Im gonna start a poll soon to try and get the popular opinion of the best and worst year in music history, specifically guitar oriented music. Any ideas?
Best:
1953 has to be one of the best years as that's the year that Ike Turner released "Rocket 88"-the song that purportedly started off the rock era. Les Paul releases "Bye Bye Blues",

1963: Rock 'n Roll becomes huge, The Beatles release "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", Beatlemania begins. Beach Boys "Surfin USA" is released, The Ventures gain notoriety, Bob Dylan gains popularity with release of "The Freewheelin Bob Dylan" album, Johhny Cash has big releases, Roy Orbinson releases "In Dreams", The Kingsmen gain notoriety, Buddy Holly has a hit single.

1969 is definatley goin on the list, beginning of punk, emergence of metal, Woodstock, the end of an era, The Velvet Underground, Hendrix, The Beatles, The Stooges, Black Sabbath...etc.

1976 Hard Rock is at its height, AC/DC gains international awareness, Led Zeppelin is at the height of their career, Bob Dylan releases "Desire", Kiss releases "Destroyer", The Ramones debut is released, punk rock gains notoriety, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a chart topper, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, The Ramones, Heart, Queen, AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Bob Dylan.....etc.

1986 Glam Metal is at its height, Thrash begins gaining worldwide audience, Metallica releases "Mater of Puppets." Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax.

1991: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" debuts, Nirvana becomes biggest group in the world, Grunge music dominates sending a surge of record companies looking for pissed off youth bands, pathes the way for Pop Punk bands such as Green Day to be discovered. Alternative rock is out in the mainstream, bands such as Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., The Pixies all reach a once impossible audience.

2001 because of the whole Garage Rock thing, The Strokes "Is This It" debut, The White Stripes White Blood Cells debut.

Worst:

1959: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson all die in a plane crash, hailed as "The Day Music Died."

1970: Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin die. The Beatles officially split.

1980: Many music legends die, John Lennon, Bon Scott, Ian Curtis, John Bohnam

1986: GLAM METAL makes hard rock music pretty, which a growing number of people are opposed too.

1989: Guitar music seems dead, Big hair and sappy ballads, Metal lacks freshness, nothing is happening.

1994: Kurt Cobain kills himself, Grunge music is shattered and looses mainstream attention within the following months, completely ending within two years.

2010: Most of the once "saviors of rock n roll" have broken up such as The White Stripes and Bloc Party, while the remaining fail to make relevant records such as The Strokes "Angels." Music seems pretty dead and boring.


ANY OTHER IDEAS?

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1953 has to be one of the best years as that's the year that Ike Turner released "Rocket 88"-the song that purportedly started off the rock era.Circa 1977 has to be one of the worst as that's when disco swept the world and posed a huge threat to rock.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I don't think that some "years" were bad or good for the evolution of music but whole decades.

The 50s', 60s', 70s', 80s' and 90s' where great decades each one for its own reasons that are well known and not necessary for me to enlist here. They all had something new and innovative to offer, to say the least.

But the 00s' were a different story.
Nothing new and noteworthy was born in those years. I won't be remembering the 00s' in the decades to come. No original ideas, only remixing the old with the not so old (remixes of 60's pop songs for example with 90's beats).

The 00s' was the decade where we started downloading music in massive numbers and thus music became cheap (...or free). And in lack of massive profits, the music industry took a step back. Music making is still of course profitable but not as it used to be so its harder and less glamorous and more financially dangerous to invest in something new. Therefore we rediscovered the old hits and put them back on the market.
It's no wonder that all the music dinosaurs have come back to life, bands that were split in the 70's,80's and 90's rejoined and start touring. That's not necessary a bad thing by its own but its bad when it's all we have to show from that decade.

(Sorry for my Greek-thinking-english)

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Alexander
AMSTD Strat RW Candy Cola +Callaham + Texas Specials +Tortoise shell pickguard/Fender Blues Junior III SN FSR
Salonica-Greece


Macedonia IS GREECE the last 2500 years

worst:
Randy Rhodes death - March 19, 1982
the Day That Music Died - February 3, 1959: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson

Best:
3 December 1948 - the day Ozzy was born
HOPEFULLY... zenbone - born may 3, 1970 (hey a guy can dream right!?!)

Worst:
September 18, 1970 - Jimi hendrix death date
December 8, 1980 - John Lennon death date

ahh but punk rock was at its height in '77 with The Sex pistols releasing one of the best albums of all time, in my opinion.

