Quote:
Originally Posted by garce
I made a good living playing guitar. Started playing the instrument circa 1976 and - due to growing tired of living on the road - gave it up about the time I turned forty.
To make what could be a very long story short, no-one plays guitar anymore. There are no famous guitar players. The last big rock star guitar player I can think of is Slash - and his peak hit almost twenty years ago.
Before Slash, we had the Reverend Billy G, Brian Setser, Stevie Ray,
Jack White? Love the guy. Equal to EVH, SRV, JH, JP (Jimmy Page) or JP (Joe Perry)? Not even in the same league. Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson, Muddy Watters, Bo Diddley... Its all undone. Finished.
My father introduced me to Brownie McGhee when I was 15 years old. I played with Liberty Silver's band when I was 16. That was in 1979. Had a great career for the next twenty years, and a lot of fun for ten more till I finally just said "fuck it".
I won't waste your time (anymore than I already have) explaining what brought this on, but if you're lamenting what tubes have done to our business - take a moment to lament the death of rock guitar. Without rock guitar there is no rock and roll.
There may be keepers of the flame still fighting the good fight, but their good work is irrelevant. Rock and roll is now a niche. It breaks my heart to say this, but its an irrelevant niche. A nice base of ravenous fans that generate enough capital to influence no-one.
Rock guitar is dead. Rock and roll is dead. And it ain't coming back. I don't give a shit how fast your Youtube speed-weenie buddy can play Eruption with his teeth. That "song" is thirty years old. What can they do to change what's happening today? Nothing.
Rock guitar is dead. All that is left is glorious memories.
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Nice... another boomer rant celebrating their own tasteless genre of music.
I started playing in 1990. Here's a revelation. Metal guitar is dead, death metal guitar is dead, black metal guitar is dead, blues guitar is dead (unless you count obese white guys that can't play)... jazz guitar is dead... jazz-rock fusion is dead... flamenco guitar is dead, baroque guitar is dead, the lute is dead, etc
They have their day and that is it.
But what you are really touching on, is how corporate savages have completely destroyed the ability for real artists to make a living making real music and not a product.