34Curtis Mayfield

David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesThe lateCurtis Mayfieldwas one of American soul's finest singers, songwriters and producers. He was also a quietly influential guitarist whose gently fluid melodies and fills, running through records like the Impressions' "Gypsy Woman," left a deep impact onJimi Hendrix, especially in his psychedelic balladry. "In the Sixties, every guitar player wanted to play like Curtis," George Clinton affirmed. Mayfield went on to reinvent his playing for a solo career in the Seventies, building his new music around the flickering funk rhythms and spare, gestural, wah-wah-inflected lead parts heard on hisSuperflysoundtrack and hits like "Move On Up." His liquid chord sequences were difficult for other musicians to imitate, in part because Mayfield played almost exclusively in an open F-sharp tuning. "Being self-taught, I never changed it," he said. "It used to make me proud because no matter how good a guitarist was, when he grabbed my ax he couldn't play it."Key Tracks:"Gypsy Woman," "Move On Up," "Freddie's Dead"

35John Lee Hooker

GAB Archive/Redferns"I don't play a lot of fancy guitar,"John Lee Hookeronce said. "I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks." Hooker's style couldn't be defined as urban or country blues it was something entirely his own, mysterious and funky and hypnotic. On monumental classics like "Boogie Chillen" a Number One R&B hit in 1949 "Boom Boom" and "Crawlin' King Snake," he perfected a droning, stomping groove, often in idiosyncratic time signatures and locked on one chord, with an ageless power. "He was a throwback even in his own time,"Keith Richardssaid. "EvenMuddy Waterswas sophisticated next to him." Hooker was a critical figure in the Sixties blues boom; his boogie became the basis for much ofZZ Top's early sound; his songs were covered by everyone fromthe DoorstoBruce Springsteen; and then, well after turning 70, he won four Grammys in the 1990s. "When I was a child," saidCarlos Santana, "he was the first circus I wanted to run away with."Key Tracks:"Boogie Chillen," "BoomBoom," "I'm in the Mood"

36Randy Rhoads

Paul Natkin/WireImageRandy Rhoads' career was far too short he died in a plane accident in 1982, at the age of 25 but his precise, architectural, hyperspeed solos onOzzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" helped set the template for metal-guitar soloing for years to follow. "I practiced eight hours a day because of him," Tom Morello has said, calling Rhoads "the greatest hard-rock/heavy-metal guitar player of all time." Rhoads had co-founded Quiet Riot as a teenager, and joined Ozzy's Blizzard of Ozz band in 1979 after a few years of working as a guitar teacher; according to legend, Rhoads would continue to take guitar lessons himself in different cities when he was on tour with Ozzy. By the time he recorded his final album,Ozzy's Diary of a Madman, Rhoads was getting deeper into classical music, and even exploring jazz. He "was reaching deep into himself as a guitar player," Nikki Sixx ofMtley Cresaid. "That was really the next step right there."Key Tracks:"Crazy Train," "Mr. Crowley," "Diary of a Madman"