Other Mixes By avocado rabbit
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The 100 Greatest Guitarists (vol. 8)
| Artist | Song | |
| Led Zeppelin |
Stairway To Heaven 
|
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| Rage Against The Machine | Sleep Now in the Fire | |
| Chuck Berry | Johnny B. Goode | |
| Robert Johnson | Hellhound On My Trail | |
| Dire Straits | Romeo & Juliet | |
| Cream | White Room | |
| Santana | Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen | |
| Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper | Albert's Shuffle | |
| The Allman Brothers Band | Statesboro Blues | |
| Jimi Hendrix | Voodoo Chile | |
Comment:
I was considering turning this series into a cliffhanger after reading the kind comment of mahdishain in the last volume about not wanting it to end, but that would not be playing nice. So here is the final installment. I appreciate the many comments throughout the series. Perhaps next year I'll get together a list of the top jazz guitarists or something else to stir up the opinions. It's been a time-consuming but totally enjoyable project (well, except for the tedious artwork part). Anyway, adios to the series, and in the immortal words of Angus Young, "I just go where the guitar takes me."The other seven volumes can be found here.
Quiz #8-(open only to those not winning another quiz in this series - one copy to a customer) For a free copy of the entire 8-volume set, answer this one. Which of these musicians moonlighted as a beautician before making a living with music?
Bonus Quiz - Because no one got the quiz from volume 7 leaving one extra copy. Which famous song by one of these guitarists became the title of a 1986 movie?
Notes on the eighth volume
10 Jimmy Page: In the 1970s, there was no bigger rock group in the world than Led Zeppelin and no greater god on six strings than Jimmy Page. Nothing much has changed. The imperial weight, technical authority and exotic reach of Page's writing and playing on Zeppelin's eight studio albums have lost none of their power: the rusted, slow-death groan of Page's solo, played with a violin bow, in "Dazed and Confused," the circular, cast-iron stammer of his riffing on "Black Dog," the melodic momentum and chrome- spear tone of his closing solo on "Stairway To Heaven." Page was the lead guitarist in the final incarnation of the Yardbirds before forming Zeppelin.
9 Tom Morello: In the early days of Rage Against The Machine, Morello watched fellow California guitarists "try to play as fast as Yngwie Malmsteen" and realized "that wasn't a race I wanted to win." So he began to experiment with the toggle switch on his guitar to produce an effect like a DJ scratching a record. The result was true rap metal and a redefinition the guitar's potential. Morello absorbs hip-hop mixology as a true son of Grandmaster Flash and the Voodoo Child, making his riffs rumble and boom like crosstown turntable traffic. 8 Chuck Berry: There would be no rock 'n' roll guitar without Chuck Berry. His signature lick - a staccato, double-string screech descended from Chicago blues with a strong country inflection - is the music's defining twang. He introduced it in his 1955 Chess Records debut, "Maybelline," and used it to dynamic effect in nearly two dozen classic hits in the next ten years, including some of the best songs about playing rock 'n' roll: "Roll Over Beethoven," "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B. Goode." Born in California in 1926, Berry learned to play guitar as a teenager but did time in reform school for attempted robbery
before "Maybelline" made him a star. Berry's career was sidelined by a two-year jail stint in the 1960s. He was the first giant of rock 'n' roll guitar, and nothing else matters.
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continuation of notes on the eighth volume:
7 Robert Johnson: Johnson is the undisputed king of the Mississippi delta blues singers and one of the most recognized and influential voices in American music. His spiritual descendants include Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Jack White. Johnson's recorded legacy - a mere twenty-nine songs cut in 1936 and '37 - is the foundation of all modern blues and rock. He either wrote or adapted from traditional sources many of the most popular blues songs of all time, including "Crossroad Blues," "Sweet Home Chicago," and "Dust My Broom." The illegitimate son of a Mississippi sharecropper, he poured every ounce of his own poverty, wandering and womanizing into his work - documenting black life in the Deep South beneath the long shadow of slavery with haunted intensity. "It was almost as if he felt things so acutely he found it almost unbearable," Clapton said of Johnson's music. Legend has it that Johnson made a deal with the devil to acquire his guitar gifts. Johnson died in 1938 at twenty-seven, poisoned by a jealous husband. 6 Mark Knopfler: Dire Straits founder and solo artist Mark Knopfler emerged at a time when guitar virtuosos were spurned by punks and New Wavers. Yet from the first stinging notes of "Sultans of Swing," Knopfler's roots-based approach and supple, burnished leads found almost universal appeal. A fingerpicker who favors Fender Stratocasters, he's known for his rich tone, sinuous melodicism and rangy, fluid solos. 5 Eric Clapton: It first appeared in 1965, written on the walls of the London subway: "Clapton is God." Fresh out of his first major band, the Yardbirds, and recently inducted into John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - he had just turned twenty and been playing guitar only since he was fifteen. But Clapton was already soloing with the improvisational verve that has dazzled fans and peers for forty years. His nickname became Slowhand, an ironic reference to the velocity of his lead breaks. Clapton said in 2001, "I think it's important to say something powerful and keep it economical." Even when he jammed on a tune for more than a quarter-hour with Cream, Clapton soloed with a daggerlike tone and pinpoint attention to melody. The solo album that followed Layla, his 1970 tour de force with Derek and the Dominoes, emphasized his desires as a singer-songwriter. But on the best, like 1974's 461 Ocean Boulevard and 1983's Money and Cigarettes, his flourishes still pack the power that made him "God" in the first place.
