Have you heard of this Romeo Rose? This is absolutely ABSURD. I remember reading his gear setup over a year ago on MySpace. He looked like a Stevie Ray Vaughan fan as he dresses like him, his gear setup would lead you to believe that he is after the Stevie Ray Vaughan tone, he “plays” the blues *rolls eyes* and I also think he is from Texas!?
Is this ridiculous or what? *sniff* I smell jealousy. I hate to even show the video on my blog here. but take a look at it. Perhaps send him some stfu mail if you feel that urge.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:48 am
HAHAHAHA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BySDnEJLxc8
September 7th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
@Emie – I’ve watched some of that Judge Judy video last night. He’s a joke! I think I heard that jimmie Vaughan is putting out like 500k just to shut this joker up.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:36 am
What a joke this guy is. Your right he is jealous of Stevie Ray. He wishes he was half as good as Stevie. He needs an attitude adjustment.
Stevie Ray was the Best Blues player of his time, period.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I know a lot of you guitar bangers will hate me for saying this but, SRV was extremely overrated. His music is incredibly overplayed. His solo tunes sound very trivial, stock and not particularly visceral (at least as far as blues/rock is concerned) either. Sorry, I honestly feel this way. I was sick of hearing his stuff on the radio 15 years ago and I just don’t think he was all that great. Okay, so he could rip through a Hendrix tune live and was a virtuoso musician and all of that. Virtuoso guitarists are a dime a dozen, that didn’t necessarily make the guy a great songwriter in the first place and in my humble opinion he definitely wasn’t. He might have turned into one later on, but his music just doesn’t do it for me. He sounded and looked like some smarmy walking cliche from Texas trying to convince everybody that he was so authentic, that he really had it in him and was pouring his soul out and all of that. This while he was probably in some dark dressing room backstage shooting black tar heroin into his veins. Please. If I want to hear real blues I will put on some Muddy Waters.
September 17th, 2008 at 3:39 am
@ Gregg Orange – Are you a guitar player? If you are, I apologize, but your reply tells me you’re not a guitarist. I know everyone has their opinions, but you gotta respect the man. You gotta give it to him. I’ve never listened to a guitarist that was so flawless and emotional the way SRV was. Everyone from housewives to metal heads respect him. His HUGE tone, speed and his voice were amazing. He is praised and looked up to for a reason…he inspired many. You don’t have to be a big song writer to be an amazing artist. It’s the way he played his instrument that made him stand out from the rest of the blues players. He introduced blues to the younger crowd in the 80s and made it cool again.
Over rated? Eric Clapton *MAYBE*
Yeah he did have drug problems just as many guitar players have had. But he got cleaned up and told his story.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
stevie ray vaughan’s music sucks really bad
February 1st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
hey srvhater-just read your comment on stevie. listen shitbag. the world is a better place cuz of srv, worse off since he died. how many people would care if your piece of shit ass died. fuck you, anybody who looks like you and the piece of shit parents that spawned your hating ass
March 15th, 2009 at 2:49 am
GREG ORANGE….. You must be out of your frickin mind to say the stuff you just said! I totally understand if you don’t like SRV, but how can you take away what the guy did. He brought blues back to life. I don’t know how old you are, but if it wasn’t for SRV I most likely wouldn’t even have blues music in my life. You say guitar virtuosos are a dime a dozen. That doesn’t even make sense man!! That’s like saying, “hey that guy is 1 in a million, but they are a dime a dozen…no sense at all….
As far as songwriting goes, when did SRV ever claim to be a songwriter! Not to mention that he wrote some killer songs. And if you take the original songs that he re-did, you might as well say that his version is an original, because he took the songs and totally made them his own. I dig that you love Muddy, because I do too. But I would be willing to be that Muddy would give SRV nothing but the upmost respect, which you have given him none…. It is just unbelievable to me to hear anyone say, that guy isn’t that good! I suppose Clapton sucks too? I don’t really care who likes SRV and who doesn’t, but if you like guitar you should show respect. It reminds me of the classic MN Viking fan hating Brett Favre(because of the MN, Wi rivalry)….all non-sense…they guy was a great quarter-back…give him what he deserves!!!
March 20th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I respect likes and dislikes, but SRV was the man. He was the REAL DEAL. Because of this man, I picked up the guitar and taught myself to play after spending hundreds of dollars on worthless guitar lessons. My point being, just because one man was able to prove to me that you could accomplish something just by really meaning what you did, you could do anything you wanted to. Now I play every note in honor of his memory, hoping that even an ounce of the feeling and passion he put into his music will drop from my fingers and into the ears of those listening. No I don’t go around trying to be the man, but I hope that I could someday be half the man he was.
