famous beagle
Well-known member
I gotta stand up for ol' Robert Johnson. I can't believe anyone would dis him. When I first heard him, I simply couldn't believe anyone could convey so much emotion with either their voice or their guitar.
He's definitely down in my book as the best blues guitarist, blues singer, and (assuming he did write them all) blues songwriter in history. Oh man ... when he says "can't you hear the wind howl?" in "Come on in My Kitchen" .... I can't remember the time something gave me chills like that the first time I heard it!
He's definitely down in my book as the best blues guitarist, blues singer, and (assuming he did write them all) blues songwriter in history. Oh man ... when he says "can't you hear the wind howl?" in "Come on in My Kitchen" .... I can't remember the time something gave me chills like that the first time I heard it!
Tadpui
Well-known member
Stevie Van Zandt (sp?) plays one of the gangsters on The Sopranos. I've never kept up with the show so I don't know which character, but he's one of the main characters.
didgijimmy
vexed
Great, can't wait.
didgijimmy
vexed
I enjoy his voice, and love Come on in my kitchen, I just don't understand why his guitar playing is always praised before anything, just didn't get into it too much.
Light
New member
Context. Where does his mystique come from? Mostly from the British blues guys of the `60's - i.e., mostly Clapton. Now, when those guys where growing up, all they had to listen to was skiffle and whatever else England was putting out in the 1950's - and it WASN'T Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly. So, when they managed to find some old blues records from the US, it was unlike anything they had ever heard before. That kind of thing leaves an impression.
Add the very normal and natural tendency of people to think that the only good music is the stuff they heard when they were between the ages of 14 and 25, and you've got some of the most well known guitarists on the planet talking in ever interview they have ever given about this guy. Because of the context in THEIR lives, he really was that big of a deal for them. You've heard his stuff, at least to some extent, filtered through just about everything you've ever heard. You're context is different.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
famous beagle
Well-known member
Well, I'm 37, and the first time I ever heard him, I was absolutely knocked out. This was after my hair metal period (when I started playing as a teen), my guitar virtuoso Vai/Satriani/Eric Johnson period, my modern blues Stevie Ray/Robben Ford period, my jazz/classical period in college, and my Beatles/songwriting period, which is pretty much where I've remained since around my mid 20s.
I had heard his name all over the place, but I hadn't ever heard his stuff (it wasn't exactly something you heard unless you sought it out). When I first did hear him though, it was mindblowing. I thought "this is why all the fuss."
With Robert Johnson, I don't even think about things like "Well ... his techinque may have been good for back then, but ..." Things like technique don't even come to mind. I just hear him as the total picture; kind of like ... he is the blues to me. His voice, his guitar work ... It doesn't matter if he doesn't have more chops than so and so. Just about everything he played and sang sounds like gold to me.
"Come on in My Kitchen," "Last Fair Deal," "Hellhound on My Trail," etc. ... these recordings are just perfect performances in my opinion.
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Mike_J
New member
Easy!! Eric Clapton. Has not made a good album since the Bluesbreaker record.
All that tears in heaven" stuff gives me the shits. Cream? Aweful.
I read a biography that made me think "jeez, the poor guy is made out to be a real asshole". Then I read the autobiography and Clapton himself confirmed everything the bio had written. A total tosser.
Clapton is God? Not fucking likely.
All that tears in heaven" stuff gives me the shits. Cream? Aweful.
I read a biography that made me think "jeez, the poor guy is made out to be a real asshole". Then I read the autobiography and Clapton himself confirmed everything the bio had written. A total tosser.
Clapton is God? Not fucking likely.
Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
Clapton.
From leading-edge rock bluesman (Mayall, Yardbirds) to guitar god (Cream, Derek & the Dominos), followed by a long descent into shitty Strat tone, and finally settling into a role as an old white boy trying to sound like a Mississippi delta bluesman.
He wouldn't even strap on a Gibson for the Cream reunion concerts at Albert Hall.
From leading-edge rock bluesman (Mayall, Yardbirds) to guitar god (Cream, Derek & the Dominos), followed by a long descent into shitty Strat tone, and finally settling into a role as an old white boy trying to sound like a Mississippi delta bluesman.
He wouldn't even strap on a Gibson for the Cream reunion concerts at Albert Hall.
Purge
Traitorous Usurper
Clapton seems to be winning...and this makes me very happy in my balls. (my balls, incidentally, have more talent than Crapton. Just throwing that out there.)
S
stevieb
Just another guy, really.
A quick reminder- this thread is NOT a gentlemanly exchange of ideas- GET DOWN AND DIRTY AND SAY WHAT YOU REALLY FEEL.
CMunch
Well-known member
The Edge is a tosser
Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
nate_dennis
Well-known member
Just an aside from all of this (which is endlessly entertaining by the way) to say that to ME the above quote is what music is all about. I know that sounds cheesy as fuck, but cool. I guess I'd rather have someone say that I give a "total picture" than my technique is perfect. But that's just me.
Purge
Traitorous Usurper
acidrock
GO PACKERS!
I'd like to diss a very UNfamous guitar player,you know him as "Purge",a dying goat has better tone than that tin ear asshat!
Purge
Traitorous Usurper
I'd like to diss a very UNfamous guitar player,you know him as "Purge",a dying goat has better tone than that tin ear asshat!
You just keep talking there, buddy...the more you blab away, the less likely you are to notice that anvil that I've precariously perched at the top of that cliff just waiting to fall on your horrible head!!
(oh shit, I just gave away my plan...hell, time to call Acme again...)
acidrock
GO PACKERS!
Obscurity is too good for you!You just keep talking there, buddy...the more you blab away, the less likely you are to notice that anvil that I've precariously perched at the top of that cliff just waiting to fall on your horrible head!!
(oh shit, I just gave away my plan...hell, time to call Acme again...)
mshilarious
Banned
No. He is a "delayist".
You know, you could take a Boss Digital Delay with a stereo out, loop one channel out back to the input, and work the knobs . . .
I wanna hear a band with just a delayist, a cowbellist, and maybe a couple of dudes dancing a la David Bowie with Klaus Nomi
didgijimmy
vexed
Never thought of it that way, thanks for the insightful post.