I can understand your frustration. There's a guy who I work with who's a Hendrix worshipper. He's totally unfamiliar with most of the guitarists discussed on this board though. I turned him onto some Sabbath- now he's on an Iommi binge.
Don't let it bother you. In today's spoon-fed, MTV/radio urinal that's gotten everywhere, people have started resorting to the rock classics(as they ought to) and usually the most well-known.
I don't think Hendrix is the greatest ever; but the dude was a true groundbreaker with the guitar in rock music. He brought like over 200 new chords to the forefront and as previously discussed; he could pull off a lot of amazing shit at once. But technically he wasn't all that jazz. In fact, he was pretty sloppy. And Page was even sloppier; but I think he had a better ear for melody.
As for Clapton...
please. He is by far the most overrated guitarist ever(I cringe for when after he dies). The Cream stuff was as good as he got; but that's about it. All he is is the first notable
white guitar player who sounded
black. By ripping off the likes of Robert Johnson et al, he captured attention and today he plays every friggin' benefit concert for a dead guitar legend. In a perfect world, he'd still be in a lounge.
Randy Rhoads.
I
know I'm not alone in thinking he would have been the best. Not only was he a better technical player than those above, but his ear for composing and soloing is unlike any before or since. I think Marty Friedman said it best:
"I don't think that he's the type of guy who would've rested on his laurels. I just think he's a guitar player who would've kept progressing and improving; getting better and better until eventually we'd all be going 'Jimi Hendrix, who's that?'"
Now right now, I feel that way about Michael Romeo. He
utterly has the ear and the potential as well as the technical capability to be something truly special.
Yes, Hendrix, Page, Beck, etc. had/have an influence. But are they going to represent the best the guitar will ever achieve in rock music?
Call me optimistic, but I think not.
) the people who already do that. So if you are a talented guy you should (in theory) be able to take it further, and "expand the frontiers". In other words, you learn from them, and add a little of your own.
