chill. I wasnt making excuses for him...for the most part I agree with you (especially the part about the more you play live, you shouldnt be sloppy)...but he IS Jimmy Page...and we are not. :p

Can't disagree with you there.

Page IS the riff master.

Funny how the "technicians" always seem to get down on Page. Armchair quarterbacking at its finest. Bottom line is, Page was one of the most entertaining guitarists I have ever seen, and I saw him several times. Yeah, I love watching a technical master strut his stuff and never miss a note; that can be very entertaining as well. Sometimes, however, in a rather antisceptic sort of fashion. Page will never be accused of that...

I think one of the things that people overlook with Page. He is a brilliant composer. Even John Paul Jones who is widely regarded as an arranger and composer would marvel at some of the progressions and changes that Page would come up with. A lot of the stuff theoretically should not work but Page always pulls it off.

Dick Dale

no way is there 1 single best. there can only be favorites. music is subjective. its not like car racing that has an objective standard..you either win the most or you dont etc..

my favs would be:

David Gilmour
Syd Barrett
Grant Green
Kenny Burrell
Jerry Garcia
Tony Iommi
Bob Marley
Muddy Waters
Doc Watson
Bo Diddley
Robby Krieger
John Lee Hooker
Jimi Hendrix
Dick Dale
Eddie Cochran
George Harrison
Mike Campbell
Jimmy Page
Paul Weller
Duane Allman
Mississippi John Hurt

I suppose this list could go on for a long time

Re: Jimmy Page, I love the stuff he did with Zep and listened to it a lot back in the day.

I'm not making excuses nor do I know anything about his personal lifestyle...

However he is a rock star and those types have been known to over indulge if you know what I mean and that may have contributed to some of his sloppy playing.

I think if you look hard enough you can probably find footage of most great musicians playing badly. I love Hendrix too... but I have seen some pretty bad film of him.

Huh? I've seen him play live twice, both times in the early 80's. First time wasn't all that bad, figured we just caught him on a bad night. Second time i wanted my money back.
He played as fast as he could, ignoring the beat from the drummer and bassist, as if he was pretending to be a punk rocker or something.
I could have played as good as he did and I sucked. He can't hold a candle to Nokie Edwards IMHO.

I did get to play one of his guitars once, actually it was a custom left-handed ventures signature guitar made to order for him but he never payed for it or picked it up so the ventures were trying to sell it at NAMM.

I remember when I was in college in the early 90s, my roommate was a lead singer in a hair-metal type band. This was in the era when hair metal was becoming passe...and Grunge had moved in to replace it in the popular music scene...but my roommate was still into that Warrant/White Lion/Winger band thing and his lead guitarist was this Yngwie Malmsteen clone... the kid could play but he was all chops and technique...

Anyway "Heartbreaker" was on the radio in our apt. once, and Chris my roommate goes "man...listen to that crap, that is total shi- who would put such a sloppy solo on a record....the guy plays like he has 2 mittens on"

After we graduated I saw him 4 or 5 years later as I was producing a demo for his band in the studio where I was working. He was now into grunge...and loved Zeppelin and thought that Page was GOD songwriter and played with a ton of soul.

so opinion is a matter of perspective & experience sometime...

Some of my favorites...but I'm no musician, just a listener..

Chuck Berry
Jeff Beck
Duane Eddy
Micheal Bloomfield (paul Butterfield Blues Band)
Eric Clapton
Scotty Moore (Elvis)

I agree. There can be no best. That's relative.

Favs:

Clapton - I've been a fan since Cream esp the blues stuff
Hendrix - ohhhhhhhh, my chem days
John Lee - always
Muddy - always
Knofler

Oh yeah & Mississippi John Hurt WAS good! . . .

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Ian

This was sent to me in an e-mail. We could see a whole new era in guitar solos. Th Moog Guitar..http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/06/moog-unveils-ba.html

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thats cool craigster...i just cant say im a fan of those sounds very much

As a listener, I agree. But then I'm an old goat, prefer the sound of musicians using instruments to make music...computers can keep a very accurate beat...BUT...

only one

Jimi Hendrix....

Plus > he was a paratrooper [101 ABN DIV]

Since I can´t see them mentioned so far:

John Scofield

Cornell Dupree

I have Scofield's Pick Hits with Dennis Chambers and Gary Grainger. Unreal band.

jimi is the man. "Drivin South" - live BBC sessions pretty much says it all

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I really like Nokie Edwards too. I just didn't think anyone else here would know who he was. Of course for drums you simply can't beat the late great Mel Taylor.