Jump to content

Nominate your candidate for most OVERRATED GUITARIST IN ROCK!


treeduck
 Share

Recommended Posts

Can someone tell me what "shredding" a guitar is? And give me an example of it in a song?

Playing really really really fast. As many notes as possible. Listen to any Yngwie Malmsteen "song".

 

I can't listen to Yngwie. Besides, I don't even know who he is.

 

Can you give me an example from an old band, or a Rush song?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about Alex at the end of Working Man? Or Xanadu (I'm thinking especially of the ESL Xanadu vid)?

 

Yeah maybe for Working Man, and part of the Xanadu solo has some shredding. I would say the electrified version of the La Villa intro on ESL is shredding - as is the latter part of the solo. Shredders go for the hundred-notes-per-second thing.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about Alex at the end of Working Man? Or Xanadu (I'm thinking especially of the ESL Xanadu vid)?

 

Yeah maybe for Working Man, and part of the Xanadu solo has some shredding. I would say the electrified version of the La Villa intro on ESL is shredding - as is the latter part of the solo. Shredders go for the hundred-notes-per-second thing.

 

I was thinking of the end of the R40 LA concert video. Alex was giving it his all. To tell you the truth, I was surprised he could still move his fingers so fast. It must have been painful for him to do it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easily Cobain. Great songwriter, vastly important at least, but his actual musical talents, guitar and vocals, were never really impressive or even particularly unique. Was he good at what he did? Yes, definitely. Did he inspire a ton of other guitarists/singers? Undeniably. Was it particularly innovative, previously unheard of, or rather difficult for him (or anyone) to play/sing like he did? Not in the slightest. Cobain was much more the right guy with the right songs in the right place at the right time than some undeniable guitar hero. Brian May, on the other hand (and merely as an example), was (and still is) a genius (he's a doctor of astrophysics you know).
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easily Cobain. Great songwriter, vastly important at least, but his actual musical talents, guitar and vocals, were never really impressive or even particularly unique. Was he good at what he did? Yes, definitely. Did he inspire a ton of other guitarists/singers? Undeniably. Was it particularly innovative, previously unheard of, or rather difficult for him (or anyone) to play/sing like he did? Not in the slightest. Cobain was much more the right guy with the right songs in the right place at the right time than some undeniable guitar hero. Brian May, on the other hand (and merely as an example), was (and still is) a genius (he's a doctor of astrophysics you know).

 

If he was wildly successful and inspired a ton of other people, isn't that some evidence he's uniquely talented?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easily Cobain. Great songwriter, vastly important at least, but his actual musical talents, guitar and vocals, were never really impressive or even particularly unique. Was he good at what he did? Yes, definitely. Did he inspire a ton of other guitarists/singers? Undeniably. Was it particularly innovative, previously unheard of, or rather difficult for him (or anyone) to play/sing like he did? Not in the slightest. Cobain was much more the right guy with the right songs in the right place at the right time than some undeniable guitar hero. Brian May, on the other hand (and merely as an example), was (and still is) a genius (he's a doctor of astrophysics you know).

 

If he was wildly successful and inspired a ton of other people, isn't that some evidence he's uniquely talented?

 

some people hate simplicity. me, on the other hand, I think rock needs simplicity. I can't listen to prog all the time

Edited by bathory
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even though I think he's very talented and I like him to some degree I'll say Eric Clapton. I prefer Jeff Beck and think he's under rated especially compared to Clapton who I think is over rated.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Springsteen

 

Wrong..he may not have had the chops of some of the more technical guitarists, but he was a songwriter par excellence, and IMO the last great rock star in living memory.

And who has ever accused Springsteen of being a great guitarist? :huh:

The Rolling Stone greatest guitarist list has him 2 places higher than Lifeson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not really sure how Springsteen is an overrated guitarist, I have never seen him top any list for best guitarist outside of stuff like Rolling Stone.

 

Besides, his music doesn't aim for the same target as guitar gods like Eddie Van Halen or Britney Spears.

 

LEAVE BRUCEY ALOOOOOOONE!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easily Cobain. Great songwriter, vastly important at least, but his actual musical talents, guitar and vocals, were never really impressive or even particularly unique. Was he good at what he did? Yes, definitely. Did he inspire a ton of other guitarists/singers? Undeniably. Was it particularly innovative, previously unheard of, or rather difficult for him (or anyone) to play/sing like he did? Not in the slightest. Cobain was much more the right guy with the right songs in the right place at the right time than some undeniable guitar hero. Brian May, on the other hand (and merely as an example), was (and still is) a genius (he's a doctor of astrophysics you know).

