"Koss"

For me, a kick-ass soloist and a kick-ass writer have some things in common: they both need to be great storytellers using style, dynamics, phrasing, tone and any other Jedi mind-trick that keeps you coming back for more. A good one can really take you on that pure, magic carpet ride and leave you hangin' on the edge of your seat. 


When an instrument is in the right, talented hands, it can create solos where you get LOST - kinda like a book...or even a Kindle for you digitally savvy folks. 

Paul with a Les Paul!

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A six-string storyteller who's lately been making the rounds on my Spotify playlist is Paul Kossoff, the late guitarist for Free. He's not as celebrated as his British blues-rock contemporaries, which is rather unfortunate: although he was just as riveting and could play with the best of the lot, perhaps he wasn't quite as tasteful as Eric Clapton, or versatile as Jeff Beck.


And despite their musical muscle, Free was never able to scale the heights of, say, Led Zeppelin due to personnel problems which stunted their growth - mostly caused by Kossoff himself: he was self-destructive, unreliable and riddled with drug addiction and doubt. His behavior resulted in numerous breakups for the band, and ultimately prevented them from ideally following up on their 1970 smash hit of "All Right Now." 


By 1976, he was already dead at the age of 25. Kossoff had a somewhat self-loathing aspect to his personality: like a troubled childhood friend who was a great kid, but also a sinking Titanic. A likable, ticking time-bomb everyone rooted for - but once everyone heard the news, nobody flinches because they could see the inevitable.


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But man, creativity works in mysterious ways - because for all of Kossoff's faults, for all of his shortcomings, he was truly GIFTED with a caps lock: with that tone, and that VIBRATO (2:25 mark-cranks up the volume knob!). I've listened to the blues-rock/hard-rock genre for years, and nobody's quite mastered this measured, feral attack before or since - his playing is primitive, untamed stuff. And I mean that in a great way. 


If Clapton plays like he's making love, Kossoff plays like a crazy one-night-stand. Lotta ringing TENSION.

It's frenetic, reckless and lacking in any elegance or taste. And it's wonderful.