It's called counter point and Bach did it in 4 point in the Baroque era...but that takes nothing away from Lenny, cause Lenny knew Bach better than you or I.
Most importantly his playing is beautiful and makes you want to cry. It truly doesn't sound like show off. I think those are just a few of the qualities that give him such a cult status.
@sitarnut Lenny influenced every modern guitar player on the planet, if you don't think so keep on chirping. Wes is a part of the foundation of music as is Lenny who lived longer than Wes and took it to another level...Why don't you ask me if I prefer air to the ozone my interesting friend.
@sitarnut It's not fair to compare pioneers like Wes to those who came after b/c as you know even Lenny was influenced by Wes. Modern players have the advantage of learning what Parker, Davis, Monk, Wes etc... did. You're trying to make me insult either Wes or Lenny in some way. Not gonna happen. They're all my heroes, you on the other hand are a douche-bag. Good day Sir, I said Good day.
P.S.
Wes is long deceased, the modern players I said to ask, you can still ask...
Lenny died in 1984. Chet gave the title to other players in the 90s. Lenny was long dead then. If he'd still been alive, he surley would have gotten the title.
Tell me send a SPACE PROGRAM IN CANADA THE BLUE PRINTS OF A SATTILITE BASE ON A PIECE OF bIG sPACE CRAFT. The size 10,000 miles unreal not or seriously debunking misfit style idea for space city not even mars a able yearly orbit around the solar system. peace
I'm a huge Jerry Reed fan, but this performance is just on another plane entirely. Jerry was human. I don't know what Lenny was. Some sort of real live X-man.
@zmanofwar3 Shawn Lane. Another genius guitarist whose light burned brightly, but briefly. I wonder why it is that the Shawn Lanes and Lenny Breau's of the world die so soon, yet no talent garbage like Madonna and Mick Jagger get live forever.
Man, what a shame the man had such a drug habit... he checked out so young!
All of the great players who've left us too soon... it really breaks this old guitar player's heart. Wes, Lenny, DG, SRV, Albert Collins, Emily Remler, Billy Rogers, Hank Garland, et al. .... truly heartbreaking.
Great post. I was lucky enough to study with Lenny's son only weeks after getting my first guitar. Because of him I've learned to appreciate the art and technique behind the music and have a deep love for the subtle beauty in his style. Nowadays his kind of passion and ability is sorely missed. In these days of digital samples and auto-tuners, his organic talent is everlasting. Please take time to listen to his son Chet and support his recordings.
miss Lenny...thought I could pick until I heard Lenny...score = Lenny 180, me 8. Not just picking...he could play what was in his head. That's in the genes, and genius.
@bledpicker: Agreed; best version of The Claw. Also, check out my buddy Brian on my YouTube page. A few years ago he pulled off a shorter but pretty cool rendition!
I'm pretty sure, as truly great as the fingerwork is, how many versions of "The Claw" do we need to hear changed, altered or sped up to a crazy degree? The picking is completely great.... so let's call it "Lenny's Rifs" and call it a day. And I do not believe that Jerry would refer to someone as "the best guitar player to shit between 2 boots". Please... enough already.
My mind is too imature to dig this type of music yet. Although I would like to nickname it Wonderer music because it seems to never end. It keeps moving to something different.
hey i used to be like that around 8 years back... I couldnt understand why people would listen to this, until it hit me... I mean wow! When i play tis when my frineds are hanging out with beers chillin, they freak and call me gay and shit. and I'm typing like shit because my thumb is broken in its cast, so what a bitch, cant play till it heal up, cant wait!
I knew Lenny and can affirm he was a gentle and gracious man whose talents were exploited by those with agendas. He used to do all nighters for the crowds egged on by the "drug set".
He lived for that part of Heaven that had his music transcribed by the angels.
@BryanRason Lenny's parents were members of Chet's band back in the day.
Story goes Chet was visiting one day and heard Lenny playing in his room. When he went in to see what he was doing Chet asked how he learned to play like that. Lenny replied from listening to Chet's recording's. Chet then informed him the parts that Lenny was soloing he did with multiple track's in the studio
I played guitar on the road with tap dancer Joey Hollingsworth in the late seventies.. LennyBreau had been on the road as his sideman years before.. Joey told me Lenny would sit in his hotel room and practice playing two nursery rhymes simultaneously, with melody, chording, and bass lines for both going on at the same time..
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Waaay too fast. Gerry Reed could play as fast as you like but didn't on this song. Reason: it's supposed to be played in chick'n pickin' style and loses all character at this speed.
Look, you could easily misinterpret the speed when you mastered to play at any speed... He started with his foot stepping the rhythm he thought was the speed and started playing, and he continued with this feel and groove. I feel that the song didn't lost it's character, Lenny didn't played that fast, just 3-4 speeds higher...
It's "Jerry" Reed and the fact is that Jerry Reed once said in a Guitar Player article that Lenny Breau's version of this tune is the definitive version and that if he were able to play like Lenny, he would.
Also, if you think Jerry Reed played the "Claw "Chick'n pickin' style, (sic) you don't know waht chicken pickin is.
Jerry Reed was a great chicken picker but he didn't play The Claw in chicken pickin'.
BTW, like it or not, this is an improvised interpretation of The Claw and while you may not like the speed, there is no tempo that this tune has to be played at.
Lenny's genius aside, "The Claw" is a very well written tune by Jerry Reed. (the two extra bars on the turnaround giving it it's "hook") No wonder all the greats play it.
Lenny Breau is no doubt one of the best. But Jerry Reed is the greatest guitar composer ever. They'll always be a guitarist trying to figure out a Reed song. Who plays Lennys songs? No one can compare to this guitar thinker. Lenny is the bomb though.
@leftymckoy57 The truth is that nobody can play Lenny's compositions but Lenny. Research before you comment. Jerry took lessons from Lenny. Jerry could play & write in the style we all know him for. Lenny was a true innovator; he changed the history of the instrument. Go read the quotes on the Lenny page of this site - softandgroovy - from the guitar Masters in most every genre (including Jerry who was humbled by LB!)
Lenny was one of Danny's major influences though Danny was a much more vigorous, extrovert player. Lenny's playing is so intimate - like having a one to one conversation whereas Danny screams and shouts and is- for me - the supreme guitarist of all time.
I've heard Danny and Lenny play together...awesome...both geniuses, but Danny overpowered him. Lenny more melodic at the time, but Danny just overpowering...Gatton is beyond everyone...he absorbed all including Lenny's melodic skill...harmonics too...there is no one who compares.
There's a bootleg of Lenny and Danny playing with Buddy Emmons in DC ca. 1977. Danny is hot but he can't begin to keep up, especially on the jazz stuff. Also, Lenny could play many, many styles that he never recorded and you can hear him playing like Danny on this bootleg but better.
There's also a bootleg of Lenny playing with Larry Coryell and he is doing straight up Django. Amazing. The greatest guitarist who ever lived.
westerisbester the bootleg you speak of is 4-25-79 Cellar Door. And you need to check out Gatton at Gallaghers 88 for his 7 Come 11 solo; its rediculous. Gatton, Breau, Scotty Anderson best ever with Gatton the most explosive and JUST as versatile aas Breau. I have heard 127 audio on Gatton and have seen 86 vhs//dvd of Gatton which ranks me in 2nd place.
Danny gatton you speak of?i use to work at a thrift store and listend to some old cassetttes of his that came in damn i wish i wouldeve grabbed then now that i look back on it.
@westerisbester Checkout Raphael Rabello, brazillian guitarist, played 7 string. He was another phenomenal guitarist who died in his 30s. Lenny and Raphael were equal in talent, chops, musical imagination and would have loved to play together, maybe they are now.
@monguse39 Rafa Rabello was great, but NOT even close to Lenny Breau!....I'm a Lenny Breau fanatic, I'm in love with the guy, I started a therapy group for people like me...... Lenny was so hot...I'd be equally honoured if you joined the group and shared some of your personal feelings on Lenny for those who are equally warped and deranged.
@ih8thishit: Gatton could cop Lenny as well as anyone; have you ever heard "One for Lenny" from Danny's CD "New York Stories"? If not, check it out - you'd think LB was alive again. In my opinion, there's no "best" among elite musicians, only different ways of imagining the music and then playing it. DG and Lenny wouldn't argue over who was better; they'd just laugh and start jamming.
The main thing about playing the guitar is not trying to be as good as such and such a guitarist but just enjoying the music and aiming always to be original. Something that comes from you and no one else. It was Jimi Hendrix' music that inspired me to learn how to play the guitar but I don't really sound anything like him. What I did learn was to be able play with real feeling and to be creative.
purely incredible. and so hard to find quality recordings or vids. this one, however, is exceptional. I am a guitarist and a singer and i've been making my own music and recording it and evolving for more than 20 years now, but i could live to be 200 and play everyday for 10 hours a day and never be near this dude. just amazing.
yea, somtimes its depressing to listen to this kind of artist. once i stop playing guitar for two weeks after listening to a led zep concert....... anyway, is this string or nylon?
This is Nylon. This is taken from the greate 1969 album "The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau" You can also find an other tune from that album on youtube. it is also a solo, but not with nylon. "Mercy Mercy Mercy"
i wish i could give ten more positives to your comment, man. Lenny needs to be heard by the world or at least anybody who THINKS they know how to play guitar. they way he can make guitar such a personal instrument is beyond my belief. but why couldn't his wife have killed another man, not LENNY! how much i want to be like him but how much it is so impossible.
hey c'mon, you just need a lil practice, uhm... a lot and a lot and a lot of a lot of practice! but it is possible, but it is hard... this guy stayed sleepless nights playing the guitar for hours till end...
I first discovered Lenny Breau from his weekly stint on a show out of Winnipeg called Music Hop, hosted by Ray Saint Germain. Lenny was the main reason I tuned in. I don't play guitar, but I still recognized something in him even when I was a young teenager.
we knew him in Winnipeg. he started playing there in his dad's band as a kid. then he took jazz lessons from a local piano player. he taught another local boy, Randy Bachman how to play. i lived down the street from him.
I actually got to spend time with Lenny many years back. I stayed with him at his place in Nashville. I got to hear him in many spontaneous situations. I never once heard him make "excuses", even when I KNEW he hadn't practiced or played for a day or so. I NEVER heard him play less than beautifully, brilliantly. They talk alot about his drug addictions, etc, but he was NEVER less than superb toward me. He ways a refined gentleman in every sense. Django, Charlie, Chet, and Lenny. Long live each!
I hear that as well, but I am referring to the 'Work Song' riff at 0:41.
This guy along with Scotty Anderson and Danny Gatton in particular are amazing. I have Danny Gatton playing solos that combine blues. rockabilly, jazz and flamenco at the same time. Wow!
hate to tell you this but Scotty Anderson and Danny Gatton are no where near what Lenny was able to do.. nowhere near... not even in the same universe....
true. he mastered every style he put his mind to. I've never seen any guitarist of note acheive the level that he did across the board. and then he would combine them. Scary. Most great Jazz guitarists master a certain style of Jazz or are proficient in other areas, but Lenny knew it all. You'd think he wrote the book or something.
@haunter112: There's no such thing as the "most technically advanced in any genre," with all due respect. Lenny was brilliant at fingerstyle, piano-style guitar but there are many players who bested his single note work. Lenny couldn't play lute or conventional classical guitar better than Bream or Williams. Nor could he play jazz on an archtop with his thumb, like Wes Montgomery. Just my two cents worth...
You are so right. But Scotty is close.. ... just a great touch, and an original style, with fast, sweet fingers. But Lenny wast pure melody, and the most delicate, exquisite harmonic sense. As Django was the purest, most instincive genius, Lenny was Bach, Lenny was Mozart, Lenny was Chopin, playing the guitar. In terms of pure musical conception, he will never cease to amaze us, ...a sonic feast for the ear. Lenny didn't so much play guitar, as he "made music". Close to perfection? Yes! JS
more like Ravel really... his harmonic conception was very modern in terms of 20th century harmony.. I cannot compare Lenny with Scotty because I have not heard Scotty play solo guitar or with a trio that I like... Scotty to me is a country player who plays jazz... Lenny was a country player who grew beyond the box of country music and became a jazz player..
@gtrplyr013: Scotty Anderson is far more than just a "country player" (though that's nothing to put down, some of those guys can wail). It is quite uncommon to hear today, but 40-50 years ago, most top-level country guitar players had to know jazz so they could play western swing and jam after-hours at jazz places. Scotty can hold his own with any jazzman. I've seen him live, and heard his recordings, and he is the real deal. Check out "Sleight of Hand" from the 1980s for examples.
@gtrplyr013: Hate to disagree with you, but if Lenny was alive and seeing what Scotty Anderson is capable of, he'd be floored - just like everyone else is. Scotty invented the style in which he plays, no one prior to him had ever played in the same way, or with the same level of technical command and musicality. There's no one in the world who can duplicate what he is doing. Lenny was an acknowledged master at playing pianistic ideas on guitar, but he couldn't play Scotty's stuff.
This isn't "The Claw"...this is a complete re-inventiion by a genius...NOT a "cover" of Jerry Reed's classic. The tempo and meter changes in the middle --like sections in a medley -- are mindblowing. Only the intro and finale are The Claw" bookends to an "only Breau" guitar clinic.
I like this version too -it is a very different one from the "Living Room Tapes"version -more mellow and much jazzier. The Living Room version is amazingly OTT and quite wonderful.
Hey English2Elvish ... you must be joking. Since you claim to be 28, HOW could you have taken bass lessons from Lenny when he DIED in 1984? That would mean you took bass lessons from him when you were 4. Hmm, that's awful young for a teenager. hehe
Lenny used to come by the Maritimes to chill and to get away from what bugged him in the biz. One time '72 I think, he needed to get some cash so he agreed to a jam gig at the Flame Showbar in Saint John, NB and a bass player travelled by air buying an extra ticket for his bass just to jam with the man!
u can hear jazz, blues and country in this piece, is there anything lenny didnt do, he also as he said "injected" flamenco and indian classical music into his music, u cant even imagine the difficulty of flamenco where u have to master many techinques like rasquado strumming, tremolo and picado, and lenny was sure one of the first ones to fuse those styles together,and even there is a video where he plays bach's piece as well, what a remarkable talent,who can reach up to his level, one of a kind
It's called counter point and Bach did it in 4 point in the Baroque era...but that takes nothing away from Lenny, cause Lenny knew Bach better than you or I.
WaveRyeDer99 6 days ago
breau and hendrix, both forces of nature.
sheikyerboutti 2 weeks ago
My mouse became possessed and hovered over the like button. I simply responded to its bidding and clicked.
SuperGuitarDude 2 months ago
Most importantly his playing is beautiful and makes you want to cry. It truly doesn't sound like show off. I think those are just a few of the qualities that give him such a cult status.
rodneythemodney 2 months ago
anybody knows where I can find his albums???
rodcrippler 4 months ago
@rodcrippler Google Art Of Life Records and the Art of Life Records LLC store on ebay
TorontoTont0s 2 months ago
Lenny and that's all need be said...just ask McLaughlin, Scofeild, Metheny, Stern, and whoever else you want...
WaveRyeDer99 5 months ago
@WaveRyeDer99 Even WES!!
sitarnut 6 days ago
@sitarnut Lenny influenced every modern guitar player on the planet, if you don't think so keep on chirping. Wes is a part of the foundation of music as is Lenny who lived longer than Wes and took it to another level...Why don't you ask me if I prefer air to the ozone my interesting friend.
WaveRyeDer99 6 days ago
@sitarnut It's not fair to compare pioneers like Wes to those who came after b/c as you know even Lenny was influenced by Wes. Modern players have the advantage of learning what Parker, Davis, Monk, Wes etc... did. You're trying to make me insult either Wes or Lenny in some way. Not gonna happen. They're all my heroes, you on the other hand are a douche-bag. Good day Sir, I said Good day.
P.S.
Wes is long deceased, the modern players I said to ask, you can still ask...
