he's not even in the top 100. But The Rolling Stone top 100 guitarist sucks. Steve should've been in there.
@ackerlaw2004 AHAHA I laughed out loud at this :) Rolling Stones a Rock man but Morse is A god! Look up Jimmy Herring If you want to hear someone rip. He was influenced by Morse as well
If you still have the file of my transcription, would you be so kind to email me? I'd love to get a copy of it. It would save me the trouble of trying to rescue the file off an old computer. Thanks! --Jeff
"anyone who views must attempt to learn something about music" says ackerlaw2004 above. I would add thta anyone who views this and *doesn't* learn something about music is a hopeless case.
It's certainly the best piece of music that Steve Morse ever composed... but it sounds indeed a bit stripped down here, witohut the violin nor the keyboards... and kind of out of tune sometimes, indeed. Thanks to broomsterm for explaining what the sound effects might be that gives that impression. The original Dixie Dregs version is a masterpiece. There's also a live version by the DD on "California Screaming" (I wonder if the album is still available) which is great. The live version on King Biscuit Flower Hour was less convincing.