July 21st, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Ummm, to the douchebag that said SRV played with no emotion, just watch Austin City limits and see nothing but raw emotion. See any video of him and all you see is pure emotion. He could play 2 notes and they sounded so alive with emotion. Very few can even duplicate his “feel” of notes. I dont even listen to the blues. I have played heavy shit for 15 years but every time I hear SRV it makes me want to quit playing cause he is that fucking good. He has one thing that only a hand full of guitarist in the last 30 years had. And that is his own distinct sound that could not be duplicated nor could it be mistaken. You hear one note of SRV and instantly you know its him. Like hearing one riff of hendrix or zepplin or van halen, bb king etc. There are very few guitarist that are that impressionable and have such a unique sound and style that it is instantly recognized.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Hey strelow, first I dont think blues was ever dead and needed resurection. Secondly if it took SRV to get you into blues thats really sad.
SRV don’t speak to me. Just doesn’t have the soul. Is he good? I guess technically speaking. But is Yngwie Malmsteen good?
I don’t know why people give so much props to guitarists who can “sound like Jimi” Jimi was Jimi, he did something different.
I’m not saying SRV is bad, just he is far from the be all end all, and he certianly didn’t save blues.
November 7th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Great tone,vibrato and attack doth not makest a great guitarist.
Yes, Vaughn ‘brought back the blues’ to a new generation of listeners almost completely divorced from any other historical frames of musical reference.
He was a master in the sense that his style was both hideously gregarious and boring at the same time. Getting past the tone and vibrato, there was very little content or substance.
Frat boy blues.
Overblown, overstated, explosive in the most ceaseless oppressive way.
Shamelessly plagiaristic with his Albert King appropriations and ‘Hendrix-isms’, his playing was assaulting not ‘emotional’.
Bluesy but definitely not the blues.
Take some time to listen to Peter Green, or Bloomfield, Otis Rush, Albert King, Danny Kirwan, T-Bone, Collins,Donny Celenza, R.Derringer,
Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner Bobby Radcliff, Cornell Dupree, Early BB King,
Charlie Christian and a million other players who actually played with intelligence, economy and lyricism.
Vaughan’s playing spoiled everyone’s ear for guitar blues and created a very high standard for grimacing and flashy mediocrity.
Yes, i’m a guitarist. This is why ‘SRV’ worship is so offensive to me.
Save your accolades for Wes, George Benson, Grant Green or Billy Butler.
Enough of this over-emoting fake blues, tailgating crap.
Just my opinion. LOL
December 25th, 2009 at 11:43 am
SRV was overrated in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong he can play, but he was hardly original. Most of his licks come from Albert King , Hendrix and so on. People have a tendencey to put him up a pedestal with Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix !? Hendrix changed music . What did SRV do or create beside copy ? To me , creativly , Stevie Ray Vaughn wasn’t even in the same ball park with Jimi. Stevie was a good guitar, but he didn’t create anything . He didn’t do much of anything that was fresh or new .It’s was all done before. Bob is right . People worship SRV to much and they make a mountain out of a mole when it comes to him and his guitar playing.
December 25th, 2009 at 11:51 am
SRV was overrated in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong he can play, but he was hardly original. Most of his licks come from Albert King , Hendrix and so on. People have a tendencey to put him up a pedestal with Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix ? Hendrix changed music and the way the guitar is played. Maybe Stevie was faster and a bit more techincal than Hendrix but that’s where the train stops. What did SRV do or create beside copy ? To me , creativly , Stevie Ray Vaughn wasn’t even in the same ball park with Jimi. Stevie was a good guitarist, but he didn’t create anything that caught my ear that you can compare to any of Hendrix body of work in the short time Hendrix was recording. SRV didn’t do much of anything that was fresh or new .It’s was all done before. Bob is right . People worship SRV to much and they make a mountain out of a mole hill when it comes to him and his guitar playing.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
SRV was, and still is one of the greatest guitarists of all-time. Even 20 years after his unfortunate demise, he is still going strong in his works. Though SRV is gone, his music will live on forever. This comment is dedicated to the memory of one of the greatest, and most legendary performers in music history, and of all-time, Stevie Ray Vaughan (SRV): 1954-1990.
