10 Most Underrated Guitarists In Hard Rock

No matter which way you slice it, punk rock was never about technical finesse. Whether you were coming from the streets of London or the forgotten boroughs of New York, the focus was always on the amount of aggression and emotion you got out of your instrument rather than how much musical knowledge you had. Things were definitely changing, but East Bay Ray approached punk rock with a real musicians' mindset.

Joining the Dead Kennedys in the late '70s, the guitar licks on the band's songs were what really were turning people's heads. Though there were some fairly rudimentary chord structures like on "Kill the Poor," Ray always worked best when reinventing the song from the inside out. While you wouldn't necessarily consider slides or downpicking to be the pathway to guitar legend status, the way Ray would make his guitar buzz with anger is something even the super shredders couldn't muster completely.

Look no further than a song like "Holiday in Cambodia," where he delicately toes the line between musical adventurousness and straight up punk fury, as he weaves together standard licks with barrages of noise. The Dead Kennedys tend to get mentioned more for their pointed lyrics, but if there's not a firm foundation, the message doesn't matter, and East Bay Ray always gave Jello Biafra a solid base to stand on.