Worst famous guitar player?

[Guest Len B'stard]

Keith is really sloppy, and an unoriginal lead player. He's a pretty good songwriter I guess. (I am a big early Stones fan).

There is a helluva lot to what Keith does and it's about the sublties of certain inflections in his rhythm work, it's not sloppy it's loose, it's meant to be that way, someone like Keith approaches the guitar as a functional piece in the framework of like an RnB set up where, more important that showing off what a big willy you have as a guitar player, he adds to the overall tapestry, he's all about timing...and messing with timing, or how he bounces off the timing of the drummer or how he weaves in with his co-guitar player, this isn't being a bad guitar player, it's shooting for something completely different and something that takes a helluva lot of time to perfect...and a helluva lot of time playing with a band as opposed to learning how to be a wizard in your bedroom, it's 100% about the functionality of the guitar within whatever given piece of music, it's an art all of its own.

[Sixes]

lol Pete Townshend

[Guest Len B'stard]

lol Pete Townshend

Come on man, Petes a legend, he does amazing rhythm work, he kinda invented (and in my opinion perfected) that bombastic dense grand chord banging style, where you're given less but it's just the fuckin' power of it, almost like a Link Wray type idea. The fuckin' windmill, alright it's kinda superfluous and not exactly to do with guitar playing in that strictly musical sense but it looks fuckin' cool as fuck. Thats kinda not true too because he would smash the strings just from the propulsion of it, it's the most beautiful physical guitar playing. And the auto-destructive art thing that Nirvana were totally cool at, instrument trashing, there was just so much fun to what he did. And the feedback and tonal just like noise manipulation stuff. I mean when you talk about guitar players the actual performance of the shit is something too and he's a master performer. And then to write songs like he does, end of the day he does it a great deal with a guitar, thats him coming up with those great songs and...OK, his playing lacks a lot of the technical shit but then thats perfect too because of the band he was in, his playing was so strong and his time was so good he was like the rhythm section to Moonie and Entwhistles shenanigans.

I dunno, i just love Pete Townshend, as a guitar player as well as lots of other things about him as a performer, the guys a true fuckin' original. Hendrix took SOOOO much from Townshend that it's untrue, in terms of overall performance.

[Dan H.]

People saying Jack White

The worst? I dunno, maybe Kirk what's his face from Metallica. Probably Joe Perry too... And maybe Angus Young(although he is very cool).

Page, Hendrix, Townshend, The Edge, Slash, Keef, and Jack White are all really cool guitarists IMO. And I don't even like half of them that much, but they are very talented and creative.

[Sixes]

lol Pete Townshend

Come on man, Petes a legend, he does amazing rhythm work, he kinda invented (and in my opinion perfected) that bombastic dense grand chord banging style, where you're given less but it's just the fuckin' power of it, almost like a Link Wray type idea. The fuckin' windmill, alright it's kinda superfluous and not exactly to do with guitar playing in that strictly musical sense but it looks fuckin' cool as fuck. Thats kinda not true too because he would smash the strings just from the propulsion of it, it's the most beautiful physical guitar playing. And the auto-destructive art thing that Nirvana were totally cool at, instrument trashing, there was just so much fun to what he did. And the feedback and tonal just like noise manipulation stuff. I mean when you talk about guitar players the actual performance of the shit is something too and he's a master performer. And then to write songs like he does, end of the day he does it a great deal with a guitar, thats him coming up with those great songs and...OK, his playing lacks a lot of the technical shit but then thats perfect too because of the band he was in, his playing was so strong and his time was so good he was like the rhythm section to Moonie and Entwhistles shenanigans.

I dunno, i just love Pete Townshend, as a guitar player as well as lots of other things about him as a performer, the guys a true fuckin' original. Hendrix took SOOOO much from Townshend that it's untrue, in terms of overall performance.

He's one of the greatest songwriters ever, no doubt. The Who are one of the greatest bands ever. They may be the greatest live band ever. I despise concept albums, aside from The Kinks efforts, but Pete is the grandfather of them, for better or worse.

But as a guitar player or guitar hero? Eh....

He's certainly got the stage moves, and the excitement and unpredictability that made The Who so legendary and made them stick out from the crowd.

But again, his guitar work is very pedestrian and run of the mill.

He's certainly not shit but he's not in the upper echelon either.

But if you want to add everything into the mix and not just focus on the actual guitar playing, then he moves up a few notches

Edited May 22, 2014 by Sixes

[The Real McCoy]

Am I the only one that finds Jack White to be ridiculously overrated?

[Johnny Drama]

Am I the only one that finds Jack White to be ridiculously overrated?

No. He's boring as batpiss to me yet he's heralded as like this successor to all your blokes from the 70s and that. Load of gash IMO.

[Laparka]

Cobain : sloppy, ugly sound, poor songwriting in my opinion

Perry and Slash are not bad, they are great guitar players, but overrated as far as I'm concerned.

Kirk Hammet sucks real hard.

