On 7/24/2011 7:23 PM, Rex Broome wrote:
Well, I expected to step in it with a few RL partisans, but I never thought I would piss off any Tom fans! So I should probably clear up my position here. Tom is my favorite guitarist ever, full stop, no holds barred. Part of that is *because* of his distinctive original signature sound. Most of my other favorites have something similar going on, and most, like Tom, are also songwriters. Richard would clock in in the top 20, but the top 10 would be too full of Richard Thompsons and Neil Youngs and Bob Moulds and Jim McGuinns to allow for even the most exciting "sideman" (which Richard probably is) to crack the top 10. Tom's also one of my favorite songwriters and lyricists. I don't think he'll ever get enough credit in that area.
I think you're right about the difference between Tom and Richard. I think it's like the difference between Lennon and McCartney. If you asked John to make a disco record, he'd have come up with "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" and if you asked Paul, he'd come up with "Goodnight Tonight." One is a John Lennon record that he gave a disco arrangement to and the other is a disco record as done by Paul McCartney.
One thing I noticed that goes against what I said earlier about Tom not being a blues-rock player is that he does a nice Jeff Beck (Yardbirds era) impression in Foxhole. I don't think he made a habit of it, though.
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