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Best Guitar Players of All Time
So i was kinda having a wikipedia fest at work this morning and wanted to see a lot more details about some bands i liked from the 60s and 70s. I was reading Blind Faith's wiki and was really surprised steve winwood was in this band as i remember him singing "Higher Love" and "Valerie", but nothing else.
However, There was a link to the Rolling Stone, 100 Greatest Guitar Players of all time. In my head I formed my own and readied myself to read rankings from the same people who brought us eminem having 5 top 100 ROCK songs of all time... I expected to see Duane Allman and Dickey Betts like consecutively, somewhere in the top 5. Maybe sharing a 4th spot or something. Instead, Duane Allman is second while Dickey Betts is 58th. This just blew my mind. When I think of the Allman Brothers, the songs that immediately pop into my head are: Jessica, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Ramblin man. Dickey Betts wrote these songs and performed lead on them. To me, it was completely ridiculous that there are 56 spots separating these two and while that is pretty insane, if it were any way, i would imagine Dickey as #2 and Duane as #56. I mean, they put Jimi at #1, which is entirely acceptable, but then they put Kurt Cobain at 11, which puts him ahead of the following guitar legends: Jeff Beck Freddy King Buddy Guy Dick Dale Ritchie Blackmore Dickey Betts Mark Knopfler Stephen Stills Okay, so obviously Rolling Stone is going to have some biases, and anytime a list of favorite anything is made it will obviously be incredibly controversial. However, from a "sophisticated" board like EDF, I would like to see a top 5 list of member's favorite guitar players and WHY. please dont just make a list and give no explanation. Here is my list: 1. Jimi Hendrix-Really, lets be honest, no one did what he did and no one does what he does. His creativity and skill is just ridiculous. He was incredible at changing styles to adapt to the music. While he probably used a bit too much distortion for me, his sound is just awesome on all levels. 2. Stevie Ray Vaughan-This choice is easy for me, if Jimi is at the top, Stevie only has one place he can go, top of the rest. The emotion he put into his guitar playing was just unreal. To this day, when i listen to The Sky is Crying, my eyes get a little bit teary with the thought of how strongly he felt. It is a massive tragedy that we lost both of the top 2 in such a horrible way. 3. Duane Allman/Dickey Betts- My strongest childhood memory is my parents and I driving from Illinois(where i was born) to our new home in california. We did it in an old Karmann Ghia and I believe we listened to the Allman Brothers the vast majority of the way. Songs like In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Jessica are just completely etched in my brain forever because of this. These guys just make music that makes you feel like you want to go out take a road trip and just listen to their beautiful music. I dont think there is more relaxing music than the Allman Brothers and the perfectly flowing, natural guitar sound really has a huge part in that. 4. Eric Clapton- Wow, what a resume, seriously. He went from The Yardbirds to Cream to Blind Faith to Derek and the Dominos to one of the greatest solo careers in history. The list of songs he has written is pages and pages. He is ridiculously versatile as he plays anything from psychedelic rock to blues to folk to reggae to pop songs. Probably the greatest LIVING guitarist at this point. While many think his MTV unplugged performance was kinda meh. It sticks out in my memory as being the best live performance i have ever seen on television and CERTAINLY the best live acoustic performance i have ever seen. Also, tears in heaven still makes me sad to this day. 5. Brian May- Yeah, whos Brian May? Brian May was the guitarist for Queen, who imo is the most underrated rock band in history. Not because people dont know who they are, but because people hear the wrong Queen songs on the radio all the time and just think of them as a gimmicky band that had the same songs in all of the mighty ducks movies. The Night at the Opera album is just a masterpiece and certainly on my top 5 rock albums of all time list. The Prophet's Song is one of my top 5 favorite rock songs ever and whenever i get a new piece of sound equipment, the first 3 tracks I listen to for reference are: Prophet's Song, Today was a good day by ice cube and There'll be some changes made by mark knopfler and chet atkins. Also, many people say that he "invented" the delay effect that is often a popular effect for modern guitarists. He also built his own guitar and never used a pick, opting instead to use a coin(kinda cool imo). Honorable mentions: Mark Knopfler(he was in dire straits if youre wondering who this is), Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy and Robert Johnson, Stephen Stills(Suite Judy Blue Eyes is my favorite song of all time). I am hoping to see what the rest of you think about either my list or we can see what you think of guitarists in general by making your own list. Hope everyone enjoys this. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
Agree about SRV. I'm not a big blues fan but that guy is too much. Brian May - basically I agree with everything you said, and I really like Queen and him, but note you really didn't say anything about him as a guitar player. He's not necessarily a great guitarist just because of all that stuff. Inventing his own guitar had a lot to do with his sound, but that is not guitar playing per se.
But, how about Eddie Van Halen? Innovative, unique, and pretty cool. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
B.B. King gets no love?
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I think your idea is decent, but the problem with these types of threads is it all depends on what kind of music you like and what you consider being the best.
Is it most investive or creative; ability to play the toughest material; ability to play different styles well; etc. I think a much more accurate way to do these list is by styles. E.g. best jazz guitarists, slide guitarists, acoustic guitarists. Also, even with this being a sophisticated forum, you are going to see a bunch of people throwing out hair metal guitarists, because just like many of my friends, they think loud and fast equals skill. I am not familiar with enough guitarists to consider myself an authority of any kind, but I can tell a good one when I hear one and I definitely agree with the Clapton, Hendrix, and SRV nominations. |
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I have been on and off playing guitar for 15 years and have to say I was more influenced by some of the modern guitar Gods.
Three that come to mind are: Randy Rhoads - Classically trained and a major influence on rock n' roll today. Joe Satriani - Talented lyricist and guitar wizard suffered with TMJ in his greatest years. He also managed to work with Ibanez (I think) to make the first mirrored paint guitar. Steve Vai- So good he added another string. P.S. Another one came to mind: Yngwie J. Malmsteen A PURE shredder. fyc |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
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I think your idea is decent, but the problem with these types of threads is it all depends on what kind of music you like and what you consider being the best. [/ QUOTE ] i dont see any problem with this. I like pretty much all kinds of music. If someone said a guitar player i had never heard was one of their 5 best I would certainly give it a listen. However, I think with guitar players it should be fairly obvious that it is limited to the genres of music that use guitars. Which tends to be most western, non hip hop music. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
AH damnit. Clay is right. I had originally thought to make my honorable mention section for one reason. To put in Yngwie J. Malmsteen. There is a video he made called "hot licks" that is the most ridiculous thing i have ever seen. It is an instructional video where he teaches people to play his songs. Keep in mind that i have never seen anyone tap anywhere near as fast as him and he is like "well, this song is simple, just do this and youre good". After which he shreds some ridiculous song that I couldnt even begin to make out the chords to. Black Star and Blitzkrieg are two of my favorite songs ever. Riot in the Dungeon is rad for its cheesy 80'sness.
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B.B. King gets no love? [/ QUOTE ] Funny you say this, because my original #5 was going to either be Albert King or Freddy King. I never really thought BB was as great as everyone else says he is. I honestly (yeah, string me up for this) think that freddy king is better than BB King. |
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not even an honorable mention for jimmy page? WTF, I hate saying this but I have to, I can't take the list seriously without him even getting mentioned once. Agree about brian may though.
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i just dont think he is a top 5 guitarist. Feel free to make your own list. fwiw, jimmy page is #9 on Rolling Stone's list. Right behind my boy Ry Cooder.
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I am hoping to see what the rest of you think about either my list or we can see what you think of guitarists in general by making your own list. Hope everyone enjoys this. [/ QUOTE ] “Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.” --Jimi Hendrix "Buddy Guy is by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive...if you see him in person, the way he plays is beyond anyone. Total freedom of spirit, I guess… He really changed the course of rock and roll blues." --Eric Clapton "Geez, you can’t forget Buddy Guy. He transcended blues and started becoming theater. It was high art, kind of like drama theater when he played, you know. He was playing behind his head long before Hendrix. I once saw him throw the guitar up in the air and catch it in the same chord." --Jeff Beck “Buddy Guy is an absolute monster” --Jimmy Page "Buddy plays from a place that I've never heard anyone play." --Stevie Ray Vaughan “Buddy Guy is a master. He’s the bravest guitar player I’ve ever seen on a bandstand. He’ll pull you into his trap and kill you. He owns that bandstand and everyone knows it when Buddy’s up there." --Lonnie Brooks |
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Last week I saw maybe the coolest thing i have ever seen on television. Some local san francisco channel was showing Blind Faith's first performance ever from Hyde Park. I sat and watched intently for like an hour ignoring everything else going on around me. Definitely one of the best live performances I have ever seen. Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood all in one band is awesome. If anyone hasnt heard Blind Faith I would definitely recommend it. Ther were one of the earliest supergroups.
