I had to write a paper on my favorite guitartist and here it is. It was supposed to be short. Please tell me what you think. Thanks

Mike McCready


The guitarist that I want to talk about is Mike McCready. Mike McCready was born on April 5, 1966, in Pensacola, Florida. His parents were into artists like Hendrix and Santana, and as a child mike would soak them in while beating his dad's bongo drums with pencils. By the time he reached the age of 10 his friends had turned him onto Kiss and Aerosmith. Shortly after his 11th birthday he walked into Kennelly Keys, a local music store, and purchased his first electric guitar, a Mateo Les Paul Copy that he still owns. After playing rhythm guitar in a high school band, Mike began to get into the lead guitar of Eddie Van Halen: "I must have seen him about five times, but at 15, that stuff was too hard to figure out." Soon after Mike discovered Jimmy Hendrix and Randy Rhoads. When you listen to Mike play live or on studio albums, you can really tell that he is a fan of music and his influences bleed though his fingers and blast out of the amp like a freight train. In this paper, I will discuss three songs and the influences that you can draw from them. (1)
The first song that I want to talk about is “Save You” from Pearl Jam’s latest album Riot Act. In this you can really hear the punk influence, mostly the great guitar playing of Johnny Ramone. With the rapid down strokes and feverish pace, this song is straight out of the Ramones book on how to right a song, fast, loud and with intensity. Nothing fancy about it. While most of Mike’s playing is really blues orientated, he shows that his influences even reach far out into the punk world. (2)
The second song that I wanted to talk about is a direct tribute to Jimi Hendrix. This song is titled “Yellow Ledbetter” and has never appeared on any studio albums but is a huge fan favorite live in the great Pearl Jam community. You can really hear the use of the many innovations that Jimi Hendrix brought the music world in this song. From the use of distortion to the heavy use of the wah wah peddle; this song was Mike McCready’s way of saying thank you to one of his heroes, Jimi Hendrix. At some shows during the 2000 world tour, Mike would even through in a tag of “Little Wing” during his solo in the song. Every guitarist today owes something to the great playing of Jimi Hendrix, and Mike showed his with the great song “Yellow Ledbetter” (3)
The final song that I would like to talk about is the song “Given to Fly”, off of the 1998 album, Yield by Pearl Jam. With the distinct playing on this song, calling back to the style of the great Jimmy Page of the legendary band Led Zeppelin, Mike once again paid tribute to another one of his heroes. This song has many times been compared to the Led Zeppelin song, “Going to California”. With an effect sounding like something straight off of the Jimmy Page peddle board and the same type of build up that “Going to California” has, one can not help but to compare the two songs. This song starts slowly and then builds up almost like a wave, crashing at the chorus. It is a really beautiful song and I believe a great tribute to the legend that is Jimmy Page.(4)
With these three songs I tried to show that my favorite guitarist of all time, Mike McCready brings some of his distinct playing to every Pearl Jam song but also pays tribute to his early guitar playing heroes in these songs. If you look into the Pearl Jam catalog of songs and/or listen to some of their live recordings you will hear many other influences such as Stevie Ray Vaughn and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. I really recommend that every one really listen to the guitar playing of Mike McCready and you can’t help but appreciate that he continues the long tradition of learning from those before you and at the same time developing your own distinct style.

Thats cool.

...to right a song....
*how to write a song

...wah peddle...
*wah pedal

...monke2123...
*give the kid a break, he didnt post it here for a spell check

yeah it was pretty cool
what kind of class was it for

Very nice work.. However one thing I would consider changing

"His parents were into artists like Hendrix and Santana...."

Who are Hendrix and Santana? We all know who they are, but assume that your readers do not.



an earlier poster said he didn't post for spell check etc, but I assume that the poster would appreciate anything that will help him/her get a better grade........ Sorry, it's the teacher in me coming out.

LEEP

Thanks for all the help. I needed to write the paper for my guitar class. Yea, i suck at spelling so the help with that was awesome, i changed the final draft of the paper after I read it. Thanks!!

thats pretty cool man...i wish i had a guitar class a few yers ago. this year i am taking music theory, which is awesome. so far i've written about the introduction of the fender telecaster and how it changed mainstream music (included mr mccready in there) and i wrote about how electric guitar pickups work. i feel like a nerd, i actually enjoy doing the homework for that class