You know, the ones who hold everything down
and play in such a way where you don't even know they
are there but if they drop out the whole song is gone.

Malcolm Young from AC/DC

Pete Townsend

Anyway, I went to Wikipedia to see their list of rhythm guitarists. Made me feel kind of out of it as I have never heard of some of the names on the list: Wiki list of Rhythm Guitarists

Michelle

Dave, I agree with your comment regarding rhythm guitar players.

In fact, I saw a guitar special last year that had a section about rhythm guitar playing. Tom Petty stated that he was pretty proud of the fact that he is a good rhythm player because "no one aspires to be a good rhythm player. That went out in the 1970s, but it's a handy thing to know."

Anyway, I went to Wikipedia to see their list of rhythm guitarists. Made me feel kind of out of it as I have never heard of some of the names on the list

Well, not to sound too cynical, but if you don't like Wiki's list, it's easy enough to change it. I think it's a silly list anyway. They claim it's a list of "significant" rhythm guitarists. Significant in which sense? And to whom? Does anyone really think much about the dude from Devo as a rhythm guitatist? Bryan Adams, anyone? Yeah, 'tis a silly list.

Now someone added Brian Jones, so both Brian Jones and Keith Richards are on the list, that's both guitarists of the Rolling Stones, folks, they can't both be the rhythm guitarist because that would mean there is no lead guitarist. It's more accurate to put both of them on the list of lead guitarists, because they took turns on lead guitar. Just because a guitarist plays rhythm guitar sometimes does not make him a rhythm guitarist. A rhythm guitarist is someone whose predominant role in a band is rhythm guitarist and who rarely if ever solos. For example, John Lennon played a small handful of solos in the Beatles, but he was predominantly the rhythm guitarist; he played probably less than 5 solos in their entire recording career. So he would be a rhythm guitarist. I'm not going to keep editing this article, I just hope maybe someone reads these comments and people will stop putting names on the list just to see someone from a band they like on a list and really stop to think if they really qualify as a rhythm guitarist, if that is the definition of what they do

Django Reinhardt's brother, can't think of his name, probably Speedo...

I did see an interesting quote on the discussions page of Wiki, though: