Rock - Voice of the people

Rock and Roll started in the 1950's with Bill Haley and the like but of course there is no clear line between the second half of 20th popular music and what went before. It drew on jazz, bluegrass, blues, country, crooners, musicals...

Here is my very short list of rock guitarists and their recordings that have influenced me, arranged more or less in the order I heard them. Bear in mind that any analyses I make now of their styles are all with the benefit of decades of performing and studying.

When I first heard these players - all I knew was they connected with me in a very immediate way. Their music filled a need - or called to something within me, a call that was impossible to ignore.

One thing that stands out to me as I read this list is the original styles of most of these fellows. Coming first is a whole different proposition - in so many ways - to being a re-creator or interpretor of other people's music. Not necessarily "better" - but a whole different ball game.

Nowadays, with the incredible amount of information available to kids in print, on video and DVD, and on the internet, there are thousands who play like these fellows. Like them - but not the same as them - there is nothing like the original.



Also check out the Frequently Asked Questions about Rock Guitar



Tony Iommi
- "Black Sabbath" - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" - spine tingling riffs, huge sound. I saw them live in Sydney, Australia. The support was AC/DC whose craftsmanship I vastly under appreciated at the time - I truly was a callow youth !



Ritchie Blackmore
- "Machine Head" - "Made in Japan". What can you say? Author of the most famous guitar riff ever... Blackmore created an extraodinarily sophisticated fusion of Blues and Baroque articulation and phrasing, delivered in the context of a high energy hard rock band.



Eric Clapton
- "Live Cream" - "Bluesbreakers" - the guitar moaning, crying and singing like an angel. The "CLAPTON IS GOD" graffiti appeared in Sydney as well ... or maybe we just imagined it. But we did read "Melody Maker" and "New Musical Express" and got the scent of the guitar god cultism rampant at the time. ("Rolling Stone" magazine was totally incomprehensible to me).



Jimmy Page
"Led Zeppelin 2" - "Led Zeppelin 4" - powerful riffs - the guitar as a force equal to an orchestra. At the first dance gig I played I won kudos with my schoolmates by playing the Zeppelin anthems : "Black Dog" - "Rock and Roll" and of course "Stairway to Heaven".



Steve Howe
- "Yessongs" - "Relayer" - everything from Chet Atkins to Stravinsky on the guitar!



Yngwie Malmsteem
"Rising Force" - was the reason I finally got into classical guitar - all those Bach /Paganini lines played with great abandon on a LOUD strat.... very exciting. Yeah he is fast. But what about his tone control and bending - vibrato - phrasing, there's a lot more going on there than speed. The guy had a total guitar concept happening.before he was 20 years old. A lifetime achievement!

More Rock....

Metallica - Some Kind of Monster
I have a look at this documentary which looks into the inner sanctum of the world's most successful rock band - "Metallica".






Back to repertoire.

Links