Biggy Stardust's Top 10 Greatest Guitarists of All Time (Part 3 of 3)!

3) Michael Bruce (Alice Cooper). Of all the 70's American rock lead guitarists, Coop had one of the best. Bruce's guitar tone was as recognizable as, say, Ace Frehley's and Buck Darma's. I've always felt though that he approached his leads with a little more subtlety. His solo's weren't quite as big. He rarely pulled out a "barn burner". His lead work actually was more rhythmic and flowed within the spirit of the songs he was playing. Some of that was probably by design, but also out of necessity. Bob Ezrin produced both Kiss and Coop's records. Kiss's records were far more pure guitar/bass/drums.....where as Coop's incorporated brass, keys, and strings in addition to the standard gutar/bass/drums formula. An Ace Frehley type solo probably would of been out of place on an extremely orchestrated record like "Killer". A good example is my favorite Michael Bruce moment, when he comes in (almost underneath) the brass solo on "Under My Wheels".

2) Dave Davies (The Kinks). Davies created the guitar riff and the power chord. Period. End of story. This trandscends punk or metal. That alone makes him as important to guitar and rock-n-roll as Les Paul or Chuck Berry. There are 2 reasons why he is so important. For one, the chunky way of playing to make a harder, more defined guitar part, the riff. But "the riff" wouldn't have been as effective without the distortion that he pretty much single handedly created by getting the tubes hot, turning up the volume much louder than normal, and cutting slits in the speaker cones to get that unique sound. Favorite Dave Davies moment? The riff for the underrated Kinks number "Till The End Of the Day".

1) Johnny Ramone (The Ramones). I can say without hesitation, Johnny Ramone is my #1 favorite guitarist of all time. He played NO leads. He had NO flash. But his rapidfire, machine gun downstroke is probably the greatest sound to these ears. The Ramones, minus Joey, were nothing but a perfect rhythym section. People can argue the inception of "punk", and point to Dave Davies, Ron Asheton, Pete Townsend, or Johnny Thunders. All of which contributed. But without Johnny and the rest of the Ramones (and that first album) "punk" as we know it wouldnt have been the same. And rock-n-roll for the following 30 years (post 76) would have been far different. They way he used his guitar as a jackhammer sets him apart from any guitarist before him. Johnny's created way of approaching guitar has probably spawned more bands than any other guitarist in history. My favorite Johnny Ramone moment? EVERYTHING he played on "Ramones", "Leave Home", "Rocket To Russia", and "Road To Ruin".

Alright...that's it. A top 15 or top 20 list would of most definitley included Ace Frehley, Tony Iommi, Johnny Thunders, Pete Townsend, and Larry Parypa. Now back to the regular blogging fare!