Plateaus of greatness

I agree mostly. Why humans see the need to declare something as "the best" is beyond me. You can thank crap like the Grammy Award show for that.

I'm happy having Yes' Relayer and PRR's The Dark Third both being 5 star albums for me and coexsting.

How about Alex Lifeson a.k.a. "King Lerxt"... Isn't he at the same level also?

i think i understand what you're saying, but even this leaves place for certain hierarcy so i think that what best puts things in perspective is deciding upon skill, which is quite a lot of times pretty objective; thus, instead of saying that lifeson is on a totally different plateau then cobain, i'd say that lifeson is a very skillful guitarist, while cobain holds other qualities to his guitar playing

You have to break it down between technicality and soul (if you will).  Squire and Geddy may both be at the top of their games in what they can play, but each brings their own style to anything they touch.  This type of thing really shows up with the guitar.  It is very hard to quantify that type of thing and comes down to people's personal preference.  Thus the never ending "Who's better" discussions and threads.

yarstruly wrote: There have many heated discussions about who is better than who (or more skilled, or talenetd, etc...) in recent times on the PA forums.  I have participated in some more than others, and even have a tournament going (Rush Eliminations) I'm sure they are inevitable on a site such as this, and if done all in good fun with respect for each others' opinions, then completely harmless....   HOWEVER, I'd like to propose a different perspective on these types of things.....   I often see very talented players (as most proggers are) as kind of being on various plateaus on a mountain.  For example, I see nothing wrong with saying, for example, that Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, and Tony Levin (along with others) are all on the same plateau of greatness, or that Neil Peart, Bill Bruford & Mike Portonoy are all on the same drumming plateau with several others.....now of course it is obvious to say that say Kurt Cobain was not on the same plateau as Steve Howe as a guitar player, but maybe Steve Hackett IS on the same plateau with Howe...   What does everyone think?  Is it possible to look at levels of greatness this way, or can we definitvely say that we can put each player in order of ability compared to all others?

Two things:

1. Sometimes an artist is capable of more (technically) than he shows on his albums. It's called understatement ... David Gilmour is a master of that, for example. So while I think it's possible to assign levels to the musicianship of artist performances, they might not properly reflect the artists' abilities.

2. Artists evolve ... when I first read the title of the thread, I assumed that you were talking about plateaus as periods of time during which an artist is on the peak of his abilities (well, a "peak" if it's rather short and a plateau if he maintains the level for several albums).

Ah!  But one man's mountain peak is another man's valley.  It is all subjective my friend.  10 people listening, 10 sets of reality.  The best you can do is get a general consensus, but that is meaningless because it does not apply to the individual (you).  Dig?

Since were talking prog I dont see their being all that much point in the disscusions about who is better than who. All of these musicians are going to be very good at what they do, its why we like them, it just comes down to personal preferance of what we all like and creativity. We all want to hear a musician doeing something new and interesting in his music but I also like musicians that do something old but in an interesting way. When you get this it all becoms part of taste and allmost without exception to do this they have to be good musiciansin the first place.

It all comes down to what you like, and not taking offence when other people have different opinions.

toolsofthetrade wrote: Will someone please just tell me who alex lifeson is ?   I've asked you people twice now.   I could just google it, but i'd prefer it if someone would just ANSWER MY DAMN QUESTION.

Edited by A B Negative - December 14 2006 at 08:13