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I have been on and off playing guitar for 15 years and have to say I was more influenced by some of the modern guitar Gods. Three that come to mind are: Randy Rhoads - Classically trained and a major influence on rock n' roll today. Joe Satriani - Talented lyricist and guitar wizard suffered with TMJ in his greatest years. He also managed to work with Ibanez (I think) to make the first mirrored paint guitar. Steve Vai- So good he added another string. P.S. Another one came to mind: Yngwie J. Malmsteen A PURE shredder. fyc [/ QUOTE ] None of these guys are even close to legendary, even factoring in Rhoads' post-death bump. Playing 1000 notes a second does not a great guitarist make. |
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I love a lot of the guys you mention, but lists like this are a little silly as they reflect much more on the tastes of the individual. my list fwiw:
1) bireli lagrene - no one is as fluid in any context as bireli. flawless technique, huge ears and he is incapable of sounding bad. he's the best living guitarist imo, and to top that off he also plays upright and electric bass as well as accordion, and can sing like frank sinatra. 2) kazuhito yamashita - really not a lot to say. the most impressive technician I've ever seen on the instrument. 3) bill frisell - a complete original. a lot of guitarists are easy to imitate, it's impossible to sound anything like frisell. another guy who's incapable of playing a wrong note. 4) jimi hendrix - I have heard some truly horrendous hendrix recordings, but when he was on he was transcendent. 5) sylvain luc - may very well be france's greatest accomplishment. astonishingly original. edit: I can't believe I left out wes montgomery. [censored]. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
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[ QUOTE ] I have been on and off playing guitar for 15 years and have to say I was more influenced by some of the modern guitar Gods. Three that come to mind are: Randy Rhoads - Classically trained and a major influence on rock n' roll today. Joe Satriani - Talented lyricist and guitar wizard suffered with TMJ in his greatest years. He also managed to work with Ibanez (I think) to make the first mirrored paint guitar. Steve Vai- So good he added another string. P.S. Another one came to mind: Yngwie J. Malmsteen A PURE shredder. fyc [/ QUOTE ] None of these guys are even close to legendary, even factoring in Rhoads' post-death bump. Playing 1000 notes a second does not a great guitarist make. [/ QUOTE ] No way, i TOTALLY disagree. Saying that Joe Satriani isn't a legend would make the pool of legends like 10-20 strong. I would say that satch is def one of the top 25 guitar players of all time. |
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Also, even with this being a sophisticated forum, you are going to see a bunch of people throwing out hair metal guitarists, because just like many of my friends, they think loud and fast equals skill. [/ QUOTE ] Loud and fast DOES equal at least one type of skill. The question is whether loud and fast equals musical. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
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[ QUOTE ] Also, even with this being a sophisticated forum, you are going to see a bunch of people throwing out hair metal guitarists, because just like many of my friends, they think loud and fast equals skill. [/ QUOTE ] Loud and fast DOES equal at least one type of skill. The question is whether loud and fast equals musical. [/ QUOTE ] Bingo. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
Well, I dunno about the criteria. If you're going for the more technical, Joe Satriani definitely deserves to be up there, he's amazing. Or if purely technical, there's none better than Michael Angelo Batio. But, I assume you're not. So I'll toss in my vote for Keith Richards. Amazing guitar player. Some of the greatest riffs of all time. Incredibly entertaining and innovative rhythm playing. And he just has this great blues sound.
Oh, and Jimmy Page's solo on Stairway to Heaven might be the one of the best musical moments ever, so beautiful. I don't know if overall he deserves to be top 5 though. Clapton definitely. Genius. Hendrix. Knopfler if you factor in songwriting and he's a bit of a personal favourite of mine. Something along those lines. |
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Buckethead, quite possibly the most talented guitar player I've ever heard.
Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4q3p_o8A6g Kind of a weird intro, but it gets really good ~1:50 |
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Yeah, how did we leave Page out of this? He's at least Richards' equal as far as bluesman riffing goes, and he's an excellent soloist. Top 5 in any list I come up with.
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Are we just ignoring the folksy types like Doc Watson (I have "Talking to Casey" stuck in my head on permanent repeat right now, and am ok with that) and Leo Kotke?
Also, I agree with those who put both Albert and Freddie King above BB as guitarists. As a musician though, BB was superior - he never used 5 notes when 2 would do. JIMI and SRV are still obviously and clearly 1-2. After that, it's all a matter of taste between any of probably 60. |
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I love a lot of the guys you mention, but lists like this are a little silly as they reflect much more on the tastes of the individual. my list fwiw: 1) bireli lagrene - no one is as fluid in any context as bireli. flawless technique, huge ears and he is incapable of sounding bad. he's the best living guitarist imo, and to top that off he also plays upright and electric bass as well as accordion, and can sing like frank sinatra. 2) kazuhito yamashita - really not a lot to say. the most impressive technician I've ever seen on the instrument. 3) bill frisell - a complete original. a lot of guitarists are easy to imitate, it's impossible to sound anything like frisell. another guy who's incapable of playing a wrong note. 4) jimi hendrix - I have heard some truly horrendous hendrix recordings, but when he was on he was transcendent. 5) sylvain luc - may very well be france's greatest accomplishment. astonishingly original. edit: I can't believe I left out wes montgomery. [censored]. [/ QUOTE ] i like this post/list a lot. bireli is definitely my favorite guitarist to listen to, so he tops my #1, as well as many other gypsy jazz guitarists. fwiw, as a guitar player, i think gypsy jazz is probably the hardest genre to play on guitar (not to discount a lot of classical music, which can be very difficult). that being said, i think posting along the lines of best guitar player in certain genres would be a lot more fruitful for reasons already stated in several posts in this thread. my personal favorites list in no particular order: wes montgomery, bireli lagrene, stochelo rosenberg, joe pass, andres segovia, marty friedman, stevie ray vaughn, ted greene. |
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I felt sort of bad leaving a flamenco guy off my list, that style can be very demanding and sabicas, paco pena and paco delucia can hang with anyone in the world. definitely agree it's more useful to do by genre.
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What is so great about Eric Clapton? Which great songs that he has recorded did he also write?
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what number is eric johnson on that list?
also, any place for accoustic guitarists in that list? chet atkins and tommy emmanuel perhaps? saw tommy in concert a couple nights ago, he continues to blow me away...we've probably all seen his youtube videos by now, but in case you havent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX0eT...ed&search= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhR04kmcSXU |
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What is so great about Eric Clapton? [/ QUOTE ] Everything. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
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What is so great about Eric Clapton? Which great songs that he has recorded did he also write? [/ QUOTE ] I believe you're looking for the Best Songwriters of All Time thread. This is the Best Guitar Players of All Time thread. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
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also, any place for accoustic guitarists in that list? chet atkins and tommy emmanuel perhaps? [/ QUOTE ] chet is definitely up there. I feel like there is no reason for us to exclude anyone. Acoustic guitar is beyond fine. |
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What is so great about Eric Clapton? Which great songs that he has recorded did he also write? [/ QUOTE ] Boris, "Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time" does not mention songwriting. |
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Dickie Betts is a great guitarist no doubt, and on a song like Blue Sky it's sometimes difficult to tell who's playing which solo. But Duane had that something that only people like Jimi and Stevie Ray and BB King have. You can hear his soul bleeding through the guitar. I doesn't happen on every song, but when you listen to Soul Serenade, Jesus that is some heartbreaking [censored], and you know it's Duane playing and not Dickie. (Plus Duane died young riding a motorcycle and Dickie is a woman-beater.)
