Posted on 05/28/2008 5:10:29 PM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD
Per popular demand, after the very successful "Who Is Your Favorite Drummer?" thread, here we have a new posting to determine who is your favorite guitarist of all time.
Randy Rhoades (Ozzy’s guitarist before he died)
Gary Moore (Still Got the Blues for You)- Great guitar and voice!
Jimmy Page- ‘nuf said
Neal Schon- learned from one of the best: Carlos Santana!
Matthias Jabs & Rudolf Schenker- they could trade rhythm and lead parts and no one could tell the difference!
Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart- the acoustic duet on “Crazy on You” is priceless.
Tom Sholz of Boston
Clapton!
Want to be surprised? Charo (Coochie! Coochie!) plays a mean flamenco guitar!
Mark Knopfler
Eddie Van Halen- I saved the best for last!
Clapton
Buddy Guy
Scott Holt
WHAT’S happening to Free Republic? Religious wars threads, Pray-A-Thons for sick Communists, and now a Look_How_Hip_Eye_Yam thread!
My other favourites are Nina Gerber, Brian Setzer, Junior Brown, Tommy Immanuel, and Steve King(champion picker). I sat next to Tommy and Chet Atkins practicing for a gig at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society the summer of 1998. There were only about seven of us in the room and it had to be one of the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had. God Bless Chet...it was his last performance for the CAAS...
Favorite guitarist? Can't name just one.. Mark Knopfler, Tommy Emmanuel, Django Reinhardt, Roy Buchanan....
I don't know!
But Steve Vai gets my vote for shortest shorts ever!!
Hey, is it Friday night already? ;)
I forgot Kitaro.
“but you sir have nailed it (IMO) Rick is the Man!”
Ma’am to you! ;-)
Clarence White.
Those who know _who_ he was, know why.
Clarence was killed in 1973 at age 29 by a drunk driver, but his influence lives on today - perhaps the most influential acoustic guitarist of his time.
Also, Ry Cooder. There’s no one else like him.
Also, David Bromberg. I remember going to many, many of his shows around the New York area. Perhaps the first “folk orchestra”!
- John
I prefer these pop culture threads sometimes to the others, who are hard to chew. I guess that I'm also trying to hold on to whatever I have left of my youth! Living vicariously in the past....
We ran excerpts from the following quotes in our April 2008 cover story on Allan Holdsworth. Here, they are presented in full.I put Holdsworth up there with Paganini and Liszt. Terrifying. David Lindley
Allan has the touch. Maybe its those extra- long fingers of his. No one can listen to him without being affected by his tone and fluidity. A superb player who is a joy to hear. Adrian Belew
Holdsworth is so damned good that I cant cop anything. I cant understand what hes doing. Ive got to do this [does two-hand tapping], whereas hell do it with one hand. Eddie Van Halen
Allan really changed guitar playing. The legato techniques and sheets-of-sound approach influenced not only jazz guitarists, but also a whole generation of metal players. And aside from all the technical stuff, hes a master jazz guitarist. Check out his version of How Deep Is the Ocean. John Scofield
Allans beautiful and unique chord voicings have always had an impact on me. His approach to guitar is one of a kind. He pushes the limits of the boundaries of electric guitar, and his lead phrasing would make Charlie Parker smile. His playing is essential listening for any guitarist, of any style, so they can see that the only limits we have are the ones we put on ourselves. Eric Johnson
Allan wanted to sound like John Coltrane. Problem was hes playing guitar, not saxophone, so he had to figure out a way to get a similar sheets of sound equivalent on guitar. The scales and intervals he chose were also all unusual, and he didnt become just one of the great scalar improvisers overnight. He worked like a dog on Nicolas Slonimskys Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. Then, when hed run out of notes hed reach for the whammy bar and send shivers down your spine. Bill Bruford
Allan plays legato parts like a violinist. His right hand might as well be a bow, because his left hand is like Paganinis. You can call his playing whatever you want to, but it will still fry your brain if you try to figure it out. John McLaughlin, Michael Stern, John Scofieldall of us just scratch our heads and go, Damn! Carlos Santana
I have always considered Allan Holdsworth in a league of his own. In my obnoxious must-analyze-everything teenage years I remember walking out from a concert with the man, very frustrated. I simply didnt get how he was able to pull it off in such a smooth, delicate way. The stuff his fingers were doing didnt have anything to do with what was coming out of the speakers (at least not to my tiny intellect). Nowadays, I simply let the playing happily floor me. I believe he is from another planet. Mattias IA Eklundh