7 Robert Johnson: Johnson is the undisputed king of the Mississippi delta blues singers and one of the most recognized and influential voices in American music. His spiritual descendants include Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Jack White. Johnson's recorded legacy - a mere twenty-nine songs cut in 1936 and '37 - is the foundation of all modern blues and rock. He either wrote or adapted from traditional sources many of the most popular blues songs of all time, including "Crossroad Blues," "Sweet Home Chicago," and "Dust My Broom." The illegitimate son of a Mississippi sharecropper, he poured every ounce of his own poverty, wandering and womanizing into his work - documenting black life in the Deep South beneath the long shadow of slavery with haunted intensity. "It was almost as if he felt things so acutely he found it almost unbearable," Clapton said of Johnson's music. Legend has it that Johnson made a deal with the devil to acquire his guitar gifts. Johnson died in 1938 at twenty-seven, poisoned by a jealous husband. 6 Mark Knopfler: Dire Straits founder and solo artist Mark Knopfler emerged at a time when guitar virtuosos were spurned by punks and New Wavers. Yet from the first stinging notes of "Sultans of Swing," Knopfler's roots-based approach and supple, burnished leads found almost universal appeal. A fingerpicker who favors Fender Stratocasters, he's known for his rich tone, sinuous melodicism and rangy, fluid solos. 5 Eric Clapton: It first appeared in 1965, written on the walls of the London subway: "Clapton is God." Fresh out of his first major band, the Yardbirds, and recently inducted into John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - he had just turned twenty and been playing guitar only since he was fifteen. But Clapton was already soloing with the improvisational verve that has dazzled fans and peers for forty years. His nickname became Slowhand, an ironic reference to the velocity of his lead breaks. Clapton said in 2001, "I think it's important to say something powerful and keep it economical." Even when he jammed on a tune for more than a quarter-hour with Cream, Clapton soloed with a daggerlike tone and pinpoint attention to melody. The solo album that followed Layla, his 1970 tour de force with Derek and the Dominoes, emphasized his desires as a singer-songwriter. But on the best, like 1974's 461 Ocean Boulevard and 1983's Money and Cigarettes, his flourishes still pack the power that made him "God" in the first place.
continuation of the continuation:
4 Carlos Santana: The piercingly pure tone of Santana's guitar is among the most recognizable sounds in popular music. A towering musician who brought Latin rhythms and jazz improvisation to rock, Santana formed the first lineup of his namesake band in 1968. His varied influences - from Mike Bloomfield and Peter Green to Miles Davis and John Coltrane - resulted in a singularly innovative approach. A fiery, impassioned soloist, Santana articulates fluid passages that culminate in lengthy sustained notes. From Santana's career breakthrough performance at Woodstock in 1969 to the 2000 Grammy's - where he won eight awards for Supernatural, tying Michael Jackson's record - Santana has remained a compelling musician with a devotional spirituality fueling his music.
3 Michael Bloomfield: Bloomfield was called the best American blues guitarist of the 1960s (and many say he was the best ever - yours truly included). This reputation rests on a relatively small, searing body of work: his licks on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, his two LPs with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and his sublime jamming with Al Kooper on the 1968 masterpiece Super Session (not to mention the equally fine follow-up album The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper). Born in Chicago, Bloomfield grew up in local blues clubs, where he worked with many black legends. His modal runs and jabbing breaks were executed with pinpoint force in a ringing-bell tone. His gifts faded as he fell into drug abuse and died of an overdose in 1981.
