essential stratocaster recordings

what would be on your list of definitive, essential recordings featuring the fender stratocaster? feel free to make the list as long as you want.
just a few of mine:
buddy holly: that'll be the day
dick dale: miserlou
beach boys: surfin usa
ventures: walk don't run
hendrix: purple haze, castles made of sand, etc.
clapton: bell bottom blues, after midnight, etc
deep purple: smoke on the water, space truckin, etc
dire straits: entire first album
bonnie raitt: something to talk about, etc
edgar winter (w/ derringer) free ride

Anything by Hank Marvin and the Shadows but in particular Slaughter on 10th Ave.

Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover, SRV, East Wes

Carl Verheyen - Garage Sale, 6.1, The Big Shuffle

Mark Knopfler - any of his Strat tunes

Ike Turner - well, the album I am thinking of here is Ike's Instrumentals.
Robert Cray - well, most of his output
Ronnie Earl - Live in Europe

SRV - Testify
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast, Fear of the Dark
Deep Purple - Child In Time
Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy Suite OP.5

Derek and the Dominos - Layla

Forgot to add these.........

SRV - Riviera Paradise, Little Wing

They're mostly covered already.

I'd just say Clapton, Knopfler & Hank Marvin give a wide range and flavor of the strat sounds.

How about "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Ride". Just noticed this in the fine print above but give it a listen.

Just about anything by Anson Funderburgh. Great, great, blues player. 8)

Tom

hekawi, you pretty much nailed what'd be on my list. Plus as 64Strat and J-man mentioned: Stevie Ray Vaughn

Here are a couple fave singles:
ZZ Top - Apologies to Pearly (believe it!)
Rick Derringer - Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (w/ Johnnie Winter. There's a Strat in there, huh?)

Scott Henderson--Tore Down House.

Yaow.

Don't forget Rory Gallagher!

Irish Tour '74 is ESSENTIAL!

ventures: walk don't run


I have to disagree. Walk don't run was recorded with a jazzmaster. You can tell, especially at the whammy bar bit at the end.

ventures: walk don't run


I have to disagree. Walk don't run was recorded with a jazzmaster. You can tell, especially at the whammy bar bit at the end.

I've always associated Ventures with Jazzmasters too, they have a fatter sound than Shadows. But don't really know any better...

Here you can listen to the song: http://ventures.pl.ru/1960_1/

Here are some more contemporary essential Strat tracks:

Michael Powers - "Graffiti" and "Country Boy"
Joe Bonamassa - "Reconsider Baby" and "Miss You, Hate You"
Sue Foley - "Winds of Change"
Walter Trout - "Nothin' But the Blues"

Most of Richard Thompson's and all of the Richard and Linda Thompson records (Shoot Out the Lights)

Van Morrison - His Band and Street Choir; Its too late to stop now (John Plantania)

Traffic - Low Spark of High Heel Boys

Some of Robin Trower's stuff - Bridge of Sighs

most of Ronnie Earl, and Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters CDs

all the Roomful of Blues music with Ronnie Earl or Chris Vachon

Layla - Derick and the Dominoes

The 3 CDs by Sugar Ray Norcia and the Bluestone all have some great strat tones - three different guitarists including Monster Mike who has posted here.

Buddy Guy (the Vanguard recording) and the recordings he made with Junior Wells (This is where Clapton got his strat tones - shades of the original Blackie, the Clapton strats with the electronics).




these artist all have essenial music

Without naming song titles, there are a lot of Steve Miller songs that should be on the list.

You guys forgot about the classic Cobra Records recordings... all the first, original and still the best Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Ike Turner and Magic Sam stuff. Essential.

Jimmy Vaughan: first 3 T'birds records.

Ike Turner: Anything with the Kings of Rhythmn

Two CD's on the El Segundo label:
West Coast Guitar Killers, Vol's I and II.

Johnny "Guitar" Watson's early recordings.

Junior Watson on Canned Heat's "Re-Heated" record.

New guy here!

And thanks to those who have mentioned Ronnie Earl, Roomful, Sugar Ray & BlueTones, Kid Bangham, etc, because I was the recording engineer on a lot of that stuff, and got to record those great Strat-o-tones!

This is out of left field, and maybe I'm wrong, but what about the solo on "Nowhere Man" by The Beatles? Might be one of the very few examples of a Strat on any of their stuff. I know George had that Rosewood Tele later on.

