FanPost

Favorite rock guitarists

With all the consternation over the FSU offensive line, maybe it's time from a break for something a little more lighthearted, such as hard rock and heavy metal!

My wife and I were Youtubing the other night and we ran across some stuff from Jimi Hendrix. I said to her that it's easy to forget how brilliant this guy was if you haven't heard him in a while, and I haven't. But if everyone came up with a top 10 rock guitarists of all time, my guess is Jimi would be at the top of most lists. He certainly is on mine, and I say that as someone who sees Jeff Beck as a badly underrated guitarist, one of many (Terry Kath also comes to mind in this context. Maybe Alex Lifeson, too).

Now as a big fan of Led Zeppelin, it's hard to ignore Jimmy Page, but Page never really did much after John Bonham died (although I still think Bonzo's passing, as tragic as it was, saved Led Zep from putting out a really bad LP or two toward the end). So as much respect as Page gets from me as a bandleader, I don't think he's quite in Hendrix's league as an instrumentalist.

Jimi was sort of paleo-psychedelia and the art form has not wanted for very capable proponents since 1970, but it's tough to come up with someone who has challenged Hendrix for the title of GOAT. Granted Hendrix was quite the beneficiary of Mitch Mitchell's drumming (Noel Redding was kinda replaceable if you ask me), but if you listen to Captain Coconut (from the Crash Landing LP), you get some sense as to what Jimi might have done had he survived. He transcended his primary band affiliation, the Experience, whereas Page didn't.

So, in that spirit, who is everyone's five favorite guitarists? Vaughn? Eddie V.H.? Joe Satriani? Let's hear it, and please, some discussion as to the impact they've had beyond just their own bands. Have at it

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