Mount Rushmore of Guitarists

Jimbro66

StefB said:

Quickly turned into a 'who are your favourite guitarists?' thread as usual.

I'm not so sure about that. On my own list of six there is only one that I'd maybe call a personal favourite and I suspect others here have done similar in their choices.

richardhomer

Jimbro66 said:

StefB said:

Quickly turned into a 'who are your favourite guitarists?' thread as usual.

I'm not so sure about that. On my own list of six there is only one that I'd maybe call a personal favourite and I suspect others here have done similar in their choices.

Same here - EC is a personal favourite but was picked (along with the others) for significance of influence. I actually dislike Hendrix’s playing....

StefB

Jimbro66 said:

StefB said:

Quickly turned into a 'who are your favourite guitarists?' thread as usual.

I'm not so sure about that. On my own list of six there is only one that I'd maybe call a personal favourite and I suspect others here have done similar in their choices.

Fair point, but I don't expect many sculptors to start sharpening their chisels in readiness for etching the faces of Ron Asheton, Lesley West or Wilko Johnson on Mount Rushmore for our nans to recognise.

DrJazzTap

As much as I'd love a Christ the reedeemer sized statue of Allan Holdsworth. In terms of influence and a mount rushmore for guitarists. 

Hendrix 
Van halen 
Django 
Robert Johnson

monquixote

If we are talking about the Mount Rushmore of guitar heroes (excluding personal preference) then I'd say:

Page

Iommi

Hendrix 

EVH

Vai

The reason being I think Page, Iommi and Hendrix invented what it is to be the cool rock guitar hero where the guitarist could be as important as the singer.

EVH marks the point where the lead guitarist could actually be more important than the singer.

Vai marks the point where a guitar hero could do without the singer and fill stadiums without a singer at all.

I think past that point guitar heroes have been in a steady decline to the point of irrelevance. 

I don't think there will be another EVH, Vai, Slash in terms of cultural significance.

JayGee

Not convinced he actually gets a place on the mountain, but...

I can’t believe Brian May hasn’t had at least one nomination. 

Redlester

Philly_Q said:

Leslie West in his heyday.  And no room for anyone else.

I don't know...

Leslie West because he was in Mountain

Dave Edmunds because he was in Rockpile

Then there's Slade's legendary axeman Dave Hill. 

Keith Richards because he is a Rolling Stone. 

From the 13th Floor Elevators we must have Rocky Ericsson. 

I know he's not a guitarist but I think Keith Flint would have been great on vocals with this lot. 


At least if this lot don't get onto the Mt Rushmore of rock, then they could play the geologists' ball. 

Then again maybe not. I bet the critics would really slate them. 

stickyfiddle

Redlester said:

Philly_Q said:

Leslie West in his heyday.  And no room for anyone else.

I don't know...

Leslie West because he was in Mountain

Dave Edmunds because he was in Rockpile

Then there's Slade's legendary axeman Dave Hill. 

Keith Richards because he is a Rolling Stone. 

From the 13th Floor Elevators we must have Rocky Ericsson. 

I know he's not a guitarist but I think Keith Flint would have been great on vocals with this lot. 


At least if this lot don't get onto the Mt Rushmore of rock, then they could play the geologists' ball. 

Then again maybe not. I bet the critics would really slate them. 

Wot no Kid Rock??

Redlester

stickyfiddle said:

Redlester said:

Philly_Q said:

Leslie West in his heyday.  And no room for anyone else.

I don't know...

Leslie West because he was in Mountain

Dave Edmunds because he was in Rockpile

Then there's Slade's legendary axeman Dave Hill. 

Keith Richards because he is a Rolling Stone. 

From the 13th Floor Elevators we must have Rocky Ericsson. 

I know he's not a guitarist but I think Keith Flint would have been great on vocals with this lot. 


At least if this lot don't get onto the Mt Rushmore of rock, then they could play the geologists' ball. 

Then again maybe not. I bet the critics would really slate them. 

Wot no Kid Rock??

