The Best of Caton
 

Which songs-live or studio-feature what's Caton's best work, in you opinion.

He had a lot of awesome moments live in 96, but I really like what he added to "In the Springtime of His voodoo."

I don't know very much about the guitar, but I love the effect that Caton used on Doughnut Song. It's so somber. I also really like the guitar songs from the 1996 shows--like Caught A Lite Sneeze and Tear In Your Hand. I don't believe that it is Caton playing on New Age, but sometimes I listen to the chorus of that song on repeat just to hear the guitar.

John

Yes, I love the 98 band editions of Doughnut Song. I think Caton is a much better guitarist than Mark in part because Caton has a sense of nuance and subtlety that Mark has never shown.

Agreed. Here's a bit more information on it:

How did you get the effect referred to in Boys for Pele’s Liner Notes as ‘HA HA guitar’ on Doughnut Song?
Steve Caton: I used an Ernie Ball volume pedal and some delay. The song was originally a B-side. Tori wanted me to start with Beyond the Pale, the original Doughnut Song title, to ease my way into the Pele project. She was happy enough with the end result that she put the song on the record. I tend to use a volume pedal quite a lot in my playing to achieve different things. I have been using one for so long, I cannot imagine playing without one. It is central to so many things that I do. Anyway, I coined the name ‘HA HA guitar’ because I thought it sounded a bit like laughing, but it is really a throw back to Eno records. He has all kinds of funny names for his sounds, ‘Insect Menace’ from the song ‘African Nights’ on Bowie’s Lodger recording being my favorite Eno sound label.
-- Steve Caton; Virtual Guitar, Oct 1999

I think I loved him and Tori doing Cornflake Girl live the most. I never really liked that song much when it first came out but fell in love with it immediately when I saw them do it live during the DDI tour.

Hotel. If she was to have done it with the SLG guitarist, it would have sounded much cleaner, but darker as well. And her voice would have been more powerful. I'd love to hear a version like that. But if she did it with Mac Aladdin, the drums would have been flat and the whole thing would have been overpowered by a trashy, overbearing, cheap sounding guitar with no texture in the song whatsoever. Nightmare.

Caton playing on GOD. The scratchy guitars were Caton's idea. He had to convince Tori to use them!
Goes to show Tori's always had some bad instincts that she needs to be talked out of!
I remember reading about how she was playing the beginnings of Mother, Eric Rosse asked "What's that?"
Tori said "Oh, nothing. That's shit." And Eric convinced her to take it more seriously!!!!
I mean, Caton and Eric Rosse were a huge part of the "think tank" that inspired the unbelievable classic Trilogy of the first three records.
(Even though I know Eric didn't produce BfP, but he inspired it, so there's that. She was still reeling from the musical influence I suppose.)
It's not even worth comparing Caton to Mark's playing. Mark's an amateur player who became a sound engineer and not an artist for a reason.

agreed

Mark's an amateur player who became a sound engineer and not an artist for a reason. i see him more as a sound engineer who finally got to play his geetar on widespread commercially available records

Guitar solos!

Doughnut Song '98



In the Springtime of His Voodoo '96



and that's it, I think. The Happy Phantom demo has a guitar solo but I'm not sure if that's Caton or some other session musician.

Great solos, and definitely Cornflake Girl for the acoustic work.

His electric atmospherics show real genius, he gives so much to some songs without demanding a spotlight for his playing in the mix. "Girl" is a great example, it has piano, vocal and drums all leading the sound, but the guitar from Caton weaves through it and bolsters all the other elements of the song as it does so. It's similar with Leather and Little Earthquakes.

That's it entirely. You don't even know exactly that it's a guitar playing, just something subtle, adding layers. It doesn't compete with Tori or Bose (or Matt or Jon).

and CHINA. I've always loved the atmospheric guitar work on that one.

Oh how I sometimes miss the 90s. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo.../loveicon2.gif http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo.../loveicon2.gif http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo.../loveicon2.gif that she played this on network TV.

I've always thought of Caton's playing as close to David Gilmour's alot...same type of mood, they both evoke.

Having said that, Caton rocked out the 99 PPV perfomance.

can someone explain to me why he doesnt work with tori anymore .... i feel her work got worse when he left, did they fall out?

You don't know the backstory, not.david.bowie? The lyrics from the song of your screenname seem to tell at least one reason/story!

I agree with Doughnut Song '98, and to add more, I'd go with Suede and Sugar Plugged.

Yep. Listen to Not David Bowie, not.david.bowie! There's your answer. Plus, Husband wanted to play. Poor Husband was all "stop being a victim, and also, I wanna play guitar!"

That's one of the reasons why I don't like Not David Bowie. It's so bitter. Didn't she write it for The Beekeeper? You'd think by that time she'd be over that whole story.

yes of course i have listened to and its a great song, and kind of assumed that it might be about him but it could be about many other people who may have pissed her off and from some accounts of people i know who have been in contact with her it wasnt that difficult, but one song doesnt explain alot, did he really want to be david bowie? i thought there would be more to go on than one song!

also bit of a rubbish dis one quite upbeat and catchy song, years after he stopped playing for her on a b side that was never really released except on a piano doesnt really make think it was such a big deal since they worked together for quite a while .... so i just wanted a bit more info was all

(p.s I do feel like a little bit of a twat for my username being one of the answers to my question)