FROM THE RIDICULOUS TO THE SUBLIME

We’re ready for argument. Below are The Guitar Heroes Of Rock ’n’ Roll as we see them — at least in late 1981 —and it hasn’t been easy. Hero criteria? Well, let ’em play guitar, but let ’em play it good: Ray Dauies plays guitar but isn’t one; Dave Dauies plays guitar and is. The distinctions are fine. Keep in mind our purposeful limits —it's got to be rock ’n’ roll, not blues, not jazz, not folk. For euery B.B. King. John McLaughlin and Bert Jansch, there’s a Luther Allison, John Abercrombie and Dauy Graham until, eventually, there’s a GUITAR HEROES special edition that’s 500 pages long and costs 10 bucks. We had to trim it down. Tacked on the end of each entry are the guitar models each subject uses; those entries debatable or unknown are left blank. —Ed.

MICK ABRAHAMS: Mick played on the first-and-only good Jethro Tull album before departing to form Blodwyn Pig. Latter band, aside from designing an album jacket that would soil underground media for 12 years running, put out two hot discs for A&M before calling it quits. Abrahams, meanwhile, still existed long enough to release one solo disc for the same company before fading to import-only status (Chrysalis’ At Last) and, the final degradation, releasing British guitar instruction albums. Look for the The Mick Abrahams/Stefan Grossman Battle Of The Bands on Takoma in a matter of weeks. D.D.