Well it is often said, that Jimmy Page is a 'sloppy' player. What is really meant by this? Did he constantly fluff notes and mess up? The more I listen (and I mean actually slow the stuff down and listen very carefully to parts) the more 'sloppy' begins to sound like the work of a rhythmic genius. Listening to later guitarists it all gets very clean and accurate but seems to lose some of the raw appeal to me. I had a guitarist friend once say when I was learning the strumming parts in Stairway 'you are just spending hours learning Jimmy Page's mistakes' - I still don't think he was right about it. When I play it I see it as a festival or rhythmic variations which give the song that very page-esque signature - nothing like the youtube instruction videos where I guy says 'well do like this' or 'some people do it like that' - in reality every bar has it's own rhythmic alterations and changes. I found it worth the time to learn the transcriptions bar by bar and doing so added new dimensions to my playing in general. So what do people think, was Jimmy actually sloppy or has some of the expression and ability to hold rhythmic ideas through a piece been somewhat lost by more technically perfect guitarists which followed? I'm thinking a lot for example of finger style blues, where nobody gives two hoots about the exact melody, just so long as that rhythmic pattern in the bass just keeps on rollin' and it stays (mostly) in key. It would die a total death and sound bland if attempted by a technical guitarist with no concept of holding onto that bass line at all cost.