Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Old Guy said:
This is what I don't get. Jimmy Pages compositions run circles around anything Billy Gibbons has ever done. I enjoy both their music, but saying that someone who wrote "The Rain Song" and "Kashmir" is overrated when comparing someone who made most of a career playing 12 bar blues is just weird to me.
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I can agree here, and I'm a big fan of both of them. I think what drew me to Jimmy Page was his wild playing. Billy G is great too, but I think composition wise as far as diversity goes, Page takes the cake. One thing JP had was charisma above all. He was who made me WANT to play the guitar, just by watching him on television when I was in 5th grade. Knew nothing about tone, playing style etc. I just saw him with that Les Paul and said "holy sh**, that guy is cool. I want to do that." Not long after, I heard The Rover on the radio headed home from school and I was compelled that someone could even make something so simple sound so cool.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

I've never been a Led fan or even owned an album,,,but

Page is totally NOT overrated. He deserves to be a guitar legend IMO.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Page was one of those guitarists alongside BB King, Robert Johnson, Hendrix, Clapton, Iommi and Hetfield which changed the landscape around them
Before these particular artists the way guitar was played and how it was represent was different in my opinion.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Old Guy said:
This is what I don't get. Jimmy Pages compositions run circles around anything Billy Gibbons has ever done. I enjoy both their music, but saying that someone who wrote "The Rain Song" and "Kashmir" is overrated when comparing someone who made most of a career playing 12 bar blues is just weird to me.
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i preffer tony iommi over both but i still like gibbons over page.

iommi>gibbons>>page

522b93bbcd7fa.jpg
 
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Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Unless people lie about rating a guitar player as good, I can't see how they can be either under or over rated. If you rate them then you rate them, if you don't then you don't. Its simply a personal opinion. I think people just poorly understand the whole concept of rating players, as if somehow a personal opinion is a fact.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Then you can't overfill or underfill a glass....if you fill it then you fill it....if you don't you don't...
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

^ well, here is the poster boy for the poor understanding of personal opinion.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Studying any historical guitarist, it is hard for me to separate them from their time period. I think if you listen to him with everything we know today, he is sloppy. But hey, during the time they were the biggest band in the world. He was never a favorite live guitarist of mine, but his recordings absolutely defined how guitar and drums were recorded for decades afterwards.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Gtrjunior said:
Part of Jimmy’s charm is that he might crash and burn at any moment...but NEVER does.
Plus, the guy practically wrote the book on rock guitar.
I admit that his electric playing is sloppy but his acoustic playing is phenomenal. Keep in mind too, that there is a high likelihood that in those live clips you saw he was probably wasted.
And although not “guitar” specific but he produced all of those Zep albums. The production of those albums still stand up today.
I try to look at Page as the musician rather than the guitar player. In that respect it’s hard to find fault.
FWIW, I’m only a few years older than you (‘72) so I kinda missed them too...
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Agreed.

How can the creator of some of the most iconic riffs of all time be overrated?

To me his sloppiness is part of his charm. Playing live, He seems to ALWAYS end up where he was supposed to in a passage, just sometimes getting there was a wild ride, but still made sense in a way.

Page isn’t even what I love most about the band.... it’s that frickin’ rhythm section. John Paul Jones and Bohnam were the sh!t. Probably my favorite bass playing of all time is what JPJ does in the Lemon Song.


As for the Whole Lotta Humbucker pickup, we play more of hard rock/ sometimes sludgier doomish stuff, and the pickup does great.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

To me the solo in Black Dog is just amazing - it's like Page is dancing, then falls down the stairs on purpose and manages to land on his feet and dance away. He plays off key and off time (I believe on purpose on that song, unlike the live stuff) and makes it work.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Eddie Van Halen was asked once about Page, and he said, "He plays like he has a broken hand".... Of course, he didn't specify the left or the right. So Ed's not thrilled with Page anymore than I am.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

So I don't get why people like his tone or want to emulate that. Always seems shrill, phlegmy, congested to me. Perhaps it was better live?
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

I don’t mind Led Zeppelin (as in I don’t switch the station when they come on the radio), but I’ve never really been a big fan and would NEVER actually CHOOSE to listen to any of their music. I actually feel that way about a pretty decent percentage of ALL the music from their time as well… It’s just not my thing.

But despite the fact that I don’t particularly care for the band or for Jimmy Page’s playing, I think there’s something to be said for being the first (or among the first ones). Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin opened the door for a whole new era of rock ‘n’ roll. The fact that it’s very easy to find LOTS of players who can play circles around him is meaningless because he’s the one who actually got the ball rolling.
 
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Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Over rated my a$$. People can criticize him all they want, he is a legend and changed rock/ blues guitar forever. Over rated? Sounds like youtube here more and more every day
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

I think it depends on whether you judge guitarists on technical aptitude and precision, or musicality.

Jimmy Page is not the most skilled technical guitar player there ever was, probably not in the top 1000... But he had musicality, he had vibe and mojo. Those hard to define qualities that just meant he wrote historic music. He wrote riffs that influences a generation of guitarists. You watch 'My favourite riff with Nikki Sixx' on YouTube and 90% of those guests are quoting Jimmy Page riffs.

Meanwhile, many of the technically proficient guitarists have no musicality. Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani... Etc. They know how to play a guitar like few others can, and they each have amongst their back catalogue a handful of moments that are pure music gold... But 99.9% of their music is boring as hell. I've walked out of both Malmsteen and Satriani gigs because I was bored.
 
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