Comments aside, I've gotten quite a few emails in defense of Jimmy Page's greatness.
It popped into my head this morning that Nels Cline, of Nels Cline Singers and currently of Wilco (nelscline.com/top200.html), lists what he thinks to be the 200 greatest guitarists of all-time on his website. This guy is legit. He’s played with Thurston Moore and Bill Frisell. Those are not opportunities afforded to hacks. Point being; this guy is a credible source. I consulted the list this morning as I was curious to see if Page made the cut. He did.
Further complicating this ongoing debate/bs session is the need to differentiate between technically virtuosic and actually good players. If you’re talking technical virtuosity, I’d bet a lot of people would bring up Ed Van Halen and Joe Satriani and they might exclude genius' like Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young (I will never forget an argument I had as a sophomore in high school with a band geek who enthusiastically overlooked that added dimension of musical greatness in his contention that Jimi Hendrix was not a great guitarist. “He’s good,” he told me, “but not great”). To this very day, if someone tells me Ed Van Halen is a better guitar player than Jimi Hendrix, which does happen, I spit, but that’s just me.
I guess my point is that, for some people, Jimmy Page was and is IT. People pay attention to varying levels of detail when they listen to music. Some people that maybe don’t listen to a broad spectrum of music might not want to acknowledge that Page’s greatness is contingent on the scope and definition of greatness. For example, in my humble opinion, he’s not a virtuoso guitar player but he has written some of the best and most memorable riffs I’ve ever heard. He's also composed some great songs. Obvi!
While you’d have to be pretty stupid not to give Led Zeppelin any credit for their body of work, their influence, and their copious lifestyle (which no one has done here...contrary to some of the comments), it’s also silly to pretend Led Zeppelin's catalogue is beyond reproach.
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2 comments:
Did you use the Word "Obvi" when describing the Great ability of Page to not only write some of the greatest guitar riffs of all time but also great songs??? Jesus seamus, you need to move out of your gff's house......
Did you really censor me? My boyfriend's going to beat me unless you post my comments.
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