Brian May has been voted the 'greatest rock guitarist of all time'.

Are they having a laugh?!

[www.thesound.co.nz]

Never compare guitarists, but to me the greatest rock guitarist of all time is Jimi Hendrix. An innovator playing things on his own that often requires 2 guitarists.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-11-20 18:14 by TheflyingDutchman.

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Elmo
Brian May has been voted the 'greatest rock guitarist of all time'.

Are they having a laugh?!

[www.thesound.co.nz]

seems like their readers (or at least those how voted) are too young…

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TheflyingDutchman
Never compare guitarists, but to me the greatest rock guitarist of all time is Jimi Hendrix. An innovator playing things on his own that often requires 2 guitarists.

Brian May seems to agree with you!

C

from the article above


May told Total Guitar, "I'm absolutely speechless. I'm blown away. I have to say it's completely unexpected. Obviously, I'm deeply touched that people feel that way about me. I'm not under any illusions that, technically, I'm even on the tree of great guitarists."

"I guess this tells me that what I've done has affected people, and that means a great deal to me. I will never claim to be a great guitarist in the sense of, you know, a virtuoso. I guess I just try to play from my heart and that's about it."

Among the top five voted guitarists were Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) and Eric Clapton.

"Well, it is very humbling. Jimi is, of course, my number one. And I've always said that," May said. "To me, he's still something superhuman. It's like he really did come from an alien planet, and I will never know quite how he did what he did."

He explained that every time he goes back to Hendrix, he's "thrilled and stunned" every time, explaining that he will never stop learning from Hendrix. "I get that feeling all over again, like either I'm going to give up playing the guitar, because I can't face up to this, or I'm gonna really have to get into it in a big way and try and do what is in my own body and soul."

He's good but wanky.

Brian May has his own sound and you can always clearly hear that it's him playing. It might not be your thing, but he is no doubt a great guitarist. Whether he is "the best" is subjective but this sort of opinion poll clearly shows that many guitarists admire him and think he is "the best".

One thing that sets him apart is that he composes his guitar solos when not playing guitar in order to not be limited by the instrument itself. As a result, he is one of the few guitarists that anyone could sing one of his guitar solos off the top of their heads.

Personally, I don't even know how it is possible to rank a guitarists as the "best" in the world! But these polls are just for fun and it's cool that they spark debate.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-11-20 18:33 by sjs12.

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crholmstrom
He's good but wanky.

Could you please explain what you mean? I'm English so I am fully aware of the term wank but not in the context of playing the guitar.

Brian's finest moment (I was there!): [www.youtube.com]

He’s definitely in the top 5. BTW, article is dated “09/06/2020”. Is that June or September in NZ?

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Captain Teague

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crholmstrom
He's good but wanky.

Could you please explain what you mean? I'm English so I am fully aware of the term wank but not in the context of playing the guitar.

Long (endless) masturbatory guitar solos that don't really go anywhere. In other words they don't really service the song. It's more like the songs service the solos at least in the live context. Don't get me wrong, I like to listen to him once in awhile. There are plenty of guitar players like that.

Same clowns who say Freddie was best front man(?) of all time or that Queen was the greatest live act ever.

Queen was a fine band, but they're not the Stones.

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crholmstrom

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Captain Teague

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crholmstrom
He's good but wanky.

Could you please explain what you mean? I'm English so I am fully aware of the term wank but not in the context of playing the guitar.

Long (endless) masturbatory guitar solos that don't really go anywhere. In other words they don't really service the song. It's more like the songs service the solos at least in the live context. Don't get me wrong, I like to listen to him once in awhile. There are plenty of guitar players like that.

The only one that comes to mind is his elongated solo in Brighton Rock. Can’t think of any other ‘wanky’ solo that are not serving the song.

Each to their own I suppose but I think Brighton Rock (including extended masturbatory guitar solo) is just great, particularly the version on Live Killers.

He's an amazing, fantastic , unique, and original guitar player - but I certainly wouldn't rank him as the greatest - that would be Jimi Hendrix of course.

That said, and not being a big Queen fan, whenever I think of Brian May alot of great tunes come to mind, but I usually think of this one first:





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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Captain Teague
Each to their own I suppose but I think Brighton Rock (including extended masturbatory guitar solo) is just great, particularly the version on Live Killers.

Completely agree, one of my favorites, and a lot of fun to play along!

Fun fact: the solo goes all the way back to when Brian was in pre-Queen group Smile. Check out their song Blag.

