Re: (TV) 2 cents on Rap/dissing Richard.

[Jeff Strell <jeff.strell@usa.net>]

Part of the problem is trying to establish a system of reference where you can
rate musicians against one another.  Maybe it shouldn't even be tried.  Billie
Holiday (also a junkie who burned out too soon) and Eric Dolphy are
established icons, with decades having gone by to cement their reputations. 
It's almost unfair to measure any of the punk generation against them.  For
one thing, part of punk's fun was its ephemeral nature  -- it was of the
moment, and no one was looking to establish a long term reputation.

Hell is an acquired taste, and a fringe one, sure.  No one's going to argue
that he's had as great an influence on his field as those jazz giants had on
theirs.  But speaking as someone who was coming of musical age when Hell's
fire was burning brightest, I can say for sure that his music was timely,
affecting, exciting, all the things that great rock'n'roll is supposed to be.

Thunders is a different story.  I would argue that his guitar style, in its
minimalist way, established a type.  No one had done it before, and countless
people do it now.  Not to rate musicians against one another or anything, but
I would put him on my short list of best and most influential rock guitarists
ever (with Berry, Richards, Verlaine, Hendrix).

- Jeff Strell

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