As Frank Zappa said, Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, so just listen to Allan Holdsworth and experience the pure beauty of his unique musical language, which goes beyond all clichés. He is a true master, and remains unsurpassed. Alex Machacek
"Ive known Allan and his music for 30 years now, and after all this time he still amazes me. His concept is still advancing with his playing, and his technical prowess, which is phenomenal, is in complete harmony with his musical directionand this is a very advanced direction. I recall a show I saw him at in London about 14 years ago. After the concert I said to him, If I knew what you were doing, Id steal everything, but I dont know what you are doing! Allan laughed." John McLaughlin
"When I listen to a guitar player I listen for different things. The first is just the level of stimulation I get as a lover of the instrument and the way it sounds to my ears and soul. I first take it in emotionally. The intention of the player, their dynamics and articulation etc, are usually the things that make up the pieces emotional impact. But there is a side of me that enjoys analyzing the performance on different levels too. My ears can identify tone colors, shapes, chord structures, fingerings etc. I can immediately see in my minds eye what virtually every guitarist I have ever heard is doing and how they are doing it on the instrument, even though much of the time it falls outside of my own ability to stylize. Besides being emotionally swept away by Allans use of melodic color, most of the time I am utterly stunned and confused as to how he is playing what I am hearing. His chops and inner ear completely defy my own inner musical eye and reasoning and Im left in a blissful state of humility and surrender. Steve Vai
I owe quite a lot to Allan as he recommended me for the guitar post in Soft Machine in 1975, when he left to join Tony Williams. They didnt know me but he left them my number and I got the gigthe first big one of my career, which led directly on to others (e.g., Stephane Grappelli). So things really got going for me because of that. Following Allan was one of the toughest things I ever had to do, as any guitar player can imagine. The set was based around the monumental solos that he had been doing, so I had to try to fill those shoes! He has been ahead of the game for over 30 years and is the preeminent guitar soloist of our generation (if not any). When I first heard him in about 1973, I was amazed by the ambition and direction of his playing. I was edging along a similar path myself but he was far ahead, and so was a source of inspiration and aspiration. Since then he has developed and refined the ingredients that were already there with outstanding single-mindedness, dedication and concentration. His playing now is completely controlled and mature and his mastery of the elements that he is interested inharmony, line and toneis unique and puts him in the very top league of the greatest soloists in guitar history. Thats why guitarists should care!!! John Etheridge
I discovered Allan "by accident" when I was 12. A friend of mine asked me to swap my Slade Alive album for his Tempest record, which was Allans first recording on a big label with a rock band. I fell in love immediately with his unique phrasing, tone, vibrato, etc. After that I became an avid fan and many years later when I finally met him and he accepted to play on my solo album, I felt exactly the same chill going down my spine that I had felt many moons before when I first got my hands on that Tempest record. If youre any type of musician you have a duty to listen, understand and let your mind be blown away by Allan Holdsworths work because his music isnt just about guitar playing, its so much more. It would be like saying that Coltranes music is about sax playing or that Monk was just about the piano. Listening to Allan will inevitably help develop anyones musicianship. Alex Masi
Only the elite musician wishes not to imitate. Originality and finding your own voice are the only beacons that the elite musician follows. Allan is one of these musicians. Jeff Berlin
