[Music] Allan Holdsworth, Greatest ever British guitar hero?

GT49er said:

Of course they are. Many excellent (great if you prefer) guitarists in the 60s and 70s did wonderful things, very innovative things, and took electric guitar playing on to a different level. Today's best guitarists have absorbed and learned all the tricks and ideas from the 60s and 70s - and added more of their own. So, ergo, they've improved the standard of guitar playing so are (collective) better.

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Icy Gull said:

. I have heard some excellent guitar playing but I don’t seem to be hearing anything that hasn’t been done before and I can’t enthuse about the songs/tracks I am hearing.

Maybe [MENTION=5200]Buzzer[/MENTION] can help here, he has his finger on the pulse of modern music?

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This is Tycho. A quality modern guitarists:

Icy Gull said:

I guess my point is that the guitarists I was alluding to played in bands where their style compliments the tracks that they are playing, so apart from being great guitar players the playing is crucial to the quality of the style of music being played. As an example Neil Young’s playing on live versions of Like a Hurricane makes a very good song excellent. So yes there may be guitarists who can play in the style of the old guys but are they able to compliment some great songs/instrumentals? I genuinely would like to hear their names and the bands they play in if so. I have heard some excellent guitar playing but I don’t seem to be hearing anything that hasn’t been done before and I can’t enthuse about the songs/tracks I am hearing.

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We were lucky to have been around in the years when music wasn't just the accompaniment for studying for your 'A' levels, college course, degree or whatever. Those were the days when music was going to change the 'kin world! That's the difference, not the quality. No, it's not as exciting now - and never will be for a lot of us..........
Lots of brilliant guitarists around - technically as good or better, but, no, maybe not as inventive and innovative - or exciting. My favourites won't change. Perhaps there's nothing new to be done with an electric guitar, I dunno........

GT49er said:

Perhaps there's nothing new to be done with an electric guitar, I dunno........

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That's how I see it and I play the guitar. The electronic guitar has evolved into electronic/dance music. 50 years ago, people were sitting in their rooms playing an electric guitar. Now it's software like cubase and logic which are the new bedroom forms of electronic musical creativity. The progression house/techno/Drum n bass etc is making shows where the new stream of music creativity is flowing. I love a lot of the late 60's and 70's guitar bands/solo musicians. But if you're looking for something comparable to that in the modern era, rock n roll isn't where to look.

There's still plenty of highly skilled and talented musicians out there these days. Bonobo is a very talented bassist, he's a very highly regarded producer worldwide and makes some brilliant tracks (he's also from Brighton). Then there's Joris Voorn who's also a brilliant DJ and producer. Voorn is classically trained to play the violin which you can tell if you ever listen to his produced stuff (From a Deep Place is worth a listen). Leon Vynhall (another Brighton Producer and Dj) who's a very talented drummer and pianist. His music is up there with my favourites. He's made tracks which have gone worldwide, 'Butterflies' and 'house of Dupree' for example. The list could go on and on.

There's so much music now being made it feels like the choices are endless. A great era for electronic music, and a lot of it, I believe, progressed from the great electronic sounds of the 60's and 70's. So don't get stuck in an era of music, enjoy the progression music is on.

Are you talking technical musicianship or a player/writer/band member? The best guitarists are the ones who make the best music. In no particular order Page, Gilmour, Kerr (Royal Blood bassist) and Knopfler.

Are you talking technical musicianship or a player/writer/band member? The best guitarists are the ones who make the best music. In no particular order Page, Gilmour, Kerr (Royal Blood bassist) and Knopfler.

Megazone said:

This is Tycho. A quality modern guitarists:

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Thanks, I have never heard this before. It is very listenable but, to me, more background music than music you’d sit and actually listen to? I am not a big fan of the repetitive electronic beat I’m afraid.

To return to the subject, do give it a go...he kicks off about 2m40s into this...

worth hanging around for the the next five minutes...

...to sample Allan's genius....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaoQPmTF7zk

...though he would have rather been talking about birds with you over a pint...

Sadly when it comes to 'guitar heros' (which is an 1970s concept) they are all American:

This track is in my top ten of all tracks of all time. No British guitarist has ever touched this. Not even Beck. For the time, the timing, the moment. Yes, and for the cheese. It has to have cheese to be guitar heroey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZLKtjATZt0

Definitely not British but I think that Steve Cropper deserves a mention, not a "conventional" guitar hero, but a hero nevertheless.