Lesser Known Guitar Greats Trivia Quiz

Answer: Paul Kossoff

Paul Kossoff is probably best known for his work on the song "All Right Now" by the band Free. Kossoff started Free with Simon Kirke and Paul Rodgers in 1968. After Free split, due to Kossoff's drug problems, Kirke and Rodgers formed another band called Bad Company. Kossoff died on an airplane due to a drug-induced heart attack in 1976.

Answer: Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy, the Louisiana native, has made a great career as one of the best known Chicago bluesmen ever. He has played with the great Muddy Waters and Otis Rush, and more recently, with Eric Clapton and B.B. King. Guy owns a great blues bar in Chicago called Legends where many of the best blues artists play regularly. I recommend listening to any Buddy Guy album featuring the greatest harmonica player ever, Junior Wells.

Answer: An African instrument called a diddley bow

Elias McDaniel, better known as Bo Diddley, was named after a one-stringed African guitar-like instrument. Diddley did, however, begin his career as a classical violin player, and he employed a unique bow stroke that made a different tone emit from a violin. Bo has remained a favorite blues player in the Chicago area since 1955, when he released his first single, aptly titled "Bo Diddley". Check out the Bo Diddley collection on Chess Records - some of his finest work can be found there.

Answer: Dick Dale

Dick Dale was born Richard Monsour in 1937. Not only is he credited with inventing the surf style of music, but he is also credited with being a forefather to heavy metal music. That lightning-fast, single-note, staccato picking style made famous by Eddie Van Halen was an original Dick Dale style of playing.

He also broke new ground in electronics and amplification in his work with the Fender company. A lot of the distorted tones made popular by heavy metal music were invented by Dick Dale.

Answer: John McLaughlin

McLaughlin is a true pioneer in the jazz/rock fusion style. His work on Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" is simply amazing. The Mahavishnu Orchestra, lasting from 1971-1973, created some of the most technically competent jazz/rock of the times. The band reincarnated itself in 1974, after only a one year break, with different personnel, most notably Jean-Luc Ponty on violin.

Answer: Scotty Moore

Scotty Moore basically invented rockabilly back in the early 1950s while playing with Doug Poindexter and the Starlite Wranglers, even recording an album for Sun Records. When Sam Phillips was mulling over who should back the young Elvis Presley, he knew that Moore and bassist Bill Black would be perfect.

The song "That's All Right" remains one of the most popular Elvis songs ever, and that was recorded in the first session as a band. When Elvis left to go to RCA, he took his band with him, but things broke down and turned sour. Elvis was then drafted into the army and Moore went back to Sun Records as a production manager. Moore played occasionally with Elvis off and on, but his big triumph was when Elvis made his comeback television special in 1968 and asked Moore to be a part of it.

Answer: Peter Green

Peter Green was a hugely talented musician whose mental problems caused his music career to suffer. His use of LSD and other drugs also added to his delusions and paranoia. Green was hugely envious of the praise and god-like status given to Eric Clapton which contributed to his mental state.

After Green left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers to start Fleetwood Mac, that is when his troubles really began. He quit Fleetwood Mac just as the band was reaching commercial success and joined a LA-based cult called the Children of God.

After a decade of rambling around England taking menial work, Green picked back up the guitar and recorded a few solo albums, never quite returning to the status he once held. When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, Green joined Carlos Santana to jam on the hit "Black Magic Woman", a song Green wrote nearly twenty years earlier while a member of Fleetwood Mac.

Answer: Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp took his iconoclastic approach to the guitar and basically invented a musical style called progressive rock. The band King Crimson enjoyed success from 1969-1974 until Fripp disbanded the group and retired. After a three-year hiatus, Fripp got back into music and has released several solo albums, reunited King Crimson on several occasions and even provided guitar work for such artists as Peter Gabriel, David Bowie and Daryl Hall.

Answer: Johnny Ramone

You will find no other punk rock hero as revered as Johnny Ramone. When the Ramones first began playing at CBGB's in New York, nobody knew what to expect from this group, but it only took a little time for people to recognize the greatness of the band.

Although the Ramones had a revolving door of players, Joey and Johnny were the constants. The band was looking to make a comeback in 2001, but Joey sadly died due to cancer complications, leaving Johnny to his retirement in Southern California.

Answer: Ry Cooder

Cooder has worked with some of the greats in the music industry, including the Rolling Stones, Randy Newman, Little Feat and Gordon Lightfoot. His love for world music has exposed a new genre of music to his fans that they may otherwise not have found. Cooder has also been famous for assembling old Cuban musicians and playing together in the Buena Vista Social Club.