My Favorite Guitar Players, Guitar Riffs and Solos

Anthony June-Dubois
Feb 2, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Feb 3, 2024

(Click link)

My journey with the guitar has spanned most of my life, and there are countless guitarists out there that have influenced my own playing (more than I realize) since I began playing the guitar when I was 9 years old. Here are my favorites...

Favorite Guitar Players

Akira Takasaki

(Click link to listen)

Crazy Nights Solo

Clockwork Toy Solo

Lines Are Down Solo

I first heard of Loudness from my older cousin Mark's stash of tapes on one of our regular family trips to Dallas when I was about 10. I would take a tape out, open the cover and look inside and read the credits and my cousin would often put the tape in for me to hear if nothing else was playing. As I looked at the names of the band members inside the cover of the Crazy Nights tape, I noticed they weren't English and my cousin said they were from Japan. Another cousin there with me closer in age, "Chaps", was fascinated by that, as he was obsessed with Asian culture from martial arts to anime. So Mark put the tape in and from the first note of the Crazy Nights song I was immediately blown away. The guitar sound was huge, precise, and commanding. The solo was undeniably monstrous, and the guitars didn't give way throughout the whole album. I knew I had to get this tape when I got back to Houston.

Soon after, I bought the tape and...

Soon after, I bought the Thunder in the East tape and played it constantly, studying the Japanese names of all the members to memorize them to show off to friends while geeking out about metal bands, knowing that nobody else would know all their names. The guitarist, Akira Takasaki, was easily in the class of Eddie Van Halen and other huge sounding guitarists. I started to learn some of the guitar parts by ear that I could having only played the guitar for a year. Every time my best friend Kurt would spend the night he'd ask me to play the clean intro part to Heavy Chains over and over again, and it helped me gradually get better at playing it. Every song on the album captivated me with its heaviness and precision, and often I'd skip the slower last track just because I wanted to experience the surge of energy of the first side again. Almost every track of the album is my favorite because they all have their own distinct identity, and the amazing guitar playing always delivers. Every solo is unique in every song and is tasteful, often furious, and somehow speaks. Crazy Nights, Like Hell, Getaway, Run for Your Life, Clockwork Toys, Lines Are Down... all just so mind blowing to this day.

I listened to the Crazy Nights album everyday for at least the next 2 years when I finally saw another album at the record store in the 7th grade, Hurricane Eyes. This album had an even larger and more polished sound, and Akira was back with a vengeance. S.D.I. breaks open the album with speed and fury, and the solo was relentless. This Lonely Heart, In My Dreams, Take Me Home, Strike of the Sword, and In This World Beyond were my favorite tracks although I'd always listen to the whole album start to finish.

About a year later, I happened to find another Loudness album I'd never heard of that was released in between the two I'd had, Lightning Strikes. The promo version of the tape with a weird hole punched in the cover (as they did with promo stuff those days) was in the bargain bin at Sound Warehouse, so I scored it for about 2 bucks. I put it in the tape player of our family van on the way home and fell in love with it instantly. It was honestly just as good as the other two, and now I had a trio of mind blowing guitar-driven albums to listen to back to back. Let It Go, Dark Desire, Face to Face, Ashes in the Sky, and Complication are my favorites from this album. By then, I knew Akira Takasaki was the real deal and found myself trying to emulate his sound and style from that point on, often without consciously realizing it.

One of the many things I've always appreciated about Akira (and Loudness for that matter) is that I never found any dirt or drama about inner band turmoil, which has always allowed me to really just enjoy the music itself that much more. To me, Akira is a criminally under rated and at times still unknown guitarist that other heavy hitting guitarists cite as one of the best guitarists in the world of any genre. He somehow manages to be this level of guitarist and play mind-blowing rhythm and lead guitar without seeming to showboat in order to go over the top (even during the height of the hair metal heyday), as the playing itself puts him over the top. He shreds, he riffs blues, he plays clean channel guitar tastefully, and is a guitar prodigy that has stood the test of time.

Top of page

Vinnie Vincent

(Click link to listen)

Boyz R Gonna Rock (Solo)

Invasion (Ending)

I remember the first time I saw Vinnie Vincent. It was on a magazine cover that KISS on it, and there were all the members except this mysterious, androgynous person that was quite conspicuously in Ace Frehley's place. He had a very cool and almost scary Egyptian persona, and I'd soon find out he had a monstrous guitar style to match.

