Guitar Hero

Below is my, probably, unpopular opinion. 

On Twitter yesterday, I saw a lot of Prince or Clapton posts. I’m assuming the full length question is ‘who was the better guitarist?’ Possibly the question was ‘who was better looking?’ If so, hands down, Prince.

If it was the guitar question…I don't honestly know. Why not? I never listened much to Prince. Despite finding him attractive and liking a few of his songs, I was never that into him. I know—what utter peasant level HERESY! The problem here is that I was too serious. I didn’t grok his humor. 

Fer instance, I totally got the humor in Kiss when I saw Tom Jones’ version of it. It was funny, a spoof of itself and himself. 

Prince’s was too. In fact, his was better, more subtle, which went clean over my fatiguingly austere head.

Side Note: If I could do my 20s and 30s all over again, I’d up my sense of humor meter (turn it up to 11), I’d take myself and others WAY less seriously.

Clapton? I liked a couple of his tunes but wasn’t really into him either (and this before he outted himself as a racist, none-too-bright creep). I never saw the guitar hero appeal. Competent, sure—brill? Nah.

He was no Jimi Hendrix, fer fucks sake! Neither was he a Jorma Kaukonen, a Richard Thompson, a Jeff Beck, an Eddie Van Halen or a Rich Gilbert—honestly, I could go on and on. Also, apart from Layla and White Room, Clapton’s compositions seemed a tad soft. Ya know, future hold or grocery store muzak. Just wait 20 years. If I want non-rock guitar, I'll go to Segovia.

So yeah, in the Prince/Clapton matchup, I’d go with Prince. The other thing, how can you compare musicians who are working in different styles? Sure, Richard Thompson and Jeff Beck are both rock'n'roll guitar heroes but, man, that’s a big, wide ocean.