Any Hate For Guitarist Prior To The 70’s?

[sax4blues]

I don’t recall seeing any threads disparaging guitar players prior to let’s say Jimmy Page (no talent hack) or Robin Trower(Jimi wannabe). Is this just a case of familiarity for boomers(I’m one), maybe combined with Internet forum? Or is every player from 40’s 50’s early 60’s just that great?

 

[elihu]

I don’t have any hate for any guitarists anywhere. Why would one search for such a thing? What good could possibly come from it?

 

[brookdalebill]

IMO, guitars players of the pre-rock (& roll) era were indeed vastly musically, uh, superior.
They came up before the “anyone can play” aesthetic of the rock and roll/rock/punk era.
They often learned to play the “hard” way, learning theory and solfeggio.
Boomers, like me just got caught up in the excitement of an extremely popular band.
Their music, and image touched almost all of us.
We (I) wanted to be a part of it.
In a very limited way, I did become part of it.
Anyways, Boomers embraced the power of the electric guitar, like no generation since.
That’s why so many of us play, and play pretty well, IMO.

 

[fenderese]

I don’t have any hate for any guitarists anywhere. Why would one search for such a thing? What good could possibly come from it?

welcome to the 2020s, everybody has the RIGHT to hate anyone

me, I love the 60s guitarists; turn on the Spotify, play a 60s song, the music leaps off the guitar.

 

[loopfinding]

IMO, guitars players of the pre-rock (& roll) era were indeed vastly musically, uh, superior.
The came up before the “anyone can play” aesthetic of the rock and roll/rock/punk era.
They often learned to play the “hard” way, learning theory and solfeggio.
Boomers, like me just got caught up in the excitement of an extremely popular band.
Their music, and image touched almost all of us.
We (I) wanted to be a part of it.
In a very limited way, I did become part of it.
Anyways, Boomers embraced the power of the electric guitar, like no generation since.
That’s why so many of us play, and play pretty well, IMO.

Agreed. They were renaissance men of western harmony and functional (gig, working for a living) implementation.

I personally have no problem with the punk things, but most of the boomer idols in the 70s strike me as neither complex technically nor complex aesthetically (at least a lot of the punk/post-punk or Xer guys had the latter).

But that isn’t entirely to trash talk. I like how a lot of millennials and especially zoomers are technically accomplished but have appreciation for the stuff the boomers thought was trash.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

I'm more forgiving as I'm just a baby boomer sponge for just about all guitar players from '50's -'70's. I take it all- play a bunch of styles, like it all!

But I do think in real time, in the '60's, there were popular rock guitar players who were NOT fans of the San Francisco psychedelic guitar guys, like Big Brother, Country Joe, The Dead, Airplane, Quicksilver MS..And some really couldn't play, and were looked upon less than favorably.

 

[elihu]

welcome to the 2020s, everybody has the RIGHT to hate anyone

me, I love the 60s guitarists; turn on the Spotify, play a 60s song, the music leaps off the guitar.

Hate has been going on a lot longer than that.

Carry on…

 

[brookdalebill]

I'm more forgiving as I'm just a baby boomer sponge for just about all guitar players from '50's -'70's. I take it all- play a bunch of styles, like it all!

But I do think in real time, in the '60's, there were popular rock guitar players who were NOT fans of the San Francisco psychedelic guitar guys, like Big Brother, Country Joe, The Dead, Airplane, Quicksilver MS..And some really couldn't play, and were looked upon less than favorably.

I’m not a fan of most of those early Bay Area bands.
Big Brother, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe & The Fish offered up some pretty shrieky, pitchy, atrocious guitar playing.
At least Jorma’s acoustic playing with JA was nice.
The SG stranglers of Big Brother and CJ&TF (Barry Melton) were often WAY out of tune.
Quicksilver was better, IMO.

 

[bottlenecker]

I don’t recall seeing any threads disparaging guitar players prior to let’s say Jimmy Page (no talent hack) or Robin Trower(Jimi wannabe). Is this just a case of familiarity for boomers(I’m one), maybe combined with Internet forum? Or is every player from 40’s 50’s early 60’s just that great?

It's always seemed to me like baby boomers dismiss anything before the beatles, which is a pretty good timeline marker for "rock and roll" starting to turn into rock. It's pretty hard to compare, because the sound of rock lead guitar, which seems to be the basis of rock guitar herodom, sounds like a completely different instrument than the guitar sounds of roots music styles and early rock and roll.
If you're trying to get to weedleyweedleywoman-tone, charlie christian might sound like a primitive attempt, or just some step along the way. To me, it just sounds like music I like, and the rock lead guitar sounds like that thing I learned to do in high school and then got bored with.