WaveRyeDer99 4 days ago
truly amazing player,my father bill waddell played with him in winipeg may years ago,and always said one of the best.
thetbrband 5 months ago
If Chet knew Lenny, why in the hell didn't he make him a CGP?
zmanofwar3 6 months ago
@zmanofwar3
Lenny died in 1984. Chet gave the title to other players in the 90s. Lenny was long dead then. If he'd still been alive, he surley would have gotten the title.
boguitar87 4 months ago
@zmanofwar3 thats a really good question
KingNast 3 months ago
A genius beyond words. I can say no more.
Gary1497 6 months ago
Our planet has a layer of earth to shed haha and it would work
JypesRypeSnipes 6 months ago
Tell me send a SPACE PROGRAM IN CANADA THE BLUE PRINTS OF A SATTILITE BASE ON A PIECE OF bIG sPACE CRAFT. The size 10,000 miles unreal not or seriously debunking misfit style idea for space city not even mars a able yearly orbit around the solar system. peace
JypesRypeSnipes 6 months ago
@JypesRypeSnipes
What in the f*ck are you talking about?? I think I have some kind of idea, but your grammar still has me quite puzzled...
GreeneMachine23 6 months ago
This tune has been stuck in my head for over 2 years now.
noblesiner 6 months ago
Next level. he's just the best. beyond my comprehension. jeez. whew!
mrlaa1 7 months ago
What a great version, I love it!
mgaskill182 8 months ago
Jerry called Lenny"...the best guitar player that ever sh** between two boots."
oldtimtoad 8 months ago
out of this world on that guitar
donottawaguitar 9 months ago
I'm a huge Jerry Reed fan, but this performance is just on another plane entirely. Jerry was human. I don't know what Lenny was. Some sort of real live X-man.
noisepuppet 9 months ago
Just found out about him, and WOW! I would call him the Shawn Lane of his time... or Shawn's the Lenny of his time!
zmanofwar3 10 months ago
@zmanofwar3 Shawn Lane. Another genius guitarist whose light burned brightly, but briefly. I wonder why it is that the Shawn Lanes and Lenny Breau's of the world die so soon, yet no talent garbage like Madonna and Mick Jagger get live forever.
rayjr62 10 months ago
@rayjr62 ya forgot hendrix and rhoads...
dickyp1 7 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
If you like this check out this guy I just found, Nick Fox incredible!
MusicCraZy187 11 months ago
Got no feel...all smoke, no fire. Watch Jerry to see how it's done !!
guitgeo 11 months ago
@guitgeo you must have listened to the first 6 seconds and turned it off...reed is great but you're a total toolbag
bryce936907 9 months ago
@guitgeo got no Feel???????? Really listen to again...with a open mind!!!!
grtlessonsneil 1 month ago
Man, what a shame the man had such a drug habit... he checked out so young!
All of the great players who've left us too soon... it really breaks this old guitar player's heart. Wes, Lenny, DG, SRV, Albert Collins, Emily Remler, Billy Rogers, Hank Garland, et al. .... truly heartbreaking.
GeorgiaBoy1961 1 year ago
the man was not of this world, beyond comprehension, a mozart of the guitar and more, bless him x
clawawhile1 1 year ago
Great post. I was lucky enough to study with Lenny's son only weeks after getting my first guitar. Because of him I've learned to appreciate the art and technique behind the music and have a deep love for the subtle beauty in his style. Nowadays his kind of passion and ability is sorely missed. In these days of digital samples and auto-tuners, his organic talent is everlasting. Please take time to listen to his son Chet and support his recordings.
LambWrangler 1 year ago
He's really good, but I think you might find Øystein Sunde to be just as good or even better...
00tzar 1 year ago
@00tzar Not even close
sjuozhunki 1 year ago
miss Lenny...thought I could pick until I heard Lenny...score = Lenny 180, me 8. Not just picking...he could play what was in his head. That's in the genes, and genius.
oldtimtoad 1 year ago
Genius...and missed...
StratsRgreat 1 year ago
@bledpicker: Agreed; best version of The Claw. Also, check out my buddy Brian on my YouTube page. A few years ago he pulled off a shorter but pretty cool rendition!
MattCurrieMusic 1 year ago
Comment removed
1961GratefulED 1 year ago
Search for video by his brother Denny Breau IMO one the best living guitarist in the world.
1961GratefulED 1 year ago
A masterpiece!
b4uc2moons 1 year ago
Just searching,for curiosity,videos about him..and just discovered that he passed away today august 12 !!
R.I.P. Genius !!!
RickInRock84 1 year ago
so much improv in this!
LinkBulletBill 1 year ago
The best version of The Claw.
bledpicker 1 year ago
Remembering Lenny today. August 5, 1941–August 12, 1984
rocktenniscat 1 year ago
at 1:00 is that rocco prestia?????
2boredfortv 1 year ago 2
the best----Danny i s Great and tommy E---but this is genius
lechbarh 1 year ago
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I'm pretty sure, as truly great as the fingerwork is, how many versions of "The Claw" do we need to hear changed, altered or sped up to a crazy degree? The picking is completely great.... so let's call it "Lenny's Rifs" and call it a day. And I do not believe that Jerry would refer to someone as "the best guitar player to shit between 2 boots". Please... enough already.
jack34695 1 year ago
Lenny had chops that could drop jaws from Segovia to Chet (who was a very loyal supporter) to Vai.
