Who was putting Brian May down? I havn't seen anyone in this thread saying anything negative. Brian is one of the greats, though he doesn't get mentioned enough when discussing best guitarist by music fans. Anyone who knows his early stuff (not only the hits) Queen to Jazz understands his greatness, especially Queen2 to ADATR. I don't care about shredding all that much. Usually I tell people he's in the top 20 of the best rock guitarist. I don't get arguments on that, but if I said top 5 I admit people say no way.
Sebastian · Member since
He'd also admit there's no way. It obviously depends on which criteria you're using (and no, it's not just shredding). Brian's an extraordinary all-round musician. Purely as a guitarist (not counting his songwriting, singing, piano-playing, bass-playing, producing, arranging, animal activism, astrophysics or stereo photography) he's also magnificent (May-estic) but there are better ones and he'd be the first to admit so.
Then again, to be fair, most of 'Innuendo' was him. Steve only did the chromatic run and a few ornaments here and there, but everything else (including the main part of the solo, and its octave doubling, and its parallel thirds) was recorded by Brian. Not just the distorted electric bits, but the Spanish nylon ones as well.
mike hunt · Member since
Yea, I'm not talking about composing or anything else. Just as a guitarist, I think top 25 is fair. He had a style and sound that only he could create. Not many players could achieve that. I also say no way on the top 5. Players like Page, Clapton, Eddie Van Halen made generations of players pick up the guitar for the first time. May did have an Influence, but not on that level. Of course popularity isn't everything, Slash is way more popular than May, but I think May was the better player and influenced more big time guitarists.
Holly2003 · Member since
That youtube video in which one guitarist plays an excerpt from every Queen song gives a good indication of how versatile and interesting Brian was across the range of his career. And if you want one song which shows his incredible ability to compose multi-layered and harmonising guitar parts then listen to (the amazing) Good Company. However, he is not a virtuoso like Yngwe or Vai, he can't shred like Eddie, and he can't do more expressive stuff like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xwlvNRtAjo
As a solo artist he never really reached any great heights. In contrast, check out this from one of Jeff Beck's solo albums:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-XefAv6k-4
mike hunt · Member since
Agreed Holly! But guys like Vai, yngwe, Eddie, Beck are top 15 players. I think Brian deserves too be in that next level of greats, once you get past those top 15 or 20 guys. Then we start talking about the May and Iommi's of the world.
