The Logic Off Topic list

At 1:10 PM -0400 6/23/01, GAmoore@... wrote:
>I like Pete Townsend as a songwriter - he's great but guitar... nothing
>special.

To be a rock guitar God is not just a matter of moving your fingers 
fast it's *what* you play, when you play it, and the attitude you 
play it with, and on those criteria alone Pete rules.   But even on a 
technical level I think if you take the time to check out some of the 
interlocking rhythms and riffs he came up with you might revise your 
opinion.  If you really get into playing them as he played them you 
see they are a lot more tricky than they seem.  The rhythm work he 
did in the 60s and 70s was quite unique at the time and has had a 
massive influence on everything that came after.  Jimi Hendrix 
claimed Pete Townshend as an influence.  When their record company 
sent the master for the single "I can see for miles" to the States 
the first time the mastering company sent it back because they 
thought there was a technical problem on it, they had never heard a 
record with all that feed back, they didn't realize it was 
intentional.  Nothing special? pffff


>No one mentioned Django Reinhart, Charlie Parker, Chet Atkins, Wes
>Montgomery, or Satriani either!
>

The original poster said "rock" guitarist.  The only one of these 
guys that would qualify would be Satriani who is an alright player 
but as far as putting across the emotion falls a little short.  Deep 
Purple did a reunion tour a couple of years ago and apparently Richie 
Blackmore (how did we all forget him?) was such a plain old asshole 
that the other guys decided they just couldn't stand it anymore half 
way through the tour and they tried to find someone else to play 
guitar so they could fulfill their commitments Satriani got the job. 
But, although he could probably play circles around Blackmore 
technically, in the end it turned out he just did not have the "umph" 
to fill Blackmore's shoes.  Oh well.  BTW I have heard stories of 
Blackmore's legendary abrasiveness from  various sources including a 
personal acquaintance who was his sometimes guitar tech.
-- 


                                 Dennis Gunn
                                 Mightyjohn@...

                  check out  MIGHTY JOHN HENRY's album "hot air head"
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