The 10 Greatest Guitar Albums... OF ALL TIME

Let's be honest here - ever since Bill Hailey brought rock 'n' roll to white people everywhere, the guitar has been the instrument everyone wants to be good at. For uncool, pale youths all over the world, it symbolises a free pass to fame, fortune, women and respect. And yet for for every talented individual to emerge from their bedroom brandishing a few promising tunes, there are dozens of no-hopers who will continues to bash away at the strings for all eternity. This is dedicated to those who, like me, will probably never reach the level of:

John Mayall and Eric Clapton: Bluesbreakers (1966)

There may have been pioneering guitarists before him - Chuck Berry and BB King spring to mind - but Eric Clapton deserves credit as the first true guitar hero. Throughout the 1960s, he garnered controversy as people painted walls with the phrase "Clapton is guitar god" in his honour (they were simpler times back then). To his credit, he played with a prowess and precision that hadn't really been heard before, and his acerbic yet creamy tone went on to grace many an album, to the extent that he's still going today. But Bluesbreakers was where it all started: 12 covers of blues standards, with Clapton blasting away over the top of it all. Many would argue his playing with Cream is superior, but the simple clarity shown here is evidence to the contrary:

Unfortunately for John Mayall, one of the few instrumental tracks on the album is seen today as one of the best.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love (1968)

In 1967, there emerged a guitarist so incredible he made Eric Clapton give up and walk off stage during a jam session. A guitarist so unbelievably talented, he achieved more in four explosive years than most others achieve in an entire career. Hendrix, who grew up in poverty in Seattle, learned the guitar by pretending to play on a broomstick, and then a ukulele his father found in a garage. Never learning to read music, he relied instead on synaesthesia (seeing sounds as colours), freakishly long fingers, and drugs. Quite a lot of the latter, if the album cover of Axis: Bold as Love is anything to go by. Anyway, while his debut effort Are You Experienced? may have been responsible for his most successful songs and Electric Ladyland was no doubt his most ambitious work, Axis definitely shows the full spectrum of Hendrix's ability, from acid jazz to psychedelic rock to feedback-based noodling. The majestic closing track Bold as Love is also notable as one of the first uses of a synthesizer in a mainstream album. But all analysis aside, just watch the man play:

Technically not the best guitarist ever, but unquestionably the greatest. He may have burned out spectacularly at the age of 27, but his legacy remains in the fingers of every serious guitarist alive today.

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (1970)

Believe it or not, there was a time when Ozzy Osborne was actually a respected vocalist, rather than a just a lunatic arguing with his wife on reality TV. His band, Black Sabbath, were also pretty famous as the creators of the entire metal genre, with Paranoid regarded as their early magnum opus. While guitarists of the 60s had been writing songs about whatever they'd been seeing on LSD trips, Black Sabbath identified with the plight of the common man, channelling into their music the extensive fury and frustration that presumably comes after a lifetime spent in Birmingham. Guitarist Tony Iommi may have lost the use of two fingers in an industrial accident, but he adapted his playing style around this to create what musicians today will recognise as "a riff." The album's title track and Iron Man are seen today as staples of early metal, with Iommi the driving force behind both songs. Any self-respecting shredder should be able to bash out the guitar lines of both songs, conveniently packaged into one video here:

The same goes for War Pigs from the same album, the least eloquent attack on the Vietnam war ever written.

1971 - 1989

The 1970s and 80s were not positive decades for the guitar. Prog-rock artists seemed to think that a 30-minute solo was justifiable when in reality it was pure self-indulgence, and the glam-metal of Kiss or Motley Crüe barely deserves recognition in such a serious forum as this. Nevertheless, the 1980s occasionally threw up a positive indication of things to come:

Metallica: Kill 'em All (1983)

Metallica's debut may have been largely ignored on its release, but has since sold 3 million copies worldwide, a testament to the ability on show here. 10 brutal, breathless, thrash cuts that effectively rendered the punk aesthetic on which they were based irrelevant. Of course it's all as fast and frantic as the genre from which thrash emerged, but at the end of the day, there's just too much skill involved. While original guitarist Dave Mustaine may have contributed most of the creative influence for this album before his dismissal, Kirk Hammett entered the fray with more then enough talent to shred through the licks left for him with aplomb. The group may have made their name by making their sound slower and heavier on 1991's self-titled release, but Kill 'em All stands as a testament to Hammett's guitar-playing skill simply by being so... fast. Listen to the opening track here and then try to imagine the fingers of a human being moving at that speed, with that level of precision:

Thrash may be an object of ridicule nowadays, but when hearing the band in their primal form like this, it's easy to see why adolescent boys spent hours headbanging their brains into oblivion to music of this power and intensity.

Joe Satriani: Surfing With The Alien (1987)

The most cerebral entry on this list, as well as one of the more obscure, Surfing With The Alien has stood the test of time as a benchmark in guitar innovation. Instrumental from beginning to end, the album showed a generation of nerds that a great guitarist really could be created by hours of relentless practice. Satriani, a guitar teacher with the looks of Lord Voldemort and the stage presence of an office desk, proved that any aspiring guitarist could have a platinum record if they could commit the modal system to memory. He's also responsible for most of the techniques considered standard for the instrument today - two-finger tapping, pick tapping, serious use of a delay pedal? All his idea. But Surfing With The Alien isn't just an exercise in virtuosity: every track on the album is a carefully crafted piece of music - it's tuneful, enjoyable and at times almost catchy. It's an obvious choice as one of his better-known tracks, but have a listen to Satch Boogie and then go off with a guitar and the corresponding tablature and attempt to get your hands to comprehend what's going on here:

He's a good guitarist, is what I'm trying to say.

