Greatest Guitarists - Yesterday & Today (1 Viewer)

I can defend every one of those. I define "great" my way, and I understand that most everyone on earth has other definitions. Some people enjoy seeing the fruits of millions of hours of practice. I don't happen to be one of them. There is no soul in perfection. And certainly none in the pursuit of perfection.

I knew you were going to say that and you are right. You do write well when you get excited.
You have a point about Zappa too.

I did notice one of the clips had a Flying "V" guitar.;)
 
My internet connection sucks ass and if I had to wait for every youtube link to build up, I'd go crazy now. But almost all the names named here I'm very much in tune with. Some I've never heard before, but will be glad to check out. This is a great thread!

Loving the guitar, it's sound and it's ways very much, I can assure you from sad personal experience that this is a most delicate topic, though. Discussions about it tend to get ugly.

"Yngwie Malmsteen? What the fuck. Steve Vai owns that fat clown 3432432times!!!"
"Punk killed the guitar solo!"
"They would all be nothing without Keith Richards you idiot bastard moron!"
"All I can say is Eddie van Halen. E d d i e v a n H a l e n!"

And on and on. It's worse than windows/mac, catholic/protestant, left/right, whatever.

If nobody named him til now, I'd quietly propose Tommy Emmanuel to consider.

After watching I was a fan.
 
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There's lots of cool stuff from him on youtube.

For example this powerful version of
Also another version of "Guitar Boogie" where he refers to it as "The Youtube Song", because it got so many views :)

Glad you like it.

Now if I only had one quarter of that skill and talent.
 
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There is no soul in perfection. And certainly none in the pursuit of perfection.

I see no difference between Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, The New York Dolls, Peter Tosh and Husker Du. They are one side of the coin. People who want to be somehow intellectually challenged by their music are the other. Same coin. I just prefer when the awkward, pimply, sometimes unpleasant living, breathing side comes up.

Acheiving perfection does not imply a lack of soul, but I would agree that trying to does.

One should also consider what constitutes perfection. For example, King Crimson's Starless comes as close to perfection as any R&R song I know. Is it played perfectly, from a musicologists perspective? Probably not. But it's still perfection to me.

As for your second point, I am clearly on the opposite side of your coin analogy, and I can assure you that the music I listen to is not only living and breathing, but it has high blood pressure and a beer gut. :D
 
I know. It's all the same bag.

It just irks me when people are quick to dismiss artists who are not perhaps as learned or technically proficient as others. I find all my joy in the slop. Listen to those Robert Johnson recordings. There is no technical perfection there. But there is mastery. He drove a generation of guitarists crazy trying to figure out how the fuck he did that.

And you mentioned Lennon - he was not a great musician if you are ranking people by technical ability. His genius was in his soul, and when he learned to let it out through his music he was unstoppable, and there is no one better.

Well, Marley, but that's different bag of lambsbread...I see them as very similar, Lennon and Marley. In fact I wrote about their similarities.
 
I've been thinking a bit about style when it comes to guitar players. by style in this case I mean a distinct sound. and because I grew up in the '80s (I was 12 in 1980, 21 in 1989) I started thinking about guitar players that informed the type of music I listened to in that era. these players, while perhaps not the best players, had such a unique sound that you knew immediately who it was. and then other guitar players started borrowing it.

and that list (for me) includes:

D Boon from the Minutemen, who taught people the only knobs you need on your amp are treble and volume.

Johnny Marr from the Smiths, who launched the British jangly shoegazer guitar fad.

Peter Buck from REM, who launched the U.S. jangly shoegazer guitar fad.

The Edge from U2, who jangled but didn't shoegaze. and was Irish, which I'm sure made a difference somehow.

of course, there were the shredders in the '80s also, but I didn't listen to much of that type of music, so all the shredders sounded the same to me. except Eddie Van Halen. even when Eddie turned around to face the audience and people could see exactly what he was doing, no one could quite copy it.

but, D Boon died, the Smiths couldn't stand to be in the same room together, REM decided to start doing mediocre records.

and U2 decided to do what the Clash couldn't bear to: become the BIGGEST BAND IN THE WORLD. which of course involves bloated self indulgence. there's a big difference between the only band that matters and the biggest band in the world, but U2 embraced it.

they not only embraced it, they took it to bed and gently made sweet, sweet love to it and then spooned afterwords in a contented sleep. and in the morning they woke it up with breakfast in bed. too much? well, so was U2 in the '90s.

well, talk about bloated self indulgence....

EDIT: I forgot Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth. he's on my list, for convincing people that noise can sometimes be tuneful.

ok, I'm done. no more wanking. figuratively, at least. literally, I'll continue to wank. fyi.
 
Lennon & Marley

I know. It's all the same bag.

It just irks me when people are quick to dismiss artists who are not perhaps as learned or technically proficient as others. I find all my joy in the slop. Listen to those Robert Johnson recordings. There is no technical perfection there. But there is mastery. He drove a generation of guitarists crazy trying to figure out how the fuck he did that.

And you mentioned Lennon - he was not a great musician if you are ranking people by technical ability. His genius was in his soul, and when he learned to let it out through his music he was unstoppable, and there is no one better.

Well, Marley, but that's different bag of lambsbread...I see them as very similar, Lennon and Marley. In fact I wrote about their similarities.

Nice article, MJP. Reco all Lennon and Marley fans to read it! This is not meant to be combative, so please leave that donut at Krsipy Kreme (I know how things can get misinterpreted in forums, want to avoid that). Curious how you think Marley and religion didn't mix, if I have the read correctly in your article?

Three Little Birds, I believe is relative to Psalms 84:3.

Some of Marley's lyrics from the song:

Rise up this mornin,
Smiled with the risin sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin, this is my message to you-ou-ou:

Singin: dont worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!
Every little thing gonna be all right. dont worry!
Singin: dont worry about a thing - I wont worry!
cause every little thing gonna be all right.

Marley also sings: "Let Jah provide the way..."
The Jah definition from WIKI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jah

As far as JL goes, man, I miss him. Paint him. And my son, 12, knows most of his lyrics, and what I believe them to mean...we have long discussions about him. Try explaining in today's world, "Give peace a chance." Sounds simple, but try it. Or, explaining, "Imagine there's no heaven, I wonder if you can..." I'm not a bible thumper, but do believe in God.

Here's a snippet of something I wrote when asked to give a few remarks recently at an art event:

//

Imagine a world without music.
Imagine a world without art.

The wind would have never cried Mary.
The jingle jangle morning would have never followed us.
We'd never strive to break on through to the other side.
Me and Bobby McGee would have never been busted down in Baton Rouge.
The sky would have never cried.
We would have never traveled down Thunder Road.
Jailhouses would have never rocked.
Strawberry fields wouldn't have been forever.
Important Redemption songs would have never been sung.
Little pink houses wouldn't have been built.
We wouldn't know to give peace a chance.

Imagine a world without music.
Imagine a world without art.

//

I agree with your view on Marley and Lennon being similar. Both men I admire; hold close to my heart for many reasons. They have, for lack of better words, helped change and shape my life.
 
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Curious how you think Marley and religion didn't mix, if I have the read correctly in your article?

Three Little Birds, I believe is relative to Psalms 84:3.
Marley's lyrics, and Reggae lyrics in general from that era are very much bible-based. But Rastafarians would tell you that Rasta is not a religion, but rather a way of life. They find most religions corrupt, and believe that Rome and the Pope are the source of most of the world's problems.

But it's kind of impossible to really explain what Rastas think because they don't all think the same thing. There is no organization, no churches or temples, hence no organized religion. Though by strict definition you could call it a religion, since it's based on supernatural beliefs.
 
Meanwhile back at the World's Greatest Guitar Players Ranch:

A talented guitar player whose soul is often overlooked because he immersed mayonnaise and surrounded in white bread is


Walter Becker of [This video is unavailable.]
 
at the harder section:
ZAKK WYLDE!!! (black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne)
Yngwie Malmsteen
Michaelangelo Batio

and then:
Dweezil Zappa,
Johnny Cash
Neil Young
Satriani
Steve Vai

oh yeah... i've seen Robert Fripp in 2004...together with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai (G3 Concert) awful... like: aweful, i will never play like them^^
 
I just saw Zakk at the Iridium in NYC. (November) He was a special guest at the Les Paul show. He got good and drunk and tore it up...sang his ass off too...blues. Les pretty much just tells stories, and tosses-in a sweep every now and then with his grotesquely arthritic hands. It was a fancy 90 minutes (100 bucks including the drinks) but I had been meaning to do it for twenty years. BTW, Eric Johnson was the other featured guest and he sucked...what a weakling. Zakk didnt mind letting him know this.
 
Purple, you've heard it a million times. Its a lighting quick scale that happens by the method and within the time of a strummed chord. Used as embellishment. I cant recall but I think it goes back to Charlie Christian. Les made it famous with Mary on those recordings.
 