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slane82
Brian's finest moment (I was there!): [www.youtube.com]

just for comparison: Jimi Hendrix doing the same song: [vimeo.com] (starts around 1:45)

These things are just popularity conteats that just change with current events.

No knocking any of these folks, they're great in their own right and have their own styles. It's not a sporting event though where there's definitive proof.

Personally, on a technical level, I think Jeff Beck should top lists of guitar players but he never does.

Lets congratulate the winner and the runner-ups with a big noodle for each.

Baloney.Neither he or even Hendrix are/were a Segovia or John Williams. And Mick Taylor at his bestI prefer to May.Like Street Fighting Man Brussels, You Can’t Always GetWhat You Want Philly 1972and Winter with CarlaOlsen. Plus Hendrix was the most innovative and important guitarist in rock history. In addition to Taylor , I could name 10 rock guitarists who are better than May, IMO: Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter, George Harrison, Eddie Van Halen,Joe Satriani, Keith Richards,Eric Clapton,John McLaughlin,The Edge.And probably 10 other more recent guitarists



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-11-21 12:36 by Taylor1.

Only a moderate Queen fan here.
Some songs and albums are really really great.
‘The best’, I don’t know...
But Bryan May is a really great guitarist and really original.
So, Queen hype or not, he really is among the greats. Even Keith has said that May is a great guitarist.

Hello,

my opinion in two points:

- I think there is a wrong concept about that the best guitar players has to be the fastest ones. Keith Richards, David Gilmour, Gary Louris from the Jawhawks are incredible guitar players, they are not the fastest ones but they know how to take you high when they play.

- The searching of the best guitar player is always limited to US and the UK, so there are many many guitar players from other countries that are outside. Here in Argentina we have incredible guitar players but nobody knows abot them.

Having said that I think that Bryan May is one of the best.

Bye
Fernando

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Fernandobsas
Hello,

my opinion in two points:

- I think there is a wrong concept about that the best guitar players has to be the fastest ones. Keith Richards, David Gilmour, Gary Louris from the Jawhawks are incredible guitar players, they are not the fastest ones but they know how to take you high when they play.

- The searching of the best guitar player is always limited to US and the UK, so there are many many guitar players from other countries that are outside. Here in Argentina we have incredible guitar players but nobody knows abot them.

Having said that I think that Bryan May is one of the best.

Bye
Fernando

Good points, different styles lend to different skills.

Certainly if your talking rhythm, Richards and Townshend are up there; lead is a whole different group.

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kovach

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Fernandobsas
Hello,

my opinion in two points:

- I think there is a wrong concept about that the best guitar players has to be the fastest ones. Keith Richards, David Gilmour, Gary Louris from the Jawhawks are incredible guitar players, they are not the fastest ones but they know how to take you high when they play.

- The searching of the best guitar player is always limited to US and the UK, so there are many many guitar players from other countries that are outside. Here in Argentina we have incredible guitar players but nobody knows abot them.

Having said that I think that Bryan May is one of the best.

Bye
Fernando

Good points, different styles lend to different skills.

Certainly if your talking rhythm, Richards and Townshend are up there; lead is a whole different group.

And if you're referring to someone who specializes in unhinged distorted chaotic mayhem and bedlam, and who also happens be Canadian - hands down Neil Young ha.
One minute he's unleashing the beast on an electric, and the next minute a gentle lullaby on acoustic that's akin to peaceful birds singing on a sunny spring morning.
If extreme diversity is one of the traits of a great guitar player, gotta vote Neil.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

For me this would have to be Vinnie Vincent or Slash.

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Taylor1

Baloney.Neither he or even Hendrix are/were a Segovia or John Williams.

Segovia and Williams are classical guitarists. The thread is about rock guitarists, not even about the best electric guitarist, if there is one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-11-22 19:56 by TheflyingDutchman.

He ain’t one of the 10greatest rock guitarists either.

Ok Taylor1, we get it, you don’t like Brian May.

Yeah, Taylor1 is clearly not a fan of Brian May, but the fact he lists The Edge in his top 10 speaks volumes....


lol

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

One person's opinion of best of anything may be so different from anyone else.

Mick Jagger is my top front man in a band, and Jeff Beck or Jimmy Hendrix top guitarist, and The Rolling Stones best ever Band........... but that is just my opinion.
The media produce so many polls on anything and everything but to me, its what I think that counts .
Everyone else is quite entitled to have a different view from me.

I usually run when i see the words... Greatest or Genius ...



ROCKMAN