Guitare Xtreme Magazine numéro 123

We can lament or rejoice, rock'n'roll remains and will remain attached to the electric guitar. It is the style that made it the flagship instrument of the second half of the 20th century, more than any other, notably because saturation transfigured the musician's relationship to the note, which could be extended indefinitely by the joint action of vibrato and feedback with the amp.
Among the great precursors of this race to electricity and saturation, it is difficult not to mention Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin's chief riffer, whose influence on a whole generation of musicians of the time still continues today on the youngest. One could worry about the fact that the stylistic succession is slow and that the most innovative on the instrument do not have the success of their elders. It is true that we are surfing, commercially speaking, on styles whose foundations were laid, for the most recent ones to have had worldwide success, in the 1990s at the latest, and that was thirty years ago. We celebrate this year the 50th anniversary of many mythical albums (like Houses of the Holy, for example), Joe Satriani, who was a young man compared to Page, is approaching 70, Paul Gilbert is temporarily moving around in a walker... this can say a lot about the age of those who are interested in this music, and by deduction, in its future. For several times now, we have been told that rock'n'roll and the guitar hero figure are dead in the mainstream media... So what do we do?
In our opinion, it's better to keep going to concerts and enjoy the guitar legends as long as they are still alive and take the trouble to come and play in France. In a few months we'll have Satriani, Mr. Big and Metallica at our fingertips, and we'd better not gamble on the odds that this will happen again indefinitely. And for those who have the opportunity (or can provoke it), let's get our guitars out and play hard, as it's not yet time to retire for the pleasure of a Marshall stack pushed into the red.

The Editor