I would add Slash, Kirk Hammet, Matthew Bellamy, Serge Teyssot-Gay (from the french band Noir Désir) and certainly others that I unfortunately don't have in mind right now.
 
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Caspar Brätzmann, son of german jazz musician Brätzmann.
Lunatic noise guitarist.
Did a collaboration with Page Hamilton from Helmet once.
All still alive.
 
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I actually kind of dug the buckethead thing. You know, in a whatthefuck kind of way.

Here's a great guitarist that usually goes unremembered and all too unheralded: Terry Kath of Chicago. They toured with Hendrix back in '69, and Hendrix told Bob Lamm that Kath was better than he was. Them's some praise:


Funny too that Peter Cetera could actually play that damn bass. Can't remember how many times I puked listening to his insipid ballads in the 80s...
 
Buckethead? I see. So "great" = "really fast with no feeling." Cool.


And here I thought the 80's were mercifully over. I gotta get out more.
 
My main electric guitar influences are:

Tom Verlaine (Television)
D Boon (The Minutemen)
Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane)
Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets)
John Fogerty
Robert Quine (The Voidoids)
Marc Bolan
Andy Gill (Gang of Four)
Steve Albini (Big Blacck/Shellac)
Steve Diggle (Buzzcocks)
Neil Young
Jimi Hendrix
Robby Krieger (The Doors)
 
Buckethead? I see. So "great" = "really fast with no feeling." Cool.
And here I thought the 80's were mercifully over. I gotta get out more.

I dont mind now and then when the instrument gets to just make glorious noise...dont care if its Buckethead or Thurston Moore. Melody and "feeling" and "soul" are not ALWAYS what I want. Sometimes I want it to wreck things, sometimes just feedback is enough. Those eighties shredders didnt understand this at all...Buckethead does.
 
dont care if its Buckethead or Thurston Moore.
The only thing those two have in common is they both play guitars. Otherwise it makes no sense to compare them or group them together.

Noise can create a lot of emotion (positive and negative). What those shredders like the Kentucky Fried Chicken guy do isn't noise, it's just a tape stuck on fast forward. It's a meaningless exhibition of their thousands of hours of playing scales. A lot of music leaves me cold, but none more than that shit. The granddaddy of that decade of stinking spawn, Eddie Van Halen, at least had an ingrained sense of melody. Add he payed at downright moderate speeds compared to the speed-for-speed's-sake crowd.
 
I think thou doth protest too much about lightening-speed licks and practising.
Like anything else, it can be taken to unusual territory or crammed into a dissonant context that properly unnerves a listener. Sometimes you want to groove and sway; other times you want to get spanked. That s all.
 
Having never played guitar, I'm not qualified to answer this question: Should greatest guitarists be broken out into Lead and Bass? They have much different roles in not only sound, but also in context of live and recorded music...

(I know it could be broken out more by acoustic; verticalled down to # of strings, etc. But more curious about Lead and Bass.)
 
I'm not sure if you're talking about rhythm guitar or bass guitar players, but hey,
here are some great bass guitar players:

Mike Watt ( Minutemen, Firehose... )
Jean - Yves Theriault ( Voivod )
Les Claypool ( Primus )
Jasonic aka Jason Newstedt ( Flotsam & Jetsam, Metallica, Voivod )
Mike Dean ( C.O.C., Snakenation, Ninefinger )
Maitri ( Christian Death... )
Paul Raven ( Killing Joke, Prong )
There are tons more, but these came to my mind.

Strings hate me, I can do some strange noise on guitar but wouldn't be able
to play the same noise again, it's pretty uncontrolled.
Nah, I'm no guitar player - I'm a drummer for 15 years now.
 
I think thou doth protest too much about lightening-speed licks and practising.
I think thou doth not know thy ass from thine elbow, but so what? I would, however, implore you to learn the difference between protest and opinion. It will help you in all areas of life. And chicks dig it when you know those kinds of things. Seriously.
 
Having never played guitar, I'm not qualified to answer this question: Should greatest guitarists be broken out into Lead and Bass? They have much different roles in not only sound, but also in context of live and recorded music...

No, no, no! Despite the claims of musical instrument manufacturers, the bass is not, and never will be a guitar. Damn fools who try to make it socially acceptable to use a pick on a bass! Damn you all to hell.

It's a bass, dammit. Completely different animals. The guitar is a pterodactyl, and the bass is anything that eats everything.
 

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