The virtuoso guitarist Lindsey Buckingham said was incapable of making “good records”
Somewhat improbably, Lindsey Buckingham exists as somewhat of an overlooked guitarist these days. That’s almost sacrilege to say, considering he created the iconic guitar lines to ‘Rhiannon’, ‘Go Your Own Way’, ‘Never Going Back Again’, and ‘Big Love’, among scores of others. But when the greatest classic rock guitarists get compiled onto various internet lists, how often do you see Buckingham’s name towards the top?
More than anything else, Buckingham’s playing style is so unique that it’s almost impossible to replicate. Employing folk chord shapes, banjo-style fingerpicking, and stinging electric lines, he is a force with a fresh sound of his own. Moreover, Buckingham also wasn’t afraid to hang back and let his playing complement a particular song.
Flash was never at the forefront of Buckingham’s mind, something that made him an anomaly in the frenetic hard rock scene of the 1980s. However, his songs have survived beyond that, perhaps as a direct result. So, while his credentials might be undermined unfairly by the shade of ‘pop’, his progressive, blended playing style still inimitably lives on. Meanwhile, maybe some of the fellows with fancier chops on display have remained bound to the era that spawned them.
When sitting down with Guitar World Acoustic back in 2012, Buckingham had some opinions on those kinds of flashy guitar players, specifically calling out one of the most beloved six-string strummers of all time. “I’ve always believed that you play to highlight the song, not to highlight the player. The song is all that matter,” Buckingham stated. “There are two ways you can choose to go. You can try to be someone like Eddie Van Halen, who is a great guitarist, a virtuoso. Yet he doesn’t make good records because what he plays is totally lost in the context of this band’s music.”
Buckingham uses a country great as a counterpoint. “Then there are guitar players like Chet Atkins, who weren’t out there trying to show themselves off as guitarists per se, but were using the guitar as a tool to make good records,” Buckingham said. “I remember loving Chet’s work when I was a kid, but it was only later, when I really listened to his guitar parts, that I realised how much they were a part of the song’s fabric, and how much you’d be going ‘Oh, that song just isn’t working,’ if they weren’t there.” The same can be said for Buckingham’s eclectic and distinct playing across Rumours.
Buckingham also cited Atkins as an inspiration when it came to playing without a pick, a relative rarity in the world of rock and roll. “A lot of the session players, like Chet Atkins, they played with fingers or a pick,” Buckingham explained. “Then I listened to a certain amount of light classical guitar playing. And of course later on, when the first wave of rock ‘n’ roll kind of fell away, folk music was very popular and very influential in my style.” In his view, it leads to imperfection, and imperfection leads to personality and depth. Van Halen had a different high-octane, note-nailing approach.
They might not have been direct competitors since they worked at opposite ends of the rock music spectrum, but Van Halen and Fleetwood Mac did compete for the title of America’s Biggest Rock Band throughout the 1980s. Both were multi-platinum juggernauts with incomparable guitarists and a revolving door of singers. Maybe that’s where the jostling comes into it.
Buckingham’s comments aren’t really against Van Halen’s abilities, but rather Van Halen’s sound as a whole. It’s still a diss, but it’s a nuanced one that takes into account that electric Eddie certainly had plenty of technical ability—it’s just that there’s no accounting for taste; something plenty of Van Halen fans would fire right back at bushy Buckingham.
Check out both players laying down some of their best work and decide for yourself who you prefer down below.
