An all-too-brief guitar shoot-out featuring Cacophony guitarists Jason Becker and Marty Friedman.
Below, check out an all-too-brief guitar shoot-out featuring Cacophony guitarists Jason Becker and Marty Friedman.
The clip, which is just over a minute long, was shot in 1989 in Japan during one of Cacophony's final tours. After '89, both shredders went their own way to forge solo careers or join successful bands.
So while we might not have quantity in this clip, we do have plenty of quality as both guitarists try to out-sick each other on the six-string. Of course, we don't want to opine on who "wins" the duel; feel free to come to your own conclusions!
A few years back, Friedman teamed up with Becker on a track called "Horrors." The song appears on Friedman's 2014 album, Inferno (Prosthetic Records).
As guitar fans know, Becker now suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and can no longer play guitar. As a result, Friedman brought in guitarist Ewan Dobson to cover the parts Becker wrote.
"There’s a little acoustic interlude in the song, and it’s one of those Jason specialty-type things," says Friedman in the June 2014 issue of Guitar World. "And Jason wrote the part, because he writes with his eyes and with the computer. It was a really wonderful piece of music, and then I wrote a part to that.
"Then I had a guy named Ewan Dobson come in and actually play the parts on acoustic guitar. And he really nailed it. It’s just like Jason is there on the album. It sounds like his phrasing, it sounds like his playing. It fits in exactly as we would have done it in Cacophony.
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"And actually, this is the first 'cacophonic' collaboration we’ve done since we were in the band together. So it’s definitely one of the most intense moments on the record. The song stinks of Jason and myself. Or maybe it just stinks. [laughs] But it was an absolute pleasure to work together again."
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
