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The All-Time Top 20 Guitarists - Part 3
Be it sober or fuelled by alcohol, we all love to pontificate about ‘The Best Guitarists Ever’ and then realise it’s far safer to argue about our ‘Favourite Guitarists Ever’ instead. Having my own column means I can actually put my own ‘favourite’ guitarists down in writing for all to see and assure you that most of then are in fact ‘the best’ players too!
This Week 10 to 6:
10. Zakk Wylde
When I first saw him with Ozzy in 1988 I knew we had a bona fide guitar hero on our hands. Like Ozzy, he’s now a metal icon because he eats, shits and breathes metal – he is the undefeated ‘Man Of Metal Champion of the World’ – don’t argue with him or his killer riffs.
I don’t think that I’m alone in saying that I find a lot of the BLS stuff a bit monotonous and I would have liked to have heard him tackle some stuff with Guns n’ Roses. For me, The Pride And Glory album and his first Ozzy outing ‘No Rest For The Wicked’ are still his finest moments. That said, he totally nails his Les Paul on ‘That I Never Had’ off Ozzy’s Down To Earth!
9. Ronni Le Tekro
The guitar maestro from my favourite Scandinavian Rockers TNT. A superb songwriter as a rule (which is a rare commodity in this game) and bringer of the ultimate melodic riffs and solos (even with his ridiculous picking technique).
Writing a decent solo is very difficult and again, very rarely done but it comes so naturally to Ronni. Both ‘Tell No Tales’ and ‘Intuition’ are clear contenders for the greatest Melodic Rock albums ever made – ‘Knights Of The New Thunder’ was good fun as well, if a little (well, a lot) less polished.
8. John Norum
Not just the Malmsteen clone that many have him down for. John is very much a complete and passionate hard rock player. He is definitely not referred to enough and always impresses when you listen to any of his fine solo albums – he really attacks the thing and possesses fabulous touch.
He seemed to take neo-classical influences, the LA Lynch/Martini style and shred in general and mix them altogether effortlessly. The perfect example of this is in both the intro and outro on ‘Blackscape’ from ‘Slipped Into Tomorrow’ – awesome playing!
7. Gary Moore
More of a statesman these days, but was a far better Rock guitar player than he gives himself credit for and he is of course a modern blues pioneer. I have always maintained that Gary would be the last person that anyone would want a ‘Guitar Dual’ with – I don’t know why, I just think that his knowledge would deliver the final punch every time.
The first time that I saw him play live was at Donington 1984. He was on fire (in fact we all were it was so hot), he ripped through his ‘Metal Set’, hypnotised the audience with a sensational ‘Parisienne Walkways’ and I thought to myself, “Fuck me that’s good – Gimmie Moore…”
6. Nuno Bettencourt
The ultimate hard rockin’ funkster – blistering rhythmic flare from an excellent showman. Because of this, he was a standout player in the shred heyday – not only was he exciting but he was fresh!
It was and still is very difficult to be considered ‘cool’ in the world of Heavy Rock. This is because most of the participants are so uncool it’s frightening. Today’s reformed Hard Rock bands still look a complete state and don’t really fit into that ‘Turn up at the MTV awards with Slash and Lenny Kravitz’ mold – Nuno however still does and possesses a certain style so rare in the genre. You may think that this is irrelevant, but in my opinion, Rock Stars should be as cool as fuck (unless it’s Rush of course, then it doesn’t matter!)
However all that said, Nuno’s solo stuff isn’t up to much and he will ideally make more Extreme records rather than pursuing said ‘cool’…
http://www.nunocentral.co.uk / target=”_blank”>www.nunocentral.co.uk
Next Time – My Top 5 Favourite (Greatest) Guitarists Of All Time…