He is in heaven with Chet Baker, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell tearing it up.
chaosIsTheOnlyPower 1 year ago 2
@chaosIsTheOnlyPower .He's not in heaven dude. "The dead know nothing" Eccl. 9:5. Maybe in the resurrection.
mishim1 1 year ago
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@mishim1 Thats your opinion. I wouldn't bet on it.
b4uc2moons 1 year ago
@mishim1 Ahhh - Somebody knows the truth. So does Lenny's daughter by the way. She's on here....check softandgroovy.
jazz53033 1 year ago
acojonante!!! very good
cabenavisson 1 year ago
My mind is too imature to dig this type of music yet. Although I would like to nickname it Wonderer music because it seems to never end. It keeps moving to something different.
RastafariPoet 1 year ago
@RastafariPoet
hey i used to be like that around 8 years back... I couldnt understand why people would listen to this, until it hit me... I mean wow! When i play tis when my frineds are hanging out with beers chillin, they freak and call me gay and shit. and I'm typing like shit because my thumb is broken in its cast, so what a bitch, cant play till it heal up, cant wait!
LinkBulletBill 1 year ago
Incredible guitar player, this instrumental is so rich harmonically, melodically with great dynamics. A true virtuoso who left this world too soon.
alex081969 1 year ago
another great acoustic guitarist is erik
mongrain his tone is amazing
JUSTING101 1 year ago
Oh! Now I now what it really means - to play guitar.
LychkovIA 1 year ago
I knew Lenny and can affirm he was a gentle and gracious man whose talents were exploited by those with agendas. He used to do all nighters for the crowds egged on by the "drug set".
He lived for that part of Heaven that had his music transcribed by the angels.
Dialoquese 2 years ago 22
I can say wat i want nigga
with that bein said
this guys purty good
monaybot1 2 years ago
thank you!!!!
steinberger95 2 years ago
for the record, if anyone talks shit on this guy's playing, they aren't very smart, so don't bother replying... nobody can touch lenny
jazzpsalti 2 years ago 7
I agree and so does Tommy Emmanuel and Chet Atkins......:)
BryanRason 2 years ago
@BryanRason Lenny's parents were members of Chet's band back in the day.
Story goes Chet was visiting one day and heard Lenny playing in his room. When he went in to see what he was doing Chet asked how he learned to play like that. Lenny replied from listening to Chet's recording's. Chet then informed him the parts that Lenny was soloing he did with multiple track's in the studio
Lenny was pure genius.
1961GratefulED 1 year ago 2
@1961GratefulED
I played guitar on the road with tap dancer Joey Hollingsworth in the late seventies.. LennyBreau had been on the road as his sideman years before.. Joey told me Lenny would sit in his hotel room and practice playing two nursery rhymes simultaneously, with melody, chording, and bass lines for both going on at the same time..
diamondnight 8 months ago 2
@diamondnight on top of all that, they were in two separate meters, one in duple the other in triple
moprovskaya 7 months ago
i just learned i could be a distant family member of lenny, by the name and by the music
EdgeofGreen 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Waaay too fast. Gerry Reed could play as fast as you like but didn't on this song. Reason: it's supposed to be played in chick'n pickin' style and loses all character at this speed.
MBlues02 2 years ago
Look, you could easily misinterpret the speed when you mastered to play at any speed... He started with his foot stepping the rhythm he thought was the speed and started playing, and he continued with this feel and groove. I feel that the song didn't lost it's character, Lenny didn't played that fast, just 3-4 speeds higher...
LinkBulletBill 2 years ago
maybe 6-7 speeds faster... not 3-4...
LinkBulletBill 2 years ago
its a cover, when someone does a cover they incorperate thier own style to it. if you dont like it dont listen to it.
ibanezxiphos700 2 years ago
Fair enough, although until I've listened to it how do I know if I like it :D.
MBlues02 2 years ago
uh, jerry, not gerry
RaptorJMR 2 years ago
It's "Jerry" Reed and the fact is that Jerry Reed once said in a Guitar Player article that Lenny Breau's version of this tune is the definitive version and that if he were able to play like Lenny, he would.
Also, if you think Jerry Reed played the "Claw "Chick'n pickin' style, (sic) you don't know waht chicken pickin is.
Juriswindow 2 years ago
Jerry Reed was a great chicken picker but he didn't play The Claw in chicken pickin'.
BTW, like it or not, this is an improvised interpretation of The Claw and while you may not like the speed, there is no tempo that this tune has to be played at.
agoblinist 2 years ago
I can only say this, I Love 'The Claw'
KeesB1989 2 years ago
Lenny is King....... Though before some of you get carried away with some of these other players you speak of, check out Yamandu Costa....
jhlville 2 years ago 3
Lenny's genius aside, "The Claw" is a very well written tune by Jerry Reed. (the two extra bars on the turnaround giving it it's "hook") No wonder all the greats play it.
wadekirtley 2 years ago
just happen to be searching jerry reeds version, and lenny's came up, i forgot how amazing lenny was...