From time to time I would see him in photos in Hit Parade and Circus magazines, but it wasn't until I got the KISS Lick It Up on tape for Christmas in the 1st grade that I actually heard him play. He had a smooth yet aggressive style along with extremely precise technique and finesse.

Before long it came out that it was...

Before long it came out that it was Vinnie Vincent who had played most of the guitar on the previous KISS album Creatures of the Night even though Ace Frehley was on the cover and credited for the guitar parts. This peaked my interest in Vinnie Vincent even more, but by then he was already out as a member of KISS.

A couple of years went by and his new band Vinnie Vincent Invasion released a self-titled album, and I got the tape as soon as I could without having heard a single song on it. I was struck by how incredibly loud, fierce and aggressive the guitars were in comparison to his playing on the two KISS albums, and I was immediately hooked. I had never heard anyone play so fast and loud before, even moreso than Eddie Van Halen.

Looking back I have come to appreciate his versatility between the unrelenting fury of his solo albums and his restraint (whether by choice or by mandate from KISS) on his albums with KISS. I credit my interest and learning how to shred on the guitar to him, although I am the first to admit that he is in a class all his own.

Top of page

Yngwie Malmsteen

(Click link to listen)

Dreaming (Tell Me)

I saw the name Yngwie Malmsteen in a humongous tape collection of that my older cousin had, but never heard a song until a Masters of Metal compilation tape that I bought in about the 4th grade that had the song Fire on it. I soon asked my cousin how to pronounce the name (he said it was pronounced "Eeng-wee Mom-steen" like many Americans pronounced it at the time, unlike the "Eeng-vay Malm-steen" as pronounced on the radio a few years later when he got bigger).

Yngwie truly is a one-of-a-kind guitarist...

Yngwie truly is a one-of-a-kind guitarist who is a master in rock, blues, classical, Spanish style, and is shameless in the dramatic.

When I got the Trilogy record with Fire on it, I was shocked at how much classical guitar there was. The guitars in the instrumental song Crying even had a Spanish flair fused with heavy rock and blues fused. The album has a medieval theme complete with Yngwie fighting off a fire-breathing three-headed dragon with his Fender Stratocaster guitar. Over the top 80's hair metal decadence and I ate it up.

In junior high the album Odyssey came out and featured singer Joe Lynn Turner from Rainbow. A masterpiece in songwriting, performance, and production, this was an album I listened to start to finish daily for about 2 years. Heaven Tonight played on the radio and I got excited every time I heard it. The summer before high school brought the album Eclipse, another start to finish album for me.

As a younger guitar player, Yngwie Malmsteen was the only guitarist I didn't bother trying to play along with by ear because his playing was on such a tremendously high level. It was so complex that I didn't expend too much brain power trying to take it apart to figure it out, which allowed me to just marvel at it any time I listened to him. Yngwie is so distinct and unmistakable that I have yet to hear anyone imitate him or be compared to or mistaken for him.

Top of page

Joe Satriani

(Click link to listen)

Satch Boogie

Flying in a Blue Dream

As an occasional guitar teacher myself, one of the things that endeared me about Joe Satriani is that he too was a guitar teacher to many amazing guitarists including Steve Vai, Kirk Hammet of Metallica, and Alex Skolnik of Testament (another of my favorite guitarists).

My introduction to him was hearing Satch Boogie at around age 13 on the radio on 101 KLOL in Houston. The first thing that struck me was that the song was an instrumental which was really cool and unusual for rock radio, and it had a very catchy swing to it.

But what stopped me completely in my tracks though was...

But what stopped me completely in my tracks though was what is now his famous A string finger tapping flange solo breakdown that goes on for an extensive amount of time. I bought the tape very soon after that had the song, Surfing with the Alien. This was the first music I remember hearing that had what I think of as lyrical guitar playing, or guitar that did the singing for the song instead of a vocalist singing words.

Satriani could certainly shred, pluck, and play loud, but not at the expense of the guitar telling the song's story. In Surfing with the Alien, the guitar's notes, key, phrasing, rhythm, and sound somehow clearly represent a mischievous alien surfing around in the air having a good time taunting and putting on a spectacle. And each of the subsequent songs on the album told their own distinct stories.

