Chula Vista

If you had to single out one person, who would it be?

As some of you may have already surmised by now, I am a certified Zeppelin nut and HUGE Jimmy Page worshipper. This all started more than 40 years ago after I heard Whole Lotta Love on a jukebox at a bowling alley. I was 9 or 10 at the time. It did not take long before I had picked up a copy of Led Zeppelin I and spent almost an entire night listening to it over and over again. You gotta understand just how heavy and powerful (and a little bit scary) that album was in the context of the time that it was released. I was hooked and have been ever since. Zeppelin moves me just as much today as it ever did and listening to the albums brings me immediately back to the times of my life when they were first released.

I’ve had lots of guitar heroes through the years. Howe, Lifeson, Morse, DiMeola, McLaughlin, Holdsworth, Moore, Shawn Lane, and dozens of others. But Jimmy Page sits well above all of them in my book.

I saw The Song Remains The Same when it first came out in theaters and watched in awe as I got to see Page in action for the first time. Up till then it had been just those glorious pictures he always seem to take. No-one, NO-ONE looks cooler with a guitar strapped on in my opinion.

Now I’m not stupid. I understand Jimmy is far from being what would be considered a virtuoso. Most of my other heroes simply smoke the guy in that aspect. And he certainly wasn’t the cleanest player live and at times was down right embarrassing to listen to. But it doesn’t matter.

The thing with Jimmy, (and Hendrix, and Townsend, and other all around Rock Guitar Showmen of that era) is that he played in the moment. He could feed off of the energy of the crowd and often times play well beyond his capabilities. And because of those memorable performances, he would always try and attain the same levels, but in lots of cases he would fall on his face. But he never played it safe. (I’m not going to go into the nights where the guy was simply too stoned or drunk to play – plenty of rock stars from that era went down that route now and then – but in classic Zeppelin form, Jimmy would often take it to the extremes)

Jimmy has gone on record saying that he could only play great maybe once every 3 shows. You gotta remember that Zep was a simple 3 piece band and Jimmy was trying to replicate stuff that he’d labored hours and hours over in the studio with multiple tracks at his disposal. And Zep would play 2.5 to 3 hour shows regularly. And the enormous hype of those shows was ridiculous. It’s no wonder that the guy was not going to be able to maintain a sustained level of brilliance through such a lengthy show, or night after night, after night. Again, he was no virtuoso.

But he always went for it. Sometimes he put showmanship above technique. Maybe if he hadn’t slung his guitar so damn low he’d have been able to be more consistent. Maybe if he’d laid off the pot and Jack Daniels and blow and smack he’d be held in higher regard today by the folks who simply dismiss his live playing as sloppy. But that’s all part of the entire package with Jimmy Page. The ultimate Guitar Rock Star of the ultimate rock decade.

“What’s that man moving cross the stage?
It looks a lot like the one used by Jimmy Page.
It’s like a relic from a different age – could be.”

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

grindy

I'd go with Fred Frith.
Constantly releasing great music since the late sixties, founder or member of about a dozen of the greatest bands ever.
Wonderful composer, very diverse, but still with a very recognizable style, as well as one of the greatest improvisers ever.
A multi-instrumentalist who plays mostly guitar, but also bass, violin, piano, drums and some other stuff and also sings in a very heartfelt (although rather unprofessional) way.
Also seems like a very nice guy.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

EPOCH6

For a long time it has sort of been a tie between John Zorn and the brothers behind Boards of Canada for me.

Mike Sandison & Marcus Eoin
The Boards of Canada brothers basically don't exist as individuals in the digital world, so any hunches I may have regarding their musical intentions are obviously fabricated, but part of what makes Boards of Canada so interesting as a group in the first place is that we only know them through their music. It's remarkable to me how much of a legacy they've managed to build entirely upon their sounds, no media appearances, next to no interviews, barely any live shows, it's very peculiar. Their music has always struck me as a pure and genuine exploration of sound, from their earliest works to their latest, it's music modeled upon genuine curiosity, music that describes confusion, music that mimics natural phenomena, visuals and experience translated into sound.

John Zorn
Honestly I think as a composer John Zorn may be the most diverse in the history of composers, ever, and is certainly one of the most prolific in history. John Zorn appears on over 400 albums as a composer or performer, genres toying with jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, surf, metal, soundtrack, oriental, blues, ambient, electronic, noise, experimental, and improvised music. One day he could be writing something absolutely beautiful and the next he could be writing something utterly abrasive and experimental. Zorn continually surprises and never stops releasing music, it's hilarious how many full length albums are released under his name in a single year, from classic music to traditional ethnic music to soundtrack scores or experimental farts in a microphone. It's quite impressive when you're a legend in both the classical scene and the noise scene.

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Necromancer

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

grindy

Oh and in a way Scott Walker.
His change from popstar to....whatever the hell he is doing now is such a big, juicy **** you.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

wrongeneration

Biggest music hero has got to be Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy's, he always has a valid message to say, and he strikes me as a rather nice chap. Very funny bloke with an evil sense of humour and he really injects it into his music, which oozes charisma.

Also I really like his style of ummmm singing if you could call it, actually I mean vocalising.

Plankton

It's hard to pick just one since there have been constant evolving influences in my life. Ritchie Blackmore started it off though.

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See location...

Chula Vista

I was living in Massachusetts when that band first started making national waves and boy did Mass folks take umbrage with their name - for obvious reasons.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

wrongeneration

That's what attracted them to me in the first place, I wonder if there's ever been any cover bands called the Dead Reagan's.

Machine

I would probably go with either Steven Drozd or Ennio Morricone

Steven Drozd is from the Flaming Lips and writes a majority of the music. This might not sound like much, but seeing how deceptively complicated a lot of their music is I'm always amazing seeing some of those songs stripped down to see all the different parts. A multi-instrumentalist playing guitar, piano, keyboards, electronics, drums, and a producer.

I've listened to Morricone since a was a little kid when my dad used to play some of his soundtracks from the 60's I now find myself actively seeking many if his works out they are truly amazing. Hearing his compilation called High always as rounded me and was and still is one of my favorites.

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boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.