78lp90strat 2 years ago
Lenny Breau is no doubt one of the best. But Jerry Reed is the greatest guitar composer ever. They'll always be a guitarist trying to figure out a Reed song. Who plays Lennys songs? No one can compare to this guitar thinker. Lenny is the bomb though.
leftymckoy57 2 years ago
I would say Agustin Barrios Mongore is the greatest guitar COMPOSER ever. of course i think Lenny is the best guitarist ever.
sageSPH 2 years ago 4
@leftymckoy57 The truth is that nobody can play Lenny's compositions but Lenny. Research before you comment. Jerry took lessons from Lenny. Jerry could play & write in the style we all know him for. Lenny was a true innovator; he changed the history of the instrument. Go read the quotes on the Lenny page of this site - softandgroovy - from the guitar Masters in most every genre (including Jerry who was humbled by LB!)
jazz53033 1 year ago
Lenny was one of Danny's major influences though Danny was a much more vigorous, extrovert player. Lenny's playing is so intimate - like having a one to one conversation whereas Danny screams and shouts and is- for me - the supreme guitarist of all time.
zthetha 2 years ago
not
MrGtrplyr013 2 years ago
I've heard Danny and Lenny play together...awesome...both geniuses, but Danny overpowered him. Lenny more melodic at the time, but Danny just overpowering...Gatton is beyond everyone...he absorbed all including Lenny's melodic skill...harmonics too...there is no one who compares.
guyrichmond7 2 years ago
westerisbester guyrichmond and I both agree Gatton is the most amaing player ever!!!
gattonmaster 2 years ago
I know what you mean about Danny's playing. He was just so physical in his approach to the guitar. It was a force of nature.
Lenny's playing was all about subtleties and creating different colours and places.
Putting those two together is like putting a poet in with a drill sergeant.
dragknuckle 2 years ago
There's a bootleg of Lenny and Danny playing with Buddy Emmons in DC ca. 1977. Danny is hot but he can't begin to keep up, especially on the jazz stuff. Also, Lenny could play many, many styles that he never recorded and you can hear him playing like Danny on this bootleg but better.
There's also a bootleg of Lenny playing with Larry Coryell and he is doing straight up Django. Amazing. The greatest guitarist who ever lived.
westerisbester 2 years ago 11
westerisbester the bootleg you speak of is 4-25-79 Cellar Door. And you need to check out Gatton at Gallaghers 88 for his 7 Come 11 solo; its rediculous. Gatton, Breau, Scotty Anderson best ever with Gatton the most explosive and JUST as versatile aas Breau. I have heard 127 audio on Gatton and have seen 86 vhs//dvd of Gatton which ranks me in 2nd place.
gattonmaster 2 years ago
Danny gatton you speak of?i use to work at a thrift store and listend to some old cassetttes of his that came in damn i wish i wouldeve grabbed then now that i look back on it.
riceboii101 2 years ago
@westerisbester
Lenny, Danny, and Buddy wow! I would love very much to hear that.
McGuitarStar 1 year ago
@westerisbester Checkout Raphael Rabello, brazillian guitarist, played 7 string. He was another phenomenal guitarist who died in his 30s. Lenny and Raphael were equal in talent, chops, musical imagination and would have loved to play together, maybe they are now.
monguse39 1 year ago
@monguse39 Rafa Rabello was great, but NOT even close to Lenny Breau!....I'm a Lenny Breau fanatic, I'm in love with the guy, I started a therapy group for people like me...... Lenny was so hot...I'd be equally honoured if you joined the group and shared some of your personal feelings on Lenny for those who are equally warped and deranged.
TheRealKurtJames 1 year ago
great player no doubt...but this style puts me to sleep...sorry just mho.
flinx649 2 years ago
Danny Gatton knew this guy.
ValiRossi 2 years ago
Danny Gatton couldnt have kept up with Lenny if Danny smoked 20lbs of meth and did 400 lines of coke. Gatton was a fine rockabilly picker however.
ih8thishit 2 years ago
Gatton was great , but you can't compare Lenny to Gatton, two different styles
jimbojimbojimbojimbo 2 years ago
@ih8thishit: Gatton could cop Lenny as well as anyone; have you ever heard "One for Lenny" from Danny's CD "New York Stories"? If not, check it out - you'd think LB was alive again. In my opinion, there's no "best" among elite musicians, only different ways of imagining the music and then playing it. DG and Lenny wouldn't argue over who was better; they'd just laugh and start jamming.
GeorgiaBoy1961 1 year ago
is this actually really just one guitar?
mark1800 2 years ago
The main thing about playing the guitar is not trying to be as good as such and such a guitarist but just enjoying the music and aiming always to be original. Something that comes from you and no one else. It was Jimi Hendrix' music that inspired me to learn how to play the guitar but I don't really sound anything like him. What I did learn was to be able play with real feeling and to be creative.
lewars1912 2 years ago 3
purely incredible. and so hard to find quality recordings or vids. this one, however, is exceptional. I am a guitarist and a singer and i've been making my own music and recording it and evolving for more than 20 years now, but i could live to be 200 and play everyday for 10 hours a day and never be near this dude. just amazing.
MrJoeCage 2 years ago 18
yea, somtimes its depressing to listen to this kind of artist. once i stop playing guitar for two weeks after listening to a led zep concert....... anyway, is this string or nylon?
mekore 2 years ago
my guess is nylon.
MrJoeCage 2 years ago
It's hard to imagine anyone being so impressed by Zeppelin that they stopped playing guitar for two weeks.
Sunderlanding 2 years ago 4
Just out of curiosity, why do you say that?
Slamdunk70 2 years ago
Because I think of Led Zeppelin as a bunch of overrated hacks who stole most of their stuff.
