Alex Lifeson (Rush) - 10 Greatest Guitar Riffs (First 10 Albums)
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Hey all! I guess we could call this the centerpiece video here in Alex Lifeson month on my channel, as it was a bit more work putting it together than most other vids I've posted thus far. Certainly hope that you enjoy it, especially you Rush fans out there.
Cheers, KDA
Paypal tip jar if you're so inclined paypal.me/kell...
support for my channel on Patreon is always greatly appreciated as well. / kellydeanallen
Alex has the largest guitar solo catalog than anyone else in rock music and one of the most underrated players to ever record. In my opinion, Alex, Geddy and Neil are the true G.O.A.T.s in rock music!
Excellent video! I will never understand why Alex is so underrated
No disrespect intended but I just don't think people do think Alex is underrated.
@@dr.p3637 none taken - unfortunately I have heard from many people that think otherwise. As a guitarist I try to explain to them he is a great guitarist but they think what he plays is simple because it is not at Eddie Van Halen / Randy Rhoads speed - sad
He’s not under rated. He’s more guilt by association because the critics always hated Rush. I once had full access backstage pass and stood 15 feet from him while soaking in the most incredible monitor mix I have ever heard. I listed from the sound guys location and it sound like shit compared their unbelievable monitor mix. That night was a thrill and I even got a pair of Neil Pearts USED drum sticks. I felt like such a teenager!
AMEN 👏🏾👏🏾
Probably because some people put him in the shadow of Geddy and Neil..and some people just don't know shit about playing guitar..
From a fellow Canadian and Rush fanatic I can’t thank you enough for the time and attention to detail you put into your videos. Love the background info you provide as well. Keep up the great work, you’re the best!
Thanks Dan! Glad you like it.
So glad you picked "Red Sector A" at the last second. Great riff intro, with deep lyrics👍 Always loved the originality of that song.
Amazing track for sure. You know, who writes songs about the Holocaust (and not in a thrash/death metal sense,) and manages to make it poignant, meaningful and touching.
Truly loved watching this Mr. Allen. You are super talented and brought great justice to Alex's playing.
Have always loved the guitar work on Red Sector A. Spent many hours as a lad figuring that one out!
You can tell how much work you put into these videos. It shows. Great playing. Thank you!
Alex Rules!!!
Awesome! I subscribed. Distant Early Warning is a very underrated Rush song and Lifeson really brings it even with the synthesizer. Just my 2 cents. Although i guess you're beginning of the song. But to me Distant Early Warning from Grace Under Pressure gets up and goes if that makes sense . Great stuff!!!! Thx.
The Enemy Within also has a great opening riff. The one that gets me going is Between the Wheels... Alex deliver fire and brimstone on that one... and that solo!
@@eccehomer8182 yea!!!!!
What a brilliant video. This has inspired me re-learn a number of the Rush songs I used to play, after a 4 or 5 year hiatus from the guitar.
Go for it!
Absolutely brilliant man! Great choices and well played! Love that you've amped up the sound quality on Geddy's bass lines too. Cheers !!! :^ )
Caress of Steel is my all time favourite Rush album would've loved the riffs in Necromancer - but I get your concept
Love Caresss. It's so hard to pick my favorite album. Generally, my favorite is the one I'm current listening to 😀
It was the first Rush album I bought. I can play most of it, but still can't get Lakeside Park right. That's the one I'd have chosen. Bastille Day is great but very easy.
Love it and what you do. Alex, my inspiration from day one with 6 strings.
Boy, I wish we had RUclips back in the 70's could have learned much faster.
Thanks to you...I have learned tricks, different and sometimes easier ways to play my favs.
Except, Beneath Behind Between. My way is easier than the 3 bar pull off and sounds just as good LOL.
Neat to see the (ahem) progression from simpler single note and power chord based riffs to more complicated scales and voicings. And also the tonal changes from cranked Marshalls/Hiwatts to cleaner and more effects laden. Nice job. And like all good Canadians, there's a Traynor !
I concurred with all but two of your picks. I'd opt for "The Camera Eye" and "Kid Gloves", but there are no wrong answers when it comes to Alex ...
+1 kid gloves
Great picks. Anthem and La Villa Stragiato are two of my all time faves.
