Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

a guy that calls himself "The edge" is the all-time king of over rated.

I love both Page and the Edge. Very different contributions, both worthy IMHO.

Don’t want to engage in that discussion just point out the fact that afaik the nickname Edge was crafted by Bono (not Edge) due to the edgy profile of his jaw and chin when they were young.

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Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

To be fair, while the whole delay thing is his signature sound, it's not his only sound. He can write a memorable overdriven riff such as Vertigo

I remember when that song came out wondering if Sonic Youth would file some sort of lawsuit but they never did. Song really hit me as an extended version of the chorus of Dirty Boots. Not really bothered if there was inspiration there, but always seemed uncanny.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

To be fair, while the whole delay thing is his signature sound, it's not his only sound. He can write a memorable overdriven riff such as Vertigo or my personal favorite, Desire. He's praised for having his own distinct sound, simple as it maybe. I could tell you it was him playing almost instantly even he turned off his pedalboard.



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That’s fair but I’m more inclined to associate greatness we players that pushed the envelope in some way
Though I do love some players that didn’t push into a whole new realm, Dimebag being a great example.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

I remember when that song came out wondering if Sonic Youth would file some sort of lawsuit but they never did. Song really hit me as an extended version of the chorus of Dirty Boots. Not really bothered if there was inspiration there, but always seemed uncanny.
Yeah it's definitely there. Sonic Youth never seemed like a band that would sue the crap out of you though.

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Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Jimmy Page fused a lot of styles into what simply now is rock and especially Hard Rock and metal, It could be argued that he was the creator of the modern Punk song format with Communication Breakdown, his acoustic playing was incredible, his creativity and contribution to rock history is unquestioned. -So I don't know how he is overrated unless you think his wasted onstage performances are a measure of his contribution.

Was he a great technically precise player?... certainly not -does he bend half and whole notes like 12 yr old? often :) -but is that really why he would be rated in the first place? NO if you know anything about music history.

His creative contribution is prolific and unparalleled by many measures -and I'm not even a big Led Zeppelin fan.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

It could be argued that he was the creator of the modern Punk song format with Communication Breakdown......

Yep, that’s the song Johnny Ramone said he based his fast downpicking technique from.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

I know you’re a u2 fan but to me it lacks depth and it’s something that literally was done via a delay pedal and playing the same sequence of chords ad nauseam for the majority of the time.
The edge is praised as an innovator but for me he didn’t push the boundaries of playing in the same way Hendrix or Page did.
The edge is a good player and he did some cool stuff but nothing groundbreaking or worthy of the praise he gets.

The Edge gets praised mostly as a musician, and he is good at what he does. Essentially that is someone who writes their parts in order to further the song, not merely to show off.
As to 'relying' on an effect, I mean look at anyone who plays with a cranked amp driven into super saturated distortion and relies on that to make their sound - you cut off most players that way. Irrespective of what addition you make to the raw signal coming out of the jack, you still use your creativity and ability to shape the final riff or track.....and thats the important bit when all is said or done with any player.

Most of these sort of 'ratings' threads (and any other on these sort of forum) seem to be based around how mindlessly flashy you can be, suitability of what you play to the song be damned.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Led Zeppelin is an odd band to me. They were one of my greatest influences in my early-to-mid teens. Playing through Baldur's Gate 2 for the first time whilst blasting through the Latter Days compilation album is forever going to be a dear, dear memory to me; Tony Iommi had more to do with me starting to play guitar, but Page certainly did a lot as well. At some point, however, the appeal wore off. It wasn't from overexposure, but I grew out that sound at some point, in favour of slicker, more polished, more 80s sounding production values. They will forever be dear to me, but they no longer light a fire up my arse the way a band like 70s Rainbow does.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

My observation is that in terms of skills, guitar players get better by generations. So, John Lennon, Keith Richards < Jimmy Page, Blackmore < EVH, Lynch, Yngwie < Vai, Satriani, PG < Guthrie Govan, Greg Howe, and so on.

And lest we forget, we are talking about Jimmy Page here, not Igor Stravinsky or Coltrane or Duke Ellington. He played in a four-piece, blues-based rock band, not a jazz orchestra. Truth be told, how genius could he be?

So is he overated? By today's standards, yes.
 
Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

The reason they get better (? - subjective..) is because they build on what came before.

And I'm pretty sure you can have genius's in musical genres that are'nt classical or Jazz..

Technical ability is'nt the be all and end all anyway..so no...by todays standards ..he is'nt overated. (Try playing The Rain Song and sounding remotely as good as he does)

Why? because today's standards are actually piss poor.

What you have today are a bunch of ****ty bands that copy everything off each other from their overall sound/production to their 'songwriting' (ie..chugg-chugg-chugg *breakdown* chugg-chugg-chugg *widdly looped arpeggio* chugg-chugg-chugg) to their licks/riffs, instruments, image, tuff-guy who misses his girlfriend stage antics and pretty much everything else. Literally nothing is impressive (and certainly not innovative) about today's "metal"..

As for the djent brigade of 'shredder's' these days ..sadly, boring as **** again. Same thing..no variety..little individuality..same licks..same melodies (usually Satriani &/or Petrucci's rip-off stuff..) ..same plastic/synthetic tone, same list of "do's & don't's", same bored facial expressions = same lack of excitement listening to the whole bunch of them.
 
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Re: Is Jimmy Page the most overrated guitarist?

Jimmy Page is so cool, when sheep go to sleep they count him.
 
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