7 Unexpected Moments of Guitar Awesomeness
The interweb tubes are stuffed with lists heralding the high fallutin’ achievements of all those “greatest of all time” type guitar players that the mainstream media throw in your face everyday. Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Morrello, Slash…they’ve all done some pretty impressive stuff. But you know what? They aren’t the only people that play the damn guitar. In fact, there are several artists who, on any given night, can burn any given venue to the GROUND using nothing more then their guitar shredding abilities. For example…
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7. John Mayer (Live)
Hey, you know what’s fun to do? Make fun of John Mayer. What a tool, right! I mean, he’s got that dorky blog that everyone likes and that killer sense of humor and he’s bedded all those hot chicks and he kicks ass on guitar and…wait. What the hell is going on here? Is John Mayer secretly awesome? While some signs point to a definitive “No” (looking at you, “Your Body Is a Wonderland”), there are even more signs that point to a solid “Maybe?”
One thing that isn’t open for debate is this… John Mayer can play the damn guitar. His songs don’t go to any great lengths to show it, but it’s the truth. YouTube is littered with videos just like the one below if you don’t believe me.
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6. Kurt Cobain on “The Priest They Called Him”
Kurt Cobain did more with noise, mistakes and catastrophe than most guitarists could with years of training and flawless playing. He once said something along the lines of “I could never play like Segovia, but Segovia could never play like me either.” It’s debatable whether Segovia would have wanted to play the guitar like Kurt Cobain, really. But thank God someone wanted to. Without the noise filled intro of “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” or the perfectly-out-of-tune strumming of “Polly” and “Something In the Way,” the world would be a much lesser place.
If Kurt ever embarked on a “tour-de-force” of guitar work, it would be on “The Priest They Called Him,” a William Burroughs’ spoken word piece that featured Cobain on guitar. To hear it, check out the video below. Or, if the mood strikes, seek out a copy of the ridiculously cool 10″ picture disc release that features etchings of Burroughs’ and Cobain’s signatures. It’s cheaper than you think.
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5. Jonny Greenwood on ‘Go To Sleep’ (Live)
With their penchant for experimentation, it’s easy to forget that at their most basic, Radiohead is a great guitar rock band. But where a lesser person could find themselves disappointed with their primary instrument’s diminished role in their band’s music, Greenwood rolls with the punches. And by “roll with the punches” I mean he “plays” a portable radio onstage.
But it’s not all theremins and didgeridoos for Jonny Greenwood. When it comes time to rock, he’s as good as it gets. Employing a Max/MSP patch based guitar setup, Jonny strangles enthralling guitar sounds out of a simple Telecaster every bit as well as the much more heralded Tom Morello. And his lead singer is far less annoying. Kind of. Anyway, to see Jonny Greenwood tear shit down, check the solo at the end of the video below.
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3. Lindsey Buckingham on ‘Big Love’
How proficient is Lindsey Buckingham on guitar? Consider this. When he bolted Fleetwood Mac on the eve of a world tour, they hired TWO people to replace him. Now compare that to your current station in life. If the majority of us left our day jobs, it’s debatable whether they would even bother replacing our shiftless asses at all. But Lindsey Buckingham? It took two mortal men to carry the axe load of this one unsung rock guitar giant.
Choosing a solo acoustic version of a famous Mac song to demonstrate his unheralded guitar abilities may seem like an odd choice. But on this tune, Lindsey leaves no doubt as to why it took a village to replace him.
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2. Neil Young on ‘Keep on Rockin’ The Free World’ (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
No guitar player on Earth can possibly sound exactly like Neil Young. That’s a big claim, but in his case, it’s true. You see, there are a lot of great players out there who use a certain guitar/amp/effects set up with the knobs tweaked to precise positions and, if you can find the info, you can copy them. You may not have the same rhythm or timing or luxurious crotch bulge, but you can have their tone.
Not so with Neil Young. When you see him stomp on that big ass red contraption that sleeps at his feet during every show, understand this, he built that bitch! He wired the circuits, he fashioned the metal casing, he probably sploshed the red paint on it, he did it all. And the sound he gets from it is unspeakably unique. In the video below, it takes about three minutes for Neil Young to steal the show and turn this duet with Bruce Springsteen from 2004′s “Vote For Change Tour” into a Neil Young guitar party. If you can’t wait that long for the magic to happen, the terrorists have already won.
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1. Prince on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ (Live George Harrison Tribute)
Prince is the greatest guitar player on Earth. There. I said it. I’ve probably shed a good six years off my lifespan arguing that point with various strangers and associates. It’s just a personal opinion, and it’s fine if you disagree. I expect that. What else am I going to do while I’m drunk if I’m not arguing about music? You may not agree that Prince is THE greatest six string assassin walking the streets today, but if you know anything about the guitar, you at least know he deserves to have his name mentioned amongst the best. Top five, top twenty, top fifty, whatever. He gets a spot.
That’s how I feel anyway. Rolling Stone, apparently, does not. And they said so when they released their list of the top 100 guitar players of all time just weeks before both Prince and Rolling Stone Magazine founder Jann Wenner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In their opinion, Prince wasn’t even in the top 100.
