good guitar player, though.
Clapton rates Buddy Guy as the best living guitarist, "by far and away", though I'm no expert I know I love his playing. Hendrix kicked ass, some of his hippy stuff was shit but he did some classics too, his "blues" album with stuff like I hear My Train a comin', Red House Blues (that ROCKS) and voodoo chile was great. Of his more famous things, I like his version of All Along The Watchtower (of the 6 different versions of that song I own I think the Dylan one is about the worst!), crosstown traffic is kinda fun, Hey Joe, his daft (and rather rude) cover of Gloria is cool, and I like some less well known stuff like The Stars That PLay With Laughing Sams Dice (about the best of his psychedelic rubbish I think) and Little Wing, which is a gorgeous little song.
I don't like almost anything Clapton's done except for guest spots on other albums since he was in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and maybe one or two of the cream things but I thought they tended to be a bit soulless in an Almanns/Canned Heat at their worst kinda way. Crossroads is good.
Not keen on Satriani or Rhoads, though the latter is kinda fun, I agree that sort of stuff is pretty soulless. I don't think I know enough of Petrucci or Dream Theater to comment.
I guess the argument most people use for Hendrix being the best ever is that a) even though most of his stuff is now 40 years old it still sounds brilliant, guitar-wise and b) he was the first to do a lot of stuff, and a huge influence for everything thats come since. I think you can appreciate how important some of his music was and how he was such a huge figure even if the "cutting edge" of guitar playing has moved on a lot. I mean, people still credit Robert Johnson as some kind of guitar God, even though he wasn't necessarily even the best in his era, and doesn't sound especially complex to modern ears. Times move on but I think influences don't, people will always be in debt to the likes of Les Paul, T-Bone Walker, Johnson, Hendrix, because they did new things in there time that have shaped the way music is now, even though to modern ears people might have taken what they did and improved on the sound, it's still true that without the people having done it in the first place there'd be no frame of reference for newer musicians.
Kinda like me taking a copy of MacBeth, inserting some nob gags and pyrotechnic direction for the modern stage and saying I'm a better writer than Shakespeare
he was always overrated anyhow....
So in a way I agree both ways
there are maybe "better" players technically than Hendrix, but he was the first to do a ton of things and put them all together, and none of those players would be quite the same without his influence. And I think you can argue that makes him "better", in a way, and perhaps that things sound more soulful and have more impact when you know you're listening to the original rather than a modern take on it; some people still drive old minis when the new BMW version is obviously better in every way, but a bit soulless and lacking in that history, in a way it's not so different!
Monk
xxxxx
PS Flopmyflush, sounds good, would be fun to hear it! I know more about blues than I do about metal so I guess I'd be able to give a more informed opinion!