Certainly one of the most melodic and memorable solos in all of rock. :D

You guys forgot about the classic Cobra Records recordings... all the first, original and still the best Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Ike Turner and Magic Sam stuff. Essential.

Jimmy Vaughan: first 3 T'birds records.

Ike Turner: Anything with the Kings of Rhythmn

Two CD's on the El Segundo label:
West Coast Guitar Killers, Vol's I and II.

Johnny "Guitar" Watson's early recordings.

Junior Watson on Canned Heat's "Re-Heated" record.

Good call RR, but was Jimmie V always using a Strat on those early albums, or was he sometimes using a Tele? I had their first LP, "Girls Go Wild" on the Takoma label, and on the cover he's holding a Tele.

In general, he has always been among my top favorite Strat-o-masters!

Magic Sam et al for sure!

And:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000006KT9.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

You guys forgot about the classic Cobra Records recordings... all the first, original and still the best Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Ike Turner and Magic Sam stuff. Essential.

Jimmy Vaughan: first 3 T'birds records.

Ike Turner: Anything with the Kings of Rhythmn

Two CD's on the El Segundo label:
West Coast Guitar Killers, Vol's I and II.

Johnny "Guitar" Watson's early recordings.

Junior Watson on Canned Heat's "Re-Heated" record.

Good call RR, but was Jimmie V always using a Strat on those early albums, or was he sometimes using a Tele? I had their first LP, "Girls Go Wild" on the Takoma label, and on the cover he's holding a Tele.

In general, he has always been among my top favorite Strat-o-masters!

Good question D'blue. I've heard a few different reports the most reliable one was the guitars on the first record were the Tele and a maple board, sunburst Strat and from then on... 'til he got the white one, the Strat.

Yeah, I agree Robert Ward is monster player (tele mostly for what I have seen).

Forgot these from the earlier post.

Little Feat is great strat band. Dixie Chicken and Waitin for columbus, plus some of their new stuff is great.

The Cary Bell album (alligator records but for got the name) with Steve Jacobs on guitar is an excellent strat recording. Steve told a friend of mine that there is one song on the record that he played a LesPaul. (Steve is a GREAT player live and a real nice guy).

Don't forget Rory Gallagher!

Irish Tour '74 is ESSENTIAL!

agreed


Also his BBC Sessions and Live In Europe

Pink Floyd - Time, money, comfortably numb, marooned.

i know you'd miss me if i didn't chime in:

grateful dead: europe '72

Duane Allman "An Anthology"....lot's of biting Strat work on his Muscle Shoals sessions.

For me:
Saunders/Garcia-The Keystone Sessions Vol 1,2 & 3
Dire Straits-Communique
Derick and the Dominos-Layla
Richard Thompson-Pour Down Like Silver
Anything by Mr. James Marshall Hendrix

If you can find boots where Mike Bloomfield played his black Strat, then add that.

"The World's Greatest Guitar Player"..Eldon Shamblin,
the main man behind the Bob Wills sound, was named 'World's Greatest Guitar Player' by Rolling Stone magazine the year this came out. Shamblin's Gold Strat is one of the most famous strats ever built....for good reason, imo.

Jane's Addiction did a version of the Stones "sympathy for the devil". I had read somewhere that the lead in that version is a strat. If it's not, whatever it is, it sounds sooooo bad. Another one that comes to mind is the duel lead in the Beatles "Nowhere Man". Those two strats were sonic blue in color. The one George played he later repainted in a phsycadelic theme and named it "Rocky".


Gene Tunney

JH's Bold As Love / Woodoo Child / Little Wing

A whole bunch of Ry Cooder's stuff.
Classic Strat sounds, great playing.

little wing....
or any/every hendrix song for that matter

Just thought I'd let ya'll know, this month's guitar Player has an srticle on the playing of Eldon Shamblin. If you have any interest in western swing, there is a good lesson there.

Most songs by;

Dick Dale,
Hank Marvin,
Chris Isaak (pre-1993),
Dire Straits (white album and Communique)

here are some great strat moments i thought of: rory gallagher's intro to "i wonder who" on irish tour 74. here's what a good bridge pick-up sounds like.

