How could we not forget Eric Clapton... others for me, Gary Moore, Eliot Easton, Bob Welch, Peter Green, Rory Gallagher, just to name a few. I could go on.

Working in San Rafael in the mid-1980's.... So it is prolly safe to say that you ran into the boys a few times.
 
The boys? you mean Thin Lizzy? Nope, never met them......  ;-)
 
Mickey Hart was the only member of the Dead I remember playing at Georges when I was there. I don't remember the band, some collection of Marin Hippies for sure.
 
When Belew and Zappa shared a stage, that was mind blowing.
 
JBY

How could we not forget Eric Clapton
 
Wait, we didn't not forget him, we forgot him. I think the reason being he sounds just like all the blues players who came after him.
 
:-)
 
JBY

and Joe Walsh is pretty darn distinctive...thick and ballsy...

Ain't no one sounds like Tom Waits!
 
Bill, tgo

The interesting thing to me about all of this is that we can all identify a distinctive sound when we hear one.  For me, I can instantly feel the sound of the early  to mid 70s guitar bands, and I can recall, a few years back when there was an anniversary concert for Queen Elizabeth II on the radio, that from the very first note of Brian May of Queen fame playing God save the Queen, I knew it was him.  For those of us who like to listen, the sounds are unmistakeable, and take us to wonderful places when we hear them, even years later.  that's the magic of music, for me.

Augustus Pablo... king of the melodica!

jbybj,  I dont agree about Eric being typical blues player, you can tell him straight away blindfolded for sure, definitely a top 10 place for him IMHO

hankster, ya nailed it... Brian May. If there was ever one note for grandma to recognize, he's the man. If she was deaf in one ear maybe she be confused between Brian and Tom Shultz. We are talking one note tone recognition right? Who came on the scene first? The chicken or the egg?