The Roy Buchanan enigma

[magiccarpetride]

I kept hearing about Roy Buchanan, how he is the guitarists' guitarist, one of the most underrated guitarists, etc. Never listened to him, so when I bumped into his LP "A Street Called Straight" (https://www.discogs.com/Roy-Buchanan...elease/1876032), I bought it and was looking forward to enjoying listening to some guitar wizardry.

But much to my surprise, the music on that LP sounded somehow broken. It felt odd listening to that record, and the guitar playing was also extremely weird. That intrigued me, so I started searching for his performances on youtube. And again, everything I listened to (Roy's live performances or his studio recordings) sounded somehow broken to me. It's like he may start a lick or a phrase in an okay fashion, but then always quickly destroys it and then starts sounding really, really weird. Almost like some half-baked guitar player who never actually learned how to play the entire song, so he starts the song okay, and then goes into aimless noodling not even staying in the proper key, nor in the right tempo.

So what am I missing regarding Roy Buchanan? He is widely praised by many prominent guitar players (Jeff Beck being the one of many who lavish a lot of compliments on Roy Buchanan). I'm baffled.

[walpurgis]

I don't like his playing either. Can't say why. It just doesn't work for me.



Here you are. Cheer yourself up with 'indiscipline' by King Crimson : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiS2LZhLvYw