SlagJones Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Who inspired you to pick up a guitar? Who is your guitar hero? I'll start. Steve Jones Something about his style and tone just grabs me. It was said that they couldn't play their instruments but if you really listen, Jonesy is very technical in his own way. He knows his way around a fretboard. He plays a white Gibson Les Paul Custom with pinup girl stickers. I'd say that Angus Young and Alex Lifeson are two other guitarist who's music speaks to me in some way. It truly is amazing how music affects you and the diversity of tastes and styles that appeal to different people in equally powerful ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesstringer Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Most here probably already know this.......... Eric Clapton........ Since I first heard his version of "Hideway" by Elmore James, when Clapton was like 16 with the Yardbirds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumblinman Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Wow, I'm a completely different generation from you then. My inspiration to play was originally bass, and that was Cliff Burton. Listen to his solo on Orion or even Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) and that made me want to play, fuzzy Rickenbacker with wah, *****in.. Guitar has to be Slash, such a sweet sound. I know he's cliche now, with GH3 and all, but I was 12 when Appetite came out, and I wore out 3 copies of that tape listening to it over and over for the next few years. Good thing I finally bought it on CD. Probably (IMHO) the greatest rock album since the Beatles. Beatles are my #1 band, by far, but that album is a piece of rock history now. Sorry, little off topic. Slash is my GUITAR Hero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Most here probably already know this.......... Eric Clapton........ Since I first heard his version of "Hideway" by Elmore James' date=' when Clapton was like 16 with the Yardbirds.[/quote'] Actually "Hideaway" was a Freddie King instrumental composition (credited to King and Thompson) based upon a Hound Dog Taylor song but yeah, if I had to pick a guitar hero it'd probably be Clapton...and Clapton was eighteen when he joined the Yardbirds in 1963...Hideaway was on "John Mayall and the Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton " (a/ka The Beano Album) and it was recorded in 1966 when Clapper was twenty one... Actually I'd have to say my "guitar hero" is actually an amalgamation of Clapton, Hendrix, Beck and the Beatles as a collective entity. ...and Al's your uncle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWANG Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 heh. Johnny and the Hurricanes. Ventures. Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, et al.. I had older bros and sis's who dug rock. so.. from the day it was on the radio I was hearing it. I think the Beatles were the final push for most guys my age.. A few played country.. rockabilly.. We started just before the Beatles showed up.. slim harpo bo diddley that kinda rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyelcrrt1281733995 Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Twang nailed it. You can add jazz influences from: Eric Gale Charlie Byrd Wes Montgomery Joe Pass Grant Green and why can I never remember the names of the guys in the Motown band??? They played anything, anytime, with any front group or person you could imagine and did it with style! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickblues1 Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 The Beatles, The Shadows, the Ventures. All great music and pure guitar playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcorn429 Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Easy. It was Slash. When I was around 10 years I saw the video of "November Rain" while staying with my cousins over the weekend and was hook. Before long I had Appetite and use your illusion 1. Other than that my dad listened to alot of Aerosmith, Cream (I knew the words to cocaine before I started school), and Hendrix (Also new the words to Manic Depressions). So I would have to say Joe Perry, Jimmi, and Eric were and are also big influences and as much as I hate to admit it Kirk Hammett and Angus Young because metallica and ACDC are also in my favorite bands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheX Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Andres Segovia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Twang nailed it. You can add jazz influences from: Eric Gale Charlie Byrd Wes Montgomery Joe Pass Grant Green and why can I never remember the names of the guys in the Motown band??? They played anything' date=' anytime, with any front group or person you could imagine and did it with style! [/quote'] You mean the Funk Brothers? Guitar players like Joe Messina, Robert White, Eddie Willis and later Dennis Coffey and Melvin Ragin...James Jamerson and Bob Babbit on bass...Earl Van Dyke on piano...Benny Benjamin on drums...those were some awesomely talented musicians...There's a film "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" that was all about that band... they played on more number one records than Elvis, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined... ...and Al's your uncle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluefoxicy Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 My Guitar Hero is in a small envelope on the way to Activision so I can get one with real surround sound. Truth be told it was a girl I can never have. The last thing she said was I didn't even have any "talent" or anything, so I started trying to fix this wasted life of mine by putting down Guitar Hero (which I just started playing 2 days prior) and picking up a guitar. S'all I got now. There's always other fish in the sea, but sometimes you really do lose the only one worth keeping. Doesn't much help to catch more if you feel nothing for the game or the spoils anymore huh? Might as well give up and get your fish from the supermarket. In other news, why is School's Out so f*@%ing hard to play?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdgails Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 DJANGO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesstringer Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Actually "Hideaway" was a Freddie King instrumental composition (credited to King and Thompson) based upon a Hound Dog Taylor song but yeah' date=' if I had to pick a guitar hero it'd probably be Clapton...and Clapton was eighteen when he joined the Yardbirds in 1963...Hideaway was on "John Mayall and the Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton " (a/ka The Beano Album) and it was recorded in 1966 when Clapper was twenty one... Actually I'd have to say my "guitar hero" is actually an amalgamation of Clapton, Hendrix, Beck and the Beatles as a collective entity. ...and Al's your uncle.[/quote'] Yeah you're right, I had initially put Freddie King but for some reason, it didn't sound right. Too much information over too many years I guess. Anyway, thank you for correcting my historical inaccuracies. I had been playing for a few years listening to Scotty Moore, Chet Atkins, Steve Cropper, Ike Turner, and the like, but Clapton is who did it for me, to this day.