The guitarist Jeff Beck and Johnny Marr agreed was “the greatest ever”
Rock and roll was built on the backs of guitarists, so it is no surprise that the title of ‘the greatest guitarist in the world’ has always been hotly contested.
For those outside the music realm, the same names seem to dominate the conversation – Hendrix, Clapton, Page, etc – but for those who have dedicated their lives to the mastery of the instrument, the debate is a little more complex.
Take Jeff Beck, for instance. From his early origins back in the 1960s, The Yardbirds’ leader paved the way for an entirely new way of playing, introducing the still fairly gloomy post-war streets of London to the potential for psychedelic expression, all the while rubbing shoulders with the likes of Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, who would go on to dominate proceedings in later years. Unlike those two, though, Beck never seemed to yearn for the global spotlight to be put upon his six-stringed stylings.
Instead, once the dust had settled on Britain’s most swinging of eras, Beck pursued the obscure and endlessly complex avenue of jazz fusion, crafting a litany of otherworldly riffs which set him out as one of the most inventive and awe-inspiringly original players in history, at least for the few who bothered to listen to his jazz-era albums.
Seemingly, a not insignificant part of that jazz inspiration came from the source of Doncaster’s finest, John McLaughlin, who, despite not being a household name, is among the most important jazz fusion guitarists to have ever lived, lending his skills to both the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis, among various others.
“Johnny McLaughlin has given us so many different facets of the guitar,” Beck gushed during a 2013 chat with Uncut. “And introduced thousands of us to world music by blending Indian music with jazz and classical.” Adding, “I’d say he was the best guitarist alive.” A rather bold claim to make, admittedly, but one which is not wholly uncommon within the realm of legendary guitarists.
While hardly on the same end of the rock spectrum as Beck, indie guitar virtuoso Johnny Marr appears to be in agreement over McLaughlin’s otherworldly skills.
During one appearance on Shaun Keavney’s The Line-Up podcast, he admitted that the Yorkshire-born guitarist is one of the few figures capable of making Marr feel starstruck: “I was offered the opportunity to meet John McLaughlin, I don’t know whether he’s aware of this, only a few months ago, and I elected not to,” he shared.
Marr promptly added, “He’s the greatest guitar player that’s ever lived, John McLaughlin.” Although the former Smiths guitarist did qualify, “He’s not everybody’s [cup of tea] because of his choice in music,” there is no getting away from his obvious hero-worship of the man who accompanied Miles Davis through his most experimental works.
There is, of course, no definitive answer as to who the greatest guitarist who has ever lived actually is – most likely, it will have been some old-school American blues pioneer whose name never made it out of their surrounding hometown – but the fact that two guitarists as skilled and disparate as Jeff Beck and Johnny Marr agree on McLaughlin being at the top of their list should say enough about the groundbreaking, unparalleled output of the guitarist.
