Children of a Lesser Guitar God

Perhaps no "best of" lists outside of sports generate as much rancor as the ranking of guitar players. No doubt there is this very day some poor punter standing at the pearly gates and decomposing in a shallow grave who crossed axes with the wrong barroom stranger over the relative merits of people who, lets face it, make a living by pressing their fingers into strands of wire.

What we're trying to say is that we want to talk about guitar players.

We recently came across a few lenses that ranked the best guitarists of all time (see lens-roll at right). These were inspired by rankings appearing in Rolling Stone and elsewhere to which noble Squidmasters did take offense. Wheretofore their own rankings.

These lists tend to be dominated by familiar names, be they Elder Gods (e.g., Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Page, Keith Richards, David Gilmore, Carlos Santana), technical wizards (Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Ywinge Malmsteen, Eric Johnson), hot contemporaries (Slash, Tom Morello, Mike McCready, Jack White), classic rock heroes (Joe Perry, Peter Frampton, Richie Blackmore, Randy Rhodes), or players who lean towards blues (Stevie Ray Vaughn, B.B. King, Billy Gibbons) or fusion (Jeff Beck, Steve Morse, Robert Fripp, Al Di Meola). You sometimes find artists known primarily for their session work (Jeff Baxter) and, on rare occasion, lesser-known names from the classical or folk community. Of course, these lists always leave off everyone's favorite guitar player: the one they left off.

And not for nothing. These are some of the biggest talents and innovators that ever picked up the guitar. However, this got us thinking about the guitar players who labor in their shadow. Players who are not household names, but whose work you may have enjoyed just the same. Players who are in the band, rather than players who are the band. They might not turn up ever in the top 100, but if you throw out the top 100, then they too might get some recognition. Sure, the money and groupies are nice, but they probably spend many an hour staring wistfully up at the lonely night sky wondering when anyone is ever going to make a Squidoo lens about them.

So, given our obsession with making lists, we did. Here's a dozen or so notable guitar players who labor in the shadow of the Greats. Children of the Guitar Gods to be sure, albeit one of the lesser Guitar Gods. Sort of like how Zeppo never quite got the same respect as Groucho, Harpo, or Karl. We wrote a little intro for each of our selections, then found a sample of their greatness on YouTube for you to enjoy.

What we're shooting for here is not merely here a song we like and X happens to play guitar on it but rather here is a song (or a band) that, while perhaps catchy on its own, is made glorious by X's guitar work Feel free to check our work. Also, our selections skew towards older bands (it's hard to tell if you are ignored if you haven't been around awhile). But let's say the only hard rule is the player can't be on the Rolling Stone top 100 list (we'll provide a copy of that below).

Without further ado, we present... CHILDREN OF A LESSER GUITAR GOD.

Concrete Blonde came out of the L.A. music scene of the '80s and moved towards pop and airplay based on Johnette Napoloitano's vocals and strong songwriting. The band also featured the great guitar work of the versatile James Mankey. Compare the straight-up three-chord simplicity of "Still in Hollywood" with the subtle textured playing Mankey delivers here on "True," both from the band's debut.

A song eventually undone by its own popularity, "My Sharona" was catchy, then recognizable, then, alas, tiresome. But Holy Cow! What a glorious solo by Berton Averre (starts around 2:50). The song still gets play on classic rock stations but - unbelievably - THEY CUT OUT HALF OF THE SOLO!!11!! (so does the official video for the song - the one below does not). Really, Corporate America? The extra 20 seconds to sell corn nuts or whatever is worth this blasphemy? Shame on you.

A legend among punk rock fans but mostly unknown in larger music circles, X was the rare band that identified as punk, yet had members with formal musical training, including the great Billy Zoom (nee Tyson Kindell). Zoom was replaced by Tony Gilkyson after a falling out with the band, and even though X's later work was more radio-friendly (Hey Zeus gets our vote as the most underrated CD of all time), they were still ignored by corporate radio. They'll play Green Day but not X. Go figure.

Here's Zoom playing on "The Have Nots" from X's Under the Big Black Sun.

