Rate: Izzy Stradlin's Guitar playing on AFD, Lies and UYI

[DieselDaisy]

If you couldn't hear Izzy Guns would just sound like an one guitar band which is clearly not the case.

[RONIN]

8 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

If you couldn't hear Izzy Guns would just sound like an one guitar band which is clearly not the case.

It feels that way sometimes on UYI...

[DieselDaisy]

4 minutes ago, RONIN said:

It feels that way sometimes on UYI...

Slash doubles up on the Illusion albums. Live it would have sounded more like a Hendrix or cream power trio if somebody was turning Izzy down. I mean there would be nothing behind Slash's leads but bass and the drums!!

[Brownstone drum]

Has anyone ever heard just the Izzy track for jungle? It's amazing, there's bits that I'm sure Slash was playing, has so much to do with the overall sound of the song

[Sunset Boulevard]

56 minutes ago, Tom-Ass said:

I can hear Izzy as clear as day on all the videos I watch.. 

Yeah... sure... maybe in your dreams?

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Sunset Boulevard

[Archtop]

Voted option1,There are times when I really wish I had technical jargon to express what I want to say but I sadly lack any music knowledge so I can only try to describe it. To me Izzy brought depth to Guns and Roses, the interplay between him and Slash was amazing and exciting. There is  a warmth in Izzy's playing, a lose easy rhythm that complimented Slash and provided a spring board for him to jump off. In a live setting I think Izzy brought a musicality to Slashes riffs, a grounding that kept the nooderling in check. 

As a Rhythm, Lead duo I think they are underrated, seperatly I don't find Slash nearly as fascinating, he has through presence and hard work secured legendary status but I find other guitarists easier to listen to. I miss Izzy because I think he and Slash together created magic, and it showed in UYI when they were not working off the same page. 

I hope Fortus and Slash get the oppertunity to work on new music together, I think it would be intresting to see what they would do. At the moment I don't see them as a unit, that's not pointing fingers at Richards ability, it's about the chemistry in the playing between them, on something new worked on together, hopefully they would prove me wrong.

[Izzymacbeth]

1 hour ago, Tom-Ass said:

I can hear Izzy as clear as day on all the videos I watch.. 

Same here! 

[Izzymacbeth]

7 hours ago, maynard said:

I kinda agree with you.

My main problem with Izzy is his solo carreer. Slash has a bunch of great songs under his solo stint. And by great I mean innovative, interesting, different. Izzy seems stuck in the same sound since leaving GNR. I consider most of his songs mediocre at best.

Also, when he joined Axl's solo band, he lookd a lil lost with the live playing.

So.. I love the guy for his GNR work but his solo music is bad and he seems to have worsened as a guitar player over the years.

Would love to see him on stage with the guys, obviously.

The amount of different styles on Izzys records is astounding. Spazed? Up Jumped The Devil? Grunt? Snow? Highway Zero? Partly Cloudy? All so different with amazing depth. Not every song is a Stones clone although there are many. 

[Free Bird]

I voted one. It's not his guitar skills that made him a legend but his songwriting abilities. His sense for the song itself.

Just as Slash as the sense for the right solo, Izzy has the sense for the right chord progression and for the ups and downs a song needs during the verses as well as the chorus.

[Jane M.]

10 hours ago, Sunset Boulevard said:

"Izzy is a good guitarist, but Fortus is a massive upgrade."

THIS should be on the list because it's the truth.

 

I agree with this 100%. Richard's songwriting contributions to Guns N' Roses are a massive upgrade too...no wait. He's been playing Izzy's songs for 15 years. 

[BorderlineCrazy]

Can't stop laughing at the people who think Richard "I never brought anything to the band" Fortus is an upgrade from Izzy "I wrote half of the catalogue" Stradlin. And Izzy can't play guitar? That's some hilarious shit 

Btw, I wonder why @Caraibes opened a new account as @Sunset Boulevard. Is it to make it look like Richard has two big fans and not just one? 

[TOS--LOA]

14 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

Weird, I've watched the Deer Creek bootleg many times and I can detect Izzy's guitar! That was basically my ''go to'' bootleg for that period.

I just quickly listened to Live and Let Die from that show... Nothing. 

I love that boot too. Been listening to it for over 25 years! 

And for the record I don't feel strongly about Fortus one way or the other. Pretty generic IMO. I would have preferred Gilby or Kushner. Hell even Frank Sidoris.. 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by TOS--LOA

[Izzymacbeth]

9 hours ago, TOS--LOA said:

I just quickly listened to Live and Let Die from that show... Nothing. 

