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John Sykes of Blue murder, Thin Lizzy won't be down

One of the most underrated guitarists ever.

You know his riffs, even if you don't know his name.
 
Arguably the most "famous" he ever got-



...and that's even controversial as MTV allegedly refused to play it.

It did get radio play, though.
 
Another great one gone to soon... He'll be in Rock n Roll Heaven with Phil & a lot of other folks most of us know through their music...
 
Arguably the most "famous" he ever got-



...and that's even controversial as MTV allegedly refused to play it.

It did get radio play, though.

I'd say his most (in)famous period was with Whitesnake - he wrote most of the music on their 1987 mega-album
that people recognize (Still of the Night, Is This Love, etc.) along with the previous one, Slide It In.

Sykes invented a lot of sonic stuff that's still imitated to this day in guitar circles, only to have the whole dang
band fired by Coverdale and replaced with prettier boys for the MTV audience in videos...
But boy, the fella could play. RIP.
 
Yup. And The Seattle Sound / Grunge set Blue Murder, Damn Yankees, and others aside. Double whammy there. The records execs and MTV deprived us of the hard rock genre in the 90s.
 
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I'd say his most (in)famous period was with Whitesnake - he wrote most of the music on their 1987 mega-album
that people recognize (Still of the Night, Is This Love, etc.) along with the previous one, Slide It In.

Sykes invented a lot of sonic stuff that's still imitated to this day in guitar circles, only to have the whole dang
band fired by Coverdale and replaced with prettier boys for the MTV audience in videos...
But boy, the fella could play. RIP.

That's (and a bunch of other stuff) what I was alluding to with "you know his riffs..." comment.

I saw that tour, and while I was looking forward to seeing Sykes, I had also always wanted to see Adrian Vandenburg, and he and Vivian Campbell did not disappoint.
 
That's (and a bunch of other stuff) what I was alluding to with "you know his riffs..." comment.

I saw that tour, and while I was looking forward to seeing Sykes, I had also always wanted to see Adrian Vandenburg, and he and Vivian Campbell did not disappoint.
Campbell is legit; dude has been slacking with Def Leppard all these recent years, but he's got serious chops.
Vandenburg I never thought much one way or the other, but I give him total credit for Slip of the Tongue.
They've both been through some serious medical hell and all credit due for pulling through. :thumbsup:
 
Do you remember "Burning Heart" from '82?
 
Campbell has some "interesting" style things that I'm not crazy about, like never repeating licks in a lead break, which makes it real hard to learn/figure out. Kinda like Brian May.
I love May to death, but I'm not crazy about that trait.
 
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