The Motown house band, The Funk Brothers, had Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis.
Emmylou Harris Hot Band, actually 3 guitars and a pedal steel.
One guitar, or three?
Many fans of Rock music guitar playing consider the players who were the only guitarist in their band "the best": Jimi Hendrix (in The Experience), Eric Clapton (in Cream), Jeff Beck (post-Yardbirds), Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the clown in Black Sabbath, etc. etc.
I on the other hand have a love of not the classic 2-guitar line-up (The Beatles, Stones, Rockpile, etc.)---good as that can be---, but of 3-guitar bands: Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, Fleetwood Mac in their Peter Green/Danny Kirwin/Jeremy Spencer period, and The Flamin’ Groovies in the Shake Some Action album era.
Three guitars is even more musical than two, and far more so than one. All kinds of little song parts are possible with three musical instruments, and Springfield and The Grape really exploited the possibilities. One guitar is so, well, 1-dimensional. Sure, on recordings the single guitarist in a band can recorded multiple parts, but "lead" guitarists rarely think in "song part" terms, but instead in "guitar chops" terms. Know what I mean?
I bought the first two albums by both Cream and Hendrix when they were released, and saw both live twice in 1967 and ’68. But the music of both got old pretty quickly, I losing interest after those albums. You may disagree. ;-)
Now, one guitar is fine if you have other musical instruments (bass and drums can be played musically, but they aren’t "chordal" instruments), such as piano and/or organ. Two of Rock ’n’ Roll’s most musical ensembles had both piano and organ, and only one guitar: The Band and Procol Harum. Those bands also had great songs. Coincidence?
If anyone has other 3-guitar bands/groups to recommend, I’m all ears.
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Check out Wilco, with Nels Cline, doing “Impossible Germany” from this clip: https://youtu.be/7I79m7_kAnA Very tasty, with Cline shredding at one end of the stage while Jeff Tweedy and Pat Sansone are harmonizing at the other end. |
@onhwy61: Yeah, many Soul bands---who commonly have great rhythm guitarists, a thing very different from a lead guitarist (John Lennon was a fair rhythm guitarist, Don Everly a great one)---and, especially, Country Bands---who commonly have at least one acoustic rhythm guitarist (in addition to the singer, if he plays) and another on electric, plus an electric lead player or two, and a pedal steel, dobro, mandolin, and fiddle player (no wonder I like good Country as much as I do ;-) never have only one guitarist. But remember, I specified Rock music bands, where a single guitarist is much more common. Singer/songwriters often hire as many musicians as they can afford. When I saw Lucinda Williams for the first time after her Car Wheels album sold a million (I had seen her playing around L.A. for years before the success of that album changed her life, one time in a pizza parlor to an audience of a half dozen people), she was playing acoustic rhythm herself, had Jim Lauderdale playing acoustic and singing harmony, two electric guitarists (one of them being Kenny Vaughan, now of course playing Telecaster in Marty Stuarts’ The Fabulous Superlatives, imo currently the best band in the world), plus a pretty expensive drummer, the great Jim Christie, who quit Dwight Yoakam’s band when Lucinda offered him a job. My gawd she and they sounded great that night! For years Emmylou had the best band in the land---The Hot Band, featuring at various times James Burton, Albert Lee, Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell, Tony Brown, Glen D. Hardin, Hank DeVito, Emory Gordy, and either John Ware or Ronnie Tutt on drums. They weren’t named The Hot Band for no reason! Emmylou, having great taste and surrounding herself with the best musicians in the world, now has Buddy Miller playing electric guitar and singing harmony with her, plus leading her band. He also leads the band at the annual Americana Awards Show. He’s a great record producer too! |
While I agree that two is often better than one, for my tastes, a third is usually one too many. The degree of commitment required to listen carefully enough so as to stay out each-other's way is usually more than most guitarists can summon in such a situation. Never "grokked" Moby Grape. I did hear Emmylou with the Hot Band and they did fine, but you specified Rock, so nope. |
IMHO one of the best if not the best three lead guitar driven bands was the original Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan; their ability to seamlessly trade leads and riffs was unmatched... best live concerts I've ever had the privilege of attending with maybe a very close second Little Feat (two lead guitarists) fronted by Lowell George. |
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