Alright guys, please don't kill me on this one, just read and think about this for a minute. I really don't think Ed's playing as of late has anything to do with him being drunk or whatever. i was thinking about this and instead of looking at his playing from a fan standpoint, i thought about it from a musician's way of thinking. let me explain, here's a guy who from day 1 was taught to be perfect, not ever to make a mistake. When your young and going through the yrs. getting better and better, in Ed's case, he got great very quickly, kind of putting yourself in a box, playing what you know the best, the most. Then in Ed's case getting the band togeither and playing live, still with a must play very accurate attitude. Ed even stated that at a very young age he was taught to be very disciplined on whatever instrument he was playing . Now let's get to the point where he is a 17 or 18 yr. old guy, a guitar wizard, as he was. Vh has now become a big thing in southern Cal, Here's a guy who plays better than anyone out there, get's on stage and is just perfect. Ed is just one of those rare players that never fucks up live, that's just the facts. But Ed does fuck up, it's just that he does it out of the publics eye. All those great songs on the six pack albums put togeither with alot of fucked up night and days of playing. When it was all said and done and they were on tour supporting the album, he had already created a box around those songs and when playing live, he didn't dare to stray to far away in his playing. So with every new album there was a box that was put up around those songs he played live, from the first album to the last one. Even through the Spammy yrs. it didn't change. So you have Ed creating all this great guitar work, in the studio fucking up all over and just experamenting like crazy. If you think that those tunes are created on first thought and are perfect from the first strum of the pick, your wrong. Now lets get to his playing on this tour. Now i'm not going into the whole Sammy sucks thing and it should of been Dave stuff, i'm talking only about ED. first, your playing does not get worse as you get older it get's better, unless you get three fingers cut off or have a stroke or something, so let's throw that theory out the window. sunday night those guys were in Biloxi, well i'm from BR. and i was listening to the local rock radio, and they were taking calls about the show. Some said it was good , and some said it was alright, but were classic VH fans. But they all were talking about Ed's playing. They never said it was bad just that he missed a few notes and in his solo, he played all this off the wall stuff. One guy said that before he started his solo, Ed came to the microphone and said, he didn't know what he was going to play next, he is just having a ball and playing whatever comes to mind. He said that sometime's it comes out great and if it doesn't tonight, just laugh with me about it, then he went off on some blues stuff. the point i'm trying to make is, I don't believe it's a drunk thing or a can't play no more thing, it's Ed playing live out of the box he has been in since he first started playing. Going at it from a, i 'm going to play free and uninhibated live. Does everyone know how much balls it takes to do that, get up on stage and just play and create new runs and riffs on the run. Now i'm just talking to the dudes here on this site who plays, not just guitar, any instrument. Everyone here that reads what i'm am saying is going to have their opinion on this, thats fine, but everyone here does not play music, and that's where i'm coming from on this. To play free and out of the box like Ed is doing, with his stature and just who he is, takes incredable courage and a sense of knowing who you are. For yrs. he has been doing what everyone else does, play and create in the studio, work out all of the mistakes and try to play perfect. But on this tour, he opened himself up, to try and play new things in old songs and not play inside that box. It sucks if you went and payed $200.00 for the show and you get a guy who probably made you pick up a guitar and start playing, do the exact opposite of what you where accustomed to for all these yrs. As a guitar player myself, i know that if i stay in my box and play nothing but what i'm comfortable playing, i will never grow as a musician, and that goes for Ed himself. People who are going to this tour is just seeing this first hand from Ed. You can say what you will about his his playing, i think the dude is just be a creative musician, and not being afraid to show people that he is just human and even the best of the best can and do make mistakes. thats how we all grow. Now since i know my brothern here, let the flames fly baby.
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