[net.music] Best guitar players of the 70s

perform@bsdgvax.UUCP (08/24/84)

     Let's move to the seventies now.  The sixties were before my time (I
was only a little kid then).  I would say that one of the very best guitar
players of the seventies was Al DiMeola.  To summarize, I'd like to
make up my little list of best rock/jazz-rock guitar players of the seventies. 
Comments are welcome.

               1) Al DiMeola
               1) John McLaughlin
               1) Jimmy Hendrix      (he died sometime in 1970)
               1) Jeff Beck
               1) Jimmy Page
               1) George Benson
               1) Eric Clapton
               1) Eddie Van Halen
               1) Pat Metheny

     I made them all number 1 because it's tough to decide who is actually the
best.  They're all excellent.  Can anyone find conspicuous missing entries?

                                 -David Vacca
                                  Burroughs Corporation
                                  ..!burdvax!bsdgvax!vacca

marantz@null.DEC (Josh HL01-1/S07 DTN 225-4835) (08/29/84)

               1) Al DiMeola
               1) John McLaughlin
               1) Jimmy Hendrix      (he died sometime in 1970)
               1) Jeff Beck
               1) Jimmy Page
               1) George Benson
               1) Eric Clapton
               1) Eddie Van Halen
               1) Pat Metheny

bsdgvax!perform listed the preceding as the best guitar players of the 70s,
and asked for conspicuous missing entries.  For me, Steve Howe and Robert Fripp
come to mind immediately.  Given what has already been posted, I'd say that
the list could be extended to include a sufficiently high number of musicians
to render the list meaningless.  I therefore put forth that "great guitarist"
is a subjective label, and depending on your musical taste, your idea of a
great guitarist will change.  As far as I can see, the problem is further
complicated by the variety of qualities a guitarist can have that can cause
the audience to call him "great".  Some guitarists posess lightning speed,
some have excellent compositional ability, and some can produce unique and
innovative sounds.  In my mind, the very best guitarists posess all these
qualities and more in different proportions.  I can list the ones that I
perceive as able to demonstrate these qualities, in fact, I have already
done so.  However, so has everyone else, and it's getting a little bit
tiring.  Perhaps we could conclude this phase of net.music with the
originator of the great "great guitarists" mail-in tabulating all the votes
and giving us a complete list, with all the tabulated votes.

				    Perpetually Changing,
				    -Joshua D. Marantz

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Wed 29-Aug-1984 15:55 EST

michaelf@ism780.UUCP (09/07/84)

	     I once heard Roy Buchannan play "Hey Joe" and I thought
      that at the end of the record the DJ was going to say,"...and that
      was God on guitar..."