Who really is the best rock guitarist?



We love lists in the media business. Readers sometimes complain about list stories but then read them voraciously.

But if you came for a list story here, you aren’t going to get one. This is more a Behind-the-List Story story.

They are very subjective, you know. Lists, rankings. Take best guitarists.

Is Eric Clapton really better than Carlos Santana? Was Jimi Hendrix really better than Stevie Ray Vaughn?

How about Nick Drake and Leo Kottke with their innovative acoustic folk, blues, rock? Is Pete Townshend on rhythm better than Keith Richards or their teacher, Chuck Berry?

I’d be hard pressed to find a better rock guitarist than Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin but there’s some old(er)-timers our there that say Alvin Lee of 10 Years After was the man. Listen to this live version of Woodchopper’s Ball.

Slow down, I’m getting to the point here. These lists usually encapsulate three things going on:

(1) Popularity of the artist and his or her songs, Clapton and Page are famous for working with some of the biggest selling bands of all time. Are they truly better guitarists than Steve Morse. Who? Steve Morse who played with the Dixie Dregs and is now with Deep Purple. He can play. Glenn Phillips, of the Atlanta area, is pretty much the best guitarist you’ve never heard of. In the same neighborhood, his student Bob Elsey of the Swimming Pool Q’s plays tasty licks without walking over anyone. How many of these guitarists can play Nancy Wilson’s intro to ‘Crazy on You.? Probably most of those in this company, with time and study, but I would venture to say Nancy’s would be the best version..

(2) Speed and long solo skills A lot of guitarists get noticed because they can shred. That is, hit X number of notes in x number of seconds, usually going up and down scales. That’s a useful skill set especially in metal, hard rock, punk and even guitar-based jazz. But it’s one tool. The best shredder may be mediocre playing folk blues, for example.

(3) Flamboyant style. Jimi Hendrix was truly innovative but it wasn’t all flamboyance in the cause of the music, it was aimed at the ‘show.’ I’m pretty sure Hendrix can play better with his fingers than his tongue. But tonguing a guitar solo will leave people with their jaws hanging.

These three factors I’m saying play a role in these ranking and probably should. But before you start talking about who is better, Eddie Van Halen or Yngwie Malmsteen, Prince or Queen’s Brian May, the Schenker brothers of Scorpions and UFO fame, let me proffer that perhaps the best guitar players are those that do what’s best for the song. Delivering a fine song with a guitar solo that lasted 5-minutes too long is not necessarily being a great guitarist.

So it comes to this: Duane Allman.

I’m not saying he’s the top guitarist of all time or anything. But he had an unusual grasp of what sound to put forth while playing a song. How loud. How soft. When to fill and when to cut loose. The story goes that Duane was doing some session work at like age 22 or so, at Muscle Shoals studios, backing the great Wilson Pickett on a cover of the Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude.’

Listen for the guitar in this as it starts. You have to concentrate because it’s in the background.

But it’s perfect, the fills. And as Pickett winds up, Allman with electric guitar is right there supporting the singer, whip snapping Pickett into his famous ‘yow’ screams.

“He stood right in front of me, as though he was playing every note I was singing,” Pickett said months later. “And he was watching me as I sang, and as I screamed, he was screaming with his guitar.”

Duane’s legend was picking up steam.

[If you secretly do like list stories and want to take a peek at the most underrated artists, albums and songs in my collection. CLICK



Derek and the Dominos — 540

ALBUM:  Layla and other assorted love songs (1970),

MVC Ranking: 5.0/$$$$

This is one of my all-time favorites, a true desert island album. I don’t know why this was so big an influence at about age 16. It was blues by a bunch of white guys who were  reportedly PUI (playing under the influence).

But they weren’t just any guys off the street. They were  Eric Clapton, whose transmogrification of black blues through his decidedly English filter earned him the nickname: God.

Then there was the 23-year-old guitar prodigy Duane Allman, already being whispered about in reverent terms whose time would end tragically a year or so later. The mythology was the he ran into the back of a truck hauling peaches. And that’s why the Allmans named the next album was entitled ‘Eat a Peach.’ The truth however was that he c

There also was the slightly obnoxious and opinionated Bobby Whitlock, a fine keyboardist, songwriter and singer. And carrying the bottom, drums and bass, were Jim Gordon and Carl Radle, among the best in the business. Clapton and Allman particularly were at a crossroads in their careers. Clapton zooming through the Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith. And Duane just getting ready for the spotlight in his familial band from Jacksonville, FL. and Macon, GA, the Allman Brothers.

They came together, looking for some kind of light. Clapton and Allman, who had never met, hit it off, personally and professionally.

The result a blues album of original material and some great classic blues like  Big Bill Broonzy’s ‘Key to the Highway,’ and Billy Myles’ ‘Have You Ever Loved a Woman’ (popularized by Freddie King). And a nice cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing,’ a relatively new song at the time.

‘Bell Bottom Blues’ ached. ‘Why Does Love Have to be So Sad’ whip-snapped stinging guitar over Whitlock’s and Clapton’s alternating shouts of anguish. ‘I Am Yours’ consoled.

And of course there was  Layla, a rocket launched by the twin guitars of Allman and Clapton, a  rocker of break-up love, the pain boiling over and anger surfacing.

I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down.
Layla, you’ve got me on my knees.
Layla, I’m begging, darling please.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.