10 Best Classic Rock Guitarists Of The '70s

Prog rock is one of those rock genres that went way too far over the top. While there were plenty of talented musicians making waves on both sides of the Atlantic, most fans didn't really have the tolerance to sift through 20 minutes to actually hear what sounded like a coherent song. Though countless bands got too caught up in the hype of making their opus, Robert Fripp is the one mad scientist who deserved all the praise in the world.

Rising to prominence in the prog rock outfit King Crimson, Fripp started to explore nearly every part of the fretboard to get what he needed for a song. Though In the Court of the Crimson King left many fans' minds blown, that was just the tipping point for Fripp's greatness, with later symphonies like Frame by Frame offering some of the most complex melodies ever created, as guitarists struggled to find where the actual beat was.

You may think that your favorite guitarist has chops, but not many six-string players can say they invented a tuning, with Fripp's "new standard" striving to explore different sides of the instrument no one had ever heard. That's not even taking into account Fripp's experiments behind the scenes, producing and playing guitar for everyone from David Bowie to Peter Gabriel. Though Robert Fripp may not be the first name that comes up in terms of guitar gods, his fingerprints are all over the golden age of rock and roll.