A Blog-like Entity

03 dec 06

Can a solo rendition of "Classical Gas" be performed well? or does it take at least 2 guitarists?

i've never seen it performed as anything but a solo, and i've seen a lot of youtube videos. i don't even know that duets of "classical gas" have been significantly arranged. if it's too hard for you, then find something else to play; there are hundreds of pieces that sound a hundred times better and that are a hundred times easier. the tune constitutes a bit of a technician's rite of passage, though, so i can understand wanting to play it for that reason. however, it would no longer be a rite of passage if it were dumbed-down with two guitars. QED.

i own a CD by "the washington guitar quintet", which features the old jazzer charlie byrd, and which is terrible; i often seriously consider deleting its yielded mp3s from my hard drive. furthermore, the terrible-ness is a direct result of too many guitars playing too little. the quintent plays a lot of unisons, which i suppose is part of their carefully-crafted unique sound, except that i think their carefully-crafted unique sound sucks. plus charlie byrd is like 107 years old, so there you have it.

...my point being that no, don't play "classical gas" as a duet or worse, because it's going to sound cretinous. and of course it can be performed well by a soloist -- youtube is literally overflowing with guitar dick-waggers showing it off (see above).

i've heard it now on youtube, and on mp3s by a few different artists. i had never heard, or heard of, "classical gas" before today. turns out it's sort of a spanish andrew lloyd webber muzak george gershwin rock and roll tune. i wasn't particularly impressed, i suppose, except i like that the beginning sounds a bit like metallica's "to live is to die".

the original was played by the tune's author, mason williams, with orchestral accompanyment. i don't understand this version, as in "i don't understand how such a thing could exist". it's really crumby (in fairness, i usually don't like the sound of the modern orchestra). the eric clapton, chett atkins, and mark knopfler versions are much nicer, their being executed on solo instruments. this observation furthers my hypothesis: "classical gas" (orignially "classical gasoline" -- don't ask me) needs to be played on a single instrument, because it sounds better, but also so that it remains intact as the aforementioned "rite-of-passage".

"classical gas" has the reputation of being one of the most difficult pieces to play on the guitar -- playing the thing, whether you like it or not, whether it sounds like balls or not, can easily degenerate into one of those all-too-familiar instances of the mannish posturing that i suppose is a problem with all musicians and their instruments, but seems especially prevalent with guitarists, perhaps because of the ego inherent in the "rock and roller" (consider david lee roth, even though he doesn't play the guitar).

but "classical gas" isn't aurally all that complex -- it sounds sort of low-brow, frankly, and doesn't contain any counterpoint or interesting structure. it just sort of goes on, like the spanish andrew lloyd webber george gershwin spanish rock and roll tune it is. the public (famous for its refined taste) disagreed with me when it was published, however -- it did well on the charts, winning this or that and achieving this or that position (source). so, the way i'm forced to see it is that it's just hard to play, for no reason -- none of that herculean fingerwork pays off, aurally. it's just something that's hard for the sake of being hard.

are you starting to get a sense for "classical gas"'s cultural location? it's a piece in which one can show off one's technique without challenging the pedestrian pop ear. brilliant.

if you want an mp3 of it, you can find one here. once you have the music in your hot little hand, then you can have a look at the tab, and start playing it. if you want to see it performed, have a look at the youtube library of classical gasmen.

going back to your question: again, no -- it's a challenging piece only because it's executed as a solo performance, and furthermore it serves no other purpose other than to be a challenging piece. more than one classical guitar sounds bad to me (let alone more than one playing a piece i don't particularly like) -- the guitar can and should serve as its own little orchestra. certainly there are duets that are well-arranged and pleasing to the ear, but if a piece can be played on one guitar, why use two? it'd be easier to play, but the sound wouldn't be improved (and would probably be worsened).

here's a guy on his strat making an attempt.