I love that boot too. Been listening to it for over 25 years! 

And for the record I don't feel strongly about Fortus one way or the other. Pretty generic IMO. I would have preferred Gilby or Kushner. Hell even Frank Sidoris.. 

 

 

I hear Izzy loud and clear in that. Remember Izzy has a dry almost clean tone. If you are listening for a full distorted Hetfield type guitar thats not what Iz is about. Listen for a Keef. His rhythm playing is right on the money with the drums in that. 

[Darkenchantress]

Yep, he is very audible. Of course, if you're expecting to hear him sounding as obvious as Slash you're not gonna hear Izzy's guitar at all but he's there where he has to be.

[J Dog]

I voted the first one. Having such a big role in creating AFD bumps him up to greatness standard. Good songwriter. Good guitarist, he knows how to find a groove.

True he might not be some super technical guitar prodigy on stage, but there's a bunch of those out there that can't write a catchy song that stands the test of time to save their life. I'll take a guy like Izzy over those types all day.

[Tom-Ass]

18 hours ago, TOS--LOA said:

 for the record I don't feel strongly about Fortus one way or the other. Pretty generic IMO. I would have preferred Gilby or Kushner. Hell even Frank Sidoris.. 

 

 

He is sooo generic.. All those would have been better choices.

[RONIN]

On 6/28/2017 at 7:55 AM, beautifulanddamned said:

I voted number two.

Izzy said in an interview that he was upset when he finally heard the UYI's because you could barely hear his guitar. It wasn't that he couldn't play it's that Izzy's playing is very tight yet unpredictable (he would alternate between playing slightly ahead of and slightly behind Slash). He was like Adler in that way. And that's not how Axl (and to a lesser extent, Slash) wanted GnR to sound anymore. He knew it, and was frustrated that he had no say in the way the band was moving forward. 

The NuGuns appearances are a totally different beast. How awkward must that have been? Not only had he not played those songs for 15 years, he was suddenly onstage with a band that he started that now wasn't anything like the band he started. It had a different sound and precisely 500 members.  People he didn't know. Awkward.

He sounded great with the Ju Ju Hounds, he sounds great in his solo records, and interestingly he sounds great in the Aerosmith appearance he made in 2012. Probably because that band was tight, and there was no emotional baggage with that appearance.

Great post and I think you really nailed it there. He really does remind me of Adler with how loose and limber his playing is. Very raw and unpredictable indeed. UYI definitely lost a lot of character by phasing those two out of the picture.

[98izzark]

I personally like Izzy's tone on more than Slash's, it's so much more electrifying and charismatic, a prime example is his isolated Jungle track. He's the reason why the '92 and '93 shows were so hit or miss. In the 80's with Steven a bad GnR show was like finding a shit that tasted good. Then when '91 with Sorum rolled around it didn't have the energy that they had with Steven but it was still damn good. Then Izzy left and what we were left just hurt. I can't even watch the Tokyo show because it is just pitiful, I had no problem sitting through 2 hours of the Indiana show but I can barely survive 5 minutes without getting bored and finding something else to do. Though there are FEW exceptions like Paris '92 and Coma in Chicago of that year was fucking killer. He wrote the base for most of GnR's songs so how could he be a bad player when his instrument/part is the ground work? 

[AlexC]

Izzy Stradlin is more than one fifth of GN'R.

[SnakepitH]

He was the main riff-maker in GNR, so that speaks for itself. What Slash wanted GNR to sound like in the 90s can be heard on his "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere" Snakepit Album. It's a great fuckin record, but it doesn't sound anything like GNR. To me, the GNR sound is Izzy's stones-esque riffs, combined with the low-end from Duff & Steve, then jacked up a bit with Slash's more aggressive take on Izzy's riffs, paired with Axl's vox. There are some vids where it's difficult to hear him, but that's more because it's a crappy recording. Youtube videos aren't going to be an exact replica of what the audiences actually heard at the show.

[Billsfan]

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 10:04 PM, Ant said:

Slash rocks and Izzy rolls. 

The intro solo to Think About You. The Brownstone riff... his PC funky verse riff... his RQ chorus chords, the SCOM arpeggios. EVERYTHING.

It's just so hard to Slash isn't great without Izzy. But, as a GNR fan, it's tough to argue that Slash can create anything great without Izzy at his side. Same with Axl.

They need Izzy back more than they realize. Shame Axl still can't figure it out...

[Sosso]

Pretty good guitarist. Prefer others (Gilby/Tobias/Fortus) on rhythm for GnR