Some classic rock lovers will want to stone me but I think Neal Young is terribly overrated as a guitarist. As a songwriter and one who appreciates the tradition of rock he is among the best. Vocally, sometimes he hits and sometimes misses. But I find his guitar solos an experience of overused feedback and few memorable riffs.

quote:

Originally posted by Rev. Rikard:
Some classic rock lovers will want to stone me but I think Neal Young is terribly overrated as a guitarist.

I'm really not sure how much flak you'll catch from that statement. Personally, I have always thought of Neil Young as a songwriter, and I suspect most others do as well.

I think Tom Morello is way overrated. The noises that come off his guitar are some of the worst sounds I've heard.

quote:

Originally posted by purple:
I think Tom Morello is way overrated. The noises that come off his guitar are some of the worst sounds I've heard.

I agree with Tom Morello. I've heard many Rage and Audioslave songs, and I've never been particularly wowed by the guitar playing. It seems like he gets a lot of credit for making unusual sounds with his guitar, but it seems to me that just makes him good at fiddling with knobs on his effects pedals.

I think a lot of people hold Tom Morello in high regard because he uses his guitar to make a lot of sounds that most have to do electronically. I have never thought of him as a great guitarist, but maybe a little more creative with what he uses it for.

Well stated,PRG. I can live with that assessment.

Ingwe Malmsteen

Ingwe Malmsteen- nice one. I work with a guy who loves Malmsteen.

Neil Young is overrated if judge soley by chops...there's a million unknowns in LA alone who could blaze circles around Neil Technically.

But where it counts, conceptually and in his ability to communicate through his instrument, he's hardly limited at all, a B+ talent at worse who every once in a while hits an A+ stretch.

As Miles Davis said, the difference between a fair musician and a good musician is a good musician is a good musician can play anything he thinks. The difference between a good musician and a Great musician is what he thinks.

I'd call Neil Young a Fair musician who thinks like a great one. Or maybe, along with Ray Davies and a handful of others, the Best Bad Guitarist out there.

In the end, it's about communication and ideas, not pure musicianship, otherwise artists like Springsteen, REM, CCR, the Beatles, The Velvets and many others would never have attracted the broad fan bases that they have.

It's also why guys like Malmsteen and Joe Satriana and Eddie Van Halen will never be more than minor footnotes in rock and roll history. Great Talent, Pathetic Ideas.

quote:

Originally posted by Rev. Rikard:
Some classic rock lovers will want to stone me but I think Neal Young is terribly overrated as a guitarist...But I find his guitar solos an experience of overused feedback and few memorable riffs.

I think the repetitiveness and feedback squeals are the point of his soloing...I personally like Neil, but I wouldn't call him a 'great' guitarist. He's quite influential, though...Sonic Youth and many of the grunge bands were quick to point out their debt to Neil's squeals. Credit Crazy Horse's Danny Whitten for many of those squeals, as well...

I personally think most of the 'art-metal' players already mentioned (Ingwie, Satriani, Van Halen) are overrated, but I don't like that brand of soloing.

Morello is an outstanding guitarist without his special effects. His riffs on some of the songs really show off his creativity and skill. Lots of his songs he just forgoes the skill to create a sound that create the ambience that fits the song.

I agree. RATM is not one of the greatest band of the 90's for nothing. Maybe he's lacking of inspiration these times (Audioslave) but we can't discuss about a lack of execution.

The most overrated ever would have to come from the arena/glam-rock days. Angus Young maybe? Eddie Van Halen? Both get props for their skills, and deservedly so, but I can't stand what they were using their guitars for.

I'd take Neil Young or Tom Morello over all those guys any day.

I think the traditional 'guitar heroes' get too much bad press.

Steve Vai - a bad guitarist? Hardly. He's an incredible player with a varied and interesting career. He's played with everyone from Pil (with John Lydon) to Frank Zappa, to Nelly Furtado and David Lee Roth. I think people love supporting the underdog, which is why these guys get so muck flak. Some of Vai's music does not appeal to me, but if I said he couldn't play I'd be lying.

Tom Morello - His playing has to be put in context. When he did all those experimental solos at the beginning of the 90s, fret-widdling had been done to death. Morello pushed the boundaries on where a guitar solo could go. He is the guitar equivalent of a human beatbox. Clever stuff.

Neil Young - different category. Neil is an expressive player. I've heard him play solos that only use 2 notes - they fit the song perfectly. He doesn't use the guitar as a show-piece. It's a tool for song-writing.

Eddie Van Halen - Of course he played arena rock/hair metal! It was the 80s! Eddie Van Halen was a pioneer in a new form of guitar which has always been unfairly dismissed as 'irrelavent'. Is it possible that music journalists have convinced us that technical ability is a bad thing?

Which brings me to the point of this discussion...

The mid 90s and beyond, brought us some of the worst guitarists the world has ever seen as a backlash against 'fret widdlers'. Most Over-rated guitarist? That's easy -

Noel Gallagher (Oasis) - This bloke is an absolute farce on guitar. He wires his pedals in the wrong way round on the first album. Not because it's 'inventive', because he's incompetent. Quote from Gallagher 'Scales are for fucking fish!'. Noel only uses one scale (pentatonic), which goes backwards and forwards slowly on every song. Atrocious. He has no sense of feel, no subtlty, no music theory and no technical ability beyond 'bad busking'. It's not even 'punk'. He's redundant in every sense.

Oasis are one of the most successful bands in the UK. Media hype. You can convince people to buy anything these days.

My favourite guitarist is Trey Spruance.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Duncan Black,

I'll definately agree with that one! Noel is quite the hack!
Trey Spruance rocks!

I find it amazing that someone answered one of my posts. I usually put something up here and forget about it for 2 months until something happens. I was getting paranoid there...

Anyway - YES!!! Mr Spruance does indeed 'rock' - And he does a lot more besides. I love his versatility. He never gets boring and I have no idea what to expect with each album. His attention to detail is incredible. A wonderful, imaginative guitarist.

Eddie Van Halen is definitely one of the greatest guitarists of all time...listen to "Eruption" if you have any doubts. He invented the tapping method.

I think Kurt Cobain is the most overrated guitarist. Good songwriter? Yeah. Good singer? Yeah. But the 9th best guitarist of all time as Rolling Stone ranked him? Definitely not...

My favorite guitarist: John Petrucci.

If you want to Van Halen at his finest, listen to Spanish Fly. He does a tsp solo on a classical guitar.

mmmmm, u2's the edge is the most overrated of them all, cmon the guy couldnt play a decent guitar solo not even if his life depended on it. Kurt Cobain is also pretty overrated since he was, like heatseeker said, considered one of the top 10 greatest guitarists of ever being a mediocre guitar player in my opinion. But the most amazing part of this is that Cobain was
a rythim guitar player!!

quote:

Originally posted by Nediam:
mmmmm, u2's the edge is the most overrated of them all, cmon the guy couldnt play a decent guitar solo not even if his life depended on it. Kurt Cobain is also pretty overrated since he was, like heatseeker said, considered one of the top 10 greatest guitarists of ever being a mediocre guitar player in my opinion. But the most amazing part of this is that Cobain was
a rythim guitar player!!

I agree. The Edge is overrated