John Frusciante is my personal favorite. He breaks a lot of boundaries and likes to put distortion into his music. He doesn't beleive in perfection but rather emotion and rawness. He really has had a crazy life, he was in rough shape in the 90's. Here he is during his dark heroin years.
Not sure if any others read the interview that Macleans magazine did on Don Felder of the Eagles.
I found it interesting that when Felder was asked who he thought the best guitarist is, he answered....... Jeff Beck. He did mention Greg Allman as being very talented as well but said that Beck could and still can play anything.
consider, too, john mayer, who very much has begun carrying the torch from clapton. easy to forget him with his first two "acousto-pop" albums, but the continuum soul/blues is a chance for him to open up as a soloist, and wow. saw him in the 4th row, as well, and his guitar playing and soloing was right up there with others i saw like clapton and santana...
Well, as for current living guitarists I would have to say that it's a toss up between Jack White and John Frusciante. But here is a list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time as picked by Rolling Stone magazine...
That list is a joke!!!! Kurt Cobain was a great lyricist but was a mediocre guitar player at best! Kirk Hammet ahead of his teacher Joe Satriani??? Yeah ok....
Rolling Stone has always been the biggest joke in music publication history!
That list is a joke!!!! Kurt Cobain was a great lyricist but was a mediocre guitar player at best! Kirk Hammet ahead of his teacher Joe Satriani??? Yeah ok.... Rolling Stone has always been the biggest joke in music publication history!
Yep. I made the same comment in the thread about Aretha Franklin being the greatest Rock vocalist of all time.
All their lists are complete BS. Way too politicized and controversial for the sake of controversy.
It is really about as music worthy as the Fox News is newsworthy.
That list is a joke!!!! Kurt Cobain was a great lyricist but was a mediocre guitar player at best! Kirk Hammet ahead of his teacher Joe Satriani??? Yeah ok....
Rolling Stone has always been the biggest joke in music publication history!
agreed. Kirk Hammett can't even match the guy he replaced in the band (Mustaine) let alone a master like Satriani.
Also one of my favourites. Listen to Live in Gdansk if you haven't already, amazing performance.
I don't think there can be one "greatest guitarist ever" because there's been so many influential ones....some that aren't even as well known as monsters like Hendrix.
Obviously there's Clapton, Gilmour, Hendrix, Eric Johnson, John Petrucci, Page, etc.
There's also less known guys like Chet Atkins who most don't know, but he's influenced so many with his virtuoso picking style. And what about classical guitarists? They get no respect as best guitarist, but they paved the way for the instrument, and some of them were just amazing.
Here's some Chet Atkins clips if you haven't heard him before. Notice how clean his sound is, you don't hear any scraping of the strings or anything.
Mr Sandman
Just saw Buddy Guy on Thursday night and he should be on the list - just ask Clapton... Richard Thompson was mentioned earlier - he is playing Knox United Church on Dec. 7 which by the way is one of the best sounding venues in the city.
Bruce Cockburn. I'm pretty sure his right thumb was somehow surgically detached from the rest of his hand. Even a seemingly simple song like "Wondering where the lions are" is kind of a chore to play. Oh, and BTW Jack White is not a good guitarist. I just heard another one of his abominations tonight at the new Bond film. That guy really needs to go away.
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