This is an incredible series that you're doing, Kelly!! I can't think of any better way to pay homage to our guitar heroes. Your playing is amazing and alot of fun to watch and learn from!!! Thank You for sharing your time and talents with us!!
My pleasure Mark, thanks for watching and following along. Having great fun doing it.
Alright! Nothing at all against his solos but I was hoping you'd get to some riffs too! 🤘
Well here ya go! Had great fun putting this together over the past 2 days.
Agree 10/10 and yes it came through that you had fun. btw - my Strat is not having fun with the Limelight solo. Wrong tool for the job I suppose. I once owned Zion Radicaster that I now regret selling.
Great job! Melodic play and arpeggios are what makes him great. So beautiful.
Some good choices, but you're talking nonsense about Grace. The only song without a great opening riff is Between the Wheels... where Alex starts fire and brimstone! However... I too would have definitely gone for Red Sector A.
Personally, I don't think you're right about the solo in Limelight either... not even in my top 10. IMO his greatest solo is either in LVS or Between the Wheels, but I guess different hearts beat on different string... talking of which!
9:56 - Those airy, open UPSTROKE sustained riffs of his (like this) always ring out as my faves! (When he’d hook his right arm behind his big goofy coconut-how can ya not love that?!) 🤷♂️
Even as a drummer, I’d never air-drum Neil-always air-guitared ALEX! 🤘🤘✌️😅
Great video and playing! I’ve always loved Alex’s style and my fingerpicking is definitely influenced by him.
Love your PRS too! Beautiful guitar.
We’re frightfully on the same page w so many of your takes & tastes. I, too, had to bail after Grace; the Velveeta started oozing into both the music and especially lyrics after that. Sadly, they never got me back, but they DID firebrand themselves in my developmental musical landscape w all the previous records (not a fan of the debut). 🤔
You picking Red Sector A(lex) was the last straw-I remember being nicely baked as a young teenager the first time I played the record & heard Alex’s guitar on that. I was vaporized (& no, I left no trails 🥸) … the most viscerally pleasing dissonance I’d heard (& that includes the Holy Trilogy of ‘80s Crimson)!
Man, you are a marvel to listen to AND watch. I don’t dish that out lightly. 👏👏🤟👌
My very first concert in life was Rush at the Long Beach Arena on the Signals Tour w Golden Earring opening. I was 13.
There’s NO magic as powerful as your first concert, especially w a band like Rush. I remember Flaherty & Neil’s stick being tossed to the rafters. 🤩 It feels like yesterday. A memory I carry all my life(son). 🥸
personnally, i would've gone with The Weapon on Signals...
Isn’t the riff from Xanadu the inspiration for Slash in Paradise city???
Before and After on Rush was some great guitar work. Showed off Lifesons subtleties
Outstanding video. I'm always amused when extremely white folks pronounce "Villa" with the "L" sound. It's pronounced "VEE-yuh" /vĭl′ə/. Oh well, maybe next time.
My choice, as well Anthem
Man that riff!!!!! And Bastille for Caress
Agreed with a comment on here about the catalogue of Alex
Wow this is insane! I use to play guitar in a Rush cover band and you literally played our complete set list! (Less Tom Sawyer) I can’t believe it! Great job, my favourite band of all time
Middle Finger Chord Is The Best Chord To Begin A Best Riffs Vid With🤘
Yaaaa. You cant copy Necromancer mid riff 5.28 haaaa? LOL....JK Id love to hear ya try. So far you're awesome
No human being can have this bad taste? Someone talked you into being a Rush fan. . . It was a free concert? Some cute girl liked Rush? You wanted to impress a couple of guys at work. Inexplicable.
I dont want to cuss Geddy for the synth era but I do want to cuss Geddy.
I'm not. He carried the 80s with that stuff.
@@johndrake2729 yah, ok
Those are fighting words:)
That Xanadu opening arpeggio is so much like the Slash Sweet Child of Mine riff in feel and scale... Did Slash steal it? Well played though!
Great vid Sir. You missed how Alex does his G# in Limelight & I think his G chord The Analog Kid. It’s been a while since I played it but it’s different than the standard bar chord with the open B & E
Is that the ESL version of Xanadu you’re playing along to there?…
For the early albums what did Alex lifeson use for effects ?