The 1990s: pretty much any rock album released


Thanks to some rather unkempt youths from the American Northwest and the aforementioned Metallica, the 90s saw an explosion of outstanding rock albums. I've managed to single out three that sum up the zeitgeist better than anything else, so with apologies to Nirvana, Peal Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Primus, Ween, Steve Vai, and even Blur, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails, here are the big three:


Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

Prior to the 1990s, the Chili Peppers had been just another post-punk band grinding away in Los Angeles, only with slightly more funk influence than could be considered healthy. However, the death of original guitarist Hillel Slovak in 1988 led to the introduction of John Frusciante and a new, more focused sound. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was recorded in an abandoned mansion in the California hills and stands as Frusciante's most creative work before his 6-year heroin bender shortly afterwards. Every guitar line jangles unnervingly against Michael "Flea" Balzary's twisting basslines, resulting in a dark, paranoid sound that is only occasionally relieved by more melodic work such as the now-classic Under the Bridge. The rest is intense, brooding postmodernist experimentation - no one else could have dreamed up a lick to fit over the crashing bass riff of Give It Away at all, let alone added such a bizarre tune as Frusciante eventually produced:

Effectively atonal, it rides on top of the drums and bass with ease, never intruding and yet at the same time complementing the Chili Peppers' exceptional rhythm section perfectly. This song was one of their first to gain mainstream success, and yet the actual sound of it is so challenging that it's hard to believe listeners preferred this to their previous feel-good tunes. But clearly something worked, as Blood Sugar Sex Magik propelled the group to a level of fame that is yet to die down.


Rage Against the Machine: Rage Against the Machine (1992)

Emerging from the same LA punk scene as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and with all of the anti-establishment anger displayed by the self-immolating Buddhist monk pictured on the cover of their self-titled debut, Rage Against the Machine were not a band to be taken lightly. Zack de la Rocha's provocative, political lyrics became the chief source of controversy surrounding the band, to the extent that it is often forgotten just how musically good they were. Guitarist Tom Morello produced a performance on this album that he has found hard to follow ever since, manipulating the sound of his guitar across the full sonic spectrum and establishing the DigiTech Whammy pedal as something other than a way of making tuneless noise. Every riff and solo contained within this work challenges expectations of the sounds an electric guitar is capable of making, from the squealing solo on Killing in the Name to the phaser-laden riff on Wake Up, a track so futuristic it was featured over the closing credits of The Matrix. This compilation of solos is all the evidence Morello needs in favour of his status as a guitar genius:

Notice how on Testify, he simply pulls out the lead and plays with that, because the conventional technique of playing the guitar with one's hands is just not good enough for Tom Morello.

Ugly Kid Joe: America's Least Wanted (1992)

Sounding a lot like fellow Californian rockers Guns 'n' Roses and looking a lot like fellow Californian rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ugly Kid Joe were never the most original band in the world. Nor were they the most astute: this was unintelligent music for musically unintelligent listeners. But at a time when most rock music was either about depression or the adverse effects of US capitalism, this largely-forgotten album came as a breath of fresh air - it was just good, old fashioned fun, music for music's sake, and the product of five friends playing whatever they wanted, not caring one bit whether it earned them success or how they were judged for it. Nonetheless, the twin guitar stylings of Klaus Eichstadt and Dave Fortman are actually very accomplished, and the end result is so big-hearted and cheerful, it's hard not to get carried away. Listen to the drum break and subsequent guitar solo about 3 minutes into Busy Bee:

Don't try and pretend you didn't smile after hearing it.

Bumblefoot: 9.11 (2001)

For those not familiar with the works of Ronald Jay Blumenthal (who sensibly goes by the stage name Bumblefoot), he is best known as the latest guitarist to throw his talent into the revolving door of Guns 'n' Roses musicians. Prior to that, however, he released a number of truly brilliant solo albums that went almost completely unnoticed by the public. Which is a shame because some of those albums contain standards of songwriting that are rarely seen in mainstream rock today. 9.11 is not one of those albums. Released as a non-profit charity CD following the events of the titular date, it strives instead to be as insane as is musically possible, including funk, psychedelia, metal, baroque, an orchestral arrangement, flamenco, jazz flute and beat poetry. Thal's playing style is beyond belief, chiefly because, despite the barrages of sound on display, he pronounces each lick with such precision and clarity that not a single note misses the listener's ears. Every single track on this album is worthy of a space on this page, but instead here's Thal as a member of Guns 'n' Roses, performing a highbrow, sophisticated version of the Pink Panther theme:

9.11 was the guitar album to end all guitar albums. Forever. The End.

John 5: Songs for Sanity (2005)

Except it wasn't, quite. After having found fame as Marilyn Manson's guitarist, John 5 released a number of solo albums, of which Songs for Sanity is the strongest. It has all the diversity of 9.11, only with more metal-based adaptations of bluegrass tunes - and that can only be a good thing. Real name John Lowery, John 5 is also, with the exception of Tom Morello, the only artist on this list not to be influenced by any kind of substances during his writing process, ensuring his boundless creativity is for the most part kept under control by rationality. Although he did once throw a guitar at Marilyn Manson onstage, so perhaps rationality isn't quite the right word here. Also, he sometimes plays with a TV on his head:

Ultimately, John 5 is a reminder that playing the guitar can be fun. And, after all, isn't that what it should be about?

Shorter posts on the way soon-
TJGreenwood