Greeno said:
It's like when I hear someone older than me saw "Clapton is God" or Page is the best guitar player ever...it just makes me laugh!! In my opinion those guys blow. Not that I don't enjoy some of their music but overall they are VERY average. It like we always say around here "it all comes down to opinion", and we've all always been cool with eachothers opinions... for the most part.
It IS all opinion. It can be nothing else, ever. Until art can be "proven" mathematically to be better than another piece of art (which will never happen), it's all safely in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.
Concerning the Page/Clapton comment, I have a different view. I'm of the school of metal of the early 80s (as I think are most here). My first true loves were Maiden, Priest, Crue, Metallica, Slayer.....you get the point.
At THAT time, I despised the then 'old school' guard of Deep Purple, Led Zep and the like. Heck, although I respected Ozzy-era Sabbath, I thought the music was antiquated and, well, dull. However, this was the mindframe of a young teen.
In my early 20s, a relative bought me the Led Zep boxed set (why, to this day, I still do not know) for Christmas. I wasn't a fan. I didn't ask for it.
But I figured I'd at least give it some listens. At first, it too sounded 'old'. Compared to more modern bands, it just didn't have it. WHere was the wammy bar? Where were the silly stereo-typical metal lyrics that I grew up on? I quickly dismissed the band. But over time, looking for new music, I went back to the box & gave it some more listens. As the melodies & grooves began to sink in, I simply fell in love with the music. In fact, I found LZ's music to be so powerful that, at that moment, NO band could compare! I began comparing everything I liked to LZ and all bands fell short.
To this day, they're my fav band. In my view, their songs have more energy, honesty & emotion than any rock bands out there.
Can Page do a solo like Yngwie? Perhaps not. But Yngwie really can't write a
song. So who cares? At the end of the day, it's the songwriting that captures my heart. Being "technical" is pointless if that technique leads to boring, dull, lifeless, bland, emotion-less music.
'Tis the reason why I find so many so-called prog & power metal bands to be tiresome & effectively useless. If a song lacks emotion, it does little for me.
That's why a band like Pearl Jam is so much more musically important than a band such as Dream Theater is, IMO. Sure, DT can deliver the chops. And sure, a PJ guitar solo is comprised of but 12 notes. But so what? A PJ song moves me. A DT song bores me.
When any of the flower-metal bands, or any of the neo-power bands can compose something as timeless as "Stairway to Heaven", "Smoke on the Water" or "War Pigs", then they'll have some credibility. Until then, they're nothing more than bands that are attempting (and failing) to simply be a clone of the bands they grew up on. Do something original!
on me!