February 14th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Well here it is two years later and I will still stand by my original statements made previously. I also really like what BOB said a few posts earlier, I think in many ways he really nailed it. After you get past the exaggerated tone and vibrato there wasn’t a lot of substance there. Frat boy blues! Exactly! Here in Texas his songs are constantly played in rotation on classic rock radio stations as if he were deity. Vomit! Enough!
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:48 pm
I must admit that now, I believe jimi hendrix truly was the most overrated crap guitarist. Nobody in their right mind still listens to this fool. When I hear hendrix I think to myself wow where people back then desparate for idols. Because hendrix music is not only outdated is total rubbish . What a fuckin tool jimi hendrix was, drug addict scumbag.
March 16th, 2010 at 10:44 am
@lala : Wasn’t SRV addicted to drugs at one point? If it wasn’t for Hendrix it wouldn’t be a guy like a SRV or at least he wouldn’t play the same. Hendrix is far from crap . What does drugs have to do with what Hendrix did for rock n roll ? Hendrix gave future guitarist a path to walk on electric guitar, believe that.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:27 am
Hendrix really does suck. I hate how people always say hendrix is god and say he will and will always be the best guitarist ever. Hendrix worshippers are blind in their following of this man. Honestly if you had to choose between another band you like and hendrix could you really listen to hendrixs random ass noise for a whole day? Doubt it. Many 14 year old hendrix slobs say “the bands you like wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for hendrix” bullshit. Most of the music around the time hendrix was there was better than his. The reason he was so different was simply because he was a colorful figure and a showman not because his music is better. Its comparable to why these kids today love the fucking Jonas Brothers against musician who have much more musciality and skill. And another point hendrix dumbasses like to use” you shoudn’t even play guitar if you can’t appreciate him” bull shit. Are you saying because I don’t like music you do I have no buisness playing guitar? My favorite guitarists are Pat Simmons, Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Mark Knopfler, Page he is OK, Clapton. If some one were to say they were shit I’d feel no reason to get all defensive and butthurt. n. But it is stupid to say without hendrix good music couldn’t have existed. And hendrix fans are so arrogant as to say ” the band you listen to wouldn’t exist without him. Reality check not every band not even close to every band seems to draw influence from hendrix.
Hendrix fans like to say “well so and so said they were his main main influence.” Of course they will say that at the risk of losing sales to hendrix fans who go insane when they hear someone doesn’t like hendrix.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:30 am
oh and almost forgot SRV kicks hendrix ass
he did some hendrix tunes and DID THEM BETTER
dont say oh well thats not original
bullshit hendrix fans usually point to all along the watchtower as
hendrix best song which is also a fucking cover
SRV was a blues player not a lets do acid and suck at blues player
May 7th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Some say Hendrix is overrated, some say SRV is overrated, some say Jimmie Page is overrated, some say Clapton is overrated… Its really about how many fools one can ignore.
May 18th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Lots of different opinions here thats for sure. The bottom line is everyone is right.If I love lamb and you say it sucks whos to say your wrong.I for example think Kenny G sucks but that doesnt make me right.Stevie played from the heart gave credit where credit was due and from everything Ive read was a hell of a good guy, better guy than me Im a mean red spider!!
May 27th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
@southernrock4life Stevie Ray Vaughan was a damn good guitar player , but can you name me any original licks from SRV like you can name licks from the likes of BB,Albert Collins ,Albert King , Buddy Guy,Johnny Winter or Robert Cray ? Like someone said in the post, people got caught up in his tone .Once you get past that you’re left with very little. As far as Hendrix goes SRV some what had a Hendrix obsession .From the licks to some of his clothes to the songs.What kills me is when people say “If it wasn’t for SRV , I wouldn’t have been interested in the blues”. Why is that ?Now how many blues artist were on the planet before 1982? All of a sudden along comes SRV now everybody (new generation) are sooooooo enlightened now. Again , I like Stevie Ray ,but I think he was over hyped.Sure Hendrix had gimmicks but some of that “noise” were extensions of notes.What people fail to realize is that Hendrix changed rock & roll in less than a 5 year span. Another thing, Hendrix was 27 years old when he died .Srv was 35 when he died. That’s more than a 7 year plus difference between the two.Maybe Hendrix and SRV might have peaked already,but can honestly say I feel Hendrix wasn’t close to peaking just yet. SRV was stuck in cover mode .Nothing is wrong with doing covers .It’s just that at the end the day you have to have your own lane of originalit . Is Stevie Ray Vaughan a bad ass guitar player ? Sure he is .Is he the “End All Be All” when it comes to blues from the soul and from the gut ? No not at all. I do like some of his songs for the record.
May 29th, 2010 at 11:07 am
SRV was not the greatest blues player of his time…he was the most famous blues player of his time. Just because a housewife knows about him does not make him the greatest, it just means he had a ton of promotional money working to make him a household name. How many average housewives do you know that are really well-versed in blues history? yeah…thought so.
When I hear somebody say they never heard a guitar player as good as SRV…i just figure that person hasn’t really heard that many guitarists. For every famous anything, there are dozens (maybe hundreds)of others in the same field who remain obscure despite posessing world-class abilities.
SRV re-inventing the songs he covered? Think again. Maybe you need to brush up on your blues history-and I don’t mean just dropping names.
you’re gonna have to really start listening to the real groundbreakers and original artists who defined the genre. Go on…dig up the original versions. Quite often, intros, licks, whole solos were lifted verbatim from the original recordings. But-since you’ve probably never heard the original versions of many of SRVs cover tunes…well, how would you know? ignorance is bliss!
Am I some kind of SRV hater? hell no! I just prefer the guys who wrote the book, not much on paint-by-numbers artists.
Soooo…why did all the old blues guys love Stevie? Really? You can’t figure this out? Here’s the real reason: SRV’s popularity revived the carreers of the Buddy Guys and Albert Kings. Those guys were schlepping it out in tiny bars throughout the 1970′s…SRVs popularity in the 80′s created a renewed interest in the real deal masters of the genre. Basically-SRV brought work to those guys-they became ‘cool’ by asssociation. Damn right they’re not going to say one negative thing about him or his playing-that’s biting the hand that feeds.
Oh and Romeo Rose? There’s something seriously wrrong with that guy.
One day we’ll see him on the news: Murder/Suicide or worse.
Can you say “Nathan Gale waiting to happen?”
PS- Homeo Hose is playing in Ausstin July 11 at a place called Bikinis-any readers in Austin are encouraged to bring rotten fruit…
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:06 pm
@LALA8181 Hendrix did some cover tunes( and even though i dont like to admit it he did them better) but no one ever credits people who made the original songs hendrix covered. But when someone cover hendrix he always gets credit. And the only real change hendrix made to rock was stage presence and distortion(which WAS being experimented with by blues player of the time). I HATE how many people say that bands couldn’t have existed without his influence. Every band has more than one influence so if they “couldn’t have existed without hendrix” they couldn’t have existed without every other influence they’d had. Even without hendrix the bands could have still existed with a different just as well loved sound. And there are a slew of artist “gasp” who’s sound is DEFINETLY not influenced by hendrix. He may have made people want to play guitar but that was mainly because of how cool they thought he looked with a guitar in his hands and smashing etc. Hendrix seems like something that teenagers think is cool to rock on t-shirts to make it seem like they know about rock history and good music. I’ll bet some of those damn kids couldn’t even identify a single song he made. Anyways back to the point yes, srv did not have very many original licks but he presented them in such a flawless and seemless way that when I listen to it it feels to me like he really made it his own. Now he did have some misses but when he hit he hit hard.
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:15 pm
oh and LALA hendrix may have created a lot of original things. But are they really things that you could listen to all day long and never get tired of. hendrix music is very gimmicky and does not stnad the all important time test. kind of like rick astley. Listening to hendrix would be just as bad as listening to someone slide minor 5th intervals and diminished chords up and down the neck with some out of tune bends snd out of tune guitar( YES it WAS out of tune sometimes). any ways Cheers. =)
July 6th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
This guy’s a tool, but yeah, SRV ain’t that special. Great guitarist. Greatest of all time? Yeah, right. Maybe if you only listen to radio. If he was a world class musician, he would have had world class accompaniment. His bands always SUCKED MAJOR ASS therefore his tunes were mediocre at best.
I prefer Johnny Winter.
Laters scumdogs.
August 7th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Common Jimmy, if you did teach Stevie to play then shows us what you can really do, because I cannot believe you can be so bad, I have heard 15 year old beginners play better. Do you really just plug into the amp and play without trying to get a nice tone on purpose or is it all one big pi** take. You are surely earning money under false pretences and trading off your brother fame and name.Crap with a capital C. Stratman69696
September 15th, 2010 at 7:23 am
I feel there is no such thing as the greatest guitarist, whether blues or anything else. Music is like beauty…its in the ear of the beholder.
SRV must have had something otherwise he would not be so much liked. However i feel Jimi Hendrix was better. No student is greater than his master…and when i see video of SRV playing ‘voodoo chile’ or ‘one stone from the sun’ i see a jimi hendrix wannabe. If he was to be better than hendrix then he would have come up with his own tunes and make them better than purple haze, voodoochile blues, machine gun and hear my train a coming.
Also, why does SRV play without breathing. it like he will spend 2 minutes or more quickly playing note after note without pausing. The blues is a conversation type guitar method. Going on and on without pausing get tedious.
October 8th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
I read the comments on here, AMAZING how these nobodies want to bash Stevie Ray Vaughan !!! First of all who died and made you and expert on tone? style? originality? Feeling? Chords? Solo’s? Name ONE guitarist that didn’t cover songs ??? how STUPID !!! Name ONE guitarist that was not influenced by another guitarist ?? they ALL say they are influenced just like SRV was !! ( Idiots !!) And that is why you can here these influences in their song and playing !!! ( MORONS !!) If you think Stevie didn’t play with ALL OUT passion and feeling,, well then your BLIND, DEAF and DUMB !!! And speaking of experts,,, Clapton, Guy, Page, May, King, Beck, Bonamassa, Lang, and MANY more credit Stevie being one of the GREATEST guitarists they played had seen !! PERIOD !!! How many lists of greatest guitarist have Stevie in the TOP TEN ??? So all you STUPID FOOLS that think you know ANYTHING about guitarist,, well when you open your mouth you show us ALL how ignorant you really are !!! I’ve been playing guitar for around 35 years and yes I’ve seen plenty of guitarist that were VERY tallented,,, but NOBODY had the TOTAL PACKAGE that Stevie Ray Vaughan did,,, NOBODY !!! He didn’t PLAY guitar,,, He Mastered it,, he RULED IT !!! his playing was infinite !! Elected to Guitar World Magazine Hall Of Fame !! Elected to Blues Hall Of Fame ( he is one of 79 members ) Voted SECOND BEST GUITARIST of the MILLENNIUM behind Hendrix in Guitar World Readers Poll !!! Guitar One Magazine 2004 voted SRV’s Little Wing BEST ROCK GUITAR SOLO of ALL TIME !!!Multi Grammy nominated and winner !! Gold and Platinum CD’s I can keep going,,, but THIS is enough !!!
So as I was saying, along with some of you other intelligent people who stated the basic fact that Stevie Ray Vaughan IS ONE OF THE GREATEST GUITARIST OF ALL TIME !!!!!!!!! PERIOD !!! END OS STORY !!! TAKE IT TO THE BANK !!! God Bless Stevie Ray Vaughan !!! Your talent is GREATLY missed !!!
October 19th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
SRV’s legacy is built upon the fact that he can copy a Jimi Hendrix song sufficiently. Thats it. He was a good Jimi Hendrix rendition player.
Most if not all SRV fans will tell you that their favourite SRV song is Voodoo Chile and Little Wing. LOL… knowing full well that these songs were created by Hendrix, they say this because they know deep down that Hendrix was the superior musician.
Hendrix was a pioneer and he revolutionised rock music.
SRV on the other hand was just another guitar player (an overrated one at that).
How many top guitarist/bands today say they were inspired srv? none
October 30th, 2010 at 1:23 am
Vaughan was OK, but just OK. He was all image, with the poncho and the Zorro hat and the corny looking guitar. Who walks around in the Texas heat dressed like that? Pure hype, like most guitar gods. There is no “Texas blues” either. There is Chicago blues, Mississippi Delta blues and even British blues, but Texas blues is nothing but marketing. I can name two better and fairly obscure guitarists off the top of my head: “Pear” Bartlett of Ram Jam and Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper. WAIT!! There is Roy Clark too. Yeah,the guy from Hee Haw. THAT guy. OK..I will quit before I exceed character limits for this post. And yes, I am from Texas; yes, I like blues; yes I play guitar, and yes Vaughan played better than I do.
December 21st, 2010 at 4:15 am
It is nice to see a page on SRV that is not completely dominated by those who give a higher rating to dazzle and flash than they do to originality and feel. There is no doubt that SRV was a very talented guitarist but he really did not innovate anything so to rank him above those who did is the height of absurdity. His licks were all borrowed -mostly from Albert King but he also borrowed a lot from Jimi Hendrix. You can also find licks from Freddie King, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Guy, BB King, Albert Collins, Lonnie Mack, Otis Rush, and so many others in his repertoire. And he tended at times to machine gun those licks and string them together in ways that not infrequently made it tough for the music he played to breathe.