Only if Bob Rock can produce. 

I don’t know, I’m having second thoughts about this group. They might be a load of schist. 

crunchman

BB King

Clapton

Hendrix

EVH

Not my personal favourites, but probably the most important.  Could argue for Chuck Berry rather than BB King or Clapton.

Blueingreen

guitars4you said:

Wes Montgomery - The octave

Not a view that will go down well with some jazz guitar fans, but I for one would likely have learnt more Wes stuff if it hadn't been for the octaves.  Learning to play octave lines fast and fluidly has always seemed like more effort than it was worth - quite a lot more technical proficiency to deliver the tiniest smidgen more musical value, and then it only really works in a narrow retro-jazz style.  It's like an effect, except you've got to learn a tricky technique to use it - you're better off with the ones that only need a pedal.

fretmeister

Need to exclude anyone who used a Bigsby.

Can't be allowed to desecrate a beautiful mountain with that sort of filth. 

horse

JayGee said:

Not convinced he actually gets a place on the mountain, but...

I can’t believe Brian May hasn’t had at least one nomination. 

 I was thinking the same - on the fence but thought he'd have some votes here at least

monquixote

horse said:

JayGee said:

Not convinced he actually gets a place on the mountain, but...

I can’t believe Brian May hasn’t had at least one nomination. 

 I was thinking the same - on the fence but thought he'd have some votes here at least

Imagine the poor bastard having to sculpt his hair.

koneguitarist

I’m not a fan of Hendrix or Brian May, but I can see Hendrix relevance but not Brian May, he has been good in a great band, but not someone who has influenced generations of players. 

It’s a difficult question with so many variables, but point would be for me who is a guitarist that made everyone sit up in the music world and go WTF was that? 

I can see why Robert Johnson can be considered, same with T Bone Walker, BB King etc, but apart from influencing British blues  guitarists in the 60s who constantly name check them I’m not sure if they deserve a place. I put up one guitarist that I like a lot, although a limited guitarist, I put him up for his guitar work and his influence on everyone from Page to Angus Young, plus his songs stand the test of time for words and music. Other guitarists I put up we’re for their ability to make people take up the guitar or in a lot of cases burn them! 

Cranky

. . . Museums, cemeteries!... Truly identical in the sinister jostling of bodies that do not know each other. Great public dormitories where one sleeps forever side by side with beings hated or unknown. Reciprocal ferocity of painters and of sculptors killing each other with line and color in the same gallery.

They can be visited once a year as the dead are visited once a year.... We can accept that much! We can even conceive that flowers may once a year be left for la Gioconda! . . . But we cannot admit that our sorrows, our fragile courage, our anxiety may be taken through there every day!... Do you want to be poisoned? Do you want to rot?

What can one find in an old painting beside the embarrassing contortions of the artist trying to break the barriers that are impassable to his desire to wholly express his dream?

To admire an old painting is to pour our sensitiveness into a funeral urn, instead of throwing it forward by violent casts of creation and action. Do you mean thus to waste the best of you in a useless admiration of the past that must necessarily leave you exhausted, lessened, trampled?

As a matter of fact the daily frequentation of museums, of libraries and of academies (those cemeteries of wasted efforts, those calvaries of crucified dreams, those catalogues of broken impulses!...) is for the artist what the prolonged tutelage of parents is for intelligent young men, drunk with their talent and their ambitious will.

For the dying, the invalid, the prisoner, it will do. Since the future is forbidden them, there may be a salve for their wounds in the wonderful past.... But we want nothing of it -- we the young, the strong, the living Futurists! . . .

F.T. Marinetti

Schnozz

Mount Blackmore.

soma1975

Just 4 different images of Johnny DeMarco

Grangousier

Mount Rushmore would be for drummers, surely?

(He said, slandering drummers for the sake of a weak gag.)

rocktron

C'mon  guys . . .only one person (Schnozz), mentioned Ritchie Blackmore. 

Well two, really, including guitars4you.

Blackmore influenced a great many rock guitarists.