The Most Important Guitarists Ever, and Why

As a guitar player and a fan of guitar music, I've seen hundreds of "best" lists over the years, rating guitarists on everything from chops to coolness. A list of the "best" of anything inevitably creates controversy, and the ones I've seen that rate guitar players are pretty flawed. Usually it boils down to a speed contest, certainly a silly way to measure musicality. Ranking musicians based on technique, physical ability, or some vague notion of "greatness", seems so subjective. How can you compare great players from different genres who do entirely different things? Danny Gatton, Andres Segovia, Steve Vai, Jimmy Bruno, Chet Atkins, Johnny Hiland, Les Paul, B.B. King, Joe Pass - all were amazing but were nothing like each other. Likewise, there are tons of players that didn't have virtuosic technique but were great nonetheless - Angus Young, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Albert King, etc. Jimi Hendrix had great skills but his technique was flawed in many ways (and I am a huge Hendrix fan). You could say the same for Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa and Jimmy Page, yet they're all regarded as great players. (I can see some people getting hot under the collar already about this - see what I mean?) Hey, no one rates artists from other media in this fashion - "Picasso could paint faster than Rembrandt, but Renoir kicks his ass!" Why do it to us poor guitar players?

I'm not going to attempt to make a list of "best" guitarists, as I think it's impossible to judge objectively. What I will do is make a short list of the guitarists I consider to be the Most Important - those whose contribution to popular music are the most far-reaching, and who have had the most influence on the greatest number of people. Hopefully it'll be a little less subjective and make a little more sense. Feel free to comment and tell me why I'm full of crap!

Again, these are not the best (indefineable), or the fastest (irrelevant and silly) or even the coolest (Dick Dale, c'mon). They're just the most important, for various reasons. In my opinion. Which is, of course, correct.

THE 3 MOST IMPORTANT ROCK GUITARISTS OF OUR TIME:

1. James Marshall Hendrix.

To most non-musicians, the first real "guitar hero". Changed popular music in more ways and to a greater extent than perhaps any other guitar player in the history of the instrument. One of the most influential popular musicians, period, of the 20th century. Jammed with everyone in rock and jazz at the time, from Clapton to Beck to Larry Coryell to John Mclaughlin to Zappa. Miles planned to record with him. Marshalled in (excuse the pun) a new era in which musicianship in rock music became a selling point to the general public, culminating in the shred-happy metal scene of the 80s and early nineties. His use of effects, feedback, and ambient noise was revolutionary; his playing was, at times, stunningly beautiful, at other times, violently moving. His music became the foundation for the vocabulary of rock guitar. Chuck Berry plus T-Bone Walker times Ziggy Stardust. Come on. Did you really think there would be anyone else in this spot?

2. Chuck Berry.

A close second, too often overlooked by guitarists. His influence on popular music is undeniable.The first pop/rock star to write and perform his own songs, and play the lead instrument in the band - and well! Wrote iconic, quintessential rock songs, and invented an entire genre that could very well be called "Chuck Berry music". Before Stairway, or Smoke on the Water, or Iron Man, there was the ultimate rock guitar star song, Johnny B. Goode - the first tune many guitar players learned and the one that, if you could actually play it right, earned you respect in the neighborhood. For his time, he had serious chops. In fact, he INVENTED riffs that players still steal today. One could make a very strong case that Chuck Berry was, in fact, the most important guitar player in rock history.

3. Edward Van Halen

The time between the death of Jimi Hendrix and the debut of Van Halen was about 8 years, but it seems like it should have been a generation. Eddie took everything Jimi did and did it louder, faster, and crazier. I was a young player when Van Halen's debut album came out, and I can tell you that in a matter of a few months, every single guitar player I knew was tapping, Eddie-style (usually badly). Eddie created shred. He didnt invent tapping, mind you (Zappa was tapping in the solo from the brilliant Inca Roads several years before) but he took it to a place no one had even dreamed of, and really, to this day, he remains the king of the genre. He was the first to customize guitars with boutique pickups, he helped invent the floating tremolo to compensate for his insane whammy bar antics, and he had style that was imitated but never matched. Guitar magazines proliferated, guitar schools popped up on every corner, rock music became more complex, players became more technical, and the level of musicianship in the field went through the roof (unfortunately, the music itself, in many instances, suffered). A greater percentage of the best, most studied, most talented musicians in the world are now guitar players than at any time in history - and it can all be traced back to that 2 minute slice of shred that blew everybody's heads off in 1977 - Eruption.

OTHER MOST IMPORTANT GUITARISTS, BY GENRE:

Jazz:

Charlie Christian - the original.

Django Reinhardt - peerless.

Wes Montgomery - the tone. still imitated.

Blues:

Robert Johnson - the first!

T-Bone Walker - bridged the gap between blues, jazz, and rock.

B.B.King - the most well-known blues player ever and figurehead for the genre

Country:

Merle Travis - invented an entire style.

Chet Atkins - world-class virtuosity.

Classical:

Andre Segovia - I don't know anything about classical guitar, but I know who Segovia is. That should say something.

Cross-genre:

Les Paul - Maybe the most important figure in modern music history, if you count his technical innovations. An amazing, groundbreaking player as well.

Remember, these aren't the best necessarily, or the fastest, or the coolest, or even my personal favorites - just the ones who mattered the most.

Flame on, people. Let's hear what you think!

Please visit my website at www.tommein.com.