The guy in classic-era Jethro TullMartin Barre?
your favorite under-rated rock guitarist
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- Rated: 57 ↑
Nov 14, 2008 10:43 p.m. Curt:
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Nov 14, 2008 10:46 p.m. Jimbodiddley:
Ronnie Wood
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Cockburn
Maybe THE most underrated guitarist who consistently blows my mind on nothing but an old Harmony or something - David Rawlings, with Gillian Welch.
Their version of Radiohead's Black Star is...stellar. That link is to a bad youtuber of it, complete with fan singing. But Rawlings' solo starts around 2:00 in. Good stuff. He colours just outside the lines.
You can download a good audio version of the song from her website - for $1 or something. More than worth it.
This is not bad. I like the capo-just-for-the-solo bit.
Lessee... who else? ...Bono (I keed! I keed!)
I just got back from seeing Daniel Lanois. I really like his style. Quite different and expressive, like a hybrid of Neil Young and The Edge.
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- Rated: 57 ↑
Nov 14, 2008 10:49 p.m. Curt:
What about Clem Clemson, he should've sued his parents.
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Nov 14, 2008 10:58 p.m. TAG4:
Carl Perkins, Cliff Gallup!
TAG4
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Nov 14, 2008 10:58 p.m. fbama73:
Gary Moore
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- Rated: 41 ↑
Nov 14, 2008 11:09 p.m. dubkitty:
+1 on David Lindley, Prince, and especially Mick Ronson. did you know that he produced the Lou Reed album with "Walk On The Wild Side"?
for lead players, Graham Coxon from Blur; Roger Miller from Mission of Burma. but what i tend to listen to just as much or more than lead players are rhythm players/"second guitarists," who can make or break a band. my favorites are Frank Sampedro in Crazy Horse, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead, and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead.
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Nov 14, 2008 11:17 p.m. bobbyrivera:
Phil Baugh, but I think he's not so much underrated, as just not too well known. Billy Mure is another I would put in this catagory. Nokie Edwards might be another that folks tend to overlook, but again, not so much underrated as unknown.
I don't think Glenn Campbell really gets too much "kudos" as to how great of a player he is (or was since he doesn't do as much guitar slinging anymore).
I would almost put Duane Eddy in this category as well, since lots of folks only know him for the single note stuff, but don't realize how good of a picker (in just about every roots genre and style) he really is.
I also have some of the 60's Roy Clark records. It seems most folks think of him as more or a novelty act (maybe because of HeeHaw?) but those 60's instro records are incredible (I believe he was playing Fender Jazzmasters on those, at least according to the pics).
EDIT- I just read through the entire post. You guys all have some great choices and made me remember some of the cool records I need to listen to again!
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- Rated: 49 ↑
Nov 14, 2008 11:33 p.m. Ric12string:
Jimbodiddley said: Lessee... who else? ...Bono (I keed! I keed!)
Hey, Jim, he didn't get a signature guitar named after him for nothing, ya know!
dubkitty said: and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead
dub, do you really consider Bob to be a great guitarist? I've actually played a little bit with him and he didn't seem to impress me much as a guitarist, but he was a very nice, if not somewhat shy, guy. -
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Nov 15, 2008 12:08 a.m. dubkitty:
Weir notoriously doesn't function well outside of the Dead; he started with them at sixteen and has played in that context or its subsets for his entire adult life. i've heard more than one painfully funny story about Weir sitting in with some band and having no idea what to do. but his playing in the specific context of the Dead from, say, 1969 to 1978 is IMO way beyond most 2d guitarists. the best way to hear this on record is probably Live/Dead, where he works around Garcia with everything from piano-like bursts of chording to delicate single-note lines. his chord voicings in that time frame are also utterly sick, with inversions you never see rock guitarists use. his playing, like the Dead in general, deteriorated in the 80s and 90s as the band lost interest, but his earlier playing is still a huge inspiration to me.
i also should have mentioned David Crosby and Joni Mitchell as backing guitarists; they really ought to be mentioned together since Crosby's whole alternate-tunings thang was allegedly derived from Joni's style. Mitchell in particular does some amazing things with open tunings, e.g. "Just Like This Train."
and as a lead player i should have mentioned Don Rich with Buck Owens. and Denny Dias in Steely Dan.
and Simon Nicol from Fairport Convention as a backing guitarist. gaaaaaaah, make it stop!
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Nov 15, 2008 12:35 a.m. Ric12string:
I've also always enjoyed Walter Becker from Steely Dan.
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Nov 15, 2008 9:47 a.m. farmerbrown:
What kind of guitars did Roy play in later year years? They were always big thick hollow bodies, were they Epiphone, Gibson, or something else? I have seen him play Gibsons and Epi's and some others that I didn't know the brand of.
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Nov 15, 2008 9:52 a.m. Tsar Nicholas :
I've always maintained that Rory Gallagher is horrendously under-rated.
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- Rated: 41 ↑
Nov 15, 2008 10:25 a.m. dubkitty:
I think that's because he was, and still is, barely known in the US. the only people in America i've ever known who knew Rory's music were Irish-Americans who knew of him because he was Irish.
Becker and Dias are both great. i've never tried to emulate either because i don't have the jazz chops, but someday i will. bwaa haa ha
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Nov 15, 2008 10:27 a.m. Proteus:
Yes, Walter Becker...all those hired guns SD hired, and Walter is such a fine player himself.
Beatles6120 him say, presumably about Felder: The Eagles threw him out!
Well, in that case, I accept him. And I still take Joe Walsh, even if he's still an Eagle (ain't he?), because he was already a fine, funny, melodic player before (and outside of) the Ersatzs.
Curt asks if I refer to Martin Barre as the Jethro Tullian plectrumist. Yep, that's him.