Did he use distortion or chorus or flanger
I assume he used echoplex
You missing the high E note in Spirit of Radio intro. It should be an upstroke the picking pattern is down down up. The pull off on the B string doesnt sound right.
Rush are a superb example of musical synergy between its component members, that is, the whole unit is way bigger than the sum of its parts. Alex is not underrated at all, it’s just that he’s part of a band that as a whole unit are simply off the scale.
Can you do setting for his delay flange and phase shifting setting
Alex is not under-rated to those who know guitar, in my book his playing was always in the top 10
Great riff selection and gnarly tone too!
Love this,what gear you playing through?
I have been playing Rush songs since 1978. You are doing a great job on all of them. great tones and choices too.
Your tone so good Man,you nails IT,fx user?🇨🇦
XAAAAAAAAANAAAAAADUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
outstanding choices.. I think I would love to hang out with you and listen to music all night. Come over to my house and DJ for me. hahaha.. Great video Kelly
Beneath the wheels has a pretty good solo too. 👍
Before and after off first album is a cracker
Great picks, and man you really nail the living hell out of all of them. If you tabbed these out into a book, you’ be a rich man.
Forgot to mention, I use Mackie monitors too. 😉
Well, we *mostly* agreed... up until Grace Under Pressure. Your choice of Red Sector A was hard enough for me to agree with, but then you said it was the last album you liked for a long while - lol. Red Sector A is not, for me, a riff. Wonderful song and a bear to figure out for sure. All that said, very nice work! Alex is my very favorite guitarist and I've been learning his stuff for decades. I'm going to look to see if you have a 2nd 10 albums list right now! Subscribed.
Which song would you go for? The Enemy Within has a kick ass opening riff.
Great video as always and great choices!
Yep, Alex is a huge influence on my playing. Picked up a 335 although I think his was a 355. Anyway, great stuff!! Well done!
Alex played both. His 335 was his first “real” Gibson and he got the 355 “old whitey” in 1976 around the 2112 timeframe. But he played a bunch of other instruments during this time, borrowed axes and rentals, such as Ric 12 strings, Stratocasters, various acoustics, and such. I’ll bet your 335 sounds great!
Great choices. One and all.
Great great job!!! Thank you!!! I am happy that you have chosen Red Sector A!!!!!
I have to say you are very gifted to play like Alex. You have greatly impressed me. I'm an old man now and have always dreamed of playing guitar but I just don't have the ability to learn.
Thanks Stephen, appreciate that very much mate.
How do you know you have the ability or not if you have never tried..are you handicapped?
Great video all thru! And your take on Red Sector A was definitely the "Grand Finale"! Really nice work Kelly.
Grand Finale... the BEST riff he ever wrote, hands down!
Very nice job, and that's quite a nice selection of axes you used! I don't suppose you'd want to share what amp settings and guitar effects pedals and settings you used to get that tone on the songs you played? They all seemed quite close to actual to me.
Well, you're in luck, because I made a video on that exact topic. ruclips.net/video/1s6l7ax3_UE/видео.html
Love caress of steel
Great video! Rush lost me after moving pictures because of the guitar being less prominent. There was short lived hope with Show Me Don’t Tell Me from Presto. And you are right, Caress Of Steel was and is incredible under rated. What I liked about it is that that album almost sunk them and they said fuck it, we’re doing another concept album.
Alex is my absolute favorite guitar player! He was such a genius, so unique!
outstanding! very well done. understand your feelings about Grace but there is another filthy riff on there - Between the Wheels, which I consider some of Alex's best and also most radical work.
Great video. However, you're not playing Spirit of Radio correctly. It's actually a lot harder. There is no open B - it's all E. Check it and see what you think.
Do you by chance have an ES355???
I'm working on matching the early tones, through Permanent Waves, but I also really want to do some of Grace Under Pressure, and for that album he was full into his Les Paul, so if you have any tips about how to recreate that Les Paul sound with the 355 that would be great!!!
Love this!🔥😍🙏
Thanks mate! Love doing it, haha.
Great choices and great playing! I thought you were going to choose Circumstances from Hemispheres!
