27 posts? :eek:
I’ll throw in a vote for Tom Petty, who in addition to being an awesome song writer, plays some sweet stuff to back Mike Campbell.
Yeah, I don’t get it either. 
Mark Robinson from Unrest is awesome
He has a style that I can’t remember hearing in anyone else, which, simply enough, consists of strumming chords really fast constantly. He does this in a lot of songs too. Also he uses equipment from Sears with no effects, or so I hear.
I came in to say John Lennon and Pete Townshend. I see they’ve been mentioned. 
Also I wanted to do a little shameless self promotion for my Feud over in the Gameroom, on [thread=539838]Rock and Roll Influences[/thread].
Okay - I am on a business trip and stuck in a hotel room late at night - in the past this has been a recipe for wacky expositions on guitar geekery.
Fortunately, I am exhausted tonight - a 7-hour meeting that ends at 1am my normal time will do that to you - so hopefully I will keep this short and to the point.
Okay: In art, drawing specifically, there is the legendary story of Giotto’s O:
In cooking, to keep with the Italian, you have something like Penne Arabbiata, which is basically fresh pasta, crushed tomatoes and some crushed red pepper. Prepared by a hack, it tastes like spicy Chef Boy-ar-dee; prepared by a truly great cook and it is edible poetry.
So - my point? Doing something really, really simple can be taken to a level of artistry if performed by a master.
In the case of rhythm guitar, playing learned-the-first-year open A’s, E’s, G’s and D’s is cowboy chord stuff - the basics. But Malcolm, as I touched on in this thread (where I go for the Penne Arabbiata analogy for the first time - sorry for leaning on it so hard), Malcolm anchors the groove of the song. I have spent quite literally hours sitting in front of a TV playing La Bamba-type D-G-A-G open chord rhythms, just letting the groove breath in and out. All I can tell you is that as you do that, especially when you translate that to playing with a great drummer, you accent different aspects of the exact same simple 3-chord progression - you hesitate for a millisecond before returning to the main chord, or adding a rhythmic “dry strum” between chords to provide a bit of percussion/syncopation. So when you do that - on one hand, you are doing something incredibly simple - three cowboy chords are like the easiest thing to play solos over - but at the same time you are giving it a pop and forward momentum - keeping it engaging and interesting. To me, that is what is meant by keeping things simple and open, but providing a propulsive foundation that inspires a lead player to say something compelling on top of it…
Does that help?
Wordman - that’s wonderful. You made my evening. Agree with everything you said and love the analogies. My partner doesn’t “get it” and is frequently bemused by the things I find breathtaking in music. I think you just gave me a way to make it a little less obscure for her. Thanks!
Hey - cool!
I understand this perfectly, mainly because it describes almost exactly my approach to guitar. While I’m really a bass guitarist, I learned guitar first and I’m pretty sure it was my “grooving” acoustic guitar style that led me to switch to bass. But when I sing solo in public, I’m usually accompanying myself on acoustic guitar, not bass, and despite the fact that I play absolutely nothing complex, challenging, or even especially interesting, I consistently get people approaching me after my performance to tell me what an amazing guitarist I am (I don’t think I am - I’m just strumming what you call “cowboy chords”). The only real explanation is that the audience is picking up on that groove I’m creating with my guitar. I think they pick up on it better because I am playing alone, so there isn’t a “lead” guitarist to distract from what I’m playing.
I’m pretty sure I learned that groove as a teenager, sitting alone in my room playing along with Beatles records. I developed a strumming style that allowed me to drive the songs along by playing the basic chords, while emphasizing the lower strings to suggest the bass line, and as you put it, “adding a rhythmic “dry strum” between chords to provide a bit of percussion/syncopation”, usually on 2 & 4 to suggest the drums.
Sterling Morrison from the Velvet Underground, hands down! Jangly Buddy Holly-type rhythms jacked up to a manic rock tempo… And with Mo’s super-minimalistic drumming, Sterling was the rhythmic driver of the band. Listen to (preferably live versions of) What Goes On, Foggy Notion, I Can’t Stand It for examples…
I think that’s the fundamental point when it comes to the type of simply rhythm guitar that someone like Young plays: you strip out the non-essential, focus on the groove and let the listener fill in all the blanks. It’s the difference between a cheesy, over-worked lyric vs. “She was just seventeen, you know what I mean” - we each fill in what we want that to mean - and the song is better for it. So your simple, but propulsive groove enables them to fill in their mental bits more effectively - so they compliment your playing. Very cool.
Oh, and we totally haven’t touched on funk - which is some rhythm playing at its finest. Kudos to Jimmy “Chank” Nolen of James Browns’ band. Talk about someone who could own the timing of a beat and make it their own…
In a similar vein, how about Niles Rodgers? I always loved his stuff with Bernard Edwards on those Chic and Sister Sledge records.
I can’t type long - but yeah, Nile is a smokin player - the Freak Out riff is amazing
Izzy Stradlin
Totally solid, and in a similar vein, so is Brad Whitford of Aerosmith.
One mention that is obvious, but hugely different from a lot of folk mentioned so far is The Edge. In this old thread…
[hmm, weird - my hotel connection is not letting me set up an embedded link. Whatever. Here is the thread: How does The Edge play his guitar? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board ]
…a few of us discuss what he does to get his signature sound, but the bottom line is that he is the rhythm for U2 - Adam and Larry supply bass and drum parts to fill out the song, but are not playing much of a role (I suppose that’s IMHO, but not really…;)) in establishing the rhythm and groove of the song - it’s 100% Edge. That’s partly because his use of delays locks in the beat and can’t handle any variation of it, and it’s partly - well, how U2 evolved from high schoolers - Edge established himself as the “musical director” for the band and the other guys follow him…
Keith, Gilby Clarke, Rich Robinson
Les Paul, while pretty much a one-man show, played an excellent rhythm guitar.
Richie Havens.
Watch how his head hangs down over the guitar right in the best spot for listening. He’s completely in the moment - completely immersed in the sound.
A friend once compared me to Richie Havens and at first I thought he was nuts but I can sort of see it. Not because I’m as good as he is (I’m not) and not because I play a similar style (I don’t) but maybe I aspire to something like what I think he aspires to. Just because he hits it and I don’t doesn’t mean we’re not both trying.
That’s why I totally get playing open D-G-A-G-D for an hour while slipping inside the sound, listening to every overtone, hearing what I’m playing and playing what I’m hearing. Loving each strum individually and feeling each strum’s love for me.