It Was 50 Years Ago Today! 20 PICKS FROM 1971

In this fantastic feature celebrating one of the best years ever for guitar albums, Richard Barrett invites you back to 1971 to look at the diverse electric and acoustic styles that were heard for the very first time.

- Richard Barrett

ABILITY RATING

Moderate/Advanced

Info

Key Various

Tempo Various

CD TRACKS 4-39

Will improve your…

Various acoustic picking styles

Blues, rock and fusion soloing

Breadth of guitar technique

If you were into contemporary music in 1971, chances are you’d have owned most, if not all, of the albums covered in this feature. To talk through them in the order they were released: The Yes Album hit the stores in February - their first with Steve Howe, who brought his love of jazz, country and ragtime, and not the prevailing blues influence of the day - you won’t hear much in the way of string bends and vibrato, but who cares when the music is this interesting?

James Taylor’s Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon followed in March, demonstrating his adept fingerstyle acoustic as the centrepiece of a dream team, including the Memphis Horns, Carole King and Leland Sklar. Meanwhile, in Birmingham Tony Iommi had been laying down unimaginably heavy riffs for Black Sabbath’s Master Of Reality - though like many albums of this era, there was the occasional acoustic interlude.