Saturday, February 25, 2012

Great guitarists

Over dinner at the monthly Woodies meet-up last night the conversation turned to guitarists. Just who were the greatest guitarists of the rock and roll era? Opinions will vary, but I've come up with a list of the 50 guitarists who had the most influence during the period up to around 1970. This conveniently allows me to omit most, but not all, of the axemen who dominated in the era of prog rock and heavy metal. Additions and arguments for and against those on the list are very welcome. First, my top ten, then the others in no particular order.
1. Robert Johnson; 2. Chuck Berry; 3. Bo Diddley; 4. T Bone Walker; 5. Albert King; 6. Steve Cropper; 7. Scotty Moore; 8. James Burton; 9. Link Wray; 10. Ike Turner; 11. Sister Rosetta Tharpe; 12. Eddie Cochran; 13. Robbie Robertson; 14. Lightnin' Hopkins; 15. Mickey Baker; 16. Les Paul; 17. Buddy Guy; 18. Duane Eddy; 19. B B King; 20. Chet Atkins; 21. Elmore James; 22. Ernest Ranglin; 23. Albert Lee; 24. Lonnie Johnson; 25. Lonnie Mack; 26. Jimi Hendrix; 27. Hank Marvin; 28. Joe Moretti; 29. Duane Allman; 30. Eric Clapton; 31. Ry Cooder; 32. Jimmy Page; 33. Keith Richards; 34. Jerry Garcia; 35. Jeff Beck; 36. Carlos Santana; 37. Richard Thompson; 38. George Harrison; 39. Mike Bloomfield; 40. Freddy King; 41. Dick Dale; 42. Peter Green; 43. John Fogerty; 44. John McLaughlin; 45. Pete Townsend; 46. Hubert Sumlin; 47. Johnny Winter; 48. Cliff Gallup; 49. Neil Young; 50. Bert Jansch (or Weedon, according to taste).

2 Comments:

At 9:47 pm , Blogger Nick said...

John Spencely said: Top 50 and no Hank Garland, Grady Martin, George Barnes, Tommy Allsup, Sonny Curtis, Buddy Holly, Frannie Beecher and Bucky Pizzarelli?

 
At 10:58 am , Blogger Nick said...

John also said: Also no sign of Joe Maphis, Merle Travis, Larry Collins, Billy Byrd and Jimmy Bryant.... Think we need to extend this list to 100+ else we're going to miss someone.

 

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