Brian May, certainly but Blackmore and Malmstein have character issues that are hard to overlook in terms of greatness. I loved Deep Purple/ Rainbow as a group but singling out Blackmore takes away from that love. Malmstein was simply an asshole who unfortunately, could shred anything with strings. I barely recognize him as a human being. I'd like to add Alvin Lee to many other greats already mentioned. The 60's were complete with the coming of 10 years after. Also PLEASE add Randy Rhodes, he was truly a gift from God. Taken entirely too soon from this earth, many fail to recognize his genius and how truly important his work was during the very early 80's. Like SRV, I still get sad when I think about their early departure...ironically and like several others, from failed air travel.
Its amazing how many musicians have died from plane crashes. SRV, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, John Denver, Jim Croce, Rick Nelson, Patsy Cline, Ronnie Van Zant. Mama Don't let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Rock Stars
I was just telling tirk the other day how unbelievably cheated I feel that SRV died before I ever got to see him live.
i have srv with dt live at montreaux dvd-- i need to make you a copy. not to derail the topic but i did see robert cray last month who was spectacular live. of course i was in row 4 so that helped. so clean. im not sure how i could rank any of these. depends on rock or blues. what type rock, what type blues, etc. hendrix by far most influential but id rather listen to srv in general. clapton is so versatile and plays so clean hes at the top of one of my lists just not sure which. my tastes have him in the softer rock category. closer to allman than hendrix although he can do either. Also, Randy Rhoads was a pretty influential metal guitarist during his short life.
Spent my High School years in Houston. Saw Stevie 8 times between SA, Austin, Houston and Dallas. So the loss is the same as the many when Hendrix died. The impact was huge. Drank 2 bottles of Mesican Mezcai...rendered useless for a week. City of Austin was in full meltdown. Jesus... Hey, t.
There is a small strip mall about a mile from my house. Not much to speak of. Just a grocery store and a fitness center in the maiin building and a Lebanese restaurant and some empty space in the side building. One of those empty spaces was last a Monjuni's Italian restaurant and has been a lot of things in the past. In the 70's there was a small club there called Chief's. The owner, Chief Whalen had good connections in the music world and was able to book a lot of national touring groups before some of them got to be too big time to play at such a small club. Eric Johnson, Omar and the Howlers, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughn. SRV played there about once every two months and I saw him at least 10 or 12 times over the time Chief's was there. Also saw Albert King 3 times and Albert Collins once. One of the regulars at Chief's I got to know a little bit was the bass player for jazz pianist Chick Corea at the time. He was a big SRV fan even then before he was big time and he often wore a Bullwinkle the Moose sweatshirt which, being a big fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle I tried to buy from him on several occasions and he would laugh and refuse to sell it. Later he played with Journey and then really got famous on American Idol. You know him as Randy Jackson. Its too bad there aren't any music venues like Chief's anymore, at least in Baton Rouge. Austin is probably full of them but I haven't been to Austin in years.
I was in Texas when Stevie Ray Vaughn died. The response was amazing. People were crying in the airport. Radio stations went on 24-hour SRV marathons. Bars were full but quiet. Heaven help them when Willie passes.
