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Name some 80's guitarists that just faded away and were never heard from again.

Coralkong

By Coralkong
in Electric Guitars

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Vito Bratta always come to mind when you're talking MIA from the 80s



 

This.

He was in a puss band but damn did this guy have a great shred phrasing ability that not many at the time could do quite as well.

Apparently he imposed his own no guitar playing ban in the early 90's and hasnt been seen since.

Jake E Lee is another one whom just decided enough was enough.

However he didnt give up playing but rather gave up playing big gigs.

Sad in his case imo because he could still be slinging on the cover of guitar mags today.

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BG76 Newbie

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lol...or the immortal Taime Down

 

Tamie Down is industrial now. He dresses kind of like Hitler. I would think that would make him popular with the HC crowd.

 

 

Randy O from Odin has not yet killed himself as he promised to do if he did not achieve Beatles like super stardom.

 

I think the other guy from Odin is in Armored Saint.

 

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mfergel Newbie

mfergel

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I respectfully disagree. I was a diehard hard rocker/metalhead - I was there and I was part of that scene (unfortunately, I've got the pics to prove it!)


HOWEVER, something bad happened to the music during that time. Whereas bands like Priest, Maiden and Metallica were forging new pathways early on, there were a zillion other bands who were rehashing the same formulas and taking dumb elements to an extreme. Every guitarist had to have a neon guitar and take pictures with his fingers stretched across five positions. Once Bon Jovi broke gold, every band had to have the glossy video directed by Wayne Isham. Once Guns broke gold, every band had to pretend they were rough junkies from the streets of Hollywood.


And then there was Trixter, Firehouse, Warrant, Poison, Vixen, Britney Fox, Tuff, Winger, and a ton of other bands doing garbage bubblegum pop they called rock as long as the guitarist could play a tasteless solo with a zillion notes.


Just because a guitarist can play a million notes per minute does not make it great music, in my opinion. Speed alone does not make great music. If notes per minute is the only redeeming quality, that person isn't a musician, he's a typist.


It was time for the metal thing to die down. Yes, bands became formulaic again after Nirvana struck gold, but at least there was a renewed emphasis on songwriting. Melody, lyrics, texture and DYNAMICS! I was glad to see "She's my cherry pie!" die an embarrassing death.


Kurt Cobain didn't close the door on metal. 80's metal closed the door on itself. Thank God.

 

 

 

What's sad is that some of those bands were also starting to come into their own towards the end of their carreer. Warrant's Dog Eat Dog was actually a pretty good album I thought. Same for Wingers IV. Cinderalla was still putting out some great blues rock on Still Climbing (and having seen them live several times, they put on a solid show). It would have been interesting to see where Poison would have gone if Kotzen had remained in the band. Tesla is experiencing a bit of a resurgance, even without Tommy Skeoch (allthough it's just not the same without him in the band) and besides, Tesla was really never considered part of the hair band scene. No, Nuno Bettencourt never disappeared from the scene but it is nice to see Extreme back together. Motley Crue was better off when Corabi was in the band. BulletBoys went downhill when Sweda left. Shotgun Messiah was another great band out of that time and Harry Cody could play some mean guitar. I don't think the rest of the band cared for the industrial turn Skold was taking the band though. Electric Boys was a killer band with a great funk vibe. Conny Bloom is playing with Hanoi Rocks now (I believe).

 

 

Another player thats been discussed before as MIA is Robbie Blunt. What killer playing on that Plant Album.

 

What happened to Steve Lynch? from Autograph?

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tim gueguen Newbie

tim gueguen

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I would imagine Blunt has simply retired. I saw an interview someplace within the last year or two about Robert Plant's early solo career that included a reunion of the core guys of Plant's early solo band, including Blunt, but I don't remember it saying what he was doing, if anything.

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BG76 Newbie

BG76

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Warrant was coming into their own? They didn't even play guitar on their records. A guy named (I think) Mike Slammer played everything.

 

As for the multicolored guitars it's simply not really true. 80% of those guys used Les Pauls. Sure, some people used the BC Rich and Kramer stuff but most of them used Gibsons.

 

Makes sense. The biggest influences for most of those guys were Aerosmith, T-Rex, Bowie (Mick Ronson), Y&T and Zep - all Gibsons. Go watch VH-1 classic or look at the pics.

 

Amazing thing is Gibson didn't hardly advertise back then.

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mfergel Newbie

mfergel

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Warrant was coming into their own? They didn't even play guitar on their records. A guy named (I think) Mike Slammer played everything.


As for the multicolored guitars it's simply not really true. 80% of those guys used Les Pauls. Sure, some people used the BC Rich and Kramer stuff but most of them used Gibsons.


Makes sense. The biggest influences for most of those guys were Aerosmith, T-Rex, Bowie (Mick Ronson), Y&T and Zep - all Gibsons. Go watch VH-1 classic or look at the pics.


Amazing thing is Gibson didn't hardly advertise back then.

 

 

Yes, that's been mentioned more than once in regards to the first album, however, having seen them live twice (once after the first album and again during Dog Eat Dog) I can tell you that they were playing all of their own parts. No, I never considered Warrant to be any kind of guitar gods, more as a band I enjoyed listening too. Hate him if you'd like but Jani Lane wrote some catchy songs.

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aliensporebomb Rookie

aliensporebomb

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Warrant was coming into their own? They didn't even play guitar on their records. A guy named (I think) Mike Slammer played everything.


As for the multicolored guitars it's simply not really true. 80% of those guys used Les Pauls. Sure, some people used the BC Rich and Kramer stuff but most of them used Gibsons.


Makes sense. The biggest influences for most of those guys were Aerosmith, T-Rex, Bowie (Mick Ronson), Y&T and Zep - all Gibsons. Go watch VH-1 classic or look at the pics.


Amazing thing is Gibson didn't hardly advertise back then.

 

 

Mike Slammer (from Steve Walsh's band, "Streets") was doing a lot of ghosting work back then. I bet he has stories to tell.

 

Every record label wanted their own Warrant or whatever so they slapped

a bunch of guys that looked the part together and had session guys rip that

stuff out in a day or two and crank the product out.

 

Money was made.

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BG76 Newbie

BG76

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Yes, that's been mentioned more than once in regards to the first album, however, having seen them live twice (once after the first album and again during Dog Eat Dog) I can tell you that they were playing all of their own parts. No, I never considered Warrant to be any kind of guitar gods, more as a band I enjoyed listening too. Hate him if you'd like but Jani Lane wrote some catchy songs.

 

 

Don't get me wrong. DRFSR is a good album that stands up. It's still fun to listen to.

 

I saw them with Whitesnake and they were great.

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Jigowatt Newbie

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What happened to Steve Lynch? from Autograph?

I met Autograph at Aladdin's Castle arcade in 1986 or so. :lol: The arcade had some kind of promotional deal with them for a while.

 

Steve Lynch did a bunch of instructional video lessons that I remember. Looks like you can get private lessons from him also. http://www.fwschoolofmusic.com/bios.html

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Special J Newbie

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Vernon Reid-Living Color. He's still active but never hear much about his projects.

 

 

Living Colour is still actively touring. Vernon recently got an endorsement deal and a sig model from Parker. I believe they're part of the Experience Hendrix tour this year.

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Special J Newbie

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Tamie Down is industrial now. He dresses kind of like Hitler. I would think that would make him popular with the HC crowd.

 

 

Dude, why is it you drop this little insinuation every chance you get? You sound really paranoid. I'm fairly sure HC isn't a front for a white supremacist group or anything.

 

PS - a lot the "grungies" you like to put down (Pearl Jam, AIC, Dave Grohl, Chris Cornell) are still releasing musically significant albums that sell well. Not a lot of 80's hair metal acts can claim this. Though some of their tell-all biographies are quite entertaining.

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docjeffrey Newbie

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He's released a lot of albums, most of them getting quite positive reviews. I like his alt-country-ish stuff.


Unlike many people in the music business, he hasn't released essentially the same album over and over and over again.

 

 

I've got just about every one of those albums, even the one with Emmy Lou, and I'm always disappointed with his efforts. Golden Heart was OK. Ragpicker is boring as hell. Sailing to Phili had a couple of moments, but when the highlight is a duet with James Taylor, you know that it's pretty low key.

 

Dire Straits did not make the same album over and over. Making Movies and Love over Gold are my favorites, but they aren't anything like Brothers in Arms and the On Every Street--which was better than Brothers IMO. And Their first two albums are true gems featuring Knopfler's lightening fast fingerstyle picking which appeared very little in the later albums.

 

You could see the progression toward slower and lower keyed material though after Love Over Gold. Side two of Brothers really drags signaling the Notting Hillbillies and his stuff with Chet (which I liked very much). They guy is great, no doubt.

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