A day for the guitar gods

[patrick_vecchio]

Yesterday was windy and rainy: a perfect day for listening to the blues, so my CD player was occupied by a disc a colleague gave me for Christmas last year. It rounded up the usual suspects - Robert Johnson, Wolf, Son House, Muddy, B.B. - but a little more than halfway through the disc are songs featuring my three favorite guitarists: Jimi Hendrix

Comments

Guitars Rock

[cwmackowski]

First, I hereby bow to the musical greatness of the five guys on your list. I'm going to go in a slightly different direction, and say

-- Keith Richards, who has written arguably the most recognizable guitar riffs in rock and roll (who can't grind through "(Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in their heads, for instance).

-- Jimmy Page, whose wrote some hard-driving riffs of his own. (What teenage guy has not gone transcendental during the guitar solo to "Satirway to Heaven" at the end of the high school dance?)

-- Peter Buck, who keeps it simple because he actually hates solos. (But his blazing solo on "She Just Wants to Be" during a concert in Cleveland a couple years back essentially saved R.E.M.s album "Reveal" for me. I had long-ago written it off, despite the fact that they've been my favorite band for nearly two decades, but after the show I revisted the album in a whole new and appreciative light.)

-- Rob Baker of the Tragically Hip, virtually unknown in the U.S. despite being (or maybe because of being) Canada's biggest rock band. His solos in "Grace, Too" just move suck me up every single time.

Re: Guitars Rock

[patrick_vecchio]

Some people probably have been picking Keith Richards in their death pools for 25, 30 years now. Just thinking about Keef makes me grin. The story I heard about that "Satisfaction" riff is that he woke up in the middle of the night, recorded the riff, went back to sleep and then forgot about the riff until he played the tape back. I gotta respect your judgment, CMac, on Buck and Baker, but my favorite Page solo is the coda to "Black Dog." Man, am I showing my age with this whole guitar gods thing.

Re: Guitars Rock

[cwmackowski]

I can't argue with any of the choices so far (and I join CMack in trying to make the Hip far better known in the US -- it's just not right..), but I'd also add Mark Knopfler. "Sultans of Swing" is just one sampling.

Re: Guitars Rock

[cwmackowski]

Yeah, Keith has gotta get extra points just for being so well pickled.