Best blues guitarist, Clapton or Green

Blblues68,

IMHO Buddy Guy has not played a lick that was worth anything. His notes don't send a message to me. Sure he played with a bunch of guitar greats but I never found one of his licks to take a solo anywhere special. Listen to T-Bone who played in one position the entire time he played his solos. That basically means that he was limited to the number of notes he could play but when you listen to his solos, most of the time his licks sound very different even though he is using the same number of notes. Buddy Guy uses the entire guitar and he basically says nothing with his solos, same old crap to my ears. I have been play the guitar for 43 years, own 30 plus guitars. I could hold my own with just about anyone when I played regularly. I can send you a copy if you want to hear what I can do. There are so many better guitarist then Buddy Guy, he just bores me to death. There is always something to learn from another but Ronnie Earl blows Buddy away. Just my opinion.

Kbuzz, ever listen to Clapton doing Nobody knows you when you're down and out or the solo for Bell Bottom blues, or even while my guitar gently weeps? Just a few examples of Clapton playing the blues on a studio recording. In the early years he played da blues, not like the originals mine you, but his way, and it was very effective. He is more of a song writer these days and seems to care less about using the guitar as a voice for him or his emotions. Duane was my all time favorite guitarist but don't forget what Dickie Betts can do with a Les Paul. He has one of the sweetest sounds and is a fantastic blues player and blues rhythm player.

Happy Listening.

Neither Clapton or Green. This is probably heresy, but I think the best blues guitar playing I have heard in the last ten years has got to be John Mayer on Clapton's Guitar Festival DVD. OMG!!! I don't know who or what he was channeling at that moment, but it is unreal.

I always liked all the King's. Especially Albert. Have to agree that T-Bone Walker has great tone and timing, not only on solos but also on vocals. After a few cold ones, almost anybody playing on 6th Street in Austin sounds pretty good as they do their various Stevie Ray Vaughn extrapolations.

If I had to pick one though, I would have to say Jimi Hendrix because I have never heard anybody else who was at one with their instrument like that dude.

BigKidz, thank you for your opinion. I think i'll stick with
Hendrix, SRV, Clapton, Page, Beck's and my own. I think their opinions speak volumes more than yours or mine ever will! I do admire most of the guitarists you enjoy I just can't figure out how you can hate a man that has done so much for the Blues and inspired so many greats!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Guy

Eric Clapton said "Buddy Guy was to me what Elvis was for others." Clapton, who's not prone to hyperbole, insisted in a 1985 Musician magazine article that "Buddy Guy is by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive...if you see him in person, the way he plays is beyond anyone. Total freedom of spirit, I guess… He really changed the course of rock and roll blues."

In recognition of Guy's influence on Hendrix's career, the Hendrix family invited Buddy Guy to headline all-star casts at several Jimi Hendrix tribute concerts they organized in recent years, "calling on a legend to celebrate a legend." Jimi Hendrix himself once said that “Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.” Songs such as "Red House", "Voodoo Chile" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" partly came from the sonic world that Buddy Guy helped to create. According to the Fender Players’ Club: “Almost ten years before Jimi Hendrix would electrify the rock world with his high-voltage voodoo blues, Buddy Guy was shocking juke joint patrons in Baton Rouge with his own brand of high-octane blues. Ironically, when Buddy’s playing technique and flamboyant showmanship were later revealed to crossover audiences in the late Sixties, it was erroneously assumed that he was imitating Hendrix."

Stevie Ray Vaughan once declared that Buddy Guy "plays from a place that I've never heard anyone play." Vaughan continued:

Buddy can go from one end of the spectrum to another. He can play quieter than anybody I've ever heard, or wilder and louder than anybody I've ever heard. I play pretty loud a lot of times, but Buddy's tones are incredible…he pulls such emotion out of so little volume. Buddy just has this cool feel to everything he does. And when he sings, it's just compounded. Girls fall over and sweat and die! Every once in a while I get the chance to play with Buddy, and he gets me every time, because we could try to go to Mars on guitars but then he'll start singing, sing a couple of lines, and then stick the mike in front of me! What are you gonna do? What is a person gonna do?!

Jeff Beck affirmed:

Geez, you can’t forget Buddy Guy. He transcended blues and started becoming theater. It was high art, kind of like drama theater when he played, you know. He was playing behind his head long before Hendrix. I once saw him throw the guitar up in the air and catch it in the same chord.
Beck recalled the night he and Stevie Ray Vaughan jammed with Guy at Buddy Guy’s Legends club in Chicago: “That was just the most incredible stuff I ever heard in my life. The three of us all jammed and it was so thrilling. That is as close you can come to the heart of the blues.” Image: Jeff Beck with Guy.

According to Jimmy Page: “Buddy Guy is an absolute monster” and “There were a number of albums that everybody got tuned into in the early days. There was one in particular called, I think, American Folk Festival Of The Blues, which featured Buddy Guy—he just astounded everybody.” Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman: “Guitar Legends do not come any better than Buddy Guy. He is feted by his peers and loved by his fans for his ability to make the guitar both talk and cry the blues… Such is Buddy’s mastery of the guitar that there is virtually no guitarist that he cannot imitate.” Guy has opened for the Rolling Stones on numerous tours since the early 1970s. Slash: "Buddy Guy is the perfect combination of R&B and hardcore rock and roll." ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons: "He (Buddy Guy) ain't no trickster. He may appear surprised by his own instant ability but, clearly, he knows what's up." Lonnie Brooks: “Buddy Guy is a master. He’s the bravest guitar player I’ve ever seen on a bandstand. He’ll pull you into his trap and kill you. He owns that bandstand and everyone knows it when Buddy’s up there." Image:Guy performing with the Rolling Stones at the Orpheum Theatre

Blblues68...Thanks for saving me all the trouble of voicing the same opinion but not doing it as well. Although, to be fair to Bigkidz, Hendrix, Clapton, SRV, Page and Beck could ALL be wrong and he could be right. He did state that he has owned over 30 guitars.

I saw Dire Straits over two nights at the Greek in Los Feliz in 1984 and Mark played each song, note for note, lick for lick, perfectly. I have been in the live music space for 30 years with 4,000 plus shows and I have never seen anything like it. Never bended a note. I have seen Eric play sloppily on numerous occasions=--very overated in my opinion.