Music Quiz: 20 Famous Guitar Players

51 Comments

1. Whew, I zipped through that one fairly quickly, ending up with 20/20 and 4:57 remaining on the clock. Had my fingers not stumbled a couple of times I could have completed it in less than a minute. Feeling very proud of myself right now. Thanks for another fun quiz.

   • Good score! I had no idea what Mr Van Halen looked like.

2. 20/20, 5:04 remaining. That one was right up my alley.

   • Yes, I actually thought it skewed towards you as I posted it.

     • I can’t be the only guitarist following you. 🙂

       • I know some chords, but I’ve never been able to play barre chords. Plus my wife is good at guitar, so I normally play mediocre piano or bad bass.

         • Barre chords are easy. You just find one you like, play it over and over again and – voila! Easy-peasy! 🙂

3. I got 19/20. The one I didn’t recognise is one I don’t listen to since I mostly listen to stuff from the 60s to the 80s and a bit of 50s rock and roll/rockabilly and some 90s Britpop.

   • Thanks for playing, and welcome aboard. I remember a couple of new guys – one from a bluesy duo, and one from a rap/rock band. I’m assuming it was one of those.

4. 18/20

   • Good effort!

5. 18/20. Very male orientated which makes it worse that I didn’t get her. I thought it was someone else and I was just spelling her name wrong.

   • I’ve been working on a favourite guitarist list and it’s really hard to get away from men. Do you have favourite female guitarists?

     • I was expecting to see Bonnie Raitt and Chrissie Hynde in the list. Other artists in the ‘best 50 women guitarist’ lists I would think of foremost as singers.
       There was an interesting interview with Odaline de la Martinez, who was the first woman to conduct at the BBC proms. She said that people can accept a man acting angry in front of the orchestra, but not a woman.
       I guess the same applies with the pantomiming, weird facial antics and strutting that some guitarists do.

       • I think Hynde is excellent, although she’s similar to Tom Petty in that she’s primarily notable as a singer/songwriter. Would have been a good choice for the quiz though. Joni Mitchell would have been good – she’s the queen of crazy guitar tunings. Otherwise a lot of more notable female guitarists (eg PJ Harvey, Carrie Brownstein) are from more recent alt-rock that wouldn’t work in a Sporcle quiz as they’re not universal enough to be recognised.
         Este Haim, from 2010s pop-guitar band HAIM, is notable for her weird facial antics on bass.

         • Ha – “notable” yes that’s a good way to put it. 🙂

     • I’ll chime in on the female guitarist thing. I like Nancy Wilson’s playing for one example. But a lot of the action in that space seems to be on the blues side of things. I don’t know all of these but some I do and they’re blazing a trail for sure.
       https://mic.com/articles/20106/9-female-blues-guitarists-who-will-blow-you-away#.RghsplFBI

6. 19/20 with plenty of time to go but I could not guess Tom Morello… This one was a fun one.

   • I really like Morello as a guitarist, even though I’m not a big fan of Rage Against The Machine.

     • He is a good guitar player…I just didn’t know his face.

7. 20/20 with 4:50 remaining. Dang, I wanted to do it in under a minute as I knew this one.

   • Good effort though!

8. 20/20 with 4:38 remaining but that just shows I’m a slow typer. I just went across the rows and filled them in. Fun!

   • But perfect score!

9. Tom who?
   19/20 in no time at all.

   • To quote one of your great national poets, Robert Forster:
     “When she sang about a boy/Kurt Cobain/
     I thought what a shame it wasn’t about/Tom Verlaine”

   • Bruce, Tom Morello was Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist. Known for that also for being a social activist. He also joined the E Street Band for at least one of Springsteen’s tours.

     • I assumed we were talking about Tom Petty…. Sometime around 1990, pop music gets a lot more fragmented and it’s hard to keep up with everything.

       • Oh, I figured he was talking about Morello. Who doesn’t know Petty? But Mike Campbell was the real guitarist in that band.

         • Agreed. I’m a fan, but I don’t think I’d recognise Campbell unless he was pictured next to Petty holding a guitar.

         • Yeah he’s never tried to be a flamboyant rock god.

         • Backing bands are intrinsically obscure – not many members have facial recognition.

         • Yea the average fan couldn’t pick Campbell out in a lineup mach less recognize his name.

     • Brilliant. Thanks Jim.

     • He’s also got some less harder edge but good stuff as The Nightwatchmen

10. 4:27 left. I’m sure I’d have been quicker had I not been using my phone, but I’m pleased I knew all 20!

    • Yup, phone makes Sporcling tough.

11. 18/20. I recognized them all but my memory is not what it used to be,

    • Maybe we should start giving you a 2 point start on the field?

      • Hey! That’s not nice! I’ll get perfect yet!

        • We should make everyone do a Decemberists or Death Cab For Cutie quiz. Or an indie bands starting with D? Are you down with Deerhunter, Destroyer, Dr. Dog, and Doves?

          • Haha! I would clean up! Love me some Doves!

          • I think I could do respectably on something like this.

12. 19 of 20 – didn’t recognize Brian May – I think the light behind his hair didn’t help. That was fun!

    • Great effort!

13. Boom! 20/20 with 05:23 on the clock, glad I decided to learn from previous mistakes and tackle this one with a keyboard rather than fat-thumb it on a mobile 😀

    • Tony do you actually take these tests or just wait to see who has the shortest time, give yourself the highest score, the lowest time and always win? I think from now on I’ll wait till after you chime in. 🙂

      • I do take them, just not always able to do so immediately and sometimes forget to check in. I’ll take screenshots for proof next time 😉

        • Well rhen you’re a certifiable genius.

          • More like an idiot savant

        • If you make an account on Sporcle you can save your scores for future reference.