Edge: Great Guitarist?

[kuch]

Don't know how much of a virtuoso he might be in private, but from what I've heard, and I'm not a big fan, in my opinion he's a "rhythm" lead player.....

 

[tfarny]

of course he’s a great guitarist. before “pride” had you ever heard anything like that? how many musicians have ever come up with a truly distinctive style? whether you’re a fan or not is utterly beside the point. i hate van halen, but obviously he was a great guitarist too…

 

[dlew919]

The edge is great at what he does. What more do you need?

 

[guitarsophist]

Not to hijack the post. I’m a big fan of White. What made your respect go down?

Ah, I should never criticize anyone on this forum! Watch the movie if you can find it. Your impression may be different. All three are good in their own way, as I said.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

I like the Edge. U2 is one of the biggest bands on the planet. Millions of fans can't be wrong, can they???

Pete Townsend in an 80s interview, referred to him as a " giant ".

Pretty high authority...

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

the edge used his guitar to make a great amount of money

Good for him!

 

[cyclopean]

I think he’s good but i don’t think he’s that special in terms of post punk guitar players.

I’m way more into the chameleons, for example, for that sort of thing.

 

[cyclopean]

100% agree with this. He’s someone even non-guitar players can recognise, that’s a massive legacy, even if it is a mix of talent and technology.

Using that tech is a talent. Just having a big pedalboard doesn’t do it for you.

 

[gimmeatele]

Landscape guitarist.

 

[gabasa]

My brother asked me recently what I think of the Edge these days and I had nothing but good to say. Im glad to see that so many others think the same.

U2 has a standout discography and catalog of tunes. Thank God that Bono and Edge crossed paths and made a band, because songs as beautiful as Bad are are a rare gift IMO.

 

[hopdybob]

are soloists only good guitarists?
i think the edge, but also the guitarist John Buckland of coldplay and Mike Oldfield are good guitarists.
if they can lift a song a level higher they do well.
there are so many guitarist under the radar.
take all those on the albums of Alice Cooper.
like 'from the inside' 'Alice Cooper goes to hell' , there is great guitar stuff on them

 

[ahiddentableau]

I think he's great. Always serves the song, and very thoughtful use of rhythm and space. And flexible. There's a lot more to his playing than the dotted eighths delay thing. How many guitar players have a style unique enough that you can pick them out without being told who they are? Sure, he was influenced by other guitarists in the 70s and 80s but he was every bit as big an influence on other guitarists.

The thing I love about U2 (and I think this applies to their output up to and including Pop, but not thereafter) is they constantly tried to move in new directions. They have the post-punk stage, the atmospheric balladry stage, the retro-Americana stage, followed by the quasi-shoegazer-cum-industrial stage, and then quasi-electronic/dance stage. And most of what they did worked, though some less than others, obviously. That's a lot of stages, especially when you consider the fact that the great majority of bands never make a significant change to their formula at all over the course of their career. The Edge's guitar is pretty much the glue that made all those styles mesh together, and I think that's high praise.

My pet theory is that everybody craps on the Edge because Bono comes off as a pompus ass a lot of the time. I think if the band had a less political singer (or just been less successful) we'd hardly ever hear these complaints.

But I can't fathom how somebody could listen to Achtung Baby and think, "Yeah, that guitar player has no talent."

 

[dlew919]

if they can lift a song a level higher they do well.
there are so many guitarist under the radar.
take all those on the albums of Alice Cooper.
like 'from the inside' 'Alice Cooper goes to hell' , there is great guitar stuff on them

Flea and frusciante of the chilli peppers. Particularly flea. Yes it’s flashy but it always serves the song.

 

[24 track]

I have not heard anything from them I did not like , they arent part of the exstended solo type bands , but I like his approach , hell some one had to do it ! we all dont need to be cookie cutter when it comes to playing.

 

[scottser]

he's a pretty handy singer too. having a really good 'all-rounder' in any band is a big, big plus:

 

[TheCheapGuitarist]

He's perfect for U2's music. They would be unrecognizable with anyone else playing guitar.

"Great" is always open to interpretation.

 

[CirrusBand]

Surprised by the people who haven't heard him take a solo, there's a fair amount of them littered through the U2 discography, alongside plenty of songs where he just plays a few notes.

"Until the End of the World" is IMO an inspired solo, between the melody and the droning notes it's set against.

From the same album, The slide solo in "Even Better than the Real Thing" is a great piece of work.

Someone mentioned playing around with the chords in "One", but if you listen to the recording and live versions, there's a fairly involved rhythm part including hammer ons, pull offs, slides and it moves all over the fretboard. It's far from just four chords, and it's probably a good example of how to write in that style, without a second guitarist to back you up, you need to be restrained in order to have somewhere to go musically later in the song.

My personal favourite moment is "Acrobat", to have one reverb laden guitar carrying so much weight and interest while leaving so much space throughout a song that is simply drums, bass, and a single guitar track is something very few guitarists would have managed

 

[Cyberi4n]

It's tempting to judge other guitar players by the "could I play that" test: You hear some great player, and you think, "wow, I could never play that, that guy's great." You hear some other guitar part and think, "oh, I could play that, that's easy." And maybe we dismiss that guy as being nothing special.

Sure, maybe you could play that. But could you come up with that?

If all of us had never heard of U2, and we were given some U2 tracks with the guitar stripped out, and asked to come up with a guitar part, there is zero chance any of us would come up with the parts that the Edge played on the majority of their songs. That's creativity and originality. And that quality is WAY more rare and valuable than "chops," whatever we consider that to be.

There's a video on youtube somewhere floating around where the Joshua Tree album is played in the studio, and tracks analysed etc. Edge's main rhythm parts are impressive enough, but the stuff he plays on the other tracks, in the background, are also super imaginative as well.

 

[Nick Fanis]

I can’t think any real Edge guitar solos.

Think harder next time

 

[Papanate]

the fact that you mention Andy Summers as a contemporary is telling in and of itself.

Telling of what?