2 Duane Allman: If Duane Allman had done nothing but session work, he would still be on this list. His contributions on lead and slide guitar to dozens of records as fine and as varied as Wilson Pickett's down-home cover of "Hey Jude" and Eric Clapton's masterpiece with Derek and the Dominoes, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, constitute an astounding body of work. But Allman also transformed the poetry of jamming with the Allman Brothers Band, the group he founded in 1969 with his younger brother, singer-organist Gregg. Duane applied the same black soul and rebel fire he displayed as a sideman to the Allman's extended investigations of Muddy Waters and Blind Willie McTell covers and to his psychedelic jazz interplay with second guitarist Dickey Betts in live showstoppers such as "Whipping Post." Although Duane and Gregg had played in bands together since 1960, Duane did not learn to play slide until shortly before the start of the Allmans. Duane said that the first song he tried to conquer was McTell's "Statesboro Blues." Allman's blastoff licks in the recording that opens his band's third album, At Fillmore West, shows how far and fast he had come - and leaves you wondering how much further he could have gone if not for his death in 1971 in a motorcycle accident.
4 Carlos Santana: The piercingly pure tone of Santana's guitar is among the most recognizable sounds in popular music. A towering musician who brought Latin rhythms and jazz improvisation to rock, Santana formed the first lineup of his namesake band in 1968. His varied influences - from Mike Bloomfield and Peter Green to Miles Davis and John Coltrane - resulted in a singularly innovative approach. A fiery, impassioned soloist, Santana articulates fluid passages that culminate in lengthy sustained notes. From Santana's career breakthrough performance at Woodstock in 1969 to the 2000 Grammy's - where he won eight awards for Supernatural, tying Michael Jackson's record - Santana has remained a compelling musician with a devotional spirituality fueling his music.
3 Michael Bloomfield: Bloomfield was called the best American blues guitarist of the 1960s (and many say he was the best ever - yours truly included). This reputation rests on a relatively small, searing body of work: his licks on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, his two LPs with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and his sublime jamming with Al Kooper on the 1968 masterpiece Super Session (not to mention the equally fine follow-up album The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper). Born in Chicago, Bloomfield grew up in local blues clubs, where he worked with many black legends. His modal runs and jabbing breaks were executed with pinpoint force in a ringing-bell tone. His gifts faded as he fell into drug abuse and died of an overdose in 1981.
2 Duane Allman: If Duane Allman had done nothing but session work, he would still be on this list. His contributions on lead and slide guitar to dozens of records as fine and as varied as Wilson Pickett's down-home cover of "Hey Jude" and Eric Clapton's masterpiece with Derek and the Dominoes, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, constitute an astounding body of work. But Allman also transformed the poetry of jamming with the Allman Brothers Band, the group he founded in 1969 with his younger brother, singer-organist Gregg. Duane applied the same black soul and rebel fire he displayed as a sideman to the Allman's extended investigations of Muddy Waters and Blind Willie McTell covers and to his psychedelic jazz interplay with second guitarist Dickey Betts in live showstoppers such as "Whipping Post." Although Duane and Gregg had played in bands together since 1960, Duane did not learn to play slide until shortly before the start of the Allmans. Duane said that the first song he tried to conquer was McTell's "Statesboro Blues." Allman's blastoff licks in the recording that opens his band's third album, At Fillmore West, shows how far and fast he had come - and leaves you wondering how much further he could have gone if not for his death in 1971 in a motorcycle accident.
the end:
excerpt from a tribute written by Pete Townshend Jimi managed to build this bridge between true blues guitar and modern sounds, bringing the two together brilliantly. And it was supported by visual magic. He did this thing where he would play a chord and then sweep his left hand through the air in a curve, and it would almost take you away from the idea that the music was coming through his fingers.
excerpt from a tribute written by Pete Townshend Jimi managed to build this bridge between true blues guitar and modern sounds, bringing the two together brilliantly. And it was supported by visual magic. He did this thing where he would play a chord and then sweep his left hand through the air in a curve, and it would almost take you away from the idea that the music was coming through his fingers.
Yay me! My brother and I had a playful bet on the Jimmy's. We knew that Hendrix and Page would both make the top ten, just not where in the running. I had Hendrix higher. He had Page. I WIN!!!! ... I know "Stairway To Heaven" is the classic, but I really enjoy the colab stuff of Coverdale/Page's too. Especially songs like "Shake My Tree" and "Absolution Blues". They really showcase Page's undeniable talent. And I wouldn't know the quiz without looking it up, so, I lose, but I still win the bet! Yay me!
thank you for your fine work - wonderful!
I am in awe. The whole series is so informative and well done.
This was a great list. Thanks for all the hard work. As for the answer to your quiz, I'd have to say I heard once that Chuck Berry was a beautician a long time ago. (but then I started having doubts.) I also have to add that I consistently beat Tom Morello on Guitar Hero III! HA!