About a year later I got his latest album Flying in a Blue Dream. The opening title song eases into a beautiful, deep and brooding emotional story that has ebbs and flows of solo flurries but mainly presents restraint and emotion through sustained and bending notes, along with many layers of guitar melodies. This song would be a favorite of my younger brother who heard almost everything thing I ever played through my stereo, and he would occasionally sneak this song in at times I was away from my room.

Over the decades Satriani hasn't missed a beat, and I enjoy watching videos of his live shows. His virtuosity is matched by his projected inspiration to other musicians to want to grow as musicians in the way only a guitar teacher and master can do.

Top of page

Julian Swales

(Click link to listen)

What Happens Now? (Ending)

I was a sophomore in high school and was in the middle of a tumultuous time in my home while at the same time experiencing a huge influx of discovering new music I had never heard before. This was largely due to my beginning to play in Desoxyn Dog, a band that exposed me to playing in numerous clubs and a bursting Houston music scene, as well as influence my song writing and open me up to musical experimentation.

After playing in the band a few months...

After playing in the band a few months, one of my band mates (I strangely can't remember which one) was somehow able get a full box of guitar effects pedals loaned to us, and the other guys weren't interested in messing with them much so I eagerly took them home and experimented away. By then I had been playing guitar for about 6 or 7 years but never used guitar effects or knew anything about them, and it opened a whole new universe for me.

Steve, the band's driving force who would be my dear friend for decades, heard how thick I laid the guitar effects on like delay, flange, and octave, so he loaned me a tape of the band Kitchens of Distinction. The album was Death of Cool, and the opening track What Happens Now? was like nothing I'd ever heard before. The last minute of the song was a long journey of extremely thick and saturated sound effects created completely by the guitar, and I just had to find out who this guitar player was in the tape's liner notes: Julian Swales.

My experience of listening to What Happens Now? : The song begins with a pleasant sounding guitar riff that draws you in. The lyrics also warm you up, and the song picks up rather quickly and the guitar suddenly adds a new depth in the background of the song. When the chorus breaks out, the guitar adds a full on atmosphere in the foreground and background. The further the song progresses, the more Julian's guitar sound adds a sonic world to the song. When the end comes, the guitar has a language and personage of its own and you feel like you're swimming in its sound.

The whole Death of Cool album features incredible explorations in sound with the guitar, and the band's landmark album released before this one, Strange Free World, is yet another full album of these guitar sound explorations. For some reason I didn't get a copy of this album until my early college years, and I of course became completely hooked on it as well.

I would later learn that Juilan's guitar style is referred to as shoe gazing - due to the guitarist frequently looking down at their floor pedals to stomp on them to add or take away effects. Kitchens of Distinction reminded me of the Smiths and U2 pushed sonically to their limits, and the only thing remotely close to the sound of Julian Swales to me at the time was U2's Edge. Hearing Swales and his rich other-worldly sound was one of the biggest revelations to me as a guitar player: Not only could a guitar sound like a guitar, but it could create sounds that nothing else could create or simulate. I have been hooked on guitar effects ever since. Julian Swales to me was and still is the guitar player of the future. He not only pushes the guitar sound in general to its very outer limits.

Top of page

More of my favorite guitar players:

Chet Atkins - Black Mountain Rag

Reb Beach - Baptized By Fire (Winger)

George Lynch - Kiss of Death (Dokken)

Steve Stevens - Rebel Yell (Billy Idol) Isolated Guitar Part - Yes, even the parts I always thought were keyboards at 3:00 are actually guitar synthesizers by him, mind blowing

Les Paul - On the Sunny Side of the Street

Roy Clark - Twelfth Street Rag

John Norum - Eternal Flame

Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower

Eddie Van Halen - Eruption

Dimebag Darrel - A New Level (Pantera)

Carlos Santana - Oye Como Va

Vernon Reid - Cult of Personality (Living Colour)

Randy Rhoads - Diary of a Madman (Ozzy Osbourne)

Jake E Lee - Bark at the Moon (Ozzy Osbourne)

Zakk Wylde - Miracle Man (Ozzy Osbourne)

Top of page