Riff Retrospective: John Sykes
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Published 2022-02-03
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hey guys!!! its your good buddy Uncle Ben Eller here with a very special Riff Retrospective on one of the greatest guitarists of all time: John Sykes! His careers with Tygers of Pan Tang, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Blue Murder, and of course his solo career have yielded a megaton of incredible riffs, and we are here today to celebrate them!
Armed with a Mesa Badlander 100 rack mount, Suhr RL/IR, Ownhammer IR, Logic Delay and Reverb, a Boss SD1, and my buddy Mitch's Les Paul Tribute, i'm gonna take you all through his entire career, spotlighting some of his greatest riffs from across his career.
Whats your favorite Sykes riff? And who should i feature on the next Riff Retrospective? Let me know in the comments!
All Comments (21)
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Thanks for watching Riff Retrospective: John Sykes!!! Who should cover on the next installment?!
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People say no one swings like Eddie, which is true, but they should also say that about Sykes. Such a great groove in his playing. He just adds so much "drama", for want of a better word, to songs.
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To me as a guitar player for 40 years, the 87 Whitesnake album is one of my top 3 guitar tones of all time. John’s solos have the smoothness and sound of a violin. Between his tone and his flawless rhythm and solos, he is only next to Steve Lukather as the most underrated guitar players of all time. Guitar perfection as far as I am concerned!
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1987 and Blue Murder are probably the best 1,2 punch as far as guitar albums go at the time. Thank God for Bob Rock who helped John get his tone for Whitesnake, then carried it over to Blue Murder.
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Absolutely right - John Sykes is indeed one of the most underrated guitarists ever. He is an absolute MONSTER of a player!
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I was a frustrated guitar player in the 80s and all the guitarists I knew were very aware of John, guys like him made it clear we should keep our day jobs and just love music and playing for the joy of it.
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Sykes is a beast ! That Blue Murder stuff is bad ass !
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Sykes is up there with the best of them, come back John ASAP please!!!!!
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I love John Sykes! Bad Boys is my favorite song of the 1987 album.
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“Nothin’ But Trouble” is among the greatest rock albums ever recorded in my opinion. John Sykes could easily have been a name on the tip of every 80’s rock fan’s tongue. Timing and circumstance were not in his favor. But he had the guitar chops to rival anyone, a voice to rival anyone, and the 80’s rocker good looks to have been on every teenage girls bedroom wall. He could have been as huge as Bon Jovi, but he just wasn’t.
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2:59 Love Don’t stay / Crazy Nights 3:15 Raised on Rock / Crazy Nights 3:26 GangLand / Spellbound 3:39 HellBound / SpellBound 3:52 Uncle Ben Speaks 4:18 Cold Sweat / Thunder and Lighting 4:46 Uncle Ben Speaks 5:21 Slide It In / Slide It In 5:38 Give Me More Time / Slide It In 6:14 Uncle Ben Speaks 7:20 Crying in the Rain / WhiteSnake 7:33 Bad Boys / Whitesnake 7:59 Still Of The Night / WhiteSnake 8:20 Give me All Your Love / WhiteSnake 8:43 Children Of The Night / WhiteSnake 8:58 Here I Go Again / WhiteSnake 9:27 Your Gonna Break My Heart Again / WhiteSnake 9:45 Uncle Ben Speaks 10:06 Riot / Blue Murder 10:22 Blue Murder / Blue Murder 10:38 Black Hearted Woman / Blue Murder 10:57 Uncle Ben Speaks 11:25 We All Fall Down / Nothin’ But Trouble 11:44 Cry For Love / Nothin’ But Trouble 12:01 Love Child / Nothin’ But Trouble 12:24 Uncle Ben Speaks 12:35 Soul Stealer / Out Of My Tree 12:52 Black Days / Out Of My Tree 13:07 The Way You KISS Me / 20th Century 13:27 Uncle Ben Speaks Link to playlist with all songs youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBXA-0q87bHcKk6XJ1I4gPk…
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Proud to say John and I are from the same town, Reading in England, and he is a huge influence on me as a guitarist, and although sadly never met him, I'm friends with one of his cousins. My town also proudly produced Kate Middleton, Kate Winslet, Mike Oldfield and Ricky Gervais who I was at school with
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It was evident on Thunder and Lightning that Sykes had something to prove. Being a Gary Moore fan he came out swinging and no telling where Lizzy would have gone of they had stayed together...and healthy. An aside on Sykes is that Bob Rock has said "he's the best guitarist I've recorded." There's also a YT video recounting his audition for GnR that is well worth the listen.
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John Sykes is so awesome! Agree that he is seriously underrated.
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Was my favorite guitarist growing up! Valley of the Kings! Everyone go listen to that song
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Sykes is underappreciated… not underrated!!
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John is also an incredible singer. His live rendition of Still of the Night with Blue Murder is epic. His playing looks so effortless. It took two guitarists to try to replace him in Whitesnake and I don't think they succeeded. Great riffage Ben.
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Valley of the Kings is an epic song! John is one of my big influences. I got into his playing while listening to Blue Murder. I only found out afterwards that he was responsible for the epic sound of Whitesnake's "1987".
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The ’Thunder And Lightning’ album blows my mind every time I listen to it. Full of awesome riffs and solos. Seriously underrated guitarist!
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I have turned so many of my friends on to Blue Murder. Nobody should be able to shred like that, and have that voice. John is a metal god.
