It's interesting: Rock'n' Roll was the result of the combining of disparate elements: mostly Jump Blues (a form of Black dance music popular in the late 40's and early 50's, played in Juke Joints in the South. That's the Black music Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, etc. were going to the Jukes to hear. The lead instrument was usually tenor sax, not guitar), Hillbilly (all the Rockabilly guitarists had the same main influence: Merle Travis. On the Moontan album I recorded with Evan Johns---a maniac of a Telecaster player---we did an instrumental song Evan wrote, entitled "Shoot The Merle". Get it? ;-), Pop, and a little Gospel.
Yet the majority of the guitarists mentioned in this thread are primarily Blues-style players. The Yardbirds and Stones, then Cream, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and all the other UK bands (the U.S. musicians following their lead) made non-Blues-based music passe'. Yes, Hendrix (@730waters: show some respect, and spell Jimi's last name correctly ;-) was American, but he came out of England. Jimi's influence amongst other players is unquestionably the greatest of any guitarist to have ever been recorded.
When Dylan went electric, he chose Mike Bloomfield---a very influential American guitarist largely forgotten---as his guitarist. Mike came out of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who did purely Chicago-style Blues. But after his Blonde On Blonde album, Dylan's taste went hard Country. He had already been recording in Nashville, but his John Wesley Harding album went very much against the current in Rock music in 1968: completely devoid of any Blues elements, pure acoustic Hillbilly.
In the wake of the JWH album, and then Music From Big Pink, the Hillbilly strain in Rock 'n' Roll found a new awakening in a growing underground movement in both the U.S. and UK. The music of that movement has endured, and currently resides in the Americana scene. Unlike Blues players, Hillbilly/Country players approach the playing of music in a song-first manner. It was that approach (heard by him in Music From Big Pink) that caused Eric Clapton to completely abandon his Cream-style playing, and move toward the Southern-style playing he heard in that of J.J. Cale. Mark Knopfler obviously likes J.J. a lot, his playing very similar to Cale's.
Jeff Beck is a very interesting player. He has a huge love of Rockabilly, and unlike most of his generation UK players is not really a Blues-based player. Too subtle for most, perhaps, is Ry Cooder. You younger fellas think of Duane Allman when the subject turns to slide guitar playing, but Ry is the true master. He and Jerry Douglas, master of the dobro. |
I am once again reminded of how few people have heard Danny Gatton. He is one of the "Pro's Pro" guitarists, one who was nicknamed The Humbler by a "pretty good" guitarist himself, Vince Gill. Dave Edmunds is a big fan of Albert Lee, and he's not alone. I saw Albert in the late-90's at a little club on the coast between L.A. and Santa Barbara, and the place was packed with guitarists watching his hands. |
Guitar is obviously the most important instrument in Blues and Rock music. But prior to the mid-60’s, it’s primary function, it’s role in the making of Rock ’n’ Roll (as opposed to Rock), was NOT the playing of a solo. First Clapton and then Beck in The Yardbirds, then Hendrix, Clapton and Peter Green in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and Page (along with many other guitarists) changed that. Their Blues-based playing (George Harrison was a Chet Atkins/Carl Perkins/Scotty Moore/James Burton influenced player, Keith Richards almost purely Chuck Berry) brought the guitar solo front-and-center, and a guitarist’s talent became at that time assessed first-and-foremost in terms of his abilities at playing a Blues-scale solo. In 1971 I had had it with jamming, and made a considered, deliberate decision to involve myself exclusively with songwriters, singers, and musicians who were focused on the playing of superior songs. I was not alone in that; Nick Lowe was following that path in The Brinsley Schwartz Band, Richard Thompson the same in Fairport Convention (though he could and did play great solos. Not Blues-scale ones, however.), as did the guys in Fleetwood Mac after Peter Green left, Moby Grape, Spirit, Little Feat, NRBQ, and many others. In my opinion, many of them made that decision after hearing Music From Big Pink, but that’s another story ;-) . But the influence of The Yardbirds, Cream, Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin remained overwhelming. The style of guitar playing found in the music of those artists (and those they influenced) was the new norm. I sadly watched as the departure of pianist Matthew Fisher from the great Procol Harum resulted in the guitar playing of Robin Trower shift from contributing excellent song parts to, yes, primarily playing Blues-scale solos. Procol Harum, a group whose music with Matthew Fisher had been song-focused, and those songs Classically-informed. Trower’s subsequent guitar playing turned Procol Hrum into just another white Blues-based band. What a shame. In 1974, I was talked into jamming by a guitarist I had met. He had a nice Gibson L-5 (the guitar Jerry Miller played in Moby Grape, a fantastic instrument), so I figured how bad could he be? He was terrible. He brought along another guitarist who, while better, was just another average Blues player. I cut the jam short, and mentioned The Band, to give them an idea of the kind of work I was looking for. The second guitarist said something to the effect that he didn’t think much of Band guitarist Robbie Robertson’s playing. I started pointing out examples of what I considered great guitar playing on the Band’s albums, and all I got out of the guy was a blank stare. I then realized, the guy related only---solely---to guitar playing in terms of Blues-scale solos. All Robbie’s beautiful, musical, song-enhancing guitar parts were wasted on him. Pearls before swine. |