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Im not debating on this thread wether what im doing is valid, but i respect your opinion, but the 00s do have original artists, System of a Down cant even be labeled under anything but metal becuz theyre so unique sounding, The White Stripes have this wierd mix of blues/garage punk/ acoustic/gothic vibe, MGMT..... just to name a few, its the 10s im worried about

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1994/5/6--Death of Cobain, mortal wounding of Grunge; those were the bad things about those years (although I never was really heavily into grunge, I thought they had some valid ideas...and if it got the big-haired, spandex-wearing, pointy-headed-heavy-metal-guitar-playing jackasses off the front pages, I was very happy).

But those years weren't as bad as you think, because there were several established bands that did great things in those years; they weren't new bands, but they made (artistically) great albums during those years:

Nirvana--Live in New York (1994)--The only Nirvana disc I still listen to all the way through (to this day)...a perfect swan song for an unfortunate ending.

Eric Clapton--From the Cradle (1994)--Slowhand plays the blues. 'Nuff said.

Jimmie Vaughan--Strange Pleasure (1994)--Stevie's big brother does his first solo album; the songs "Tilt-A-Whirl", "Six Strings Down", "Just Like Putty", "Love The World" make a good album great.

Joe Ely--Letter To Laredo (1995)--Some of the best songwriting of his career (many written with Charlie Sexton's brother, Will), and excellent flamenco flavoring from Teye. "Gallo del Cielo" is the only song in history (that happens to be about a Mexican boy and a stolen chicken) that will put a lump in your throat.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds--Roll of the Dice (1995)--After Preston Hubbard, Duke Robillard and Kid Bangham left, after losing their major label contract, and the start of Kim Wilson's burgeoning (and excellent) solo career, I thought the T-Birds were gone...and then a former Sparklets Water truck driver with big biceps and a tall pompadour named Dave "Kid" Ramos joined to play an Esquire through a Vox AC30 (and a "Foxx" clone of an AC30), and the leaner, meaner Thunderbirds cut one of the toughest (or "tuffest", in the T-Bird vernacular) discs of their career. Sonically, it was more of an updated version of their first three albums than a continuation of their more commercially successful (but less artistically satisfying) discs of the 80s. The songs "Mean Love" and "Lookin' Forward to Lookin' Back" make it worth tracking down this (self-released) disc, and the rest of the disc is good-to-great as well. "Life is a '59 Cadillac..." Indeed!

ZZ Top--Rhythmeen (1996)--One of the most underrated, criminally overlooked albums of the 1990s. Look at it as a soundtrack for a road trip from New Orleans to Tijuana (staying on the seedy side of the road the whole time). They took the classic ZZ Top sound and added elements of Psychedelic Gulf Coast Blues to the songwriting and Grunge to the production techniques...Big gigantic drums from Frank, The Reverend tuned his guitar down as low as two steps below standard (while maintaining an .008 string gauge set!?!), and Dusty Hill perfected the development of his signature "rhino farting into a trash can" tone (his words, not mine). Lots of DeArmond Tremolo effect used as well. The best of their RCA records, and I would place it (favorably) beside their London/Warner classics like Tres Hombres, Fandango and Eliminator.

Storyville--Piece of your Soul (1996)—Double Trouble + two of Joe Ely’s hotshot guitarists (the twin Davids, Grissom and Holt) + an albino African-American soul singer=sonic perfection. The only band that made the breakup of the Arc Angels bearable.

Sheryl Crow—Sheryl Crow (1996)—“Scraped the mold off the bread/make you breakfast in bed/and served you French toast…”; “I saw Geronimo’s rifle/Marilyn’s shampoo/and Betty Grable’s corset…” Those lines (from “If It Makes You Happy”) alone make it worth digging this disc up.
There was also the continuation of some good rock bands that had established themselves already--the Black Crowes, Blues Traveller and Lenny Kravitz.

Lollapalooza was at its height.

Britpop was formed…a mixed blessing, but at least it was something. Oasis was good.

...and some female pop artists that changed the way music was made and presented established themselves. Whether you like them or not, there were some great songs from Alanis Morrisette, Fiona Apple, Sarah McLaughlin, Sarah Hickman, Joan Osbourne and others.

Nirvana and their ilk had destroyed all the rules, which freed people to do their thing without interference from record companies. No, the mid-1990s weren’t bad at all.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

1967: Monterey Pop Festival, the Summer of Love. Pete Townshend smashes his guitar, Hendrix burns his at the end of "Wild Thing". Otis Redding gives his last and greatest performance. The Blues Project records (Electric) Flute Thing.

1969: Woodstock, and the Mets win the World Series. Richie Havens IMPROVISES "Freedom" on the Woodstock stage as a filler. Santana emerges. All the other Woodstock stuff.

1970: Santana releases Abraxas. In a horrible year, something fantastic. Emerson, Lake and Palmer's first album.

1971: Jim Morrison and Duane Allman die.