Underated Guitarists

pigpenz
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Wed Aug 03, 2011 8:19 pm

BLT was a great album with Jack Bruce from around 1974 also
Bruce Lange and Trower


Max
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Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:49 am

I saw these guys at the Fillmore East back in the Day.
You hardly hear about Mike Bloomfield these days, But if you like Blues, check out the "Super Session" album.

Max



unclewalt
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Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:38 pm

I'm not sure by what measure any of these people are "underrated." Anybody who pays attention to blues and blues-based rock knows all about Trower, Buddy Guy, Bloomfield, etc., and knows how great they all are.

If it's just that they don't chart, there are good reasons for that. In the modern day, of course, it's because few music buyers follow guitar players who are in their dotage, or are dead. The genre isn't exactly cutting-edge. If it's that they weren't more popular in the past, I'd say the reasons vary, though all of them were popular to some degree. Trower was huge among the Quaaludes-and-Jack set in the 70s (not a small demo). And, frankly, as great as he is, his insistent similarity to Hendrix has limited him to a large degree. Still, "Bridge of Sighs" sold really well, I think, and I wouldn't be surprised that he gets played fairly regularly on classic-rock radio (I don't listen, so I don't know.)

Buddy was, and remains, huge among blues aficionados. But he's pretty hardcore blues, and he's black, so he was limited, marketing-wise. Still, I used to go see him all the time in Chicago in the late 70s and 80s, where he always had good crowds in big clubs and at festivals, etc. And I've seen him a few times in more recent years at fests in the Bay Area where there were big and enthusiastic crowds. He's been recording pretty steadily throughout his career. Bloomfield, too, stuck hard to his pure-blues roots, which doesn't make for easy radio play.

But anyone who follows electric blues guitar knows, and says, that all of them were and are among the greats.

I can cite two huge names who are underrated specifically as guitar players, mainly because they are known for other aspects of their music: Bob Dylan and Prince. Also, Richard Thompson, to a degree, though most of his true fans know what a great player he is.

Update: I suppose that if by "underrated" you mean, not as incredibly huge as Clapton, Hendrix, BB King, that's probably a fair point. I think, though, that it comes down to their hardcoreness. All of those guys did stuff to make themselves accessible to non-hardcore audiences, and get radio play. All of the people mentioned here are better players than the highly overrated BB King, but BB marketed himself better, and is also known as a singer. Clapton did psychedelic rock, R&B stuff, and country-tinged stuff when those things were in demand. Etc.


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