[Gibbo]

Izzy Stradlin when he plugs it in

[RandallFlagg]

Technically Cobain isn't a grandiose pillar of flaming flamingos or whatever but how do we measure 'worst', he sure as shit done some legendary tracks to a lot of people. If anyone could do what he did, there'd be plenty of bands as influential and powerful as that trio Nirvana were motoring around the last twenty years. They were some force alright, enough to kill GNR's momentum. They get a shitload of respect too, he admits his stuff wasn't all that original but it was definitely unique. In Utero is by far their best record imo.

When you got drums, bass, vocals, guitar and very little fanfare or layers or gimmicks to hide behind, the guitar playing itself is as much a focus as anything, he did something right.

[OmarBradley]

Keith is really sloppy, and an unoriginal lead player. He's a pretty good songwriter I guess. (I am a big early Stones fan).

There is a helluva lot to what Keith does and it's about the sublties of certain inflections in his rhythm work, it's not sloppy it's loose, it's meant to be that way, someone like Keith approaches the guitar as a functional piece in the framework of like an RnB set up where, more important that showing off what a big willy you have as a guitar player, he adds to the overall tapestry, he's all about timing...and messing with timing, or how he bounces off the timing of the drummer or how he weaves in with his co-guitar player, this isn't being a bad guitar player, it's shooting for something completely different and something that takes a helluva lot of time to perfect...and a helluva lot of time playing with a band as opposed to learning how to be a wizard in your bedroom, it's 100% about the functionality of the guitar within whatever given piece of music, it's an art all of its own.

You were right about Ramone, he was better than I thought, and is probably underrated, I was familiar with 0 Ramones material before that argument. But I am significantly familiar with early Stones material. Regardless of the correct things you stated (Keith's occasional use of odd rhythms, and his musical chemistry with the band) he is still a sloppy and unoriginal lead player. Jimmy Page was sloppy too at times, I'm not hating on Keith because I don't "get" his simple playing style. He's sloppy, and a lazy lead player. Hell, the guy admitted a few years ago he has trouble remembering Stones songs (because of drug use and poor maintenance of lifelong health).

From 2:50 - 4:30 he plays a solo consisting of the same 3-4 notes and changes up the pattern every now and then; then for the next 60 seconds he strums the same chord on beat 1 of every measure. Mick Taylor (as I'm sure you're aware) was an early Stones guitarist, who was far better. The words I used: "sloppy," "unoriginal lead," I chose carefully. I'm not trying to say he isn't talented or is bad. But, some guitar players are better than others, that's the way it is, regardless of musical/songwriting/band chemistry talent. Like I said in my original post, I like Keith's playing, he's a good songwriter, and I'm a big early Stones fan. But he's not the guitar god that people make him out to be.

[dalsh327]

The discussion should be more about people who get paid way too much money to be a lead guitarist.

Surprised with KISS being inducted, no one's mentioning Ace Frehley.

[Georgy Zhukov]

lol Pete Townshend

Come on man, Petes a legend, he does amazing rhythm work, he kinda invented (and in my opinion perfected) that bombastic dense grand chord banging style, where you're given less but it's just the fuckin' power of it, almost like a Link Wray type idea. The fuckin' windmill, alright it's kinda superfluous and not exactly to do with guitar playing in that strictly musical sense but it looks fuckin' cool as fuck. Thats kinda not true too because he would smash the strings just from the propulsion of it, it's the most beautiful physical guitar playing. And the auto-destructive art thing that Nirvana were totally cool at, instrument trashing, there was just so much fun to what he did. And the feedback and tonal just like noise manipulation stuff. I mean when you talk about guitar players the actual performance of the shit is something too and he's a master performer. And then to write songs like he does, end of the day he does it a great deal with a guitar, thats him coming up with those great songs and...OK, his playing lacks a lot of the technical shit but then thats perfect too because of the band he was in, his playing was so strong and his time was so good he was like the rhythm section to Moonie and Entwhistles shenanigans.

I dunno, i just love Pete Townshend, as a guitar player as well as lots of other things about him as a performer, the guys a true fuckin' original. Hendrix took SOOOO much from Townshend that it's untrue, in terms of overall performance.

Pete Townsend took the role of rhythm guitarist because John and Keith were the true lead players. When Pete could play, he could play.

Now if I ever mention Slash, I was just being a smart ass. But most of the guitarists mentioned, especially Eric Clapton, Slash and Jimi Hendrix should never be associated with the word worse. No one in rock guitar is more innovating than Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. Sure Clapton played Crosswords on a wrong key or something, but that is why it sounded so fucking good. Hendrix, dude basically reinvented guitar playing.

Eddie Van Halen couldn't do what Clapton and Hendrix already did so he took it further. None of these guys were as virtuoso as say Buckethead or Yngwie, but they had a fucking good sound. That is rock and roll.

It was all noise until someone learned to control it.

[Johnny Drama]

Yngwie. Does he count as awful? Utter wanker.