There is SO much more to the way a master goes about crafting the blues than just the technique and tone. There is the utilization of dynamics in one’s playing. There is the way they apply vibrato to accent a note’s individuality. There is the use of silence to create anticipation for what is next. There is spacing that enables the music to breathe in essence. Blues music needs space for its soul to breathe!
I have no doubt that many of the black bluesmen praised SRV to the hilt for the reawakening of awareness of the blues in the greater culture and for that he deserves his props. (As one guy said, they were not gonna bite the hand that enabled them to be fed in ways they had not been for quite some time.) SRV was also very willing to give generous credit where it was due and for that he deserves further props. But much as Albert King recognized that Jimi was a hell of a guitar player but he often overplayed when it came to playing the blues, the same criticism could be validly leveled at SRV.
Briefly on some of the statements from the last poster to this thread before me…
[If you think Stevie didn’t play with ALL OUT passion and feeling,, well then your BLIND, DEAF and DUMB !!!]
Ooooh strong argument there! You attempt to make an objective statement by referencing your own opinion and then castigating with names those who do not agree with you. I wonder how many converts to your cause that you create with this stuff? My guess is a big fat zero!
[And speaking of experts,,, Clapton, Guy, Page, May, King, Beck, Bonamassa, Lang, and MANY more credit Stevie being one of the GREATEST guitarists they played had seen !! PERIOD !!!]
Beyond the appeal to authority here (which is a very weak way of arguing even when it has validity), what you noted here does not detract from the possibility of SRV being overrated though. All overrated means is he is given more of a rating than he should be. Even overrated guitarists can be damn good and SRV certainly was very technically proficient. He was quite possibly the best amalgamator out there insofar as being able to mix and match signature licks from various other blues players. But borrowing others stuff hardly constitutes originality and innovation. And to truly be considered great, one should have SOME claim on originality of contributions or innovation of methods. What claim can SRV actually lay to either of these things? I am unaware of any and his most ardent of fans have never supplied any -preferring instead to insult those who disagree and call them names. This glaring omission on their part is quite telling as I see it.
[How many lists of greatest guitarist have Stevie in the TOP TEN ???]
This is completely irrelevant. Almost all of those lists are compiled by people who do not designate their criteria for such ratings in advance. Furthermore, the subjectivity of such an exercise is quite laughable since there are so many different styles of music. What is the objective criteria for saying any artist of one style is necessarily better than an artist of another style? I am unaware of any, it is all subjective. And subjectivity is no basis for calling others idiots, morons, stupid, or whatever.
In essence, I am unaware of anyone who listens to guitar music or who plays the guitar who would not say SRV was a talented guitarist. But beyond that, there are going to be those who place greater or lesser value in different aspects of playing and this will generate a lot of differences of view. A mark of maturity though is being able to recognize and dialogue intelligently on such things without resorting to name calling. My view is that SRV was a very talented guitarist and technically proficient. He wrote and played a lot of songs that I enjoy listening to and as a rock and roll guitarist he was among the best. However, he was not among the best blues guitarists which is not to say he was a slouch in the latter area of course. By all appearances to me was getting better in this area before he died in the accident and I would have liked to have seen how he would have developed into his ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s but we never got a chance to do that. My guess is he would have adorned his stuff with more of the trademark little things that truly denote a master of the craft of the blues, would have been less frantic, and generally would have been even better than he was. He certainly had the talent for it but unfortunately, he did not have the time. And like a lot of musicians of talent who were cut down early by death (i.e. Hank Williams Sr., Buddy Holly, Magic Sam, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie Van Zant, Jim Morrison) or otherwise incapacitated by drugs into shells of their former selves (i.e. Syd Barrett, Peter Green, Brian Wilson) the questions of “what if” will never be answered. Nor in my mind do they need to be, the music lives on and should be enjoyed a lot more than it is bitched about.
February 6th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
I play bass and guitar. I primarily listen to chicago/delta blues. Muddy,Wolf,Son House etc… I think Hendrix was a genius. Clapton has great feel and tone. But SRV is just a hick who tried to outplay the greats. SRV is blues for racist hicks who are afraid to listen to Albert King. The american public never truly appreciated blues. Instead of embracing the original bluesmen we enslaved them. SRV is hick blues.