Re: BEST GUITARISTS EVER GAME! Elimination - Top 32: Round 5
mckindog said:
Interesting how these Survivors fall sometime.
I think it's easier at this stage to target a great player you aren't particularly fond of (Eddie Van Halen, anyone?) than a cool guy from beloved band.
I love KK Downing and his band is one of my all-time faves.
But to say he is a "better" guitar player than many that do have votes, or even some that have been eliminated already is pretty questionable.
I have only a rudimentary level of guitar skill, but I know there are many regular posters on here who are quite good.
I like to hear from them the measurable standard by which KK is better than those who are being voted off.
I'm not being argumentative; I'd sincerely like to hear the rationale.
For the record, I didn't vote for Downing either.
I agree with a lot of what you have said here, I don't think I shall be joining in this one as I simply can't make the decisions! But I shall be watching to see what happens.
When I looked at the current votes I was suprised to see how things are listed, and when I backtracked through the thread and saw some of the people who had been taken out I was quite shocked. At first when I saw players like B.B King, Clapton and such go I was thinking "okay, so it's a metal forum really, so they will look at things from a certain angle" then I saw that people like Steve Vai had also gone and didn't know what to think.
I'd be interested to know (not for the sake of "what on earth are you thinking", but just I like to hear viewpoints
) on how people are making their votes. If you go on the "Top guitarists" articles in things such as Rolling Stone etc Hendrix, Allman, Clapton and Page are usually floating around in the top 10/top 5. For blues guitarists I consider their playing to be very 'emotional' and I appreciate it for different reasons to the work of metal players - Similarly some people (I usually find this from family who dislike Metal/Rock) will often criticize players like Malmsteen for just constantly playing fast, but that doesn't nessecarily mean he is incapable of soulful playing etc, and vice versa a blues player may be capable of shredding if they wish but choose not to. Lots of people will judge a guitar player on things such as their influence on others (Hendrix changed a generation, and EVH changed the genre to a fair extent - not by creating a technique so much as introducing it to the mainstream really), or song writing ability, and people who have died early in their career are often remembered very highly despite often limited material to go on.
Out of the current list (blasphemy ahead I know), I honestly don't think the maiden guitarists can compare to many of them.. but I am not suprised to see them without votes considering this is an IronMaiden fan forum
The players already gone.. well many of them I've never heard of, some I have never considered to be anything special (hammet for instance), and some I was dead shocked! Vai is phenomenal in many aspects - composition and ability, and very highly regarded... although one of my personal "OMG" reactions came at seeing SRV eliminated
Current votes - I'm just shocked Glenn Tipton has a vote and KK doesn't, They are both good players but personally K.K is the less capable of the two (and certainly looks the one having the most difficulty when you see the facial expressions when they are live.. and is more a shredder than Tipton who can make a solo fit any mood! "Close to you" comes to mind). If I recall from a biography of the band when K.K first 'auditioned' to be in the early incarnations of the band (I forget if it was before the name came around of not) he was considered to be pretty bad but with a lot of energy, as he was a HUGE Hendrix fan.
Everyone will always have different opinions and sometimes can't explain them - personally I think Jimmy Page is massively overrated, Stairway wasn't exactly phenomenal, a decent selection of the music they did was rather plagairsed and he's looked at in awe for things like using a violin bow and Stairway to Heaven...? I'm sure many would disagree with me there but even just musical preference will influence the large amounts of votes (such as Murray/Smith I suspect will be in it till the end
)
Erm... yes, apologies for Wall of text. I just find discussions/polls like this interesting no matter the outcome - from the aspect of trying to guess what people are making their decisions on
So I tend to get carried away when commenting
Oh, and props for the Moore love.