Ha, cool Fargo reference there @tostadosunidos ;-) . @dentdog may have been thinking was that Les Paul invented the electric guitar, but even that assertion would be incorrect. What Les DID invent was the multi-track tape recorder. |
Chuck Berry underappreciated?! I believe everyone acknowledges Chuck as THE model for Rock & Roll guitar playing. Keith Richards certainly does, as well as the guy whom I feel optimized Chuck's style, Dave Edmunds. |
I haven't read through all the answers, so forgive me if I'm duplicating others. For lyricism and funkiness it's hard to top Ry Cooder. His solo on John Hiatt's "Lipstick Sunset" is the most poetic I've ever heard. For Chuck Berry style Rock 'n Roll it would be Dave Edmunds (he plays like Keith Richards wishes he could, and in fact was one candidate for Brian Jones' replacement in The Stones). For virtuosity, there is a relatively obscure guitarist from the Washington D.C./Virginia area named Danny Gatton, a guitarists guitarist if there ever was one. Vince Gill (a fine guitarist himself) nick-named him "The Humbler"! Then there is a guy I'm sure others have already named, Jeff Beck. |
I neglected to mention that Danny Gatton committed suicide years ago. But there are a number of his CD's available, the first one to get probably being the double-CD collection on WB, I believe it is. His sometimes-partner Evan Johns (also a maniac on guitar) told me Danny just wanted to stay home and work on his hot rods (something he had in common with Jeff Beck), playing around locally in bars, but that his nagging wife would not stop pushing him. Evan said Danny shot himself to get away from her! |
I hadn't heard that one, Marty. I met Evan in the late 90's, and learned that he and Danny had played together in the 70's. Evan was the songwriter, singer, and second guitarist (everyone is second guitarist in Danny's presence!) in a group they had together in DC. Evan said Danny was the best musician he ever played with.
I did an album with Evan in the late 90's, getting to spend some time with him. He made a bunch of albums, three on Rykodisc, but I don't know how many are still in print. He's a true madman on guitar---he recorded with his Telecaster plugged straight into a blackface Super Reverb on 10. His first choice is a blackface Deluxe, but the studio didn't have one. The Super was in an isolation closet, and the engineer opened the door briefly with Evan playing---it sounded like a jet taking off. The loudest thing I've ever heard, and I saw Hendrix and The Who with Keith Moon! Actually, the loudest band I ever heard were The Kinks---Ray Davies' Telecaster plugged into a Hi-Watt stack was intensely painful.
Evan ate only once the entire week in Atlanta, the rest of the time sustaining himself by chain-drinking room temperature Bud in cans. He got to Atlanta a day before the rest of us, and when we passed the door of his room leaving the hotel our first morning, there were two 18-packs of empty Bud cans laying on the floor. We were supposed to go on the road to support the album, but upon getting back home to Vancouver B.C. (where he lived at the time), Evan didn't feel well and checked himself into the hospital, where he fell into a coma. The doctor told his woman to make funeral arrangements, Evan was in the final stage of liver failure. Three weeks later he woke up and walked out of the hospital. Turns out this had happened a couple of times before. Whatta nut! He lives in Austin Texas now, in what shape I don't know. If you ever get a chance to see him play, don't pass it up---who knows how much longer he'll be around! |
Rarely mentioned, or even thought of (because of our focus on technique rather than musicality?), is George Harrison. His song parts are exquisite, as are some of his solos. A particular favorite of mine is that in "Nowhere Man"---very simple, pretty much just the melody, but magnificent. Cool little harmonic played right at the end---so cool! And his tone---fantastic! |
You're spot on Marty. There's the story about Sinatra introducing a song during a live show, calling it one of the greatest love songs ever written, attributing "Something" to L & M. Because it's a Beatles song he naturally assumed they wrote it. George is like Rodney Dangerfield.
I also love George's humility; when he would meet starstruck musicians he would say to them "Hey, I'm just like you. I just got lucky." Contrast that with Lennon's pronouncements that he was an "Artist". You're supposed to leave that to other people to say, John. Geez, have a little class, will ya?
