Neil Schon: Who Doesn’t Know Him?

I remember watching a black-and-white video of Neil Schon playing with Carlos Santana.  Then a teenager, Mr. Schon nearly blew Mr. Santana off the stage with his melodic phrases and rapid-fire runs.  Just imagine Neil Schon the kid playing in Devadip’s band.  Well, Mr. Schon has physically become much wider (sorry, Neil) but man, his playing still rocks.

I’d have to admit that during my rock-jazz days (nearing my mainstream/bebop phase), Steve Lukather, Eddie Van Halen, Larry Carlton, Neil Schon, Craig Chaquico, G.E. Smith, Buzz Feiten and Jamie Glaser were my heroes.  That was after discovering Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Randy Bachman, Tommy Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour and Carlos Santana.  Funny but I got my first Jimi Hendrix tape much, much later.

Well, I actually got bored and sometimes even frustrated (owing to the difficulty of some of the runs) when trying to learn an entire album.  So, what I did was to snip off a little bit of this, steal a little bit of that.  This gave me more time to learn the styles of the other axe wielders whose playing I really liked.

Anyway, here’s Neil Schon playing "The Star Spangled Banner."