Is there any proof that Prince’s molten-hot solo on that hall of fame induction night’s all-star jam performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” had anything to do with him being snubbed from that list? No. But come on now, this is Prince. He doesn’t just show up for no reason. Until it came time to destroy the stage with that solo, most people didn’t even know Prince was onstage at all. On this night, Prince was on a mission.
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4. John Frusciante with Red Hot Chili Peppers (Live)
Maybe you can chalk it up to this past history of off stage shenanigans, including once recording a solo album mainly as a means to score drug money, but for some reason John Frusciante’s name rarely comes up when the best guitar players of today are discussed.
Maybe it’s just because the Chili Pepper’s songs don’t really extend into jamtastic solo territory on record, lest they ease up on Anthony Kiedis’ “wang dang dong ding dong” stream of consciousness rambling. Whatever the case may be, John Frusciante deserves more credit than he receives.
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I think Prince thought the title of the song was “While My Guitar Screams Uncontrollably”
Prince is extremely underrated. Though his tone and style owe a huge debt to Ernie Isley, he took the fuzzbox sound out of straight rock and proved it’s worth.
ok while some of these guys are good they are definatly not awesome when I think awesome I think of guys like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Randy Rhoads, and Dimebag Derral Abbot….
Those guys are Awesome!
wow…
i would never have pegged prince for an incredible guitar player. Thanks for opening my eyes. I think most people think ‘Oh its just prince’ as he has the flash part of it down pat.
absolutely impressed.
nice picks!
prince knocked me down
Jason Becker is a MUST on a list like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Becker
By the time he was in high school he was playing the hardest guitar songs of his time one handed while playing yo-yo on the other hand. A few years later and he was on track to be the best guitarist of all time by the time he’d be an adult.
A few years later he got a disease that ruined his entire body, leaving him motionless everywhere except his face. So what did he do? He literally wrote a CD, blink-by-blink, one note at a time, with his parents writing the music he instructed them to through a system of blinks. Then he hired an orchestra to play his music for him.
Best. Guitarist. Ever.
Lindsey Buckingham is the only guitarist to send chills down my spine in my adult life. That live performance was practically transcendent. Wow.
And I totally agree about Prince. He’s a badass and he knows it, which only amplifies his badassness.
Freakin awesome list! I agree 100% with you on Prince, he rocks the g harder than most know or can even dream of! I was seriously surprised that John Mayer can rip it up like that!? Crazy … who-da-thunk-it!?
Please don’t overlook Jeff Healey. Check out this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6iXeywnWU0&feature=related
R.I.P Jeff Healey
Gah! Everyone who mentioned Jack White…I had him on the list, write up and everything, and dropped him at the last second for reasons I’m still unsure of. I think because he gets a LOT of cred for his guitar playing of late. But yeah, Jack White should have been on the list. And whoever it was that mentioned Prince’s performance of “Fury” on SNL…right on. That was good stuff. Better than the studio recording. And thanks everyone for the (mostly) nice comments. Glad you all liked the article.
Don’t forget about Django Reindhardt, Gary Moore, Santana.
I have always said that Prince is a fantastic guitarist, so I totally agree on that point, but I actually found his solo in this clip a bit repetative and messy at times.
While My Guitar Gently .. Flies away at 6:11 …
Easily the coolest link I’ve stumbled on in a month.
Come on ppl. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Greg Howe, Robben Ford, Frank Gambale, George Benson, Eric Johnson, I agree on Prince and John Mayer and many more true musicians and guitarist. Curt Cobain, haha, I’m can’t stop laughing.
I don’t know why so many of you guys are blathering about WHY DIDNT HE INCLUDE VAI SATRIANI DIMEBAG SANTANA HENDRIX PAGE VAN HALEN BLAH BLAH
You guys completely missed the point of the list. It was the author’s perception of underrated guitarists, players that people don’t think of primarily as guitar virtuosos, but they are. Now, a couple of the clips might not be the best. But you guys completely missed the whole point of the list. Vai, Satch, Dimebag, Santana, etc., are already mainly thought of as guitar legends. The list wasn’t a “greatest guitarists” list. It was a “most overlooked/underrated guitarists” list. Get it straight, go back to 5th grade and learn some goddanged reading comprehension.
Hey assholes,
The list is 7 UNEXPECTED moments of guitar awesomeness, not “7 best guitarists”. That is all.
i really dont think people are understanding what this list IS
its a list of the most UNEXPECTED guitar greatness
so its really no wonder why jimi hendrix and vai arn’t up here
they do exactly what you’d expect them to do
i had NO idea that prince played that well
Great post. I am a fan of Prince and he is one of the best guitar players out there. Although I like many other but he has his own style. I wish I could play like him someday before I die. :)
Thanks again for quality post.
Roshan
Freelance Developer
http://www.instantshift.com
Wait no Clapton strap malfunction for The Last Waltz?
…Bah. None of these held a candle to Pete Townshend in his prime, and even when he’s old and crippled.
