Dez’s Top 30 Guitarists

This list has been rolling around in my head for about a year (at least), and so I have finally decided to post it. It hardly needs to be said that rock music’s primary “voice” is not the vocals of the singer, but the six strings of the guitar. Much has been made of the phallic symbolism and male power of the electric guitar, and I think there is some validity to it. Whether it be making love to you (via Carlos Santana) or assaulting you (via Jeff Beck).

Two things about this list: while it is primarily rock and roll (since that is what I primarily listen to), it is not restricted to rock (as #’s 18 and 7 on my list show). More importantly, this list is not a “most influential” or “most important” or “technically advanced.” These are guitarists whose playing really strike a nerve with me, for whatever reason. Naturally, most of them can really play too. Over technical skill I value a unique “voice” on guitar. A player where I can hear a song for the first time and immediately say, that’s got to be X. My #1 and 2 choices stand out the most for me as immediately recognizable.

I won’t drag this out too long. I’ll give you #’s 30-21 here, 20-12 in the next post, and then #’s 11-1 will get their own individual posts with more in depth analysis and discussion. Enjoy…

30. Robert Smith (The Cure): Smith can solo, but the reason he is here is for his melodic rhythm playing. I am a rhythm player myself, so I appreciate great rhythm guitar players. And when he does solo, it is never mere wanking. His solos more often than not restate the melody of the song in gorgeous ways (“Just Like Heaven,” “Pictures of You”).

29. Robby Krieger (The Doors): Now that I look at this list, Robby probably should be a little higher. Krieger is a master of many styles, he can play bottleneck slide blues (“Who Do You Love?”), flamenco (“Spanish Caravan”) or straight up killer solos (“Light My Fire”). He can do it all effortlessly, and always looks half asleep while doing it. (My friend Gillums and I used to joke “imagine how great he’d be if he ever woke up.”) The Doors are one of my favorite bands, but not because of Jim Morrison. I listen to the Doors because of what Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore are able to create around Morrison. One of the most distinctive and great musical trios in rock history, often overshadowed by their legendary frontman.


ABOVE: How great would Robby Krieger be if he woke up?

28. Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band, session player): The heart and soul of The Grateful Dead was a musician deeply steeped in American folk music traditions. In addition to being an excellent electric guitar player and improviser, Jerry was equally adept at picking a banjo, dobro or acoustic bluegrass playing (just listen to the stuff on Workingman’s Dead or American Beauty). And the beautiful pedal steel guitar on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s classic “Teach Your Children”? That was Jerry. Funny enough, some of my favorite playing of Garcia’s is as a sideman on several of Bruce Hornsby’s records, especially Harbor Lights. I don’t always find his 30 minute Dead jams interesting (although sometimes they are), but in total Jerry was a great player in a variety of settings on many stringed instruments.

27. Carlos Santana (Santana, solo): Years ago Carlos would have made my Top 10 easily, but his playing has a certain sameness to it that has knocked him back several pegs. Granted, that style is fluid and passionate and has served him well over the last 40 years.


ABOVE: Here is Carlos playing at Woodstock. Great jam on "Soul Sacrifice." He said in an interview once that he had taken lots of acid, and so the guitar neck kept moving like a snake as he tried to play.

26. Steve Howe (Yes, Asia): Through all of Yes’s 70’s bombast and excess (Tales From Topographical Oceans, anyone?), Howe’s tasteful and eclectic playing styles always grounded them in thrilling rock and roll.

25. Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones, session player): Mick is sort of the forgotten player of the second fiddles to Keith Richards, as he was only with The Stones for a five year stretch. But he is a better guitar player than the iconic Brian Jones or the long lasting Ron Wood. He made crucial contributions to the albums from Let It Bleed through It’s Only Rock and Roll, when he quit over the fact that Jagger and Richards refused to give him songwriting credits on tunes that he clearly co-wrote with them.

24. Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones): Rock’s quintessential wildman survivor is also rock’s greatest riffmaster. Renowned as THE rhythm rock guitar player, Keith can also solo when need be, although he usually leaves that to whoever is the #2 Stones axeman. The classic razor-sharp solo on “Sympathy For the Devil” was played by Keith.


ABOVE: Keith with never die

23. The Edge (U2): A guitarist who made a virtue of his limitations. By his own admission, Edge couldn’t really play advanced solos when he started out, so he compensated by creating an original style of skeletal arpeggios and waves of delay and echo. Now that he can actually play he’s even better.

22. Andy Summers (The Police): Edge may have taken some lessons from Andy Summers’s playbook. The Police were such a unique band in the instrumental interplay between the trio. Sting’s bass takes the melodies, while Andy is left to embellish and color the songs. He rarely solos, instead he plays textures.


ABOVE: From the Police Reunion tour in 2007. I caught the Houston show. One of my favorite bands, one of the best shows I've ever seen. The sound these three dudes make together is unbeatable.

21. Michael Bloomfield (Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, solo): While acknowledged as one of the great blues/rock guitarists, I dig the erratic, late, great Bloomfield most when he stretches beyond the blues into more daring territory. Check out “His Holy Modal Majesty” from the classic Super Session by the one shot Bloomfield, Kooper & Stills group, or the stunning, groundbreaking jam “East/West” with the Butterfield Blues Band.


ABOVE: One of the great jam albums, Super Session by Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills.