I am a soccer player. Never played an instrument in my life but wish I had. It’s a big regret. I love music. Don’t we all? And don’t we love, admire, even worship, the best musicians? The best guitarists?
I’ve long wanted to add guitar as a category to this project. Occasionally I’d hear guitarists referred to as “players”, as “best players” and I’d think to myself: “Why shouldn’t playing guitar be considered in the same light as the best sports skills?”; or, more specifically, I’d ask myself: “Isn’t Jimmy Page as big a legend as Pele or Michael Jordan?”
This notion occurred to me often as I watched the movie “It Might Get Loud” on a flight back from England in the spring. The movie featured guitar legends Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White and was basically a discussion between the three of them about what it meant to be a (guitar) player.
As I listen to the three of them I was inspired and decided then and there that – yes – a guitar player is a “player”; and a great guitar player is as great as (if not greater) than some of the greatest athletes in the world…
(You’ll notice that – under “Other” - we now list “Guitar” as one of our main categories…and preoccupations…)
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BPITW Recommends:
> Check out this site for a list of the Top 25 Guitar Players of all Time
> Buy the movie at Amazon.com
It DOES get loud
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Best guitar player in the world today? i’m gonna go with Nels Cline, from Wilco. Check out the track Impossible Germany. That guy can make that guitar scream, and he can also make it soothe your soul.
Just listened to the Barcelona version of Wilco’s “Impossible Germany”, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxDJTWee-zY. The soccer guy in me thought that maybe this was going to be a song about how (a rather fantastic) Germany thought they had already won the World Cup but – whoops – hey – where did that Spain team come from? Some German gear companies might say “Impossible is Nothing” but I say it was impossible for a Spain team loaded with Barcelona players – some of the best players in the world – to lose to Germany – even though Germany was fantastic. But I digress! Big time. Goerger – that track is beautiful and the guitar of Nels Cline really did soothe my soul. Wow – gonna be listening to that track all day now. Maybe you’re right. Maybe Nels Cline could be the best player in the world…