 

If he was wildly successful and inspired a ton of other people, isn't that some evidence he's uniquely talented?

 

If he was wildly successful and inspired a ton of other people, that only means that he was talented at being successful and inspiring others, which has nothing directly to do with musical skill and proficiency, which is what I was talking about. If success and inspiration were directly indicative of musical skill and proficiency, Julliard would be a hit machine, and many more popular musicians would have graduated college with music degrees. Not that you can't be insanely skilled without proper schooling, as there are tons of examples which prove that idea incorrect, but my example does show success and inspiration are not directly indicative of musical skill and proficiency. Like I said before, success and inspiration in the music biz have much more to do with being the right guy/girl/band, in the right place, with the right sound and the right songs, at the right time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Overrated... I will say, Ace Frehley

The thing about Frehley is a lot of people think he's dumb and he can't even read music or something but he's actually very knowledgeable. A enormous amount of people now judge KISS as talentless clowns who just got by on the gimmick of costumes and masks. So in that light he's actually underrated.

 

I don't listen to Kiss or Aces solo material but if there's is one talented memeber of that band its him. Gene and Paul can kiss me arse.

I never said he wasn't talented but some think he is a guitar great. He's just not that good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Overrated... I will say, Ace Frehley

The thing about Frehley is a lot of people think he's dumb and he can't even read music or something but he's actually very knowledgeable. A enormous amount of people now judge KISS as talentless clowns who just got by on the gimmick of costumes and masks. So in that light he's actually underrated.

 

I don't listen to Kiss or Aces solo material but if there's is one talented memeber of that band its him. Gene and Paul can kiss me arse.

I never said he wasn't talented but some think he is a guitar great. He's just not that good.

He can lay down a few riffs! http://orig08.deviantart.net/d418/f/2008/126/7/a/ace_frehley_smiley_by_jgbarber65.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do people really praise Kurt Cobain as a guitarist?

 

I always assumed they were praising him as a musician an artist, which is fair praise. As a guitarist he's nothing special.

 

I remember seeing the solo for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" being with the top 20-something guitar solos on a top 100 list for some website... That guitar solo is literally just the vocal line of the verses played on the guitar, why would it ever be considered even a good guitar solo?

 

(which reminds me, if you're a guitarist in desire of a headache, listen to Weezer's "Green Album"... Every single song on that album has a guitar solo of this same fashion, the vocal line played again on the guitar. All 10 songs of the album. I'm not exaggerating...)

 

Nirvana isn't overrated but Kurt is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Slash

Daron Malakian (the fact that I saw this guy listed as "underrated" here on TRF qualifies him as "overrated" in my book)

 

David Gilmour

I find that Gilmour is the go-to example of guitarists when people argue "emotional playing > technical ability". He can bend some strings during ambient interludes. Cool. For the longest time I despised Pink Floyd for being boring / overrated / stoner music, and I still consider the band to be these things... But now I can appreciate their music enough to the point to like them, but still consider them overrated... Especially David and the fact that he can hold a note. Again, how cool.

 

Here's a one man band who's both very emotional and technical:

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definatly Clapton for me.

 

He had Cream. But Solo he's boring and bland to my ears.

 

Mick

I wouldn't go that far. Some of it strikes me that way, but there are some gems as well.

 

Can't stand Layla in the original version. Unplugged is cool, though.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only track from Clapton that I like is from the short lived Derek and the Dominoes.

 

It's "Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad" Otherwise he just seems so boring, even when playing the Blues classics like "Further Up On The Road"

 

His solos don't seem to go anywhere and always fail to keep my attention.

 

It's a mystery to me how he has managed to remain so popular.

 

Then again, that's music for you.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know about over rated. Maybe over hyped is a good term for some of them anyway. It seems everywhere I go I hear something about Joe Bonamasa. He was even on tv the other day. I guess every once in a while the media needs a white blues hero. For a long time it was Stevie Ray Vaughn. It's like people have to convince themselves that white guys can make music like this too. Edited by New_World_Man
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...