His guitar playing is totally original and that in itself is rare. But even more rare is that his playing also seems to be impossible to emulate. When I was a teenager I used to learn the beginnings of many of his solos but they would usually venture into what was for me impenetrable territory, often just a quarter of the way in. One can imitate his pull-off, bar, and vibrato technique, as sometimes players do, but the s*** where it sounds like hes blowing air into his guitar and playing super fast in the way that a great saxophonist would, I havent heard any other guitarists be able to imitate. You can hear his influence on EVH, but Eddie doesnt go into that dissonant territory and the blowing air effect is not there when hes playing fast. As a kid I was amazed that Holdsworth wasnt using his right index finger on the neck, but now I realize the angle and the muscles in action for right hand tapping would never create that sound as for whatever biological/scientific reason there is a certain lack of true force in right-hand tapping. At its best, two-hand tapping has a beautiful fluidity but it doesnt have a quality of sound youd call strength, while his fast playing certainly does. I believe it is only with his very unusual muscle and nerve setup in his left hand and arm that such a sound is possible on the instrument. He sounds like hes blowing into it hard when hes playing super fast. To my taste, guitar doesnt lend itself to playing fast as well as other instruments. I think the possibilities of approaches to doing it are limited in comparison to instruments like the piano, the saxophone, or the drum machine. Something about the guitars physicality in correspondence to our muscles and hand angles just doesnt seem to offer the potential for expression at lightning speeds that those other instruments do. To me, he is one of the few people who totally overcomes those limitations and is totally expressive whilst playing fast and makes it sound natural, relaxed, and effortlessand, at the same time, exciting and intense. It always sounds like theres a musical/emotional idea there and it never sounds like hes playing scales or exercises, which almost all flashy guys of the last 25 years generally seem to be doing a big percentage of the time, though Im no expert. My favorite stuff of him is that first I.O.U. album and Road Games. Those are just beautiful records and he seems to be hitting a peak around that timeso inventive and unprecedented. Ive heard that his stuff in Tempest is interesting in that his tone sounds like Clapton. I want to hear that. The UK record is awesome as is the stuff with The New Tony Williams Lifetime. Those were staples for listening to and playing along with when I was 15 and 16. And they always sound great when Im in one of those phases and come back to them. Oh, and the two Bruford albums are extraordinary. I used to love learning from that stuff. Fun to try things that are impossible! John Frusciante
"Hearing Allans guitar playing for the first time was a cathartic experience for me. His guitar sang, it pushed musical boundaries, and it rocked. His brilliant approach to harmony is completely original, beautiful and spellbinding. His technique and improvisational skills make him a true guitar god, the jaw dropping kind, and the kind that influences many a player in all styles of music. On the issue of legato playing, he is the king, and anyone interested in going down that path has to hear what Allan has accomplished. To witness him playing with Tony Williams band, a Gibson SG around his neck, Small Stone Phaser and Marshall stack in tow, at the intimate club My Fathers Place in Roslyn, NY, was something Ill never forget. He ripped a hole in the guitarists-space-time-continuum that night! And weve never been the same." Joe Satriani
I remember hearing Allan Holdsworth in the 1970s on a Tempest record. He was playing alongside another amazing (and long since deceased) pull-off king named Ollie Halsall. What an embarrassment of riches! Then I heard him on some of Bill Brufords stuff. At that time Allan was just playing an SG into a Marshall. Later, he mined that sound to perfection with Tony Williams New Lifetime on the Believe It album and others. While I am perhaps not directly influenced by the man myself, his prodigious technique and soaring, melodic fluidity were inspiring and daunting, to say the least. That tone! The amazing accuracy of his pull-offs! That limpid wang bar! In a way he, like other giants such as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, or [fill in name here] spawned generations of imitators who, threaten to make one forget how great the original Master is. Dont succumb to this! Allan Holdsworths playing can be heard in everyone from the loudest Metal exponents to the most intricate fusioneers, but none of them can touch the man himself. Nels Cline
