Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 7, 1985-89
By Michael Rays
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About this ebook
Number One with an AXE! Volume 7 takes a look at America's #1 hits of 1985-89, focusing as always on what matters most: GUITAR! The riffs, the rhythm lines, the fills, the solos--Michael Rays rates them all on a scale of 0-10, with the ideal guitar song achieving a score of 40. Come take a ride with Whitesnake, U2, Bon Jovi, Richard Marx, Madonna, Gloria Estefan and Milli Vanilli. You might be surprised by some of the songs that feature great guitar work!
Michael Rays
Michael Rays grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He graduated from Northwestern University and served nine years in the Navy, flying the SH-60B Seahawk helicopter. Michael lives in Billings, Montana with his wife and daughter.
Read more from Michael Rays
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Number One with an Axe! A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits, Volume 7, 1985-89 - Michael Rays
Number One with an AXE!
A Look at the Guitar’s Role in America’s #1 Hits
Volume Seven: 1985-89
By Michael Rays
Published by Michael Rays at Smashwords
Copyright 2020 Michael Rays
Also by Michael Rays, published at Smashwords:
Number One with an AXE! The Fifties
Number One with an AXE! Volume 2: 1960-64
Number One with an AXE! Volume 3: 1965-69
Number One with an AXE! Volume 4: 1970-74
Number One with an AXE! Volume 5: 1975-79
Number One with an AXE! Volume 6: 1980-84
Guitar Odyssey: A Journal of Musical Growth
Guitar Odyssey 2: Talkin’ Dirty
Six-String Sleuth: A Guitar Player’s Guide to Figuring Out Song Chords
Headers: Scores & Headlines from Brazil 2014
Number One with an AXE! is a look at the role of the guitar in America’s #1 Billboard hits. Guitar gadfly Michael Rays listens to, comments on and scores each #1 hit in terms of four guitar-centric criteria: riffage, rhythm, fills and solos. The result is an exploratory history of the guitar at the pinnacle of American pop music.
The songs of 1980-84 featured some extremely strong guitar work. Will the lateys
see a drop-off, or will we climb even higher? Let’s don our headphones and find out!
Table of Contents
Riffs on Guitar Odyssey
Ode to Guitar Players
Methodology Used
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
Facts & Statistics
About the Author
Riffs on Guitar Odyssey
Back to Table of Contents
…you quickly get into the spirit of the project and it becomes great fun to read.
- darkerthanblue.wordpress.com (Deep Purple blog)
Rays creates a chronicle of growth that will immerse and inspire fellow guitar players who have their own 'impossible' playing goals and aspirations…
- D. Donovan, Senior eBook Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
…a surprisingly entertaining read.
- Last Best News
…Michael Rays has crafted a literate, interesting, funny and, oddly, moving account of his six-string journey…
- Missoula Independent
You learn, as Rays did in real time, that the journey towards achieving something, even if it seems simple at first blush, can be trying, surprising, and fulfilling with ample happy accidents in between.
- Guitarkadia.com
Ode to Guitar Players by Michael Rays
Back to Table of Contents
What meaneth one who says ‘I play guitar’?
A batch of basic chords strummed ‘round the fire
An introverted teen who’d be a star
woodshedding endless blues licks on a Squier?
A young gal voicing jazz chords warm and pure
An old man finger-picking on the porch
A classicist, with tones that long endure
or metal shredders carrying the torch?
A drunken punker, fast and out of tune
an aging rocker holding onto youth
a bold flamenco player ‘neath the moon
a studious composer seeking truth?
Thus meaneth one who says ‘I play guitar’:
‘I’ve joined the journey infinitely far.’
Methodology Used (aka Are my methods unsound?
)
Back to Table of Contents
My methodology was pretty straightforward: I got a list of all the #1 songs on the Billboard pop charts and I listened to each one. Some songs entered the #1 spot, fell out and then re-entered; for those songs, I only list the date of the song’s first entry at #1.
I scored each song, using a scale of 0-10, on the following four criteria: Riffage, Rhythm Playing, Fills and Solos. A score of zero indicates that the element didn’t exist (as far as I could tell). A score of 5 indicates an average effort, and a score of 10 indicates a supreme musical accomplishment. The ultimate guitar #1 song would score 10 in all four categories for a total of 40 points.
Scores are based solely on my judgment and are therefore subjective. The mixing on some of the songs made it difficult or impossible for me to tell if there was any guitar on the track. When such doubts arose, I gave a score of 1 or 2 for rhythm playing—I couldn’t bear the thought of giving four zeros to a song that actually contains some guitar!
Where possible, each song title has a YouTube link to the song. My apologies if the links have died. If your device won’t follow the