Originally Posted by
damngoodtimes
Yes, I have the recording. I instantly knew what line you were talking about when you brought it up. He is absolutely making fun of himself. Dave has always been able to poke fun at himself, even back in the hey day when he had built himself up into the image of an Action Figure. Perhaps, because we were younger, we all bought into Dave's image as larger than life so much that we couldn't see him as admitting any flaws, but it's always been there.
What do you think is more likely in 1976: a) the scenario I describe where he is making fun of his guitar abilities (which, even if he would self-evaluate as a "good" player, he certainly would recognize that the other guy in the band was far superior, so some of the self-deprecation is in the context of Ed's skill set).
-OR- b) Dave admitting in public that Ed had the power over him to decide whether or not Ed would allow Dave to play the thing (your interpretation of "I can't play it" being that his superior (Ed) won't allow him to)?
By the way, I recognize how silly it is to argue over some throw-away line by Dave from almost 40 years ago, but I do think the interpretation of that dynamic is interesting.