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The All-Time Top 20 Guitarists - Part 4
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!
At Long Last The Top 5:
5th – George Lynch
On the Hear N’ Aid video from 1985 is some footage of George laying down his ‘bit.’ This is all you need to know about the man. I swear it is the greatest moment of Nailin’ a Fuckin’ Geetar ever captured on film – I have tears in my eyes as I type!
George is not talked about enough in general guitar chat but that is simply because people in general have no idea what they are talking about. There is no point trying to explain the genius of someone like George to someone who doesn’t see it in the first place. I’ve learnt this over time and consequently have become less stressed in ‘music based’ conversation. I will therefore go no further on the reasons why George is a complete guitar legend because if you don’t already know why, you’ll never know.
‘Back For the Attack’ is for me, his finest Dokken album, but comes nowhere near the absolute classic ‘Wicked Sensation’ from his excellent Lynch Mob. This is not just about flattened 5ths and horizontal vibrato, this is an essential Rock album – every song holds up and Oni Logan’s vocals make Don Dokken sound weaker than ever. This line-up should have stuck together but even Robert Mason, Logan’s replacement on the follow-up, was equal to the task and they both complimented George’s style – basically, great guitarists can easily be overlooked or forgotten if their vocalists are shit. Grunge didn’t help Lynch Mob either and a truly great Rock band was lost.
Also check out his noddlings on the ‘LA Blues Authority’ album with Tony MacAlpine and friends – he puts his fellow collaborators firmly in their respective places.
4th – Jason Becker
Jason had everything as a player – a complete combination of the other Top 5 players in my list. Naturally gifted with perfect rhythm, technique and style – to see footage of him effortlessly combining the pantheon of guitar techniques is a joy and also very heartbreaking from a fans point of view for obvious reasons – most of us don’t possess the inner karma that Jason himself does.
I have always maintained that if an alien came to earth and said “Hey Earthling, play me some serious Rock guitar on your CD music droid thingy…” I would put on ‘Altitudes’. There’s just about everything in there, from full-on shred, to wondrous tapping, to a final ‘solo’ that just Rocks with the ‘X Factor’! He carried this energy onto his Dave Lee Roth outing, which was sadly the last great album for both of them.
His ‘Raspberry and Strawberry Jam’ demos are great fun too, but for the real enthusiast really. ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ and the demo for ‘Altitudes’ always bring a tear to the eye.
Jason also had a nice smile and modest persona. They say that the Lord works in mysterious ways, some of which are obviously criminal…
3rd – Paul Gilbert
I like to think of Paul as the head teacher of guitar, which in fact he is. I don’t think there would be any situation in the realm of Rock guitar that Paul couldn’t champion.
He’s also a good laugh and a great showman. His instruction videos always stood out from the crowd and his back catalogue of bands and styles is a must for any serious guitar warrior.
The early two pronged guitar pyrotechnics of Racer X with Bruce Bouillet still possess brutal finesse and indeed all the Racer X albums to date are worthy shred-fests. A continual sense humour also runs through the proceedings which I am fond of. I have never liked the vocals however (neither do my friends for that matter) and this definitely limited their chances of greater success – it must be said that the ‘Halford’ style of ‘continual scream overload’ has never done it for me, especially in large doses.
Obviously, Mr. Big solved the vocal problem in some style. I loved that band – brilliant line-up, great live, great albums and what’s wrong with a sweet little ballad every now and then. Paul’s playing was always more ‘tasteful’ with Mr. Big, even if he and Billy Sheehan used Makita power drills for an extra picking angle!
I am certain that Paul Gilbert’s enthusiasm and persona has encouraged many fingers to start wagging – a true ambassador!
1st Equal – Yngwie J. Malmsteen
I am frequently convinced that Yngwie is the best player that will ever live. NO-ONE puts as much into making that thing scream, talk and sing than the sacred Yngwie.
