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Guitar Greats
by Univideit Gauitin
http://www.guitarsuniverse.com
No two guitar aficionados will be able to agree on the list
of guitar greats, but like so many lists, it can be fun to
try to make. What each considers greatness will vary too -
is it technical ability or some hard-to-define quality like
'soul'?
The blues guitarist Robert Johnson features on many lists.
He has the added attraction of a shadowy legend all his own.
The story goes that he was a pretty average, even bad
guitarist, but in just one year he became phenomenal...
Where had this new talent come from? Nobody wanted to
believe it was just practice and hard work, so the tale
started that Johnson had made a pact with the Devil.
The deal had been done, so the story goes, at a crossroads
somewhere in the Deep South. Johnson himself immortalized
the meetings, probably ironically, in songs like Crossroad
Blues and Me And The Devil Blues. These were some of the few
tracks he was able to record before his death in 1938 at the
tender age of 27. To this day no one knows if he was stabbed
or poisoned or if the devil himself came to claim what he
was owed.
Jimi Hendrix, another great guitarist, also died young at
28. He too became great in a short time. He is more well
known for his antics like playing solos behind his back,
with his teeth, setting his guitar on fire; than for his
superb guitar playing skills. He was a great and fantastic
musician better known for the wrong reasons.
Hendrix was an all-round musician, equally adept at blues,
rock and jazz. Believe it or not, he only had a bassist and
drummer in his live concerts. He was a great exponent of
playing guitar and very innovative as well. Being left
handed, he re strung his guitar upside down.
Like all legends, stories about Hedrix are legion. He was
famous for covering other bands songs in concert and on
record. Sometimes he would do his cover of a track before
the original band had managed to perform it live, as was the
case with the Beatles 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club
Band'. Though he couldn't read or write musical notation,
it's said that a single listen to a new song was enough for
him to be able to play it. He is also one of a very small
number of musicians who earned the approval of the hardest
man to please in the history of popular music, Miles Davis.
Guitar players rule the roost in many forms of music.
People do not view them only as rock or blues man. That is
why Django Rheinhardt, John Williams and Paco de Lucia are
considered universally great. No doubt complete agreement
on guitar legends cannot be achieved.
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