There is SO much more to the way a master goes about crafting the blues than just the technique and tone. There is the utilization of dynamics in one’s playing. There is the way they apply vibrato to accent a note’s individuality. There is the use of silence to create anticipation for what is next. There is spacing that enables the music to breathe in essence. Blues music needs space for its soul to breathe!

I have no doubt that many of the black bluesmen praised SRV to the hilt for the reawakening of awareness of the blues in the greater culture and for that he deserves his props. (As one guy said, they were not gonna bite the hand that enabled them to be fed in ways they had not been for quite some time.) SRV was also very willing to give generous credit where it was due and for that he deserves further props. But much as Albert King recognized that Jimi was a hell of a guitar player but he often overplayed when it came to playing the blues, the same criticism could be validly leveled at SRV.

Briefly on some of the statements from the last poster to this thread before me…

[If you think Stevie didn’t play with ALL OUT passion and feeling,, well then your BLIND, DEAF and DUMB !!!]

Ooooh strong argument there! You attempt to make an objective statement by referencing your own opinion and then castigating with names those who do not agree with you. I wonder how many converts to your cause that you create with this stuff? My guess is a big fat zero!

[And speaking of experts,,, Clapton, Guy, Page, May, King, Beck, Bonamassa, Lang, and MANY more credit Stevie being one of the GREATEST guitarists they played had seen !! PERIOD !!!]

Beyond the appeal to authority here (which is a very weak way of arguing even when it has validity), what you noted here does not detract from the possibility of SRV being overrated though. All overrated means is he is given more of a rating than he should be. Even overrated guitarists can be damn good and SRV certainly was very technically proficient. He was quite possibly the best amalgamator out there insofar as being able to mix and match signature licks from various other blues players. But borrowing others stuff hardly constitutes originality and innovation. And to truly be considered great, one should have SOME claim on originality of contributions or innovation of methods. What claim can SRV actually lay to either of these things? I am unaware of any and his most ardent of fans have never supplied any -preferring instead to insult those who disagree and call them names. This glaring omission on their part is quite telling as I see it.

[How many lists of greatest guitarist have Stevie in the TOP TEN ???]

This is completely irrelevant. Almost all of those lists are compiled by people who do not designate their criteria for such ratings in advance. Furthermore, the subjectivity of such an exercise is quite laughable since there are so many different styles of music. What is the objective criteria for saying any artist of one style is necessarily better than an artist of another style? I am unaware of any, it is all subjective. And subjectivity is no basis for calling others idiots, morons, stupid, or whatever.

In essence, I am unaware of anyone who listens to guitar music or who plays the guitar who would not say SRV was a talented guitarist. But beyond that, there are going to be those who place greater or lesser value in different aspects of playing and this will generate a lot of differences of view. A mark of maturity though is being able to recognize and dialogue intelligently on such things without resorting to name calling. My view is that SRV was a very talented guitarist and technically proficient. He wrote and played a lot of songs that I enjoy listening to and as a rock and roll guitarist he was among the best. However, he was not among the best blues guitarists which is not to say he was a slouch in the latter area of course. By all appearances to me was getting better in this area before he died in the accident and I would have liked to have seen how he would have developed into his ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s but we never got a chance to do that. My guess is he would have adorned his stuff with more of the trademark little things that truly denote a master of the craft of the blues, would have been less frantic, and generally would have been even better than he was. He certainly had the talent for it but unfortunately, he did not have the time. And like a lot of musicians of talent who were cut down early by death (i.e. Hank Williams Sr., Buddy Holly, Magic Sam, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie Van Zant, Jim Morrison) or otherwise incapacitated by drugs into shells of their former selves (i.e. Syd Barrett, Peter Green, Brian Wilson) the questions of “what if” will never be answered. Nor in my mind do they need to be, the music lives on and should be enjoyed a lot more than it is bitched about.

Most if not all SRV fans will tell you that their favourite SRV song is Voodoo Chile and Little Wing. LOL… knowing full well that these songs were created by Hendrix, they say this because they know deep down that Hendrix was the superior musician.

Hendrix was a pioneer and he revolutionised rock music.
SRV on the other hand was just another guitar player (an overrated one at that).
How many top guitarist/bands today say they were inspired srv? none