Robben Ford Discussion

[Millibobs]

This won't become a thread, but did you ever play a gig where someone came up and said, 'man, that was some playing - how did you learn to do that?' and you say back, 'I didn't really think about it, I just played what was in my head...' etc........

Then, when you look back at it, you realise with a sort of dislocated feeling, that you entered some weird place where all your inhibitions and preconceptions fazed out and you played some stuff that even now, you can't quite recall or believe that you might have been capable of. After a while, you convince yourself that it never really happened, that it was an imagined moment of revelation - your 'Robben moment'.

I think we all have one or two of these along the way and we can secretly take them out and turn them over in our minds and savour them. Who cares if no one else ever knows! Later, as we listen to Robben do the same thing about 250 times in one night or on one album, then we know what the word 'majesty' actually means. It doesn't intimidate me or put put me off my playing - it just makes me think that all of us amateurs can share a little of what people like Robben and all the other people we've recently cited are blessed with. They don't take it for granted and we can cherish those little moments when we find ourselves in the heart of the band and suddenly it's all quiet and all we can hear is that little phrase or run that makes people catch their breath and a couple of guys at the bar say, 'shit, that was cool.....'. What is it to be a guitarist, only a guitarist will ever know.....

[AlChuck]

You know, I don't think you ever get beyond feeling more or less that way about your playing. The boundaries you have change, but there is always that state of stumbling into perfection as a possibility, and most players no matter how wonderful they are say something like that.

There's a really cool science fiction story written by Lewis Shiner during the 80's entitled "Jeff Beck," which is a really interesting take on this...