Re: TheWho Digest Vol 1 Num 163

[Hugh Garsden <hughg@speech.su.oz.au>]

>2.  If you think Page plays a chord like anyone, listen to "For Your Life" on
>~Presence,~ or the live version of "Whole Lotta Love." 

Well the best part of "Whole Lotta Love" for me is when they go into that
12-bar jam ("Boogie Mama" or whatever). I assume that's the version you mean.
The rest of the song and the rest of the album is a dud. Well, not quite, I
like "No Quarter". I think that does have style.

I don't want to get too much into Page bashing, although I'm gonna sound like
I am. He was brilliant.  But the interesting thing is this - PT certainly is a
famous guitar player, and I think has contributed to rock guitar playing and
had an influence. But how come when a 14 y.o. with his first electric guitar
decides who he "wants to be", it ends up being Page et al. Those are the guys
who seem to be the fantasy models. And given the decision to go that path,
kids then fairly quickly master many of classic songs, or at least in their
own minds think they have (some of them really do).  I have seen this happen
so often.

Now the fact that Page et al is a model that is jumped to, and that young kids
manage to grasp what is happening and imitate it to a fashion, is an indicator
to me of the lack of style in the playing that they are copying. It's too
accessible, because there's not much really there. And it is this lack of
style that allowed rock guitar playing to become institutionalized and no
longer "Good", viz -

>> PT is one of those geniuses, like Keith Richards, who can play very
>> simple chord/note combinations, vary the timing and leave gaps.
> In the days before the California School of Instituional Guitarists
> that used to be what we called being Good !

This belief is full of holes, sure. It could be that Page et al are role
models because they are more famous as people, the music is more well known,
they have better personalities than PT/The Who, they're real "lead" guitarists
(perceived as such), or whatever. And I am generalising perhaps too much. And
I don't know much about what is happening in guitar playing at the moment. So
if you want to refute me then I am not going to push it. But it's interesting
to speculate. Why does PT get left out? 



	Hugh Garsden