I’ve been very fortunate in being privileged to see some of the world’s greatest guitarists up close. I’m not a musician. I can’t play guitar. I don’t care about how skilful a person is. If I want sheer skill I’d go and watch a classical guitar player. I only care if the person can really excite me. I find guitar exciting. So people like Satriani may be technically brilliant but leave me cold. So here are the people who have thrilled me down the years:
- Jimi Hendrix. I only saw him three times but the sheer excitement he was able to generate was amazing. Not only that but his recorded stuff was revolutionary. I have hundreds of hours of him jamming in the studio that I get lost in.
- Paul Kossof. Seeing Koss play in small pubs was mind-blowing. When he stepped forward to take a solo with that mane of hair shaking, he was so powerful.
- Peter Green. First saw him with John Mayall and loved that flowing guitar sound. Crystalline. I used to go and see Fleetwood Mac at places like the Toby Jug in Tolworth. Always had a rollicking night. Green did some amazing solos. Always enjoyed Danny Kirwin and Jeremy Spencer’s Elmore James stuff. A great live band.
- Elmore James. Unfortunately he never lived long enough to perform in front of a white audience. I’m a sucker for that slide guitar. What power and energy.
- Hounddog Taylor. Raw electric blues. I only saw him once, in a blues package, but he was exhilarating.
- Bo Diddley. Just adored that guitar sound. Used to play that real loud with my mum shouting at me to turn it down. Saw a brilliant show of his in Hull in the 70s. Superb.
- Chuck Berry. Another innovator. Brilliant live. A real showman. Walked that guitar round.
- Eric Clapton. Eric Clapton with John Mayall was superb. I only caught him once with Eric but loved it. Then Cream blew me away. I was in the press enclosure at the Windsor Jazz and Blues festival peering up at Eric as he played. Blew my mind. After Cream he was cabaret.
- Rory Gallagher. I saw Rory with Taste back in the 60s. Such excitement. They steamed along. I wish they’d never split up. What a power trio.
- Jimmy Reed. Now you might say that he’s not really a guitarist but he is. He created one of the most memorable guitar riffs ever. Everybody copied it and although Jimmy just did variations of it on just about everything he recorded it always worked for me. I only got to see him once but it was amazing.
- Roy Harper. Now Roy is mainly an acoustic guitarist, and an amazing one at that, but occasionally he lets fly with an electrified acoustic. When he does it is incredibly distinctive (as on Hell’s Angels). I love it – but then I’m prejudiced.
- Jimmy Page. I’ve watched Jimmy play up close with Led Zep in the early days. I’ve also been privileged to sit in Abbey Road studio and watch him lay down some immaculately phrased guitar. In the control room he could be laughing and joking, pick up a guitar and be instantly transformed. Sends chills.
- Dave Gilmour. Another guy I’ve had the privilege to watch up close. With early Floyd he was amazing. I love that distinctive sound he gets out of his guitar. In the studio he is so brilliant. Innovative, distinctive and interesting.
- Cliff Gallup. If you want raw Rockabilly guitar you can’t do much better than Cliff. He really blew those early Gene Vincent tracks into orbit. Amazing.
- Scotty Moore. I never found him as exciting as Cliff but Scotty was the force behind that early Elvis Presley Sun Records explosion. That trio were sublime. After that Elvis was tame. But for two years at Sun he was dynamite and Scotty was an important ingredient.
- Nick Harper. Another mainly acoustic genius who can let fly on the old electric and always blows my socks off.
- Jeff Beck. First saw him with the Tridents. When he joined the Yardbirds he created a new psychedelic sound like nothing I’d ever heard. I saw him with his own band back in the 60s (with Rod Stewart on vocal) and he was lightnin’.
- Dave Davies. Well, talking about creating new sounds – if nothing else that dirty guitar on ‘You Really Got Me’ is worth a lot. Love it.
- Pete Townsend. Another guy who brought a new sound. What he couldn’t do with a guitar – and all those antics. ‘I Can’t Explain’ blew me away the first time I heard it. Then it got better. One of the most exciting bands ever.
- Jack White. I only got to see White Stripes once but what excitement. Jack was raw and wild – just like I like it.
- Zoot Horn Rollo. One of the Captain Beefheart genius guitarists. A personal hero. He blew me away. But then I could have put in a whole bunch of genius Beefheart guitarists. They all were brilliant – Alex Snouffer, Denny Walley, Jeff Cotton, Gary Lucas………
- Ry Cooder. A real genius with that guitar – love his slide playing.
- J J Cale. JJ really created a brilliant set of riffs that blew me away. A whole new sound. Raw, earthy and dirty.
- Steve Cropper. From those stabbing guitar bursts on ‘Green Onions’ with Booker T and the MGs to all those Otis Redding soul classics, Steve was the man.
- Buddy Guy. Loved his from those first histrionics on that Festival of the Blues compilation album. He could wrench such power out of a guitar. No wonder Jimi used to idolise him.
- Mick Taylor. Another great who I first saw with John Mayall. When he joined the Stones he gave them a real bite! Exile on Mainstreet had his fingerprints all over it.
- Brian Jones. The real musician and leader of the Rolling Stones. ‘Little Red Rooster’ is brilliant. Shame he got too cocky, too fucked up and burnt himself out.
- Syd Barret. Invented psychedelic guitar – all that innovation and experimentation. A real genius.
- Frank Zappa. Now there are a hundred and one things I love about Frank – that guitar is just one of them.
- Robbie Krieger. That incredible slide guitar sound that he invented with the Doors was immaculate – especially on those first two albums.
- Barry Melton. When I first heard Country Joe and the Fish back in 1967 I was blown away by that unique Acid Rock guitar sound that Barry invented. Different!
- John Cippolina. Another one who perfected that West Coast Acid Rock sound.
- Neil Young. Gosh, I nearly missed Neil off. How could I do that? Nobody comes close to that raw dirty sound that he gets when he’s rocking with Crazy Horse. Perfection.
- Lightnin’ Hopkins. Fell in love with those mazy guitar runs he produced solo on a highly amplified guitar on albums like Lightn’n’ Strikes on Ember. Really atmospheric.
- Hubert Sumlin. The guitarist with Howlin’ Wolf responsible for all that immaculate guitar on those Chess records. I saw him live in Leeds a dozen years ago. Fabulous.
- Luther Dickinson. The guitarist with the North Mississippi Allstars – a new band who manage to capture the excitement of raw blues. A superb musician.
- Ibrahim Ag Alhabib. The guitarist with Tinariwen – purveyors of raw exciting Desert Blues. Love those Tuareg Arab rhythms. Brilliant.
I could go on and on. I must have missed out a huge number. Who??? Remind me!