Lead guitar player and general crazy man for the long-running Cheap Trick, formed in 1974 and still playing shows to this day. We dare say too many Cheap Trick songs reduce Nielson to riffs and power chords. However, if you dig a little deeper in their catalog, you can find songs that let him stretch out a bit. Case in point: "Need your Love" - a cut that gets overshadowed by the band's more radio-friendly (one might say overplayed) tracks like "Ain't that a shame" and "Surrender."

Singer, songwriter, keyboard and guitar player, Farner was the driving energy behind Grand Funk Railroad, a band that was a veritable force of nature in the early 70's. On stage, Farner was also the quintessential buff, shirtless, tight-pantsed, golden god, a sort of prototype David Lee Roth / Eddie Van Halen hybrid that music scientists would later learn to separate, purify, and perfect. Check out Farner's work on "Shining on", from GFRxR's excellent second live album.

Squire was a rising star in the 80's then famously committed career suicide with "Rock Me Tonight," the MTV video for which made fans turn on him like zombies on Linnea Quigley. His big hits like "The Stroke and "In the Dark" tend to bury Squire's guitar work under the rest of the song. For a better look at his chops, check out the solo on "Lonely is the Night."

We'll risk the ire of guitar aficionados for daring to imply Quine is anything but a legend (he was ranked #80 in the Rolling Stone poll) just to have the chance to mention him. Respected by musicians but not what you would call a household name, Quine recorded with a number of big artists over the course of his career. You might know him from his work on Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend. Here's a clip of the band doing the title track on the old Dennis Miller show (hey, Den, NICE HAIR). Overall, they seem a little ragged (does anyone know the story behind this?) but Quine still tears it up.

Rolling Stone - Top 100 (2010)

1. Jimi Hendrix

2. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band

3. B.B. King

4 Eric Clapton

5 Robert Johnson

6 Chuck Berry

7 Stevie Ray Vaughan Who is the better concert band - The Stones or U2 ?

8 Ry Cooder Click to answer

9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin

10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones

11 Kirk Hammett of Metallica

12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana

13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead

14 Jeff Beck

15 Carlos Santana

16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones

17 Jack White of the White Stripes

18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers

19 Richard Thompson

20 James Burton

21 George Harrison

22 Mike Bloomfield

23 Warren Haynes

24 The Edge of U2

25 Freddy King

26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave

27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits

28 Stephen Stills

29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges

30 Buddy Guy

31 Dick Dale

32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service

33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth

35 John Fahey

36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's

37 Bo Diddley

38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac

39 Brian May of Queen

40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival

41 Clarence White of the Byrds

42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson

43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic

44 Scotty Moore

45 Frank Zappa

46 Les Paul

47 T-Bone Walker

48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith

49 John McLaughlin

50 Pete Townsend

51 Paul Kossoff of Free

52 Lou Reed

53 Mickey Baker

54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane

55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple

56 Tom Verlaine of Television

57 Roy Buchanan

58 Dickey Betts

59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead

61 Ike Turner

62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band

63 Danny Gatton

64 Mick Ronson

65 Hubert Sumlin

66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour

67 Link Wray

68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape

69 Steve Howe of Yes

70 Eddie Van Halen

71 Lightnin' Hopkins

72 Joni Mitchell

73 Trey Anastasio of Phish

74 Johnny Winter

75 Adam Jones of Tool

76 Ali Farka Toure

77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat

78 Robbie Robertson of the Band

79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps (1997)

80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids

81 Derek Trucks

82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd

83 Neil Young

84 Eddie Cochran

85 Randy Rhoads

86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath

87 Joan Jett

88 Dave Davies of the Kinks

89 D. Boon of the Minutemen

90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper

91 Robby Krieger of the Doors

92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5

94 Bert Jansch

95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine

96 Angus Young of AC/DC

97 Robert Randolph

98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer

99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag

100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Guitar player montage from Wikimedia Commons and appears under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

--

All other weirdness (c) 2011-14 LabKitty Design