There's another little guitar break (as opposed to a "solo") I have always loved, and which I would not be surprised to learn was George's model for his in "Nowhere Man". It's James Burton's in Ricky Nelson's "Young World". Same deal, just playing the melody, but it sounds SO great. And with tone to die for---the best I've ever heard! |
Just yesterday I learned that Bill Pitcock IV died of Cancer back in 2011 at age 58. He was the guitarist in The Dwight Twilley Band, and played the great flurry-of-notes break in the middle of "I'm on Fire". Give it a listen---I'll guarantee you've never heard anything like it! His set-up was a Gibson ES335 directly into (no pedals) a stacked pair of Fender Deluxe Reverb amps with a digital delay between them. His tone was superb! |
Loomis, I had forgotten about "Sincerely". Double (at least!) tracked guitar, backwards tape, very creative. Marty, Louis Jordan is a lot of fun, used to play "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" in a band in the 70's. I just boxed up the CD's of his I have (preparing for a move) or I'd listen to "Woman" right now! |
Marty---Ha! So Chuck "borrowed" that guitar song intro part from Carl, not just songs from Johnnie Johnson, ay?! |
Absolutely Marty! I can't believe I had never heard of it until you just educated me. |
Chuck's style is SO iconic---it IS Rock 'n' Roll guitar! And though his playing is pretty basic, not requiring a lot of chops, remember the scene in "Hail Hail Rock & Roll" where Keith is playing the guitar part in "Oh Carol" (I think it was), which starts with the strings "bent" up for the first note? Keith mistakenly plays the strings unbent, then bends them up to the note. Chuck repeatedly shows Keith how to play the part correctly, and Keith just can't do it! Rock 'n' Roll may not be "hard" to play, but it's hard to play "right"! Dave Edmunds has mastered Chuck's style, and there are many others who obviously use it as the base for their style, Keith being number one. |
Isochronism---Regarding tone, small amps cranked up is the key. In '69 I was a teenager in a band with a guitarist who, like many teenage guitarists at the time, had Eric Clapton as his role model. He therefore had a burgundy Gibson SG, plugged into a Fender black face Dual Showman (nobody in San Jose had a Marshall yet). When the rest of us complained about his excessive volume, he explained that to get good tone, he had to crank up the volume knob on his Showman. Kids didn't yet know that it was over-driven tubes that made good tone, and that if you used a lower-powered amp you could get it at a lower volume. It took seeing the pics on the inside gatefold of the 2nd Band album to realize a Fender combo amp was the way to go. He soon had a black face Deluxe Reverb, which is a favorite amp of a lot of good guitarists, Evan Johns and Bill Pitcock IV being just a couple.
It was when I started hearing the original Blues and Rockabilly guitarists from the 50's that I really saw where the early R & R guitar sound came from. Paul Burlinson of The Rock 'n' Roll Trio (Johnny Burnette) is a particular favorite of mine, though it's not he on their version of "The Train Kept a Rollin". Now THAT'S great tone! |
There is one Fender combo amp I hope I never have to play with again---an early silver-face Twin Reverb. OMG what an obnoxious amp! I auditioned with a band in '71, the guitarist of which had that amp facing me with a Guild Starfire plugged into it. The audition included some pretty long jams (in the literal sense, not like kids use the term now), the last one maybe an hour long, ending just as the sun came up. I was shocked and then terrified when the guys started talking, and I couldn't hear a word they were saying. My ears had closed down to protect themselves from the piercing brightness of that guitar/amp combination. I have moderate tinnitus from a lifetime of nights like that (I started wearing protection---custom molded plugs with attenuators---in my early 30's, but by then a fair amount of damage had already been done).
Luckily, I was soon playing with guys who had Telecasters and Deluxes (though an even smaller amp, like the Vox AC15, would have been even better), and now play Martin acoustics (even a bass!). The guitar I want now is a Gibson J-200, a great acoustic for chords/rhythm. |
I'll look into those Marty. I have been meaning to go play the Epiphone version of the J-200, which is pretty cheap, though how it sounds I don't know.
Tostado, I've never heard an AC-15 by itself, only as a group of amps. Speaking of which, have you ever seen Ry Cooder live? He has a whole pile of little combo amps, switching between them for different songs. I saw/heard him with Little Village, and his playing was just fantastic. Ry is probably my all-around favorite guitarist, now that I think of it. |
I did a three night gig a couple of years back with Jonny Kaplan, and he was getting great tone out of his simple set-up: A Les Paul Jr. (with two P-90 pickups) into a current Deluxe Reverb cranked just enough to put a little bite into the sound. Just enough sustain, too. He's the rhythm guitarist in his band, and that set-up worked really well for his brand of country-rock/Stones style music. |
