Well...as far as talent and ability go, Page was an excellent player - one of my big influences and was a very creative and innovative player. Sloppy quite often, for a couple of reasons. Booze & drugs, of course, and the fact that he hangs his guitar down around his knees. I tried that for a while, I couldn't play either. It makes you bend your wrist to an uncomfortable position and kills your accuracy. Didn't take me long to give it up and raise my guitar a little. These days I set my guitar strap sitting down, so that it drops maybe an inch or so when I stand up. Much more accurate. With Page I think it was probably more because he was stoned than anything else, after a tour or two the entire band stayed wasted from what I've been able to find out.
But there are just too many sloppy ones for me to give him [Page] the kind of credit I think players like Clapton, Beck, Dimeola, Mclaughlin, and many many others deserve far more than he does.
Bracketed inset mine.
Funny you should include Clapton, he's had a long standing reputation for never playing the same way twice, same as Page. Jack Bruce said in an interview basically the same thing, Clapton never played the same solo two nights inn a row, just like the old days. (this was on a DVD a friend loaned me of the reunion gigs in England) Quite often in his days as a junkie he was pretty sloppy as well. One of the greatest, yes. One of my biggest influences, probably the biggest along with Duane Allman, who was also a junkie and pretty sloppy too. Listen closely to the slide lead in "One Way Out", it's sloppy as hell. I've been trying to learn it for the band I'm going to be playing in, it's almost impossible, because Duanne was strung out and didn't hit all the notes he was after and his timing was off. I never paid it a lot of attention until recently when I started trying to actually duplicate it. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to peg that one. "Statesboro Blues" was much more accurate playing. The Fillmore live album was recorded after Layla, and I've always thought Duanne was going downhill at that time, heroin was taking its toll. Clapton and Allman are still two of my favorites, along with Page, sloppy playing and all. And by the way, Page has been quoted more than once saying that he was not satisfied at all with the tracks that were used on the "Song Remains the Same" movie. He was not happy either that it was done without his input. Some of those tracks would not have gotten by him. He said himself some of the playing was not up to par.
Personally, (and I KNOW I'm a minority on this subject) I prefered the Van Halen output during the Sammy Hagar Era much more than during their DLR days. For me, it was an upgrade...
Roth can't stay in the same room with Hagar, probably can't stay in the same county...He's a buffoon and not impressive as a vocalist, while Hagar is one of the best in the business. I've been a Hagar fan since his "Bad Motor Scooter" days with Montrose, thought he was a strange choice for VH at first, but after listening a few times I thought he was a lot better than Roth, who I never did like to begin with. I also thought Hagar fit in with the band better too. And wrote some killer songs, he's always been an excellent songwriter. Remember "I've Done Everything for You" making a big hit for Rick Springfield? Hagar wrote it. "Bad Motor Scooter" is the only Montrose song many people remember, even thought they did do a number of other ones that were really good. I didn't realize it until I picked up a compilation, Hagar also had a number of pretty big tunes as a solo artist, even if not many went to top 10.
Paul Rogers vocalist for Queen? I didn't even know about that one but can't imagine him with that group, probably the last person I would have expected to replace Mercury.
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