And the Procoller I could not recall is Mick Grabham, notably on Grand Hotel and Exotic Birds and Fruit.
As always, this thread has experienced mission creep. From the initial post of the thread establishing its topic – underrated ROCK guitarists – and the list of players given as examples of those who are NOT underrated (Clapton, Hendrix, EVH, etc), I took it that we would be discussing guitarists of the straightforward rock era, that era beginning roughly around 1966 when "lead guitarists" began to get much more attention and the swaggering flamboyant flaming-hair Vikings of the strings began sailing monster stacks and taking no prisoners (but all the maidens they could manage).
That's not to say that all rock guitarists since need to conform to that stereotype, or even try to – but that at least the setup of the thread didn't put me in mind of earlier, rootsier guitarists from other genres. I didn't think of country pickers, or rockabillians, or jazzers, or even blues/R&B cats. Which is why I only hesitantly mentioned Cornell Dupree (and Eric Gale, for that matter).
Also, the lines are fuzzy between "underrated" and "simply little-known" – and between "blessed in the GDP community" and "respected among other groups but NOT here." For instance, lists of only the most obvious rock guitar heros often omit the likes of Peter Green, Jerry Garcia, Jeff Beck, Steve Howe, Steve Morse, and Mark Knopfler – though they all qualify as top-rated players in my version of the book.
So, in effect, we've gotten something not much different than we get in lists of our favorite guitarists - because, of course, if we don't think others respect our favorites enough, we're always special advocates for them. Some of us can always be counted on to bring up certain names (and we know who we are). (See previous paragraph, in fact.)
(So why haven't I brought up Robert Fripp? PRE-EMPTIVE ANSWER FROM PROJECTED FRIPP-HATER: Because, Proteus, not even you can present him as a good rock guitarist. Plus, he's a jerk, and underrated rock guitarists should all be nice guys. ALTERNATE POSSIBLE REASON #1: among a certain subset of appreciators of music, he is not at all underrated, and is in fact pretty appropriately revered. ALTERNATE POSSIBLE REASON #2: Why antagonize Fripp-haters, or endure their abuse? REAL REASON: indispensable as his guitar parts are to the craziness that is King Crimson's version of rock, in the end, I'm not sure he's a "rock guitarist.")
Not that I mind the spread of genres and styles, because one purpose of threads such as this is to make us aware of guys we might not have known about, or often thought about, otherwise. But when we're suggesting Roy Clark and Duane Eddy and such acknowledged masters of their own forms as underrated ROCK guitarists ... well, you see my perplexity.
HowEVer, digressions and wanderings-further-afield are just part of the way it works here, so that's all OK.
So never mind!
(Do we care about Alvin Lee? Andy Partridge and Dave Gregory?)
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Nov 15, 2008 10:59 a.m. cyclopssam:
chris speedings,funny, i was going to name him before i read the thred,but i'll list him anyway,cus his name dosn't come up enough!,, ric agnew often duplacated,never given props...(the whole southern cal. sound) oh..... roy clark enough said.....
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Nov 15, 2008 11:00 a.m. Proteus:
So...isn't Rory Gallagher more a blues guy?
And let me throw Steve Hunter in the mix. Don't know him? Google!
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Nov 15, 2008 11:10 a.m. cyclopssam:
+1 for steve hunter,yeah roy chark is a bit of a strech,but........ he's just awsome
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- Rated: 41 ↑
Nov 15, 2008 11:22 a.m. dubkitty:
you know, i should have mentioned Peter Frampton. go ahead and cringe--his solo career is utterly cringe-worthy--but when he was with Humble Pie he was a terrific blues-rock guitarist who often veered off in unexpected, jazzy directions inspired by his love of Les Paul. sort of like, in another nearby genre, Willie Nelson is now thought of as a singer and his rather nifty guitar playing is less appreciated than it once was.
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Nov 15, 2008 11:27 a.m. Thomas:
I think that'd be Brian Setzer and John Mayer....
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Nov 15, 2008 11:29 a.m. dubkitty:
similarly, back in the mid-70s Steve Hunter was very well-known, having supplied much of the guitar muscle to Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Animal and gone on to back Alice Cooper. but nowadays he's little-remembered.
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Nov 15, 2008 11:35 a.m. Roosto:
Wilko Johnson
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Nov 15, 2008 11:39 a.m. Wishinfora(nother)Falcon:
Not sure if I'd call it rock, more like folk I guess, but Ani Di Franco is a helluva guitarist. She doesn't get very much recognition at all for that. Her rhythms are unique and she just has a cool style. I don't really get into her music that much as a whole but love her playing.
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- Rated: 45 ↑
Nov 15, 2008 11:44 a.m. Tsar Nicholas :
Pro said: So...isn't Rory Gallagher more a blues guy?
Sshhh! He plays some knockout Piedmont stuff you'd love..
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Nov 15, 2008 11:50 a.m. CnW:
Proteus said: So...isn't Rory Gallagher more a blues guy?
And let me throw Steve Hunter in the mix. Don't know him? Google!
Rory loved the blues and was quite a student thereof. But, He really was a natural rocker. My favorite Rory stuff rocks with the best of them.
VG mag has a review of Steve Hunter's latest (instrumental) release. It's down the column with the little b/w covers, but a nice review. Yeah, he's not the icon that some less-deserving players of the era have become. He ought to be---even if he was only known for the intro to Sweet Jane. Wouldn't you like to come onstage after that gorgeous build-up?
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- Rated: 42 ↑
Nov 15, 2008 11:53 a.m. seadevil:
Tim Lynch (Flamin' Groovies)
Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music, 801)
East Bay Ray (Dead Kennedys)
and, last but not least...Carl Perkins!