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 No brainer, for me...George Harrison, and Eric Clapton! I started playing a bit "pre-Beatles"...just plunking around on an impossibe to play, very cheap acoustic, but when I saw The Beatles, on Ed Sullivan...The whole world changed! George, on that "Gent!" What he and the other Beatles, did...seems almost "unreal," especially considering the sad state of Rock & Roll, just prior to their arrival. All the "Good Stuff" was "underground," seemingly...especially to "White" America. So..."George" will always be a "guitar hero," to me. I heard EC with the Yardbirds, and enjoyed it, a lot! But, The "Beano" Mayall album, blew me away! Been an EC (and "Blues") fan, ever since! The great thing, about him (besides his playing) is his dedication, and always crediting HIS hero's, too! There are lots of others, I really enjoy... but those two, are my favorites! CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cujo Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Way back when I was just a kid we were visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Texas. We had all gone to some big lake to spend the day. Back then segregation was was the norm so there was the white folks beach and the black folks beach. The black folks beach had some little pavillion and they had a band playing the coolest stuff I'd ever heard in my life. I slipped away from my folks to go listen to those guys and it changed my life forever. Some dude named Albert Collins. I don't remember if he was playing his trademark Telecaster, but I do remember that he was burnin' that fret board alive. Man that cat was tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyelcrrt1281733995 Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 You mean the Funk Brothers? Guitar players like Joe Messina' date=' Robert White, Eddie Willis and later Dennis Coffey and Melvin Ragin...James Jamerson and Bob Babbit on bass...Earl Van Dyke on piano...Benny Benjamin on drums...those were some awesomely talented musicians...There's a film "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" that was all about that band... they played on more number one records than Elvis, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined... ...and Al's your uncle.[/quote'] Thank you, for lettin' me be myself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesstringer Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 I have to stick with Clapton but I have to mention the guys that kind of re-inspired me in the early seventies because they don't get mentioned in discussions here. Allen Collins, RIP, Gary Rossington, and Steve Gaines RIP. Gone but never forgotten ! I still listen to them several times a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redddog Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 B.B. First. All my friends thought I was nuts. They were listening to Zep and Billy Squire and Rush. I was listening to "live at Cook County Jail." Man, that album changed my life. I was in "jazz" ensables and what not but I was always into more blues than that. We played hideaway. It was great. I loved Hendrix. The other "Kings, " mostly Albert. I couldn't believe he didn't play with a pick yet could be so fast and have such bite in his tone. The next life changer was one nite at my father's place (a big blues guy). I heard the most amazing piece of guitar work that there ever was. Still to this day, I have never heard such an amazing piece of work. I'm sure most could guess. ... "Roy's Blues" by Roy Buchannon. Goose bump type stuff. Then in college, Stevie Ray came out. I heard "China Doll" by Bowie and I was sure it was Albert King. Same tone. Same phrasing. I was shocked that it wasn't him. I went out and got "Texas Flood" and was absolutely floored. That was the last "life changer" for me. There were a rash of guitar phenom 13 year olds that came out in the few years after SRV but they were all just copying him. I remember seeing like 4 of them in as many years. They were all great. Just not original. That's it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvastogie Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 While my eyes and ears have been opened to numerous other guitarists since then, the first two I remember making me want to learn to play were Joe Perry and Brian May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 B.B. is Great! And, all the other blues guys, mentioned! However, I only found those cats, after Clapton, and in doing my own research, into his hero's, roots, etc. "Bass Ackwards," maybe...but, not uncommon, at the time. CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesstringer Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Still to this day' date=' I have never heard such an amazing piece of work. I'm sure most could guess. ... "Roy's Blues" by Roy Buchannon. Goose bump type stuff. [/quote'] Roy was a local boy in the D.C. area on and off through the years, used to own a club at Peace Cross in Hyattsville Md. called the Crossroads. I couldn't count how many nights I closed that place and hung out in the parking lot with Roy and several others, drinking and playing (mainly drinking), until the Police ran us off. That was a while ago, I haven't drank in over 30 years. Roy died in this area in the drunk tank in the Fairfax County, Va. county jail. A real shame, he was a treasure and high on my list for sure. Another local that is very high on my list is Danny Gatton, also died, suicided (hung himself) at his farm in Poolesville, Md. A true virtuoso, IMHO. I miss him. You should have seen his guitar and amp collection and classic cars and trucks, his first passion. "Roy's Blues" is on my Ipod a few times so it comes up more often in the shuffle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Thank you' date=' for lettin' me be myself... [/quote'] Thank you falettinme be mice elf agin...but then we're talking Sly and he was San Francisco/Clive Davis/CBS Records not Motown/BG Jr. ... and there was another very good band (when Sly wasn't too high to play and could manage to show up for the show)... ...and Al's your uncle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubstar Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 hmmm, so many great guitarists...but as an iconic presence WITH guitar (as opposed to the beatles, who were all-encompassing) I guess I would say Pete Townsend... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redddog Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Oh yeah, Danny Gatton. I lived in D.C for 4 years in the early 90s and saw him a few times. He was just amazing. What a shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted May 2, 2008 Share Posted May 2, 2008 Billy Gibbons. I still think he is my all time favorite guitar player. Seems to have total control of the instrument, able to produce any sound out of it he wants. Blending country, blues, and rock and roll, his playing made me want to learn. I have always liked how he can play the softest, sweetest sounding melodies, but can also explode with attacking "funky nastiness" (I don't really know what that means but it's only the way I knew how to describe it). And of course everyone knows he's the pinch harmonic King. That man can make sounds that are so cool. And when you mix that deep, gravely voice in, well you got one damn good sound going. He's also probably had more influence on me with playing and loving the blues, than any other guitarist. Long live ZZTOP !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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