SRV's cover of "hideaway" that's a bonus cut on "couldn't stand the weather". hearing this was the 1st time i understood all the fuss about his tone. you can really hear the strings rattle against the frets on this.

the solo in "smoke on the water" is an epitome of smooth strat perfection... it just sounds completely perfect to me.

Frank Zappa's "Guitar" and "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar" albums.

JJ Cale's tune "Crazy Mama," among others.

Frank Zappa's "Guitar" and "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar" albums.

JJ Cale's tune "Crazy Mama," among others.

Uh, on Crazy Mama Mac Gayden is playing a Lincoln (japanese les paul copy) and JJ is playing his harmony funk machine.

I reserve the right to be wrong on this.. and the solo is crazy good... anybody who doesn't own that JJ album is missing out on where Knopfler came from... "Naturally" I remember when Knopfler arrived with the first Dire Straits album my buddy and I laughed and started singing "The river runs deep and the water is cold as ice!" Dig that!

Funny, but I don't think anyone mentioned Buddy Holly, the 1st Strat hero. The intro alone to " That'll be the Day" is pure clean, classic Strat sound.

I think we are missing the works of Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, and one of my favorites, David Gilmour.

His solo LPs - Teaser and Private Eyes and that jazz stuff he did with Billy Cobham on Spectrum. Not familiar w/ James Gang & Deep Purple stuff though.

Most of Stevie Ray - "Lemmy" and "Little Wing" sound especially Stratty to me.

Most if not all Jimi - "Third Stone from the Sun", "Machine Gun", "Axis - Bold as Love"

A good bit of Dave Gilmour - "Have a Cigar"

Jeff Beck could put strings on a '32 Ford axle and still sound like Jeff Beck. :roll:

Jeff Beck could put strings on a '32 Ford axle and still sound like Jeff Beck. :roll:

He probably has!

these albums are benchmark vintage strat tones at their absolute best, IMHO. Also not mentioned was Tommy Bolin on the first Billy Cobham album.

Anything by SRV but right now I'm thinking about 'Testify'.

Anything by Robert Cray but 'The Score' and 'That's What I'll Do' are jumping to mind.

Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover

He recorded it with a 335. ;)

Bridge of Sighs

Day of the Eagle

Daydream

Yellow Ledbetter. Pearl Jam
Angel. Jimi
Riviera Paradise. SRV

mojohen 8)

Yellow Ledbetter, amen. That song, along with John Frusciante, and the new John Mayer, really have me thinking that a good gitatar player may have a job nowadays. We really hit a dark spot there for quite a few years.

Good call on Van Morrison's "His Band and Street Choir", excellent Strat playing throughout by John Platonia, who also toured and played on Van's many masterpieces in the '70s. John had that clucking Strat thing really going. Very talented player. Van also played Strat during this period, and he's no slouch as a guitarist either.

Most of the great players who supported John Mayall through the years toted Strats, except Eric Clapton, such as Coco Montoya, Debbie Davis, Mick Taylor, and John, himself, who played Teles and Strats.

Jerry on any of the early "Dark Stars" defined the jam-Strat.

Let us not forget the inimitable Bonnie Raitt who has played the same Strat for 40 years, and every note a gem.

My favs: "Layla ... and Other Assorted Love Songs" and "Axis: Bold As Love". Timeless Strat genius.

Bonneville Bruce

Robert Quine and Lou Reed on Reed's The Blue Mask is some awesome Strat music.

Riviera Paradise. SRV

As far as I know, SRV recorded that song with this guitar:

Epi Riviera (http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=6&CollectionID=1)

Riviera Paradise. SRV

As far as I know, SRV recorded that song with this guitar:

Epi Riviera (http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=6&CollectionID=1)

When I saw him with Jeff Beck (90 tour - Guitar Shop), he played it on his #1 and sounded like the record. Obviously, #1 is a strat....

Traffic. Any Traffic but the second, eponymously titled album and the song 'Don't Be Sad' in particular.

It just doesn't get any better!

"What God Wants part III" by Roger Waters at 1 minute 47 seconds. Jeff Beck plays the Stratocaster within an inch of his life.

For me....George Harrison's slide work post Beatles. Mostly done on his psychadelic painted strat. Of course anything by Jeff Beck...with a strat.
And since I'm heading to Lubbock this weekend....Buddy Holly. :D