The worst thing I can say about guitarist Ronnie Montrose’s
\nmoody, inventive 1978 solo debut is that it’s too damn short. At
\njust under 36 minutes,
\nOpen Fire<\/i> invariably leaves me wanting more.<\/p>\n
Fresh from the second of three incarnations he’s attempted of
\nthe Zeppelin-ish rock band bearing his last name (the first time
\naround in ’73-’74 having been Sammy Hagar’s big break), Ronnie went
\ninto the studio to make
\nOpen Fire<\/i> with former Montrose players Jim Alcivar and Alan
\nFitzgerald in tow and old pal Edgar Winter in the producer’s chair.
\n(Montrose himself had his own big break on Winter’s huge
\nThey Only Come Out At Night<\/i> album.) Stepping completely
\noutside of the hard-rock formula he’d been locked into up to that
\npoint, Montrose created in
\nOpen Fire<\/i> one of the truly memorable instrumental albums in
\nrock history.<\/p>\n
A lot of talented guitar players have tried and failed to make
\nall-instrumental albums that sustain the listener’s interest all
\nthe way through. I inevitably groove hard to two or three tracks on
\nevery Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson album — but the rest usually
\nfeels like a waste of my time and their considerable talent. Even
\nthe likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan conceded he needed some words to go
\nwith those awe-inspiring solos.<\/p>\n
Montrose succeeded where so many have failed by defying
\nexpectations from start to finish, and doing it with as much
\nsubtlety as flash. After five years spent seemingly begging to be
\ncompared with Jimmy Page, playing virtually nothing but huge,
\npounding, angular riffs, Montrose opened his solo debut with an
\norchestral<\/i> piece.<\/p>\n
And not just some cheesy “see how hard I’m trying to be
\ndifferent” snippet, either, but a driving, dynamic
\nhorns-and-strings piece (“Openers”) that sounds like nothing so
\nmuch as the soundtrack to a downhill skiing movie (Montrose would
\nlater contribute to just such an album, 1991’s
\nBorn To Ski<\/i>). At the climax, Montrose cleverly and almost
\nseamlessly segues into the next track, with a theremin taking over
\nthe melody as the orchestra peaks out until the song is broken open
\nby the ripping good electric riff that propels you into “Open
\nFire,” theremin thrumming away underneath the entire time. It’s a
\nhell of a ride, and it’s only the beginning.<\/p>\n
Next up comes probably the album’s highlight and as unique a
\nsound as I’ve ever heard achieved. “Mandolinia” is a three-ring
\ncircus of layered, cascading mandolins and mandocellos, the
\nimpossibly sweet high notes bouncing off Winter’s swirling,
\npulsating bass synthesizer, with occasional, precise guitar fills
\nunobtrusively occupying the middle ground. I don’t use the word
\n“masterpiece” very often, but here, it applies.<\/p>\n
“Town Without Pity” is the one song that got any airplay off the
\nalbum, a number borrowed from the soundtrack of the old movie of
\nthe same name. Straightforward as it basically is, Montrose sells
\nit by incorporating the orchestra’s horn section and wringing the
\ndrama out of every sweeping note of his solos.<\/p>\n
The album also features two very enjoyable fusion pieces —
\n“Heads Up” and “Rocky Road” — and two wonderful acoustic numbers,
\nthe circling, hypnotic “Leo Rising” and the almost pastoral “My
\nLittle Mystery,” featuring Winter on harpsichord.<\/p>\n
\nOpen Fire<\/i> closes with a minor opus, the shifting, startling
\nsix-minute “No Beginning\/No End.” After a solid minute or so of
\nbizarre sizzling\/shearing studio effects, it without warning cuts
\ninto a sublime acoustic guitar meditation that builds over the
\ncourse of the next three minutes into a series of gently soaring
\nelectric solos. It is, like the album it caps off, utterly unique
\nand masterful.<\/p>\n
If you play guitar — or even if, like me, you just love music
\nthat’s got real spark and creativity behind it — your music
\nlibrary is not complete without this album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5936],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35894","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ronnie-montrose","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35894"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35894"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}