Jotky is a winner in the quiz. One more shot for a free copy with the other quiz.
Wonderful conclusion to an epic series. The Knopfler inclusion was a pleasant surprise. Can't wait to get my hands on this. Thanks for making copies available. I will be rocking out.
Great series, give yourself a pat on the back. I thought the winner would be Hendrix, Clapton or Page. So I'm a third right..
This is superlative! What are you going to surprise us with next?
Around 1979 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, I caught a Chuck Berry performance. He ranted at the audience about how he had been rocking since before most of the other artists there had even been born. He said none of them would be there if it hadn't been for him. He sounded bitter, angry, resentful, as during that time he had been overlooked for years and regulated to a Golden Oldies novelty act. It was painful to hear, and I hope he finally got more royalties and respect as people realized his tremendous influence.
Around 1979 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, I caught a Chuck Berry performance. He ranted at the audience about how he had been rocking since before most of the other artists there had even been born. He said none of them would be there if it hadn't been for him. He sounded bitter, angry, resentful, as during that time he had been overlooked for years and regulated to a Golden Oldies novelty act. It was painful to hear, and I hope he finally got more royalties and respect as people realized his tremendous influence.
Great mix, superb concept (where have I been for missing this series in its entirity? Though I'm cursing you now cos I'll spend the rest of the day thinking of guitarists who never made the cut. I'm happy cos Neil Young made it and off the top of my head can only say 'Davy Graham' should be on any guitar greats list but hey man I'm being far too picky here.
What can I add to this? Those names really do speak for themselves, Chuck of course, plus Jimi, Duane and the others. Chuck was the beautician, by the way. I'm not sure about Tom Morello belonging with the other guys. Or I guess I am reading this backwards? Jimi as 1, but of course, no argument there.As an innovator, I would put Chuck higher, but that's my (latest) hometown bias, too. I can forgive Carlos all his excess and his Macy's commercial, God knows what Jimi would be doing had he lived. I guess Abraxas is not giving him much pension. íViva Jalisco!
I fear that I have not being paying attention of late -- shame on me! This is a blisteringly great edition to the series. 3, 7 and 10 are pure guitar ecstasy. The notes are a brilliant accompaniment. I'm off to the the kudos shop to purchase a large quantity on your behalf.
Ah...revealed @ last...the top dogs, as it were, of guitardom...well done!
What's that man movin' cross the stage?
It looks a lot like the one used by Jimmy Page
Its like a relic from a different age
Could be...Oo-Eee....
What's that man movin' cross the stage?
It looks a lot like the one used by Jimmy Page
Its like a relic from a different age
Could be...Oo-Eee....
A tip o' the hat for this incredible series!
Well done sir, thank you for this.
What an awesome series!I just had a look through all of the volumes and I think it's great that Adam Jones made the cut! : )So many other great names in here, Moby Grape and Blue Cheer for example!
Thanks so much!
Thanks so much!
Kudos to your series. Very informative and well executed.
Great series and entertaining notes.
Very informative. I'm not really into guitar heroes but I have to say this is an outstanding series.
not only fine choices but this looks like a great final mix in the series. Kudos on making some of the most enjoyable mixes I've seen since joining the site.
You are insane. You should work for Time/Life. That is an incredible collection. I just received the discs in the mail today. Amazing. Two books in color, artwork, it is absolutely gorgeous! Thank you so much. I don't know how to thank you. After I listen to it I think I'll pass it on - kinda a music pay it forward. Thanks again.
Ditto Jotky. Mr. Postman delivered mine today as well. I have disc one in the car changer & just popped disc 8 into my disc-man (figure I'll keep one quad jewel-case inside & one in the auto, then swap).
Thanks, Dean!
Thanks, Dean!
Eh, whenever I want my RatM fix, I just listen to the Chili Peppers' "Suck My Kiss". Just as cool riff-wise, and better yet, no de la Rocha! Great picks, though, love the inclusion of Santana in #4.
Today, May 8, 2008, your guitarists box set arrived. I am still scraping my jaw off the ground! It is SO professional! In the first place, the playlists are all amazing, but to actually receive such a high-quality package is like having Christmas in the spring. Your passion for the music shines through in every cut, and your craftsmanship is obvious in every aspect of the set from the covers to the inserts to the labels. I can't thank you enough!
I was hoping someone would answer the #7 quiz (best I could come up with was DALE Hawkins plus David EVANS). But since no one has... this one is a three-fer in the top ten! Robert Johnson wrote it, and both Clapton (w. Cream) and Allman (w. Allman Joy) recorded it before Lighning Boy and Blind Dog took us to the "Crossroads."