Category: Guitar Heroes

Hank Marvin, lead guitar player with The Shadows inspired almost every big name guitarist of the seventies and eighties. The Shadows are looked down on by some guitar fans as being the band that just played those simple melodies accompanied by dance steps but they were in fact pioneers of the electric guitar and were always experimenting with new ways to present their music. Here is a video clip of Hank Marvin playing “Sleepwalk” accompanied by just one other guitar and demonstrating his use of the whammy bar.

Technorati Tags: Hank Marvin, whammy bar

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Don Felder is an American rock musician, best known as guitarist for The Eagles from 1974-1980 as well as from 1994-2001, and for the distinctive “Hotel California” guitar solo. Felder was good friends with guitar legend Duane Allman. It was Allman who taught Felder how to play slide guitar, a trait that would impress Eagle Glenn Frey and help make him a member of the Eagles

The Eagles was formed in Los Angeles, California in the early 1970s. The Eagles were among the most successful recording artists of the 1970s with five number-one singles and four number-one albums. The best-selling studio album Hotel California is rated as the 37th album in the Rolling Stone list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, and the band was ranked #75 on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. They are also the best-selling American group ever, with Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 being the best-selling album in the U.S.

The Eagles broke up in 1980 and were disbanded for 14 years, but reunited in 1994 for Hell Freezes Over. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Here is The Eagles playing Hotel California:

One of the big time songwriters of the universe, carried a guitar around all the time, always played guitar on stage but does he qualify as a guitar hero? Bob Dylan composed his songs on the guitar and anybody who has seen “No Direction Home”, Martin Scorsese’s documentary on Dylan, knows that he lives and breathes music. But he is essentially a rhythm guitarist - a guy who sings and plays the guitar. Can we learn anything about guitar playing from him? Maybe he doesn’t “do” much but it seems hard to believe we cannot benefit from watching a guy who expressed himself on the guitar without even thinking. It’s part of his language.

“Blowin’ in the Wind” was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, a folk trio who could mesmerize huge crowds of music lovers at their concerts. Three hundred thousand copies of the song were sold in the first seven days after it was released. Many people have said that Bob Dylan might not have sold records in those numbers relying on his own singing. I still think we lose out if we do not get to know his songs and his guitar playing.

Technorati Tags: Bob Dylan