The Chetboard

I recently had a very disappointing experience. I have been talking to a friend about what a skilled guitarist Chet was. My friend was a fan of Jimi Hendrix and asked me if Chet could play with his guitar behind his neck like Jimi did? I told him that Chet's articulation was so skilled that it would be impossible to play what he does while in that position and that it was all showmanship to do that. One day we were together when the E-Surance commercial was on. I told him that he was finally listening to Chet. Here was his response: "I thought you said that he was good!" I had to admit that he wasn't hearing what I would have chosen to show off Chet's skills. He responded with "If Chet was so good, why did they choose a song like that for the whole nation to hear?". I had to explain that their goal wasn't to show Chet off. Their focus was on the insurance that they were promoting. I'm going to have to "educate" him so that he understands why I'm such a fan!

Looks to me like you would be wasting your time. Anyone who thinks JH is superior to Chet is a lost cause.

I'm with Al 100% on this one! JH was no doubt a fine player but not worthy of mention in the same breath as Chet. When you look back at Chet's body of work all the way back into the 1940's very few can even be considered as Chet's equal let alone superior to him.

If he had lived, JH would have probably put out a few more albums and the toured on those same 20 or 30 songs for the rest of his life. Chet had a really varied wonderful repitoire and his concerts and appearances were all different over the years. There's no comparison between the 2...Chet was the man! I know I'm preaching to the choir here.

As long as I focused on the difference between HOW Chet and JH were doing what they did, I could prove it to my friend. You can't compare the level of physical complexity between the two! My point with him isn't about preference of musical styles but about technique and difficulty. I played with a flat pick for 11 years before changing to fingerstyle. A flat pick can't be 2 or more places at once!

I might have mentioned it on this board before, but I have a friend (Scott) who is the SAME WAY. The same stinkin' thinkin' about Jimi Hendrix being the "greatest guitarist of all time." Yeah, and I got some ocean front property....

I want to SCREAM! I want to scream every time his mouth spews that garbage!! Or Rolling Stone or other rag that puts out their list of "greatest guitarist of all time", and Hendrix is invariably and predictably at the top of the list, and Mr Guitar doesn't even get honorable mention. Give me a frickin' break!!



Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreegghhhh!!!

Talking to Scott is like talking to a wall. A waste of my breath. He has a one track mind about it. But so do I, and in this case, I'm right, and he's wrong. Period. My time is better spent hunched over my guitar trying to perfect an admired Chet lick, than trying to pound some common sense inside the hermetically sealed cranium of a man who has screaming, screeching, scrannel psychedelic rock licks coursing through his poor warped, musically deprived, harmony starved brain.

Hendrix wasn't even worthy to tie Chet's shoe laces!! Or to change his Gretch strings. And Chet didn't need psychedelics in his system to make music!!!! And he didn't need to prove some point by smashing his guitar. (He once commented wryly in an interview "Some of them need smashing!")

Putting pure SKILL and musicality aside, I could juxtapose Chet's life time accomplishments on guitar next to Jimmi's and Chet would leave him literally in the dirt. Chet would be like "Watch my smoke!" (And I'm not talking cigar smoke!)

Then add in Chet's incomparable SKIll and superior knowledge of the fingerboard, PLUS his exemplary ability in arranging, on TOP OF his encyclopedic knowledge of great music and classic American tunes, and Jimi shrinks down to a teeny, weeny guitar plunker like the guy in that classic 50's movie "The Incredible Shrinking Man." His skills were PUNY next to what Chet was able to do on the guitar. Chet didn't NEED to play his Gretch behind his back to prove some feckless point.

And by the way, Chet recorded over 100 albums over 50 years in MULTIPLE musical styles, not just country. How many did you record Jimi? How close do you come to being THE MOST RECORDED INSTRUMENTALIST OF ALL TIME? How many guitars have your name proudly emblazoned on them? Chet's got a bunch! How many multiple guitar courses are out there that teach "The Hendrix Guitar Style?" Chet has more than I can count.

And why is it that the greatest names in guitar, such as Lenny Breau, Mark Knopfler and Les Paul (who would also be lucky to get his name on that "Greatest Guitarists Of All Time" list,) wanted to record duet albums with CHET, and not YOU?

How many STARS did you scout out and PRODUCE during your lifetime? How many major cities did you put on the map? Chet practically put Nashville on the map with the imaginative "Nashville Sound."

Many guitarists take a lifetime to master jazz, blues, classical or whatever...but Chet could comfortably play them ALL! That takes a MASTER! Wanna try a little "Stardust", or perhaps "Georgia On My Mind" beautifully arranged almost on the fly, Jimi? Yeah. Pass on those classics? Too hard for you? Try a little Bach, Jimmi? I knew you couldn't. You could play rock, with LSD pumping through your veins, like you were POSSESSED by some infernal entity, but you were not even CLOSE to being a MASTER GUITARIST! A master guitarist will have mastered the musical elements of melody, harmony and rythym. Yeah, and be able to play them all SIMULTANEOUSLY! Show me how to play Yankee Doodle and Dixie at the same time, Jimmi. I want to learn that! I want to learn how to sound like two guitarists or a one man band using just one guitar. And maybe a little "Humoresque" thrown in, to boot. Hey Jimi, I hear Jerry Reed wrote some TOUGH guitar licks. Maybe you can show me how to play them, and record an album or two of them. Play me some beautiful cascading harmonics, such as in "When You Wish Upon A Star." or show me how the "Super Lick" is done. Surely you can do some of these things if you are such a wonderful guitarist.

No can do? Where is your TECHNIQUE, Jimmi? I thought you had some chops! All you could do was screech like something dark loosed out of the pitt of hell. You never even reached first base. What is first base? It's called PLAYING IN TUNE! And playing with GOOD TASTE, and creating actual, GENUINE music, not just psychedelic noise! NOT just playing behind your back.

And how many Grammies and other awards did you garner in your lifetime before you finally choked on your own vomit? How many various guitar and music awards? I know a music man from Nashville who worked at RCA's studio B who had a WALL FULL of them!

Sorry Jimmi. You lose. There is and always ever will be only ONE Mr guitar!!!

Doug

I'm off my soapbox for now, but this is a soapbox that I will ever be on till the day I die. When you know you're right, you know your right. Don't sweat it, Rande! Only one Mr Guitar. Always has been, always will be.

No guitarist will ever fill Chet's shoes.

I agree with Al - don't waste your breath.

Palmer

I surely stopped wasting mine on Scott.

Even back then I was buying Chet Atkins records, not JH. I listened to him and even played his stuff, but that was only because I could and the kids liked it. But I wanted to play what Chet was playing and it was hard to learn it. Chet was really the man as far as I was concerned and always will be!

Chet will ALWAYS be the man. The quintessential "Country Gentleman"; the sweet music man.

Wasn't it Eddie Arnold who said something to the effect that in a room full of guitar players, Chet stood head and shoulders above the rest? There were guitar players... Then there was CHET!!!

Wish I could remember that Edde Arnild quote exactly, but I think I got it close.

Doug