I played a lot with Allan not only when he was in Soft Machine, but also in various jazz contexts with his own groups and those of pianists Pat Smythe and Gordon Beck, and more recently with Softworks. To say that he is an original one-off is, of course, stating the obviousbut his approach is so individual that it demands an equally special type of playing with him. His lines arch seamlessly over everything and dont obviously invite you in, and it can seem that the rhythmic dovetailing and interaction that you get with some other musicians isnt on the cards. (I read an interview with Tony Williams later where he said that whatever he played, it didnt make a dent in Allans playing). He is, however, of course listening and very aware of you, but its expressed in his own way. My reaction is to adopt a parallel but related way of playing, and Ive always found it an absolute joy. I know he often seems to feel uncomfortable in other peoples groups and would like to be judged on his playing in his own bands but in the case of the recordings with Soft Machine (in particular Bundles and Hazard Profile on the Bundles album and Madame Vintage on the SoftWorks album) his playing is astounding. The only problem with Allan is that he can be so self-critical that it becomes destructive. His perfectionism has him reject quite wonderful takesespecially live onesout of hand. Theres a lot of great music on the cutting floor; but thats Allan. John Marshall
Michael Schenker
Bill Clinton’ jammin with Cheap Trick in 2006 —
Starts at 5:27....
Check out Bubba’s solo at minute 7:55!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvO3OGPygHE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkqYQNvNbQ4&feature=related
Frank Zappa
“Watermelon in Easter Hay” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBQPkLuwy80
John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Frank together. I had to put this one in because Frank is the sane one in this group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYyqc0nnH0g
Brian Setzer
Rockabilly Brian, but he can play anything he wants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6JxW5S27G0
I'll never know how George sounded new on almost every song, every albumn. The guy played precisely what was called for in every song- didn't over-embellish and couldn't be stuffed in any catagory. Perhaps the freest spirit to play guitar we'll see in a long time.
I am glad to see Phil Keaggy get so much mention. Phil has been one of my favorite Catholic recording artists for years. If you ever get a chance, check out his recording of “Motor of Love”, a song written and originally performed by Paul McCartney.
But he isn’t as pretty.
Maybe the best ever.
MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD
He was first cousins with one of my best friends in highschool,grew up a few miles away in Glencoe,—we were in Highland Park-— and at the age of 18 or 19,(we were 15 or 16) would show up at our school dances every so often, and jump up onstage, completely taking over EVERYTHING with his guitar. All we could do was stand there, with our mouths open at the foot of the stage , and take it all in.
He would revel in doing things like wearing jeans with a rip from the crotch down past the knee, and making a point as he played of putting that leg forward, so everyone could see. He had one of the most intense presences I’ve ever seen, and as a teenager was already making the rounds of S Side blues clubs, and booking the Fickle Pickle on the North Side of Chicago.
Always liked blues or jazz guitar far better than rock guitar.
.
The East-West album he did with the Butterfield Blues Band in about 66 was a seminal record of that time.
Last time I saw him was in San Francisco in the summer of ‘69-—he just kind of materialized, smiling from the back of the stage, and “sat in” unobtrusively with whoever it was that was playing at a free outdoor concert in one of the parks.
Robert Cray is another on I really like, and he can SING.
Unfortunately, to make it as a blues performer, you have to gain a reputation like B.B.King’s and it’s extremely difficult for the big money world of commercial music to find any place for real Blues. For some reason, I never cared for the Rolling Stones (maybe Mick Jagger?) but I think their bluesy sound is as popular in a “one-time-only” kind of way, as Blues, or Blues-rock, will EVER get.
You know, the best git players are really those behind the scenes, the studio hacks that no one ever sees, whose fans are listeners to records not attendees of stage shows. One of my favorites has been Brett Mason (but there are and have been many others), whose story was recounted on these pages some years ago by another FReeper who had known the man.
But you’re absolutely right, this is so much better than the other kinds of threads I mentioned.
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