I guess I don't know about internet threads about the boomer rock gods. I just assumed they were all still being worshipped. I'd be surprised if those fans started dissing my favorite pre-rock guitarists, because it would mean they listened to them.

 

[radiocaster]

There are so many annoying riffs from the 70s, so that would make sense.

There are annoying songs from other decades, but it's not usually the riffs.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

I’m not a fan of most of those early Bay Area bands.
Big Brother, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe & The Fish offered up some pretty shrieky,
pitchy, atrocious guitar playing.
At least Jorma’s acoustic playing with JA was nice.
The SG stranglers of Big Brother and CJ&TF (Barry Melton) were often WAY out of tune.
Quicksilver was better, IMO.

I of course am a bit of a Garcia nut ( albeit, I'm more diluted, economical maybe, in my own approach- but guilty of picking up some style), and I dig the bluesier/ aggressive side of Quicksilver- I've seem John Cippolina's rig ( I think permanent display) at Cleveland's RRHOF, that was pretty cool.
Also a few Jerry guitars in the Lobby!

 

[brookdalebill]

I of course am a bit of a Garcia nut ( albeit, I'm more diluted, economical maybe, in my own approach- but guilty of picking up some style), and I dig the bluesier/ aggressive side of Quicksilver- I've seem John Cippolina's rig ( I think permanent display) at Cleveland's RRHOF, that was pretty cool.
Also a few Jerry guitars in the Lobby!

Yeah, the Cippolina rig is epic.
The SG looks ultra cool, and the weird Standel amps and High Frequency horns are, uh, unique.
Jerry Garcia was indeed a cool, albeit busy player.
I still love QMS’s Fresh Air.
It always takes me back to the time I first heard it.

 

[warrent]

Will it make you feel better if I say mean things about Wes Montgomery or T-bone Walker?

 

[Killing Floor]

None here. They all seem pretty nice. For a while I didn't like Ronnie Lane because I heard he was eating my yogurt out of the office fridge but after he died the yogurt was still disappearing so I forgive and forget.

 

[loopfinding]

I'd be surprised if those fans started dissing my favorite pre-rock guitarists, because it would mean they listened to them.

lol true, i've probably run into more millennial players who have actually listened to like, a tal farlow or barney kessel record than boomers.

 

[sax4blues]

Will it make you feel better if I say mean things about Wes Montgomery or T-bone Walker?

Sorry if I implied negativity. I’m truly considering the social science of this. I don’t understand guitar players disparaging guitar players and I listen as a fan who is amazed at most anyone who can play. For some reason it just struck me this might be a relatively new phenomenon (50 years).

 

[Manual Slim]

I don't know about hate but when I spin Hasil Adkins for any of my guitar people I get some funny looks.

 

[davidge1]

It's always seemed to me like baby boomers dismiss anything before the beatles

More like they're oblivious to anything before the Beatles. People from that generation tend to think that everything before their generation was just leading up to this one "great" moment in time, and anything after was just a downhill slide. This is because there were so many of them. The young people were the majority, so as they got older, they still considered the music from their era to be "modern" and there was no new generation to make their music sound dated. This stayed the case for years... when you went into a shopping mall in 2002, you still heard piped in Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Brown.

Things are finally changing, but for the worse, unfortunately. New music is the pits.

 

[loopfinding]

More like they're oblivious to anything before the Beatles. People from that generation tend to think that everything before their generation was just leading up to this one "great" moment in time, and anything after was just a downhill slide. This is because there were so many of them. The young people were the majority, so as they got older, they still considered the music from their era to be "modern" and there was no new generation to make their music sound dated. This stayed the case for years... when you went into a shopping mall in 2002, you still heard piped in Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Brown.

agreed.

Things are finally changing, but for the worse, unfortunately. New music is the pits.

disagree. my generation (millennials) thought the ticket to aesthetic success was finding an Xer niche and capitalizing on making the best possible technical example of it. the zoomers are doing some offensive and laborious stuff that i don't get and frankly i find it exciting.

 

[davidge1]

I’m truly considering the social science of this.

Blues-rock guitar hero worship is completely a baby-boomer thing. And if they like the band, they think the guitar player is a "genius". If they don't, they hear it more objectively. Wes Montgomery was a brilliant player, but when it gets down to it, there's very little difference between Jimmy Page and Joe Bonamasa. Of course you'd never know it from the Jimmy Page fans who might think Joe Bonamasa is a hack.