BOOKS & DVDs
The Playmusic guide to the best in music tuition books and DVDs… This month we take a gander at a new Quick Licks Kerry King T
CRAZY TRAIN
QUICK LICKS KERRY KING THRASH METAL, KEY: E MINOR
SRP: £19.99
Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced Artist: Andy James
Catalogue Number: RDR 0400 Contact: Lick Library 01708 757 337
www.licklibrary.com
THE HIGH LIFE AND TRAGIC DEATH OF RANDY RHOADS
SRP: £14.95
Author: Joel McIver ISBN: 978-1-906002-37-4 Contact: Jawbone Press
www.jawbonepress.com
instructional DVD, plus a sensational new biography of the legendary rock guitarist Randy Rhoads…
rash Metal
L
ick Library’s Quick Licks series is a kind of fast track to gaining a deeper understanding of the techniques of a particular rock, metal or blues guitarist, demonstrating their approach via one specially composed piece of music based on their unique style. Quick Licks DVDs break the
demo tune down into different sections, explaining in great detail how the featured guitarist approaches each part, and whilst the pieces are still quite challenging the focus and attention to detail leave no stone unturned in their quest to help the viewer really get the licks under their fi ngers. In this instance the latest guitarist to receive the Quick Licks treatment is Kerry King from seminal US thrash metal band Slayer. As a guitarist Kerry King is not generally noted for his fi nesse but presenter Andy James still does an admirable job of demonstrating that King is still a talented guitarist whose brutally fast rhythm work and anarchic – almost free form – approach to soloing make him a standout player in the metal genre. In common with other titles in the Quick Licks series, Kerry King’s style is presented in the form of a single instrumental track that is closely based on a well-known Slayer song (we reckon that Angel of Death sounds pretty near), with detailed breakdowns of rhythm and solo parts, plus a full backing track to jam along with. Kerry King might not give Larry Carlton much to worry about but don’t underestimate this HM legend; this is neither tame nor easy stuff to play. You need a right wrist like a steam hammer and the stamina of an Olympic shot putter to sustain these tempos without your arm muscles unraveling like a plate of undercooked spaghetti! If thrash is your thing then you’d do well to check out this skillfully delivered and insightful glimpse into the technique of a formidable master of his craft! PM
34 pickup
T
his book documents the meteoric but all-too-brief life and career of the late rock guitarist Randy Rhoads – who burst onto the world stage when he joined Ozzy Osbourne’s debut solo project Blizzard of Oz before losing his life in a plane crash in 1982, aged only 26. A musical child prodigy who played classical guitar to degree standard but who was mainly known around his native California as one of the best lead guitarists on the late 70s club circuit, Rhoads was teaching at his mother Delores’ music school when Ozzy plucked him from relative obscurity in late 1979. An intelligent and modest man, Rhoads apparently struggled with reconciling his role as foil to Ozzy’s hell-raising yobbo persona and despite recording two successful LPs with the former Black Sabbath frontman, Rhoads was apparently ready to leave his mentor’s employment when an ill considered joyride on a light aircraft went tragically wrong. This book must have been a challenge to write because in life Rhoads was an enigmatic character whose only real concern seemed to be his music and whose gifts were only really appreciated by the fortunate few lucky enough to have seen or heard him play. Where the book succeeds is that it doesn’t fi t the standard pattern of dead rock star biographies that tend to portray the artist as some kind of lost messiah and instead plays it pretty straight. It is via the testimony of friends and associates that Randy Rhoads emerges from legend, transforming into a real fl esh and blood human being. This an affectionate portrait of a genuinely much-loved man and highly infl uential musician whose criminally pointless death robbed the world of an incredible talent. PM
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