{"id":2807,"date":"2010-06-30T15:38:04","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T19:38:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-12-06T10:01:15","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T15:01:15","slug":"who-is-rock-s-second-most-creative-guitarist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/who-is-rock-s-second-most-creative-guitarist\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Rock&#8217;s Second-Most Creative Guitarist?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nayarBrD6mk?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nI&#8217;m a bit shocked by the argument I&#8217;m about to make. I was listening to an album the other night with my close personal friend, <strong>Townsman Sethro<\/strong>. It was an album by a band I don&#8217;t consider among my Top 100 favorite bands but a band that, over the years, I&#8217;ve very slowly come around to thinking is occasionally great. A shocking answer to the following question came into my head:<\/p>\n<p><em>Assuming that <strong>Jimi Hendrix<\/strong> is rock&#8217;s most-creative guitarist &#8211; and I cannot imagine anyone making a convincing argument otherwise &#8211; who us rock&#8217;s second-most creative guitarist?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The answer that sprang to mind was in the grooves of the $1-bin album that Sethro cleaned up and was playing me on his awesome tube stereo:<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Yd0Tg5Xf0HU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>By golly,<\/em> I thought, <em>it&#8217;s <strong>Steve Howe<\/strong>!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I judge the creativity of rock guitarists against the creativity of Hendrix&#8217;s playing, which to my ears still sounds light years ahead of any other guitarist while also readily communicating easily felt clusters of notes that seemingly are an extension of the guy&#8217;s body rather than the mastery of some separate mechanical device. To add to that, Hendrix could play a lot of notes, play notes with great speed, support the songs, and make faces that perfectly supported his guitar playing. What more can you ask for out of a guitarist?<\/p>\n<p>The more I hear Steve Howe over the years, ever since I was dazzled by seeing him play multiple guitars during songs while in the round with Yes in 1980 or so, the more I feel like his playing comes from another planet. Not as distant a planet as Jimi&#8217;s &#8211; no guitarist reaches Earth from that far away &#8211; but a more distant planet than most guitarists. Like Hendrix, Howe can play many notes in rapid succession. His parts are memorable no matter how unusual. His parts always support the frequently unwieldy music of Yes. He makes excellent faces that amplify this guitar parts.<\/p>\n<p>Can anyone else rip off cool solos and then lay back with some weird, jangly groove the way Howe does &#8211; beside Hendrix, that is? <em>Name that guitarist!<\/em> And don&#8217;t give me some guitarist who sticks sewing needles in his guitar for an audience of 37 chin-scratching dudes like some of us. Rock&#8217;s second-most creative guitarist must command an audience.<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to your thoughts on this matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a bit shocked by the argument I&#8217;m about to make. I was listening to an album the other night with my close personal friend, Townsman Sethro. It was an album by a band I don&#8217;t consider among my Top 100 favorite bands but a band that, over the years, I&#8217;ve very slowly come around <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/who-is-rock-s-second-most-creative-guitarist\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}