No mention of Jonny Greenwood? Man, you people are old.
Larry Carlton. He can’t write songs for squat but give him the changes and he works absolute miracles. No one can make a pentatonic not sound like a pentatonic like LC.
I’m really, really surprised that no one has written a long post about Dave Gilmour’s contributions. So I will…
Firstly, it’s real, real easy in a conversation like this to come across as being narrow minded - so I’m going to be super duper careful how I write this post.
I rather think that in the song “Comfortably Numb”, Dave Gilmour demonstrated he’s totally, totally right up there.
For mine, it all comes down to doing what’s appropriate for a song. To be a student guitarist and to learn about the history of recording, and all the great stars down through the years, it can be really, really daunting. Where does one start? So many styles… So many techniques.
So I personally give the greatest credit to those guitarists who were also involved in the songwriting aspects of their craft.
The musical landscape is full, chock a block full of great guitarists down through the years who are largely unknown. Personally, I put that down to having a lack of ‘vehicle’ for their craft to show through on.
The challenge for me is to find great songs which ALSO feature great guitar solos - and when you get that combination - that’s when you start talking about the classics.
It’s one of the reasons Jimmy Page gets mentioned so often. Everybody knows he was sloppy - and he was even more sloppy when he wasn’t practising regularly - and yet every student wants to know how to play “Kashmir” and “Ten Years Gone” - and why? Because they were well crafted songs played with great musicianship (Bonham and JPJ anyone?) and they also featured quirky interesting alternative tunings.
Same deal with Eric Clapton. I recently bought a genuine Cherry Red 1968 Gibson ES335 - same as Clapton used to use in Cream - only his was a '64. I couldn’t wait to play “White Room” for example. And remember Clapton’s lead break in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”? A truly classic song with a truly classic lead break. The combination has to co-exist for it to enter the great public consciousness I find.
And that’s why Dave Gilmour is up there too. Tracks like “Time”, “Shine on you Crazy Diamond”, “Money”, “Comfortably Numb” - epic awesome tracks which also featured totally wicked and memorable guitar pieces.
Sadly, and bear in mind this is just personal opinion, often I find that the music being offered by the other great “technical geniuses” is kinda esoterically impressive but I simply can’t listen to it for all that long - and why is this? When push comes to shove they just simply aren’t that good as songs go.
So, in closing, give me a beautiful melodic lead break set in the context of beautiful melodic song - every time over an ass shredder. Every time.
The following guitarists I don’t believe were mentioned yet:
Buckethead-Best guitarist to come out in the last 15 years.
Nils Lofgren-He is now in the E-Street Band (Tours with Bruce Springsteen), and my dad says he is his favorite guitarist ever from following him when he was still in a local D.C. band.
Dave Gilmour-People tend to give Roger Waters too much (waaaay too much) credit for Pink Floyd. Gilmour is an incredible guitarist, regardless of the fact that Waters wrote most of the songs (I loved Gilmour’s songs, and the post-Waters Floyd and solo albums were great)
I also have to pick Stanley Jordan. He is mind-bogglingly good. He is like a good drummer who can do multiple beats synchronically, but with a guitar and harder. Yea, he is real good. And he taps.
I forgot Trey Anastasio from Phish. What makes him great is he can be incredibly technical and guitaringly mindboggling in some songs (e.g. Stash), and then write a great light acoustic/bluegrass/country song (e.g. Farmhouse). He is very diverse, playing jazz songs, funk, bluegrass/country, blues, rock, really everything. And he’s played with many of the greats, including B.B. King, and the great Les Claypool.
sleestak, finally mentioned Eric Johnson…love Cliffs of Dover
What about Satriani and Yngwie Malsteem?
Frankly, I don’t have the time to wade through all the guitarists mentioned here. Has anyone mentioned David Bromberg? Norman Blake?
My Favorites:
Jimi
Jimmy
Alex Lifeson
Andy Summers
David Gilmour
Angus Young
Tony Iommi
Steve Tibbetts
Randy Rhodes
Neal Schon
Vinnie Moore (try telling me you can play his stuff)
Uli Jon Roth
Brad Gillis (Speak of the Devil)
Michael Hedges
Kirk Hammett (old M.)
Joe Stump
Jorge Strunz & Ardeshir Farah
Richie Blackmore
Shawn Lane
The Leaugue of Crafty Guitarists
Stanley Jordan (probably the “best”)