Spanky Johnson

I read an interview with Myron Grombacher (Pat Benatar's drummer) asking about his favorite guitarists, and he named Townshend as one saying (paraphrased) "he doesn't take a lot of leads, but he plays a lot of guitar". I would agree with that, and in fact I saw some recent live concert footage of him playing with the remains of The Who at some charity event or something, and he did some soloing. It just sounded wrong because it was so un-Townshend-like.

I agree with those who said Alex Lifeson was underrated. I don't much like what Rush has become these days, but the man can play. He still has it too -- check out the Rush in Rio DVD for numerous examples (mostly on their older songs, though).