[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Who`s influence



ScottyTee`s comments on my post are well expressed, and his points are well
taken. I certainly understand the indispensable role Delta and other blues`
players exercised on PT and other guitar stars of the British invasion, and
yes, each of the latter added to that tradition in his own way. But PT`s
guitar sound was, I am saying, enormously influential on the mainstream
sound of post-60`s white rock, based as it is on the unique style PT worked
out, i.e., the use of loud ( in the sense also of dominating the ensemble
sound) suspended chords; power  or block chords; double and triple strums
(part of which come from some kind of flamenco or Spanish influence on PT
(of course we hear it in his acoustic work too); and his use of all these
elements to play rhythm guitar as a lead instrument: eg., in Pictures of
Lily. Of course, the rest of the Who played in a way to help PT develop his
style in this way).  Would Boston have voiced Only A Feeling for guitar the
way they did but for POL or the Seeker? Would Steve Miller have played
Swingtown the way he did but for Baba O`Reilly? Look at pratically the whole
output of, say, Cheap Trick. A thousand  fine songs in the last 25 years owe
their guitar sound to PT`s classic style more than they do to Clapton,
Hendrix, Page or Beck. They were important, to be sure, but could not have
spawned the classic power pop sound of the 70`s-90`s on their own. This is
what I meant and I did not mean to diminish the great blues players who
inspired PT - to your list I`d like to myself add Bo Diddley, who played
loud, propulsive rhythm guitar in a flamboyant, exciting way.