These are cool! But….7,2 & 1 suck. Prince used to be better but I wouldn’t put him in the top 100. People I’ve seen and heard that are unknown and not famous could fill half that list IMO, other barely heard of greats and then the well known legends…..but never Prince. John Mayer has a vagina.
The Prince clip was incredible, and a lot of the others were really nice. Thanks.
Yeah, I’d agree Prince definitely deserves a spot in the “Top 50.” Top-notch skills. He is such a versatile and prolific all-around musician, and an ingenious and soulful songwriter–one of the most talented people alive.
I like the idea of ‘unexpected’ awesomeness . . . lol. Yep, some surprises here.
Other guitar players worth checking out: Todd Rundgren (yep!), Adrian Belew (funny and complex), Mike Keneally (maybe the best Frank Zappa offspring ever), Dweezil Zappa (yes, he can really play, extremely good).
all i have to say is Scotty Anderson. Prince is an infant compared to Scotty. Youtube that shit.
I think Prince deserves to be number one purely for the fact that he’s a tiny, tiny little man, and it’s so wonderful to see him compensating for his diminutive size by making a guitar SQUEAL as loud as he can.
As blatantly stated in the title, this is all about under-rated or unexpected guitar moments.. So yeah Prince was defiantly something different, I knew he was decent but he knows music pretty well, and knowing that can easily transmute into decent fret work.
the other 6 people on the list are…. well shitty, mayer is just a blues scale whore, using effects isn’t exactly talent, and radio is just god awful.
I’d mention the virtuosos but that defies the purpose of the list….Jason Becker anyone?
Nice clips, some of these are actually great guitar players, like Prince. You need to dump Kurt though, he’s a good song writer, he had a musical gift, but he never got past the 2 first things you learn when you start playing guitar, which he didn’t even learn right anyway. Cobain’s songs will live on as brilliant classics, but at a certain point folks need to face the fact that he could not play worth shit.
So I’ve been on the hunt trying to find a purchasable/down-loadable quality copy of the performance prince did for clip number 1. I’m now aware it was for the 2004 rock and roll hall of fame, but dang if i cant find a place that has it.
Anyone here have any idea where i can buy/get it?
uhhh any list without jack white is kind of a joke, especially with mayer on it (mayer isn’t the guitar god that jack is, but he is better than people give him credit for) if you want a blazing unexpected performance by jack white, try let’s build a home performed on conan o’brian
oh yeah and prince is a guitar god but he’ll never get credit for it unfortunately.
Nice list. For another suprising solo, check out the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh, Well” by a band called the Rockets. The solo itself isn’t all that technically amazing, but the tone is gut-wrenching and it’s a great example of a solo with every note it needs and none it doesn’t.
god dammit i have to admit prince is a pretty good guitarist
Not only does Prince exude awesomeness, but he’s clearly a wizard. His guitar disappears at the end. AWESOME!
How can I say this without causing a riot…
Prince is an excellent guitar player, no doubt about that.
Best ever? Well not so much. Im actually somewhat dissapointed with that solo. It could have been better.
Nice Prince Clip ;o)))
look up Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt and go from there. – These guys are merey OK by that standard.
No-one is saying that Prince is “the best” or “No. 1″, there just saying that he has been underestimated, and that he deserves a high ranking place in Guitar Player Pantheon. I mean really, Jendrix is God and Amen. The reason why Prince is the No. 1 in this list is because he is the MOST underestimated of all Guitar players. Actually I would give him a place in the top 20 or 50. Good solo. Oh, and Jack White IS already recognized as one of the Top guitarists, its not unexpected, thus he does not figure in this list.
how about the incredible unknown guitarists like Forrest MacDonald of Atlanta and Johnny Barnes of Boston. http://www.johnnybarnes.com
Another great Prince moment – The greatest performance ever in AMA history – Prince doing PURPLE RAIN – can’t remember that year- but the best ever! The audience was in awe! Jaws dropped. I remember getting chills. AMAZING! I agree Prince never gets the credit he deserves
John Mayer is a fucking god.
Chuck Schuldiner should REALLY be mentioned somewhere as an underground guitarist
prince is fu*kin sick. he can really play with the best of them
I have always taken crap for being a Prince fan. I’ve never argued he was the best, but thanks to your video post, I believe I will start!
Have any of you idiots mentioning why Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix and the like are not on the list READ the title of the article? “Unexpected” people…..everybody knows those guys can rip it up. Not many people know that Prince is a freaking god on the instrument.
Well, Prince blew me away! I was not expecting that at all.
Kudos to the dude who mentioned Matt Bellamy of Muse.
Totally agree about the Prince one, I caught it prior to seeing it here and… I have to admit… I can’t think of a better guitar player than Prince either. I don’t own a single one of his albums. I don’t even like… need to, I just conjure the memories of seeing stuff… and the fact that I was obsessed with batdance as a child.
Cobain nicked a lot offa SY guitar, I wish more people did!
Don’t forgot the underappreciated Guitar god David Lindley!!!!!
I think you are leaving out one major person in Roy Buchanan in the song “The Messiah Will Come Again”. If you dont agree that he should be on the list over at least John Mayer then you are full of shit
Can we have a keyboard list?! Guitarists are so overrated. tsk.