A few years ago, I wrote a GW feature about George Harrison’s best guitar work after the Beatles.
It contained this sentence: “Regardless of how great they might be, albums by individual members of iconic bands – from the Stones to the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to the Who – rarely, if ever, attain the same mythic status as the music released by the bands themselves.”
Obviously, I could’ve added Pink Floyd to that list. Because, no matter what, Comfortably Numb will always remind you of your first kiss – or the great time you had that random summer – or your childhood in general, your teenage years, high school or college – or just plain old innocence not having to pay for rent, mortgage, your car, someone else’s tuition or your aging cat’s hyperthyroidism medicine.
Meanwhile, all the cool guitar work on, say, 1978’s David Gilmour or 1984’s About Face doesn’t quite generate the same squishy feelings, does it?
Part of the reason is that no one really talks about them; we let albums like these live in small corners of the past, behind Grandma’s cookie jar in the basement.
So instead of pairing our new Gilmour interview with yet another story about The Wall, The Dark Side of the Moon or A Momentary Lapse of Reason, we’ve decided to go all-out “solo David Gilmour” – for pretty much the first time ever, I might add – and shine the spotlight on the guitarist’s solo career.
I mean, if you like David Gilmour, what could be more "David Gilmour" than a David Gilmour solo album? How about five David Gilmour solo albums and a couple of live albums?
If you’ve only listened to Gilmour in the context of Pink Floyd, consider this issue your guide to “the alternate discography of David Gilmour.”
Anyway, here's what we've crammed into GW this month:
>>> Echoes: Nine years since his last solo album – and a half-decade after auctioning his fabled guitar collection – David Gilmour’s latest release, Luck and Strange, is a rule-breaking new chapter laced with nods to his past. “There was that feeling,” he tells us, “of, ‘F*** it, I’ll do exactly what I feel like doing…’”
>>> Extracurricular Gilmour: With a solo career that spans a whopping 46 years, David Gilmour is so much more than that guy from Pink Floyd. GW deep-dives into the guitarist’s entire solo output, attention-worthy guitar solos and all.
>>> Comfortably Done: David Gilmour’s 10 greatest lead-guitar guest appearances.
Plus a guide to the gear heard on Luck and Strange and more!
This issue – aka the menacing December 2024 issue of Guitar World – is available right here, right now!
Hold on, now! There's also this other stuff...
>>> Slipknot: Twenty-five years ago, a little-known Des Moines, Iowa, band dropped an album that would forever change the look and sound of heavy metal. Slipknot’s Mick Thomson discusses the manic recording of Slipknot, his 1999 gear, the album’s weird dearth of guitar solos and more.
>>> From Madonna to Ministry: It might seem strange that a dude best known for playing guitar lines for pumping, thumping dance songs is now blowing eardrums with industrial metallers Ministry. But Monte Pittman says he’s right where he belongs.
>>> Justin Hayward: The Moody Blues guitarist revisits obscure Moodies tracks and discusses the gear and thought processes behind his gear, tone and criminally unsung riffs.
>>> Les Dudek: Meet the guitarist who played on the Allman Brothers’ Ramblin’ Man and Jessica, dated Cher, worked with Steve Miller and was almost a founding member of Journey (But wait, there’s more…)
>>> Mike Campbell: How Mike Campbell applies lessons learned from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Fleetwood Mac to his own band, the Dirty Knobs.
>>> Rusan Guitarworks: With Prince’s Cloud 3 guitar fetching nearly a million bucks in June, we speak to Dave Rusan about working for the Purple Rain legend and the replicas he continues to produce for diehard fans.
>>> Clapton: the Fender years: Joe Bonamassa's tribute to Eric Clapton continues!
Plus new interviews with Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and Richie Kotzen, plus Marcus King, Grace Bowers, Jontavious Willis, the Asymmetric Universe brothers, Austin’s Ian Moore, Nile’s Karl Sanders, Alcest’s Neige and Wunderhorse’s Jacob Slater.
Gear-wise, we explore the history and allure of the Martin D-18 and D-28 (can you name the differences?) and review a whole bunch of cool stuff, namely:
>>> Taylor/Circa 74 AV150-10 Acoustic/Vocal amplifier
>>> Yamaha Revstar Element
>>> Ernie Ball Music Man Axis
>>> Interstellar Audio Machines Supernova Zoeldrive
>>> Electro-Harmonix Lizard King Bass Octave Fuzz
We have new columns by Joe Bonamassa (see above), Jared James Nichols, Jim Oblon and Andy Wood, plus transcriptions of Lux Æterna by Metallica, Scar Tissue by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Malagueña, as performed by Michael Lucarelli.
You can buy new issues of Guitar World at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Hudson News, Books a Million and other stores – and online from Magazines Direct. And, while you're at it, why not save on every issue by subscribing?
