MOVERS AND SHAKERS REVISITED!

AS YOU MIGHT’VE guessed, the issue of Guitar World that you hold in your paws right now definitely does not represent the first time GW has revisited or celebrated the mighty Eighties. In fact, we did exactly that just as the decade was ending, way back in our February 1990 issue, pictured above [Editor’s note: Despite the issue date, the GW crew probably put the February 1990 issue together around October 1989]. In that EVH-fronted issue, we pinpointed the Eighties’ 12 “Movers & Shakers,” as in, one six-string mover and/or shaker per year, plus four young players that the GW editors believed would make an impact in the Nineties. They actually did a good job in terms of their predictions, bearing in mind that they hadn’t yet heard of grunge (at least not in the context of music). And, oh yeah, they also chose the guitarist of the decade. Gee, I wonder who that was? Anyway, here’s what they came up with all those years ago: 1980: Angus Young

1981: Randy Rhoads

1982: Eddie Van Halen

1983: The Edge

1984: Stevie Ray Vaughan 1985: Yngwie Malmsteen

1986: Steve Vai

1987: Joe Satriani

1988: James Hetfield & Kirk Hammett 1989: Izzy Stradlin & Slash Guitarist of the Decade:

Eddie Van Halen Four Players Who Will Matter in the Nineties: Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Winger’s Reb Beach and Testament’s Alex Skolnick.

— Damian Fanelli