His pressure cooker of blistering scales and arpeggios accentuating the ‘slow notes’ when they triumphantly arrive is the pinnacle of heart-felt virtuosity.
Ironically, I would challenge any guitarist on the planet to a one-note dual with Malmsteen – this experiment would shut up all those defeatist half-arsed guitarists, who only slag his speed because it quite simply intimidates them.
His song-writing has it’s ups and downs and his lyrics have many downs. However, the first 4 Rising Force albums are classics. ‘Soldier Without Faith’ from ‘Marching Out’ has always been a personal favourite, combining an epic song with epic playing and drama. This album also has excellent vocals from Jeff Scott Soto, which unfortunately can’t be said for many other Malmsteen albums. However, I do love nearly all his albums to date and his latest opus ‘Unleash The Fury’ has enough stomping tracks to fuel the Malmsteen hunger inside us in the know – the solo passage in ‘Winds Of War’ is the exact medicine.
His early stuff with Steeler and Alcatrazz was the most exciting guitar playing that anyone had heard since ‘Eruption’. His Concerto for Electric guitar is good and great fun to watch. The major negative has been his inability to team up with Ronnie James Dio for some serious recording – this is the greatest loss to us all. Imagine what they would have come with in the mid 80’s when Yngwie was writing ‘You Don’t Remember’ and Ronnie was dreaming up ‘The Last In Line’… IMAGINE!!!
Another thing that sets Yngwie’s peerless solos apart, is his ability to arrange the musical beds beneath – it doesn’t matter what you play on the guitar if the whole musical experience isn’t there as well. The very best example of this is the whole solo section in ‘Tomorrow’s Gone‘ from Magnum Opus. This has to be one of the most epic moments in music history – that said, having seemingly tried to break the strings and neck in ‘Deja Vu’ at 2:50, his solo in ‘Speed Of Light’ (both from from Odyssey) surely has the most ‘Drive off a cliff in your Ferrari GTO’ moment ever at 2:25 – hail the Swedish Maestro!
1st Equal – Edward Van halen
What more can I say other than he pioneered everything that I love about guitar playing – soul, passion, technique and the clear ability to Rock!
It’s difficult to wonder where the whole guitar game would be without Eddie.
Thankfully for us, he had a Jewish ‘salesman’ on lead vocals, who sold not only himself, but Eddie and the band to the world as well.
If Eddie had been in Kiss or Dokken, would he have become what he did? If Eddie had been with Sammy Hagar from the beginning, would things have taken off like they did? Who knows, but either way, it doesn’t matter now and Eddie is a legend.
A true mark of a real rock legend is how they perform live and Eddie cuts through ‘live’ like no other. He brings so much sonic power and aurora to the stage – I have only seem him 4 times (once with Roth, trice with Hagar) and you tend to forget before the gig that this is Eddie Van Halen! Because they play such good-fun party tunes (and ballads these days), you forget that you will be flattened with dive-bombs, false harmonics, tap-fests and the rest of his armoury. ‘Live’ he is a metal monster!
On record, he is the life and soul of rock guitar. I won’t pinpoint any particular song, solo or riff, as almost everything he did (especially with Roth) was perfect – although ‘I’m The One, Loss of Control, Fools, Mean Street, Unchained, Hot For Teacher and Girl Gone bad’ are all a pretty good place to start!
Eddie also smiled a lot, wore ‘Frankenstein’ dungarees, stripy socks and most crucially, played guitar and wrote the songs for not only my favourite – but the greatest band of all time.
So there you have it – I couldn’t split Eddie and Yngwie up when it came to the crunch!
I can also hear you all saying “But where’s Page? What about Hendrix? You can’t forget Angus! What about Lukathor, Howe, Dimebag, Iommi, Gilmour, Huff, Rhoads, Freidman, Johnson, Box, James etc etc etc etc?”
Well remember, these are just my favourites and I could have easily named a whole load of other fabulous players depending on my mood at the time and besides, it’s just a bit of fun… or is it?