10 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists In Rock Music History

For all of the accolades that the Beatles have gotten over the years, there have always been some skeptics that were wondering if they were really that good to begin with. Since none of the members knew proper music theory or anything like that, there's always been a question of how good the greatest Fab songs hold up and what can be chalked up to their producer George Martin. Although John Lennon was the first one to say that he was a lousy guitar player, it doesn't feel like he's giving himself enough credit.

While John's expertise was certainly not in soloing, his ability to weave together different chords almost out of the air was almost impossible to pull off back in the day, with songs like Strawberry Fields Forever being just as satisfying being played on a bare acoustic guitar as it did with all of the other added extensions around it. John's expertise was always in rhythm though, and some of his trademark licks come from the push and pull that he had going with Ringo, like the different extensions of the lick on Norwegian Wood or storming right out of the gate on the song Revolution.

There may have been other British Invasion bands that had more chops, but Lennon was never about being a technical player in any sense of the word. The guitar was just a way for him to communicate what he was trying to say half the time, and when he did speak up, it was usually something very profound that you couldn't take your ears off of.