Good job!
Some you're playing to the song, and some you did your own backing tracks? And Spirit of Radio, was that ged, or cover.? Incredible work put into this video, quality content!
Excellent job and perfect choices on each album. Thanks!
Cool video. Just popped up on my feed. As someone who started playing guitar aged about 11 or 12 because I heard Alex playing on 2112, Alex has been probably my favourite guitarist of all time. I am now 56 and enjoyed many years as a musician and I can probably thank Rush for that.
This is a great video. I sat on my sofa earlier with an acoustic and actually some of the parts came back to me.. Makes me want to re-learn some Rush songs again for fun. 🙂
Kelly, great playing, and I will say that sound you have on this video is superb. Nice looking PRS also.
Thanks for taking the time to make the video, and I look forward to watching more of your videos.
Cheers, Carl. UK.
THANK YOU ! stumbled across this luckily been jamming it all morning ( Thailand time). the again
Great choices and greatvplaying! While theres hardly any Rush songs I dont like, I have always personnaly felt La Villa Strangiato is an absolute musical masterpiece. The textures, rythems, build up, guitar solo, Neils parts....all of it, is just incredible.
Beautiful work and selection from Alex's huge catalog of greats. ❤
Superb playing bub! Well done, and thank you. ❤️
Yeah this points out some of the better things of the guitar playing that Alex lifeson actually does and picks out just about the most unique and best stuff he does
Man I love when I stumble across a video like this, if I didn't know it was you I'd swear I was listening to Alex play. Great job, subbed.
Love how you play the parts ecxactly like Alex plays them
This is really great. Thank you so much for your playing, your commentary and your selections from my favorite band over the last 42+ years
I would have loved to see Rush at the Real Gasworks bar on Young Street Toronto back in the day before they got a record deal.
Love it! Now I want to jam some rush grew up with them down here in Buffalo
.
The first 4 riffs sounded right out of the R30 overture. Cool
Awesome video! and amazing tone sir. Well Done
How did he do the beginning runs in Chemistry from Signals.
Xanadu is so fun to play. It’s also my favorite Alex solo.
Fantastic- my kind of stuff! I can sit or stand around all day and play AL.😀 You sound great.
12:46 I'm glad you included that part, also. After the tension created by the F, that A chord hits so hard.
Red Sector A!!! Yeah,! Love the sound he gets on that song, you nailed it pretty well
I'm looking forward to checking out the video on the tone that Alex gets
This is awesome!! I'm trying to put together a medley and this nails a few that I wanted to use. I'll be watching every video when they come out!
(What are you using as your editing program to remove the guitar?)
I always knew Alex was a genius , looks so complicated , credit to you playing it !
Would love a tutorial on the second solo in Working Man. Your video on the first is really great
You are crushing all these riffs. Great job.
Loving these videos I have been working most of these tracks last few years - trying to get the feel and sounds - he is tough to emulate - great job !
THAT WOULD BE COOL TO PLAY ALL THE BASS LINES TO THOSE TUNES
Great choices. Your axe sounds great.
Fantastic, THANK YOU
Not trying to blow up your comments but I do have a couple questions.
1. What year is that PRS Les Paul? It's amazing looking.
2. What FX did you use to get that Red Sector A sound? That was completely mind blowing. I never knew Alex played that riff in between the chords like that. Did you use a pedal to turn off or change FX for the riff? Amazing job. Kelly you're like a freaking walking Juke Box.. I've watched you nail so many different tones & styles. I'll be fan for life.. Keep rocking & I'll keep watching.. Peace.. Joe
Hey man! First question is that I don't know the year. 2014? I bought it second hand.
Second question is, the only modulation effect is chorus. Intensity and width at about 11:00 with the speed at about 7:00. Marshall amp with the gain on about 4. Delay at 600 Ms with 3 repeats and some plate reverb. That's about it.
Since I use software, I can't change pedals on the fly as I'm not set up with midi, so I'll play it through, then change anything I need to change tone-wise in post.
@@KellyDeanAllenGuitar thanks for the details. I really wasn't expecting you to say Red Sector A when you were talking about it. that really did blow my mind. again, great job..
I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS LOVE RUSH