Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The Guitar Work of Robert Smith

Nice article at Reverb about Robert's under-appreciated guitar skills:

"Robert Smith may be the most underrated rock guitarist of all time. While he was never one to shred with the same flash as some of his '80s contemporaries, his influence over droves of players and sub-genres should earn him a more revered spot in the guitar gods pantheon.

The Cure still fill stadiums with a surprisingly diverse community of adoring fans. Bands like Dinosaur Jr and the Smashing Pumpkins have recorded loving covers of Cure songs. If the recent cavalcade of boutique chorus and modulation pedals is any indication, Smith's influence as a tonal architect is alive and well.

So why is the ink devoted to his guitar craft comparatively limited?"

Read the rest at Reverb. (Thanks Matt)

9 comments:

  1. Very nice. Its refreshing to see an article focused on the sound. So many articles are about setlists,hair,and lipstick. Its good to remind people of the immense talent it takes to create a unique sound. And how masterful Robert is at summoning atmospheric texture through his pedalwork. When I used to teach,we would have, at least once a week, a kid come in wanting to be taught "The Cure sound."

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  2. Nice article. I like how is highlighting the innovation, as a "tonal architect", rather than promoting a one dimensional view of him (perhaps sometimes two dimensional). (Hehe..."hello sir, please tell me about yourself"..."well, I'm a tonal architect, and you?")
    .and in saying that I just saw the other article that has appeared in the CoF thread above this one ...oh well maybe they kind of balance each other out...

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  3. Nice article but the guitarist trying to emulate the effects in the video is playing a lot of the tunes incorrectly particularly lullaby. A capo and the wrong chords!

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  4. love that they are trying to give Rovbert some recognition, but damn did they get both the tones and the playing VERY wrong!

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  5. Yeah I didn't even watch the video. Only read the article.

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  6. My favorite thing about the Cure from wish on up has always been The Guitar work.....especially albums like Wish and Bloodflowers although also The Cure and 413 Dream....even if The Cure have evolved and are older and lost that youthful edge they used to have in spades...the guitar work has improved and is more commanding than ever...it's more confident and the true Cure guitarist is Robert Smith. Not Porl and certainly not Reeves...even in a live setting the most critical guitar parts are played by him....never Porl, Perry, or Reeves....they just play rhythm....so the true lead guitarist is Robert....Robert was on the cover of GUITAR Player in 1992..right as Wish was released and he mentioned that people would be shocked to know that it's him on most of the main parts of those songs while they would be most likely to think it were Porl....he also referred to their Arabic guitar sound and that it and the 12 string bass is the Cure signature sound....often imitated..never equaled....He also ranked up very high..he was up there with Prince, Bowie, and was even ahead of Dave Navarro (Janes)

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    1. I have never heard him play a 12 string bass. Both his fender and ultracure are 6 strings

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    2. Sorry, I have to comment on this. Robert does not always play the lead parts live, as on many songs he is playing rhythm on acoustic. Also, on many that he plays guitar, he's not the lead (A Night Like This, for instance). In the interview you mentioned he's talking specifically about FTEOTDGS, how everyone imagined that Porl would record the solo but he decided he'll do it.

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  7. Shocking attempt by the guitarist - Lullaby wrong wrong wrong and JLH played like a buffoon. Interesting article if only because it wasn't about "where is the new album?" or t-shirts that are overpriced.

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