Best musicians I've seen: Guitarists encomia* resumed! 4.7 Guitarists

A significant chunk of a lifetime ago I was writing a series of posts on the musicians I considered to be the best I happen to have seen play live. Other things have intervened but I have contracted covid so the long list of outstanding tasks - and walking, and golf - are out for a few days. So here I resume my encomium* on the best guitarists I've seen play.

To save you looking back, guitarists I've written about from the very large number I've seen included Carlos Santana, Richie Blackmore, Tony Iommi (who arguably created the doom laden sound of heavy metal) and Peter Buck, none of whom made my shortlist and David Gilour, Jimmy Page and Robert Fripp, who did.

Before moving on to my final shorlisted guitarist, other prominent guitarists I've seen include Keith Richards (fourth on Rolling Stone magazine's list compiled by celebrity guitarists**), Pete Townshend (10th) and Dave Davies (91st). These three guitarists illustrate why my original question - who was most the master of his instrument - probably doesn't make sense. Rock music isn't like classical, where a virtuoso violinist's creativity is limited to interpretation (unless they also compose, which is rare). The reason Richards is so high on the list clearly isn't just his skill as a player. C'mon, he wrote the riffs to Satisfaction and Gimme Shelter! And Dave Davies slashed his speaker cone to produce the rasping sound likened to a "barking dog" by one music industry executive, changing Ray's gentle acoustic riff for You Really Got Me into the template for punk. And, according to Mike Rutherford of Genesis, "still one of the greatest riffs of all time". These guys were hugely influential innovators.

Moreover some of the best guitarists I've seen have been hired guns, albeit longstanding ones in the case of Daryl Stuermer who was brought in by Genesis to cover for Steve Hackett in 1977 and has played with them ever since. I haven't seen Hackett, another innovative guitarist, but Stuermer knocks those guitar pieces off like shelling peas (or a virtuoso violinist). When I saw Genesis last year Phil Collins wryly introduced Starmer as being indispensible, as the one who actually knew how to play all the songs. I'd probably add Rick Fenn to that list, who has filled in for Eric Stewart on guitar in 10CC very capably, also since the 70s.

So I don't think you can completely separate skill on the instrument from creativity in this context (Rolling Stone clearly didn't).

Others I've seen included Frank Zappa (22nd on Rolling Stone's list, a great musical magpie and writer of the superb extended guitar solo in Willie The Pimp, a very memorable gig when I saw him in Manchester). It's possible Zappa should be in my shortlist, but he isn't. Another that easily could have been is too obscure for the RS list: Del Bromham of Stray, formed in 1966 and still gigging. I recall their first album being played at teenage parties but didn't buy it until after I saw them playing at a pub in Derby around 2010. As noted by several music publications, Stray may not have gone platinum but  Bromham is seriously good. Hearing Harry Farr made me turn round, go to the back and buy the CD before they had started the next song, something I'd never done before. Del is partial to a bit of Hendrix influence but, as a pure guitar player, I suspect he's actually better than most of the names mentioned above. When we saw them again at The Flowerpot (a pub where Mrs H wouldn't have a drink and avoided going to the toilet!) our younger son laughed at how good they were: "there are bands filling stadiums who aren't as good as this".

My last shortlisted guitarist is also partial to a bit of Hendrix influence, but rather better known, mainly for his various stints with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Influenced by Beck, Page, Gilmour, Hendrix and Zappa (not a bad list!) the young John Frusciante was a fan of the Chilis and knew the original guitarist, Hillel Slovak, who died of an overdose. He knew many of the riffs of their early songs, which gave him a head start when, having already jammed with bassist Flea, he auditioned for the role. He had been due to audition for Zappa's band but pulled out when he realised that Zappa, who ran his band with an iron hand, strictly prohibited drug use. "I realized that I wanted to be a rock star, do drugs and get girls, and that I wouldn't be able to do that if I was in Zappa's band" though by the age of 20 he turned away from hedonism and ended his first stint with the Chilis because, driven by sales of the seminal Blood Sugar Sex Magik album, he found the bands sudden success disorientating. He went back to drugs and then back to the Chilis, living a more health conscious, spiritual lifestyle. In this phase the band produced their biggest selling album Californication  and their other major sellers besides Blood Sugar, By The Way and Stadium Arcadium, which they were touring when I saw them twice. In this phase the band coupled their hard edged funk with a more commercial pop-rock style to great effect.

I recall reading a newspaper article on guitarists which advocated four as the greatest of all time. I can't recall who they all were but two were George Harrison and John Frusciante. The reasoning was that it was impossible for any guitarist to come up with a more appropriate guitar section for a Beatles or Chilis song than Harrison and Frusciante had. Any cover version has to be rendered in a very different style to stand a chance of working - and most don't. Frusciante sounded immaculate live but listening to his recordings I am consistently astounded by how his playing is always perfect for the song on those classic Red Hot Chili Peppers albums. To the point where I listen to the double Stadium Arcadium album all the way through quite often, even though there are some fairly average tracks, because I can't stop listening to what the Frusciante is doing.

Yes some of it is inevitably derivative: he's 26 years younger than Jimmy Page so that's inevitable.

But John Frusciante is the final guitarist on my shortlist making it Page, Fripp, Gilmour and Frusciante.

I guess I now have to choose just one...

To be continued.

* a word I learned recently. I shouldn't assume that, because I didn't know this word, readers won't but just in case it's a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly. I am reminded of a female comedian we saw support John Bishop last year. She was great - bonny, loud and very rude, with swear words very prevalent. She noted that she hates it when anyone says to her that swearing is a sign of a limited vocabulary, her standard response being "isn't that a bit of a solipsistic assumption for a tw*t?" Anyway, apologies for my solipsistic assumption

**  https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-20111123

As ever Wikipedia is indispensible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frusciante

My earlier posts were Best Musicians I've seen - 4.1 guitarists, 8 April 2018 which featured Carlos Santana; 4.2 Richie Blackmore, 22 April 2018; 4.3 Tony Iommi, 24 May 2018, 4.4 - David Gilmour; 4.5 Jimmy Page, 22 June 2018; 4.6 Peter Buck and Robert Fripp, 15 August 2018