Build Your Own Clone Message Board

You know, I was thinking about this on the way home......So many fans praise Jimi, EVH, Rhoads, Clapton, Page, etc for being great because "they were the first one to do it". Ironically, these guys are have been listening to say "guitar gods" for 30+ years, doing the same old thing. I have a few guitar player friends who are in that boat...Page, Hendrix, Beck, EVH, etc, but to them the new guys are "too out there" or "just making noise"......Ah, so the old guys are great because they were 'innovative" and "pushed the envelope", but the new guys are either "rehashing" or "going too far"......Hmmmm?

Well, my favorite player is Trey from Phish, but I'm not silly enough to suggest he's considered the same way Jimi Hendrix was. I think the other guys are right: the musical climate right now doesn't really allow for a "guitar deity." Guitarists are not grabbing pop culture the way they once did.

Trucks, Haynes, Bonamassa… all great, but your average Joe has never heard of them. Sorry, but I think John Mayer is the closest thing we've got, and even he is known more for raspy-voiced makeout music than his legitimately stellar guitar playing.

this guy

There isn't one, or we need to wait about 20 years to find out who holds up

Fredrik Thordendal for his Allan Holdsworth legato
Matthias "IA" Eklund for his freak guitar records, really inventive player

The fact your average guy hasn't heard of him disgusts me, but then that is the subject of another thread. Maybe they should date Jessica Simpson and then dump her and talk about her sex life and then, and only then...maybe....the average guy would have heard of them. Mayer can play and is a total douche. He also strikes me as phony when he does play.

Like DC I too was thinking about this on the way home. Was Jimi Hendrix really a household name in 1970? Or are we just benefiting from our historical eyes and what he was later elevated to as the decades rolled on? Because he is a houselhold name now he MUST have been then too right? I say he was probably not. He was amonst the hippies for sure and the "fringe" hippies if you will. I know he was amongst other muscians as HE was the one Clapton, Beck etc.. wanted to see. But other than that I can promise you my middle class parents couldn't have told you who Jimi Hendrix was in the late 60's nor their friends.

How much does the internet play into who is a household name I ask? Does it mean they are any good? Great?

Anyway, that is what I was thinking about on my hour long rainy drive home.

Deep thought while commuting

I have about 8.5-10 hours per week in that car. I do a lot of thinking most of it meaningless...well darn near every bit actually But hey, a brother has to pass the time right? I have found some great music though using the 30 preprogrammed buttons on my satellite radio though. Yonder Mountain String Band being one of them lately. Sheesh sumbitch's can pick. They could probably be in tune picking their noses.

The only meaningful answer to the question: Justin Bieber. All other arguments are invalid.

And that's O'bama's fault right?

Just to add a little bit of trivia to Johns point about "was he Hendrix as revered as much then as now"

Hendrix opened for the monkeys and literally got boo'd off the stage by teenage girls who wanted to see Davy jones and that guy in the hat.


Also the times are changed. What's hip with kids now is over produced, auto tuned shit cranked out by people with not much talent to speak of. Like Robert said, if you want good, hit a bar and support the local guy's.

Amen.

Some of the favorite music I'm listening to these days is stuff my teenage son's band is recording in my basement, and some obscure or semi-obscure bands he finds (As Cities Burn, La Dispute), or I happen to find somehow (Minus the Bear, Moving Mountains, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer,...).

Another great Bieber graphic, apologies for the derail:

I wonder if that's the first time Richard Marx has ever been on the good side of an infographic?

I KNOW, RIGHT?

I'm down with Bellamy, but I can't shake the fact that a close friend of mine (who tours and crews for the Flaming Lips) saw their backstage setup, and told me about the offstage guitar tech(s) who does practically all of his switching and modeling for him. I understand he's technically great, but that killed the mojo for me. I'm (a lot) more impressed with Jack White. Even more impressed with Nels Cline. But this is just the 2000's.

Yeah - I see that. Dimebag Darrell did a lot of the same stuff. I think at a certain point it becomes necessary depending on your setup - in Bellamy's case he moves a lot as part of the show, and of course he's singing and often hitting keys as well, so - maybe cutting out effects just became the thing that he had to do? In Dimebag's case he once said something like "man I'm usually pretty stoned up there, and I move around a lot - I won't ever remember what button to push." So - honesty?

Bellamy's whole show is very controlled ... his guitar switches are lightning fast. Whoever is running that behind the scenes deserves a lot of credit - it's great to watch.

It strikes me that given time and the extra arms Jack White would be playing the guitar, bass, drums and keys while singing and running the sound during a show - definitely a control freak! And, the more I run this over, White is definitely my number one for the 2000's - I always think of the White Stripes as a 90's band but they didn't really hit until 2000 or 2001.

So, de-evolution? Bo Didley to Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page to Eddie Van Halen to The Edge, then there's nothing left to do, so back to Bo Didley (Jack White)?

That's fine.

Totally. Or maybe the very act of White tipping his hat to the greats is what makes him great, while playing through 60's janky thrift store gear and the unconventional use of effects and instruments makes him innovative...? Maybe.

Robert Randolph is the heir apparent to Bo Diddley.

What about Josh Homme? He's the one in the band with John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl

Homme is definitely the 90's. Plus I think his music, while definitely guitar rock, wasn't really viewed as 'guitar hero' stuff by many.



I believe what we have here is a misunderstanding of White's talents. While some of his better known stuff is electric blues throwbacks to the greats, a lot of isn't so simple, and he has many styles and a lot of talent. Don't believe what your radio tells yo.

I would start with Robert Johnson to Son House to T-bone Walker to Albert King to Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughn via Albert King and Buddy Guy. From SRV I don't know. I could draw several dotted paralells by tossing in BB King, Freddie King and Muddy Waters back to Jimi, SRV etc...

But that's just me.