Dez's Top 30 Guitarists: #'s 20-12

For the Intro and #'s 30-21, go here.

20. Trevor Rabin (Yes, solo): 80’s Yes divides many prog rock fans. But it was the hugely successful 90125 album from 1983 (#8 on my all time list) that introduced me to the band and genre in the first place, so I’ve got a soft spot for the more commercial phase of this band’s illustrious career. Rabin was most responsible for this shift in sound, and the three records they released when he was their sole guitar player bear his more commercial stamp. The guitar playing all over 90125 is awesome.

19. Jim Thomas (The Mermen): Getting a little more obscure here, but Thomas’s epic guitar on The Mermen’s hybrid of surf/cinema/noir/rock/lounge music is always interesting and often beautiful.

18. Wes Montgomery: The only jazz guitarist to make my list. I enjoy jazz guitar (I like a lot of John McLaughlin’s stuff, for instance), but generally the instrument doesn’t grab me in the jazz setting for some reason. Wes is an exception. His smooth and fluid playing can be exciting or peaceful, or a bit of both at the same time.


ABOVE: Wes plays what may be the greatest jazz standard, Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight." The clip is a little on the long side, but it is worth your while. He really gets going in the middle section.

17. Robert Cray: There were two great blues guitarists to emerge from the 1980’s. One, of course, was Stevie Ray Vaughan. The other was Cray. If SRV was the heir to Hendrix and Allman, then Cray was the heir to B.B. King. Cray’s warm, fluid, soulful playing is reminiscent of King’s. Cray has two formidable weapons, his guitar playing and the fact that he is one of the great soul singers of the last 30 years. Strong Persuader is my all time favorite blues record.

16. Neil Young: Not a technician, but Neil plays with more passion and fire than almost anyone, however basic his technique on electric guitar. On acoustic, he can be much more complex. Nobody has influenced my own guitar playing more than Neil Young.

15. Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen): The fact that EVH is an unbelievable douche bag of a person sometimes overshadows his greatness as a guitarist. While he did not invent finger tapping, he took it into the stratosphere on Van Halen’s earthshattering debut.

14. Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top): Earthy, blues rock at its best. While ZZ Top explored some other sounds (especially in the 80’s), they have always been rooted in Billy’s ripping blues/rock playing. His thick, fat sound reminds one of the greasy plate of enchiladas that graces the inside cover of one of their greatest records, Tres Hombres.


ABOVE: ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons is Texas, through and through

13. Pete Townshend (The Who, solo): Pete as a guitar player sometimes occupies the unusual musical space that Andy Summers occupies in the Police. While Pete can solo with the best of them (unlike Andy), he just as often will act as the anchoring rhythm guitar player while John Entwistle’s bass runs all over the place and Keith Moon’s hurricane style of drumming dominates the sound. Pete is my favorite rhythm player, always interesting and thrilling.

12. Joe Satriani: As I said in my introductory remarks to this list, I am not basing my rankings on technique or agility. You can train a monkey to do something really fast. I look for character and a unique voice on the instrument in my favorite guitar players. Satriani is unique on my list in that he does often rank with the best of the technical shredders, but he stands apart from them in that he never forgets that great music also needs melodies, hooks and emotion as opposed to just flashy technique (I guess Eddie Van Halen qualifies here too). Satch uses his technique in aid of the music, versus showing off his prodigious technique for its own sake, like a Vai or a Malmstein.


ABOVE: Here's some Satriani, "Flying in a Blue Dream". There is a rather lengthy intro, the song picks up at about the 2 minute mark.