FWIW, I'd go 1. Jimi 2. Duane 3. Clapton 4. SRV 5 BBK, with Clapton getting the edge over SRV despite SRV being more brilliant, just because of his versatility and accomplishments. I also love Jimmy Paige but he's just too sloppy to be mentioned in the same breath as these guys. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
Pittm,
With this being an open-forum I am sure we are going to get alot of opinions from people that THINK they know guitarists from what they hear and then the people that ARE actually guitarists. I have played for a long time and in the days of Guitar magazine it was all hair metal, tablature was beaming, and such. Only after a couple of years of play did I go back to the days of Zeppelin, SRV, etc. etc. etc. I became a very good technical player to start, and then started to get more creative as I learned more from the older more seasoned (ie. original) guitarists. just a point. I think we need to be open to the many talented guitarists out there; including guitarists that have surfaced in the last 10-15 years. fyc |
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Two guys I like a lot (oddly, perhaps, given that their styles are so different - though both very blues-based) are David Gilmour and Jack White. I don't think many consider either of them to be incredibly technically proficient, and I'm not a musician myself so I can't really judge well. What I do know is I really love each of their sounds.
Gilmour (guitarist for Pink Floyd, in case anyone was unaware) is so good at phrasing solos and doing things with timing that make him seem to probably be a more technically proficient guitarist than he actually is. The solo in Another Brick In the Wall, Part II, for example, is all about the pauses rather than the notes themselves. He is also really good at inserting dissonant notes at times that aren't what you'd expect but end up sounding really good. Live recordings of Comfortably Numb are a good example of this. He's also a good slide player, as evidenced in One Of These Days and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Gilmour in action Jack White was somewhat controversially given a really high ranking in the aforementioned Rolling Stone list (something like #17, I believe), and again, I'm not a guitarist myself, but I can't disagree. The guy just straight-up rocks. Like Gilmour, his style is very blues-based, but there's a much heavier, more frenetic tone to it. I find it kind of hard to explain well why I like him so much, but some good examples of his playing are Ball and Biscuit and There's No Home For You Here (on Elephant), and also the Blackpool Lights DVD, which might as well be titled, "How to Rock 101." White in action Again, it's kind of difficult as a non-musician to really put into words what exactly I like about these guys, but anyway, yeah, they're pretty much my two favorite guitarists. |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
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Two guys I like a lot (oddly, perhaps, given that their styles are so different - though both very blues-based) are David Gilmour and Jack White. I don't think many consider either of them to be incredibly technically proficient, and I'm not a musician myself so I can't really judge well. What I do know is I really love each of their sounds. Gilmour (guitarist for Pink Floyd, in case anyone was unaware) is so good at phrasing solos and doing things with timing that make him seem to probably be a more technically proficient guitarist than he actually is. The solo in Another Brick In the Wall, Part II, for example, is all about the pauses rather than the notes themselves. He is also really good at inserting dissonant notes at times that aren't what you'd expect but end up sounding really good. Live recordings of Comfortably Numb are a good example of this. He's also a good slide player, as evidenced in One Of These Days and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Gilmour in action Jack White was somewhat controversially given a really high ranking in the aforementioned Rolling Stone list (something like #17, I believe), and again, I'm not a guitarist myself, but I can't disagree. The guy just straight-up rocks. Like Gilmour, his style is very blues-based, but there's a much heavier, more frenetic tone to it. I find it kind of hard to explain well why I like him so much, but some good examples of his playing are Ball and Biscuit and There's No Home For You Here (on Elephant), and also the Blackpool Lights DVD, which might as well be titled, "How to Rock 101." White in action Again, it's kind of difficult as a non-musician to really put into words what exactly I like about these guys, but anyway, yeah, they're pretty much my two favorite guitarists. [/ QUOTE ] great post miajag. I remember feverishly learning the solo to "Comfortably Numb". I think I sat in my room and pulled some 12-14 hour sessions until I got it just right. I haven't owned an electric guitar in years, but everytime I pick up my acoustics, I think I play a lick from that. Again great post...brings up great great memories. fyc |
Re: Best Guitar Players of All Time
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FWIW, I'd go 1. Jimi 2. Duane 3. Clapton 4. SRV 5 BBK, with Clapton getting the edge over SRV despite SRV being more brilliant, just because of his versatility and accomplishments. [/ QUOTE ] Your 1, 3, 4 and 5 all disagree with you [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] |
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I was going to mention White, but was afraid I'd get laughed at. NH.
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It is my pleasure to volunteer Trey Anastasio and his work on Divided Sky, Run Like an Antelope, and Fluffhead. Live, in Phish's heyday, Trey was absolutely insane.
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Willie Nelson is a great guitar player. Seriously.
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