Ask a Guitarded Person

Ask a Guitarded Person

you're chance to have your questions about anything answered by someone who is mentally guitarded

*All three of You who actually submitted questions*

1. Who is the greatest and most overrated guitarists of all time?- Steve, Oklahoma.

   Greatest

Jimmy Page

   I always catch sh*t for this one. The reason I don't pick Hendrix is because Jimmy Page has the larger and more diverse body of work. When you hear Zeppelin you hear rock, blues, folk, country, acoustic, mandolin. The double-neck guitar, the violin bow...classic.

"Battle of Evermore" was made up on the spot by Robert [Plant] and myself. I just picked up John Paul Jones's mandolin, never having played a mandolin before, and just wrote up the chords and the whole thing in one sitting. - Jimmy Page, [courtesy of wikipedia]

   The Battle of Evermore? The first time Jimmy Page ever touched a mandolin, he wrote that damn song. Who else can write a song about Lord of the Rings and not get laughed at? That gets my vote.

Overrated

This was a tough one. I could easily put another dozen names here

• Joe Perry: sure he has some classic instantly recognizeable riffs, but nothing he has ever done has made me say "wow" or "how did he do that?" He's more famous for fighting with Steven Tyler than for being a guitarist.

2. Why is David Hasselhoff the German Elvis? - Andy, Arizona

  The answer that I'm going to give you is this. In 1989, David Hasselhoff pulled a Manchurian Candidate on Germany. Hasselhoff performed his song "Looking for Freedom," live at the Berlin Wall on New Years Eve 1989. East Germany days were numbered and everyone knew it. Capitalizing on the Germans push for unification on the brink of a new year, his freedom song, made a imprint on the German collective unconscious, that has made him synonymous with everything good about Germany ever since.

   So when Germans cheer for David Hasselhoff, they cheer for themselves.

3. Why are there no more "Guitar Gods" in modern rock today? - Andy, Arizona

•  Blues Clues: Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Keith Richards, Pete Townsend, Tony Iommi all had Blues as their foundation to build upon. Back then even other forms of popular music such as, jazz, country, motown, kind of counterbalanced each other, in a way are all kind of related and drew from each other. In my opinion today's rock music is competing with rap, hip-hop and dance mix/electronic stuff. As popular music has distanced itself from the blues, the guitar god is slowly becoming extinct.
• Drugs: Prescription Drugs seem to be the drug of choice among todays youth. I don't know about you, but if I'm on vicodin, percocet, xanax, atavan, and valium, the last thing I'm capable of doing is playing guitar, much less writing music, much less thinking of writing music, much less, thinking at all. Not to advocate drugs, but a drug like Cocaine, and some psychedelics light up certain areas of your brain and don't kill all thought the way some of the prescription drugs do today.

 4. B.B. King's guitar is named "Lucile." Have you ever named one of your guitars? - Jessica (my wife) - Arizona

   I have never owned a guitar descent enough to merit naming it. If I'm ever able to afford a descent guitar, I might consider it. What would I name it? I don't know, I've never had any sons, so maybe "junior." Seriously, I think the guitars name would depend alot on how I got the guitar or what was going on in my life at the time I acquired it.

5. What is the best guitar? - Jessica (still my wife) - Arizona

That one. And David Gilmour owns it. Fender Stratocaster

serial # 0001.

6. Sex, Drugs or Rock N Roll? If you could only have one, which would it be - Jessica (yes we're still married) - Arizona

   I've gone the majority of my life without sex. As far as drugs go, other than whats prescribed by my shrink, I'm drug free. Rock N Roll has been there for me when no one else has. It has given me moments of joy that no drug on earth could. I choose Rock.

7. Have you resorted to making up questions just to make this interesting now?

Yes.

8. Does anybody actually read this?

If anyone does read this, I'm certainly not aware of it.

9. What's the coolest place you've ever been to?

Amsterdam.

10. Whats the stupidest thing you've done to promote your blog?

Write my website on all my dollar bills. Provided, I have money to spend.

11. Who was Secretary of State during the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal?

Albert B. Fall.

12. What do you think about when you play?

I don't know, that I should've stayed in school?

13. Most Bizzare thing you've ever eaten?

I'm not that adventurous. Menudo? Frog Legs? Rattlesnake Meat? Dog Biscuits?

14. Will you be doing this feature on your blog again?

Not Likely