Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V5 #34

[JohnPerry7@aol.com]

In a message dated 08/02/98 01:53:20 GMT, you write:

> Clapton can certainly bend a string or three, but what about his rhythm
>  playing?  In that particular guitar arena, Pete blows him off the planet.
>  Hendrix, on the other hand, was in a league of his own and begs comparison
>  to no one.

Mick Buck has it absolutely, dead right. 

Hendrix' superiority to Clapton lies in the fact of his being a magnificent
rhythm guitarist - one who also -happened- to play lead gtr & create effects
better than anyone on the planet. Clapton's lead playing is seriously weakened
by his rythmic sense .... what was it Jack Bruce said when Cream split ?

"I'm off to play with some people who don't think exclusively in 4 bar phrases
..."

Something to that effect.

Townshend, like Keith Richards or for that matter, Buddy Holly, took the
simplest chord ingredients and created a vocabluary of his own, one which
subsequently entered the vocab. of every rocknroll guitarist on the planet -
which considering the number of guitar players around, is An Achievement.

Pete's own lead seems at its weakest during his Gibson SG period when he was
trying to emulate Clapton's extended "solo's".  Pete's own best lead style
seems to come & go. A more clipped, Telecasterish, staccato style, it's there
on the 1st single - esp. the first great break on Can't Explain - but seems
then to go underground
post-Tommy. 

Listen to the (low in the mix) lead gtr which follows the bass solo on My Gen.

Pure Townshend, unaffected by notions of fashion or Clapton-angst. Very nearly
as individual as his greatest chord work. The two blend. Distinctions between
lead & rythm disappear and it's just Guitar Playing.

jp