PaulyT said:
For what it is worth (FWIW), I find Joe to be an incredibly talented guitar player that just doesn't speak to my soul like other guitar players have. Like so many well respected guitarists, Joe is clearly very talented, but it doesn't make my go "wow!" or start to cry or merely stop what I am doing to hear whatever he is playing. I get the same impact from Carlos Santana and Jeff Beck. I get that they are amazing guitar virtuosos, but they just don't make my spirit rise out of my body as I listen to them play.
Guitarists who move me are Pete Townshend, Steve Vai, Van Halen, Roger Hodgson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steve Howe, Robert Fripp, Andrien Belew, Davod Gilmore, Frank Zappa, and many others. While some of those on my list are easy to impersonate, what they created with no one to credit for their imitation, makes me want to drop on my knees and cry form time to time. Of all my guitarist loves, Zappa, Vai, and Van Halen are my top three.
So, while I do truly appreciate intellectually what Joe bananarama does on the guitar, he doesn't make me want to stop the conversation to tell my friends to listen to what he can do. I do that with Zappa and the others. Heck, I play the beginning guitar solo to "Bloody Well Right" to my guitarist friends and dare them imitate what Roger did and few can do it with the emotion and class it deserves.
I dig it that you love the guy, and I won't begrudge you what you love, but it just doesn't give me a boner like the others I have come to adore.