Sunderlanding 2 years ago 4
Positively Nylon!
songmaven22 2 years ago
This is Nylon. This is taken from the greate 1969 album "The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau" You can also find an other tune from that album on youtube. it is also a solo, but not with nylon. "Mercy Mercy Mercy"
breaulenny 2 years ago
i wish i could give ten more positives to your comment, man. Lenny needs to be heard by the world or at least anybody who THINKS they know how to play guitar. they way he can make guitar such a personal instrument is beyond my belief. but why couldn't his wife have killed another man, not LENNY! how much i want to be like him but how much it is so impossible.
sageSPH 2 years ago
his approach was totally original. i've not heard anyone like it, before or since.
MrJoeCage 2 years ago
@MrJoeCage
hey c'mon, you just need a lil practice, uhm... a lot and a lot and a lot of a lot of practice! but it is possible, but it is hard... this guy stayed sleepless nights playing the guitar for hours till end...
LinkBulletBill 1 year ago
@MrJoeCage Yes you can! I believe in you.
WilliamEGD 1 year ago
@WilliamEGD
Thou believest in MrJoeCage; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
djengo77 1 year ago
@MrJoeCage Right then imagine if you would even be able to compose like him, definitely a true talent he was.
stdermeister1 11 months ago
I first discovered Lenny Breau from his weekly stint on a show out of Winnipeg called Music Hop, hosted by Ray Saint Germain. Lenny was the main reason I tuned in. I don't play guitar, but I still recognized something in him even when I was a young teenager.
letsif 2 years ago
The finest musician ever to come out of the Pine Tree State, Maine.
signjay 2 years ago
we knew him in Winnipeg. he started playing there in his dad's band as a kid. then he took jazz lessons from a local piano player. he taught another local boy, Randy Bachman how to play. i lived down the street from him.
pauricx14 2 years ago
Gee Nee Ius
newriko2 2 years ago 2
the best ever. scary good.
sidethehead 2 years ago 2
Indeed.
Batman001 2 years ago
the flamenco flurry at the end makes me bang my head every time
bottleneckbeck 2 years ago
I actually got to spend time with Lenny many years back. I stayed with him at his place in Nashville. I got to hear him in many spontaneous situations. I never once heard him make "excuses", even when I KNEW he hadn't practiced or played for a day or so. I NEVER heard him play less than beautifully, brilliantly. They talk alot about his drug addictions, etc, but he was NEVER less than superb toward me. He ways a refined gentleman in every sense. Django, Charlie, Chet, and Lenny. Long live each!
191747 2 years ago
He was simply TheeeBest.
James Caudill
5caudillos 2 years ago
GOOO-BREAUUUU!!!!!
ronlovesutube 2 years ago
I hear that as well, but I am referring to the 'Work Song' riff at 0:41.
This guy along with Scotty Anderson and Danny Gatton in particular are amazing. I have Danny Gatton playing solos that combine blues. rockabilly, jazz and flamenco at the same time. Wow!
jmsbk12345 2 years ago
hate to tell you this but Scotty Anderson and Danny Gatton are no where near what Lenny was able to do.. nowhere near... not even in the same universe....
gtrplyr013 2 years ago
As much as I love Scotty and Danny, I have to agree with you. Lenny was quite possibly the most technically advanced guitarist of any genre.
haunter112 2 years ago
true. he mastered every style he put his mind to. I've never seen any guitarist of note acheive the level that he did across the board. and then he would combine them. Scary. Most great Jazz guitarists master a certain style of Jazz or are proficient in other areas, but Lenny knew it all. You'd think he wrote the book or something.
ZeropointZero70 2 years ago
@haunter112: There's no such thing as the "most technically advanced in any genre," with all due respect. Lenny was brilliant at fingerstyle, piano-style guitar but there are many players who bested his single note work. Lenny couldn't play lute or conventional classical guitar better than Bream or Williams. Nor could he play jazz on an archtop with his thumb, like Wes Montgomery. Just my two cents worth...
GeorgiaBoy1961 1 year ago 2
You are so right. But Scotty is close.. ... just a great touch, and an original style, with fast, sweet fingers. But Lenny wast pure melody, and the most delicate, exquisite harmonic sense. As Django was the purest, most instincive genius, Lenny was Bach, Lenny was Mozart, Lenny was Chopin, playing the guitar. In terms of pure musical conception, he will never cease to amaze us, ...a sonic feast for the ear. Lenny didn't so much play guitar, as he "made music". Close to perfection? Yes! JS
191747 2 years ago
more like Ravel really... his harmonic conception was very modern in terms of 20th century harmony.. I cannot compare Lenny with Scotty because I have not heard Scotty play solo guitar or with a trio that I like... Scotty to me is a country player who plays jazz... Lenny was a country player who grew beyond the box of country music and became a jazz player..
gtrplyr013 2 years ago
@gtrplyr013: Scotty Anderson is far more than just a "country player" (though that's nothing to put down, some of those guys can wail). It is quite uncommon to hear today, but 40-50 years ago, most top-level country guitar players had to know jazz so they could play western swing and jam after-hours at jazz places. Scotty can hold his own with any jazzman. I've seen him live, and heard his recordings, and he is the real deal. Check out "Sleight of Hand" from the 1980s for examples.
GeorgiaBoy1961 1 year ago
@gtrplyr013: Hate to disagree with you, but if Lenny was alive and seeing what Scotty Anderson is capable of, he'd be floored - just like everyone else is. Scotty invented the style in which he plays, no one prior to him had ever played in the same way, or with the same level of technical command and musicality. There's no one in the world who can duplicate what he is doing. Lenny was an acknowledged master at playing pianistic ideas on guitar, but he couldn't play Scotty's stuff.
