Guitar World's 10 Essential Classic Rock Guitar Albums

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This list of Guitar World's 10 essential classic rock guitar albums is part of a much larger feature—Guitar World's 100 Essential Guitar Albums—which you'll be seeing in the weeks ahead.

For the time being, we'll start you off with these 10 masterpieces from guys named Harrison, Townshend, Hendrix and Gilmour.

And, to help you get into the spirit of the music on this list, we thought you could use some inspiration:

INSPIRATIONAL VERSE: "Pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday." — "Won't Get Fooled Again," The Who

INSPIRATIONAL LICK: "Ain't Talkin' About Love" (intro), Van Halen

THE LOOK:Then: Fluffy, long Goldilocks tresses. Now: Gray hair, big wallet. Timeless: Tight-fitting flares revealing dubious "trouser snake," flouncy shirt, fringe, cocaine-spoon neck pandant ...

TOOLS OF THE TRADE:

• Guitar: Vintage Les Pauls, Strats, etc.
• Amps: Marshall Plexis
• Effects: Echoplex, Cry Baby wah, analog phaser, flanger, fuzz and delay

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Alan di Perna
Alan di Perna

In a career that spans five decades, Alan di Perna has written for pretty much every magazine in the world with the word “guitar” in its title, as well as other prestigious outlets such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Creem, Player, Classic Rock, Musician, Future Music, Keyboard, grammy.com and reverb.com. He is author of Guitar Masters: Intimate Portraits, Green Day: The Ultimate Unauthorized History and co-author of Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Sound Style and Revolution of the Electric Guitar. The latter became the inspiration for the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibition “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll.” As a professional guitarist/keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist, Alan has worked with recording artists Brianna Lea Pruett, Fawn Wood, Brenda McMorrow, Sat Kartar and Shox Lumania.