Under-rated/never-mentioned Guitarists

[bobzilla]

I think at least once a year someone comes out with a top-ten guitarists list of some sort and... there are always striking omissions as far as I'm concerned. First of all, any "top-ten" "top-100" top-whatever" is just utterly ridiculous in the first place because each man's opinion is as worthless as the next's. You know, unless it's like Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmore that's actually doing the list, it's just flat out nonsense. However... maybe here on ICW we can give some of these never-mentioned-in top-ten-list guitar players some recognition. I'll mention a few guys I believe deserve more/some recognition. 1) BUDDY GUY. If you haven't listened, go out of your way and do so. This guy will basically kick the heck out of 99.9% of all axeman as far as I am concerned. Plus, he'll basically plug his axe into an amp and light it up without all the gizmo's and gadgetry which , to me, is a sign of true guitar playing. Buddy Guy is truly a God when it comes to guitar playing. 2) I don't think MICK RONSON ever gets the credit he deserves. 3) FRANK ZAPPA. Have you ever seriously listened to waht came out of his guitar. SERIOUSLY LISTEN. This guy is a true genius in many stretches of the word. His sheer playing ability, his arrangements. The guy is a GENIUS and I think that's inarguable. (Strings... there's your opening.) 4) GEORGE HARRISON. Particularly his solo releases and specifically his slide guitar playing. If you listen, it's a truly melodic and beautiful style. STYLE being the key word. Any monkey can pick up an axe and become at least proficient on it over time. To have your own recognizable STYLE of playing that is at once immediately recognizable and beautiful and technical at the same time is another animal all together. His Beatle days also included some quite tasty riffs that I think we just all take for granted. Keep in mind, he was plating those little tasty's at a time where not many others were. 5) DAVEY JOHNSTONE. Your boy Elton John's guitar player. Once again, taken for granted. But a true rock guitar player as far as I'm concerned. Great versatility, geat techniquee, great sound and tone. Always the appropriate performance of the song. Lots of great riffs. That said... I realize there are guys who are much more "technically" astut guitar players than these guys. But to me... take for instance EDDIE VAN HALEN, who always gets the recognition.... to me, he ain't a "guitar player." He's a technician PERIOD. You caN'T DENY eDDIE'S VIRTUOSITY AND HIS INCREDIBLE ABILITIES AND STYLE. You can't. But, to me , Mr. Van Halen wrecked rock and roll guitar from here to eternity. Once he came out, every 5 year old guitar player from there forward became Eddie Van Halen and I don't believe that type of "technique" is what rock and roll is all about. I'd take a slacker like Curt Kobain over Eddie Van Halen any day just because of the guts. The soul. How can you put Cobain's playing and Van Halen's in the same sentence? Well, I just did. Eddie is a technician, not a guitar player. AND... i WORSHIP eDDIE vAN hALEN. i RECOGNIZE WHAT HE DOES, WHO HE IS, AN INNOVATOR AND ALL OF IT. i DO. i JUST DON'T LIKE THE EFFECT HIS AWESOME ABILITIES HAD ON THE WORLD OF ROCK AND ROLL GUITAR. I'm not taking one single thing away from him, he deserves all the credit he gets and more. But so do other guys who never get mentioned. I'm sure you know a few more, so do I.

[tonedef]

OK, I'll play, maybe I can think of some really obscure ones...

1)  John Cipollina  No one gets tone like John did.  Check out Happy Trails if you wanna hear some real guitar.
2)  Harvey Mandell  Man could this guy play, some of his work with Canned Heat was jaw dropping.
3)  Danny Kirwan  The other half of Fleetwood Mac (I'd have picked PA Green, but he usually makes the lists).  A lot of what you thought was Green playing is really Kirwan.  Great blues player.  
4)  Tommy Bolin  If this guy wouldn't have killed himself with dope,  no telling what he could have done.  Check his first solo album--it would still hold up if it were released tomorrow.
5)  Earl Hooker  Best blues guitarist no one ever heard of.

Tonedef

[paul_a]

Ollie Halsall

[ibanezfreak1960]

Bob I agree with a lot of your list. I am a huge Zappa fa.n and have been since I was 12 year old kid. I would like to also mention MICK TAYLOR. He is pretty good too. Harrison is one of my favorite slide players also. He really blossomed as a guitarist towards the end of the Beatles into his solo career.

[munch]

Hey Tonedef,

I was just listening to Rolling Stones Black and Blue last night. Harvey Mandell put in a great performance on Hand of Fate.  

A very undrated player who is inventive, melodic and @!## kicking all at the same time is Rick Brewster of Aussie band The Angels (AKA Angel City in the US). Do yourelf a favour and track down some of their stuff. I cannot understand why The Angels never broke big in the US.

Cheers,

Mark

[tubescorcher]

Awesome Slide Player there is no doubt if you can get to see him Sonny Landreth!!!
Earl Slick
Gary Moore
Alan Holdsworth
Larry Mitchell
Luke!
Steve Morse
Lindsey Buckingham
Andy Summers

[gemberbier]

Under-rated/ never mentioned?

Most of them are quite famous!

But who the h... is Luke???

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/fNg09WYT48I&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/fNg09WYT48I&rel=1</a> lated&search=

?


Ginger

[silverstrings]

Frank Marino - no one shreds the pentatonics quite like him.

[sixvsix]

Ginger

Luke - He's talking about my hero, Steve Lukather. Toto's guitar player and session muso to the rich and famous.

six

[bobzilla]

Gem... yes, alot of above mentioned guys are "known" but they never make the "lists"... that was my point. Keep in mind though... WE play guitar so we have better insight. The general public won't know more than 3 or 4 of the names above and that's because one was a Beatle and one was a Stone.

[jazzzbo]

ID like to mention Mick Taylor again, check him out with John Mayalls BLUESBREAKES, and THE ROLLING STONES AND NOW SOLO, also the late , great, HENRY VESTINE formerly with the original Canned Heat, before Harvey Mandel, ps, Harvey once used one of my amps, when i worked at TNT ELECTRONICS in califonia, fyoi   jazzzz,

[tristan]

Michel Cusson (Uzeb)

[harry]

The king of acoustic guitar: Tommy Emmanuel

[guitartim]

Most under-rated guitarist according to Jimi Hendrix...GUITAR SHORTY!!!!!!!

http://www.guitarshorty.org/

I met Shorty last year at the Hayward Blues Festival (Calif) and WOW can this old man play.  And he is quite a classy gentleman.  He plays a G&L Legacy Special and still can rip.  

As a younger guy he used to do back flips off of his amps.

[sixvsix]

Back flips! So that's where Nils Lofgren got that from and he's well underated too.

Would also like to mention:  

Carlos Rios
Mike Miller
Allen Hinds
Corrado Rustici
Neal Schon

While I think of them.

six