GeorgiaBoy1961 1 year ago
A bit of 'The Work Song' in the middle of this. Amazing guitarist.
jmsbk12345 2 years ago
Actually it's Dis Here at 2:16 by Bobby Timmons who played with Art Blakely and the Jazz Messengers, a band Lenny loved.
talfactor 2 years ago
this is insane
cypkid13 2 years ago
"Lenny Breau is the best guitar player to shit between 2 boots" Jerry Reed
breaulenny 2 years ago 33
@breaulenny hahahaa!
mrlaa1 1 year ago
@breaulenny Hi, could you please explain that to me?
insaneguitarfreak 1 year ago
This isn't "The Claw"...this is a complete re-inventiion by a genius...NOT a "cover" of Jerry Reed's classic. The tempo and meter changes in the middle --like sections in a medley -- are mindblowing. Only the intro and finale are The Claw" bookends to an "only Breau" guitar clinic.
alejhombre 2 years ago
You're right. This might have been called "Impressions of the Claw" or "The Claw Variations". Even the head is quite from Reed's original.
rolliegyrl2 2 years ago 7
Lenny Breau "is the greatest guitar player I have ever heard, and I have heard some guitar players."-- Jerry Reed My Country, 9/1984
breaulenny 3 years ago 2
I like this version too -it is a very different one from the "Living Room Tapes"version -more mellow and much jazzier. The Living Room version is amazingly OTT and quite wonderful.
syncopater999 3 years ago
You are right,,I love this one,,and the one from Living Room Tapes. This was played 40 yeares ago, live!! He was many yeares ahed of his time
breaulenny 3 years ago
exelent!!!
Eerie43 3 years ago
This is crazy.
succanick 3 years ago
This was Jerry´s favorit recording of his tune
breaulenny 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
not bad but jerry still rips better
seekanddestroy09 3 years ago
lol, you really don't know what you're talking about.
IncorruptibleTruth 3 years ago
you must be joking. god bless Jerry--he was fantastic but nowhere near this level even on this tune.
bigboyo 3 years ago
no joking the heading says it all
lenny plays jerry's tune
no dis to lenny i just like jerrys better
seekanddestroy09 3 years ago
It really shows Lenny's genius that he can take the claw, improvise with it, and actually make it an improvement on Jerry Reed.
ChrisCalder17 3 years ago 4
Wats up, Breau?
twentyoutoftwenty 3 years ago 6
HA !!! i gave you a thumbs-up , and so would have Lenny.
rabnerrabnerrabner 3 years ago 2
Thanks, Breau!
twentyoutoftwenty2 3 years ago 2
Hey English2Elvish ... you must be joking. Since you claim to be 28, HOW could you have taken bass lessons from Lenny when he DIED in 1984? That would mean you took bass lessons from him when you were 4. Hmm, that's awful young for a teenager. hehe
Babalon 3 years ago 4
This is off of the Velvet Touch of Lenny breau. I lost my vinyl many years ago. This is a great album.
travelguy12 3 years ago 3
Jesus on the mainline. He was the master that's for sure.
bigdjindustriez 3 years ago
lenny is the one
woodjoy 3 years ago
there IS no spoon!
lukeev 3 years ago
im from saint john o.O
MikeisBroke 3 years ago
Lenny used to come by the Maritimes to chill and to get away from what bugged him in the biz. One time '72 I think, he needed to get some cash so he agreed to a jam gig at the Flame Showbar in Saint John, NB and a bass player travelled by air buying an extra ticket for his bass just to jam with the man!
RIP Lenny, fondly remembered.
Mac+
PadreMDB 3 years ago
This guy is top
callasexperience 3 years ago
I don't get it, VoteLegForJesus.
dreadnought45 3 years ago
pie owns, and we must give ourselves up to its omipotence.
VoteOlegForJesus08 3 years ago
cake rents, reserve your icing for investment.
woodjoy 3 years ago
nicely done
VoteOlegForJesus08 3 years ago
Excuse me while I pick up my jaw. I just naturally assumed this was studio work. Phew!
rsensorat3 3 years ago
Man that guy was something special.
7680joe 3 years ago
isnt this jerry reed?
juddadam2 3 years ago
Why do the geniuses have to die so soon?
Ken, Toronto
dreadnought45 3 years ago 9
because they know dick about pie. pie owns
VoteOlegForJesus08 3 years ago
friiiiggggggggginnnnnnn hellllllll this is live!!! animal planet.
Nu9v9 3 years ago 3
u can hear jazz, blues and country in this piece, is there anything lenny didnt do, he also as he said "injected" flamenco and indian classical music into his music, u cant even imagine the difficulty of flamenco where u have to master many techinques like rasquado strumming, tremolo and picado, and lenny was sure one of the first ones to fuse those styles together,and even there is a video where he plays bach's piece as well, what a remarkable talent,who can reach up to his level, one of a kind
Strat85 3 years ago 6
hey...when chet atkins says that lenny is one of the best guitar players he has ever played with....thats all you need......
ComeToButthead1 3 years ago 3
the tune at 2:16 is "Dis Hyuh" ("this here"), recorded by Cannonball Adderley quintet. Written by pianist Bobby Timmons, I believe.
jedcrowe 3 years ago
the maple top acoustic
zeppelin2392 3 years ago