Has Steve Hackett ever done "a power chord"?

Hah!  He does, but it isn't a major part of his guitar vocabulary.  With all the other sonic disruption going on from lush keys & very powerful bass/bass pedals, he uses the guitar more like a violin/cello.   This is a nice segment that really spotlights his very powerful approach, including bottleneck slide and volume pedal.....notice how he uses single-notes on the low E string, 2:10 to the end.  

Edited by cstack3 - May 20 2011 at 16:23

Your friend has some bizarre logic. "He has never recorded a power chord, therefore he does not know how to play them, therefore, he is an inferior rock musician". A rather strange conclusion to come to. The absence of power chords is a musical decision more than anything else, and he utilizes many techniques that many "power chords" players would have trouble mastering.

stonebeard wrote: "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" "Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout." Tell me the following riffing isn't a power chord.

I completely agree, in fact, it is a power chord. And I always heard this very fast low B almost being "shredded" in the background, I thought this was him, but apparently it's not. I still don't know what that instrument is during that section.

Mushroom Sword wrote: stonebeard wrote: "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" "Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout." Tell me the following riffing isn't a power chord. I completely agree, in fact, it is a power chord. And I always heard this very fast low B almost being "shredded" in the background, I thought this was him, but apparently it's not. I still don't know what that instrument is during that section.

Mushroom Sword - If I'm getting you right... 
Someone else should chime in with a supporting or detracting opinion, but I recently came to the conclusion that the "shredding" going on there is Mike Rutherford going all-out on a baritone guitar. There could be a twelve-string overdub with it too.  (Hell, maybe went nuts - a twelve string baritone?!?)

After the line "Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout" they're in F-sharp minor.  When Hackett comes in with that sort of, I don't know, wild-west hammer-on thing briefly, they move to A major (actually A7).  A quick 1.5 bars in C then settle back into A major.  Just there, where the soloing guitar drops out (2'43" by my mp3's reckoning), I think we're hearing a baritone guitar. 

For those unfamiliar these guitars, depending on string tension used, are typically tuned with lowest string at an A or a B - I'd say in this case an A - with the rest of the strings tuned accordingly at the same intervals as a regular guitar (so, A-D-G-C-E-A).  I have an electric one of these and it's hard to play with such speed and energy; an acoustic must be ten times harder, but I wouldn't put it past Rutherford who was a workhorse if there ever was one.

anyone ever heard the band Hackett was in before Genesis, Quiet World, album The Road from 1970 ?   I haven't, but he may have been more rock-chord oriented back then (the album features him on both a & e guitars)

There were some power chords on GTR----Jeckel and Hyde--for example

I fail to see why 'power chords' are necessary for someone to be labeled as a rock guitarist.

I mean, Mark Knopfler is certainly a rock musician (and he did much more than 'Money For Nothing').

^ I think you're right.  I for one love that the OP put this up because it really shows something unusual, putting aside any silly ideas of rock-guitar propriety (not propagated by OP; maybe by his friend - unimportant).  I mean, the first finger barred across the neck, the other fingers arranged and all strings struck together for the power chord - such a staple in rock guitar work - it looks like you have to go far to find just a handful of examples.  Heck, in the video of "Moonlit Knight" above, at 3'40", watch him do those chords during his solo (m3-2-4-1-repeat).  Sure they're not truly power chords, but even these he takes at a fast arpeggio, first up then down, and it's a thing that a lot of other guitarists probably would have just hit the strings all together.  He really is special in subtle ways, on top of kicking butt when he wants to.

cstack3 wrote: American Khatru wrote: ^ I think you're right.  I for one love that the OP put this up because it really shows something unusual, putting aside any silly ideas of rock-guitar propriety (not propagated by OP; maybe by his friend - unimportant).  I mean, the first finger barred across the neck, the other fingers arranged and all strings struck together for the power chord - such a staple in rock guitar work - it looks like you have to go far to find just a handful of examples.  Heck, in the video of "Moonlit Knight" above, at 3'40", watch him do those chords during his solo (m3-2-4-1-repeat).  Sure they're not truly power chords, but even these he takes at a fast arpeggio, first up then down, and it's a thing that a lot of other guitarists probably would have just hit the strings all together.  He really is special in subtle ways, on top of kicking butt when he wants to. Great comments!  Hackett's guitar-playing fits into the context of the group....."power chords" are played on the Hammond organ or Mellotron by Tony Banks, or occasionally, as barre chords by Rutherford on 12 string, etc.     Hackett approaches the guitar very much like a cello/viola, using single notes or combinations of notes.  He never seeks to overwhelm, unlike more bombastic chordal players like Bob Fripp!   I always found his approach to be very sophisticated and never really missed the power-chord aspect.  Their music doesn't really need it.   However, if you ask him nicely, I'm sure he'll play some power chords for you!

You can be sure i will ask him a personal version of Smoke on The Water

cstack3 wrote: American Khatru wrote: ^ I think you're right.  I for one love that the OP put this up because it really shows something unusual, putting aside any silly ideas of rock-guitar propriety (not propagated by OP; maybe by his friend - unimportant).  I mean, the first finger barred across the neck, the other fingers arranged and all strings struck together for the power chord - such a staple in rock guitar work - it looks like you have to go far to find just a handful of examples.  Heck, in the video of "Moonlit Knight" above, at 3'40", watch him do those chords during his solo (m3-2-4-1-repeat).  Sure they're not truly power chords, but even these he takes at a fast arpeggio, first up then down, and it's a thing that a lot of other guitarists probably would have just hit the strings all together.  He really is special in subtle ways, on top of kicking butt when he wants to. Great comments!  Hackett's guitar-playing fits into the context of the group....."power chords" are played on the Hammond organ or Mellotron by Tony Banks, or occasionally, as barre chords by Rutherford on 12 string, etc.     Hackett approaches the guitar very much like a cello/viola, using single notes or combinations of notes.  He never seeks to overwhelm, unlike more bombastic chordal players like Bob Fripp!   I always found his approach to be very sophisticated and never really missed the power-chord aspect.  Their music doesn't really need it.   However, if you ask him nicely, I'm sure he'll play some power chords for you!

Great comments y'self cstack3!  You're 100% on with "context".  The responsibilities were so well shared in that band; I still discover things in these records, records that I've known longer than I've known most people.  With you on his classical instrument approach as well.  "Sophisticated" for sure - and I think this, among other things, gives their music such longevity.