I am a child of the 80s. When I came of age, the hair bands ruled the world. By the time I reached high school, Grunge had overthrown the king and stolen the crown. And all the while, pop music spewed out cute little girls singing cute little songs (Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, etc.) and "cute" guys sing cute songs (New Kids On The Block). I've seen and heard it all.

However, I grew up listening not to the trends of the day, but to the music of another era. My first tape was the Monkees Greatest Hits. My parents brought me up on Elvis, Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. From there, I drifted into and out of all kinds of different genres of music. I've listened to everything from Dwight Yoakum to Meat Loaf to Led Zeppelin and back again. Along the way, I've heards lots of good music and lots of bad music and have learned to define my musical tastes a lot better now that I did when I was a kid.

I tell you this because I want to be clear that I have been exposed to a lot of music, and not just in passing. I was weaned on oldies, grew up on classic rock, went through a country phrase and even dabbled in Top 40. One thing I have discovered on my musical odyssey is this. Sometimes, people think something is good, even great, just because they've never seen anything like it before.

I started thinking about this a lot recently because I have been listening to my idol, Stevie Ray Vaughan, a lot lately. One of his biggest influences was Jimi Hendrix. As an aspiring guitar play and big fan of guitar rock, I have heard a lot about Jimi Hendrix. I've heard a lot of his music. Ready for this? He wasn't that good.

A know that when people read that, they are going to have a heart attack. I know that somewhere up there, Stevie Ray is looking down on me and shaking his head in disgust, but it is true. He was sloppy, drenched in feedback and reverb and drew as much attention for his cheap theatrics as he did for his playing. (Theatrics, I have learned, that he stole from blues master Buddy Guy anyway.) Yes, he was wild and outrageous and no one had seen or heard anything like it before. Yes, people in the 60s also had a lot of chemical help when listening to him play. That still doesn't make him good. Stevie did several of Jimi's songs, and he played them meaner, cleaner and flat out better than Hendrix could have dreamed. Maybe if he had lived long enough to get out of the 60s and really focus on his playing instead of being a showman, he might have shown his true talent, but

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