Musical Missing Link

Borrowed David Gilmour’s 2006 solo CD On an Island from the library this weekend.  Enjoyed listening to it during the commute to and from work.  Unsurprisingly, very Gilmourish.  Also unsurprisingly, very good.  Might pick it up next time I’m at a music store and have some cash in my pocket.  A good bookend to Frampton’s solo CD I bought a few years back that I play during barbecues on the outdoor deck.

Always liked David as a guitarist.  Pink Floyd’s Animals has some great guitar work, as does most of The Wall.  Always dug his vocals and thought his ethereal tenor a powerful counterpoint to the snaky and cynical baritone of Roger Waters.

But it was this quote from music critic Alan di Perna writing in Rolling Stone that brought out the bumps on my arms, hit me like a waterfall of ice cold Riesling, and made me lunge for the acoustic to pluck out some “Sheep” ending chords, “Wind Cries Mary” hammer-ons, and “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” arpeggios:

[David Gilmour is] “ … the missing link between Hendrix and Van Halen.”

Wow!  That is totally correct, and I don’t think in thirty-five years as a guitar player I’ve mentioned the three of them in the same sentence.