07-09-2003 10:35									#1
	The lamest "top 100" list ever? Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists. Tired of ads?

First, the link: http://www.rollingstone.com/feature...en.asp?pid=1917

They are ranking the greatest guitarists (not just rock, but all forms of music), and to give you an idea as to how craptacular this list is, let me give you some entries:

1. Hendrix. The obvious choice, so obvious that Sophie could've chosen Jimi.
2. Duane Allman
3. BB King
4. Eric Clapton
5. Robert Johnson

Not so bad, you say? Just wait...

12. Kurt Cobain. The 12th greatest guitarist? Ever??
13. Jerry Garcia. Oh, gimme a friggin' break!
16. Johnny Ramone. Because bar chord songs that drunk 16 year olds can play just ROCK!!!
21. George Harrison. Huh? Are you serious? Is he really 49 spots better than
70. Eddie Van Halen? 70th!?!?!? Every friggin' kid who learned to play guitar during the entire decade of the 80's wanted to be Eddie Van Halen! Who the hell wanted to grow up to be George Harrison: Guitar God???
72. Joni Mitchell. As to why the hell she is on this list, I can't even begin to fathom.
82. David Gilmour. Eighty-freaking-two. After Joni Mitchell. After the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac. After the guitarist for Phish. Jesus wept. Bitterly.
85. Randy Rhodes. Sorry, Randy, you're just not as good as Joni.
86. Tommy Iommi. Well, if you're going to dis Randy, might as well throw in Tommy as well.
87. Joan Jett. *JohnT drops dead in horror, revives, and then drops dead again*

And while CCR is a quality band, there is no way that Fogerty can be considered a better guitarist than EVH or Randy Rhodes.

Who did they leave out? A bunch of nobodies, including:

Joe Satriani
Andres Segovia
Al Demolia
Slash
The guitarist(s) for Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Chet Atkins
Django Reinhardt
Charlie Christian
Pat Methany
Joe Pass
Steve Vai

To be quite honest, a lot of the newer guitarists I've never heard of (I pretty much fell out of the music scene around 1992). But to think that they are better than Iommi, Segovia, Reinhardt, or Van Halen is pretty damned ignorant.

	07-09-2003 10:37									#2
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Top 100 lists, by definition, are lame anyways.

	07-09-2003 10:38									#3
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Of course. But they are so fun to beyatch about, you know?

	07-09-2003 10:40									#4
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quote: Originally posted by mrmitchell Top 100 lists, by definition, are lame anyways.

Yep

Take Clapton out of the top 50 please

	07-09-2003 10:40									#5
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Pretty lame. And Clapton should be number one.

	07-09-2003 10:43									#6
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And where's Steve Jones

	07-09-2003 10:57									#7
	Re: The lamest "top 100" list ever? Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists. Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by JohnT 12. Kurt Cobain.

	07-09-2003 10:58									#8
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quote: Of course. But they are so fun to beyatch about, you know?

That's the point.

And the list does suck. Everyone knows that Jimmy Page is by far and away the #1 Guitarist of all time .

Kurt Cobain should have been in the Top 20, IMO. Johnny Ramone is ranked correctly, as is Harrison. HOWEVER, Eddie Van Halen should have been top 10.

	07-09-2003 11:20									#9
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quote: Kurt Cobain should have been in the Top 20, IMO.

Why? He wasn't a very good guitar player (and this is coming from a fan).

	07-09-2003 11:23									#10
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I thought he was pretty damned good. There were definetly some very good guitar work on 'Nevermind'.

	07-09-2003 11:24									#11
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quote: I thought he was pretty damned good. There were definetly some very good guitar work on 'Nevermind'.

I guess if you consider basic power chords to be good guitar work...

	07-09-2003 11:25									#12
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Basic power cords are the lifeblood of rock .

	07-09-2003 11:26									#13
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Eddie Van Halen and Randhi Rhodes are too far down for my tastes. They are my favourite guitarists of all time. Throw in Kirk Hammett in there as well. And Jimmy Page. Can't forget Hendrix to round out the top 5

Curt Kobain played some good tunes, but he wasn't that great of a guitarist. Listen to his live stuff for verification

Last edited by Dis on 07-09-2003 at 11:35

	07-09-2003 11:27									#14
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quote: Basic power cords are the lifeblood of rock .

True, but they aren't a defining characteristic of great guitar work.

	07-09-2003 11:28									#15
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Why not? If you can really do power cords well, you are doing good rock, if basic power cords are the lifeblood of rock.

	07-09-2003 11:29									#16
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Tom Morello is 9 spots beyond the dude from the White Stripes? WTF?

	07-09-2003 11:30									#17
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quote: Why not? If you can really do power cords well, you are doing good rock, if basic power cords are the lifeblood of rock.

To be considered great, one must move beyond mere mastery of the fundamentals.

	07-09-2003 11:31									#18
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Yet there is something to be said for those who master the fundamentals (because many do not). And I do think Cobain goes past just the fundamentals.

	07-09-2003 11:34									#19
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quote: And I do think Cobain goes past just the fundamentals.

Can you name any badass Cobain guitar solos? I can't...

Cobain was a great songwriter, but his guitar skills were mediocre at best. I don't think he would've denied this, either.

	07-09-2003 11:36									#20
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Guitar solos are the biggest waste of egotistical BS ever... and that's nice compared to what Snapcase would say about this.

I didn't care about Nivana's songwriting as much as I liked their music (and most of that had to with the guitar work).

	07-09-2003 11:37									#21
	Re: The lamest "top 100" list ever? Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists. Inflate your Upload Space

quote: Originally posted by JohnT They are ranking the greatest guitarists (not just rock, but all forms of music), and to give you an idea as to how craptacular this list is, let me give you some entries:

Why are you taking this seriously? Rolling Stone's lists are generally a joke. I mean they had the classically dull "OK Computer" as the greatest album of all time even though it's by those talentless ****s Radiohead.

quote: 1. Hendrix. The obvious choice, so obvious that Sophie could've chosen Jimi.

That guy put the guitar back 20 years! No seriously, he's good, but hardly a great guitarist.

quote: 2. Duane Allman

Good, but not great.

quote: 3. BB King

The guy can't play chords.

quote: 4. Eric Clapton

A pointless, talentless piece of shite who made one good album (with John Mayall).

quote: 5. Robert Johnson

He's good, but they only put him in the list to look like they knew what they were talking about.

quote: 12. Kurt Cobain. The 12th greatest guitarist? Ever?? 13. Jerry Garcia. Oh, gimme a friggin' break! 16. Johnny Ramone. Because bar chord songs that drunk 16 year olds can play just ROCK!!!

None of these guys could really play. Cobain sounds like he's got a pneumatic hammer up his ass.

quote: 21. George Harrison. Huh? Are you serious?

Yes, but these are the people who'll tell you that Ringo was a great drummer.

quote: 70. Eddie Van Halen? 70th!?!?!? Every friggin' kid who learned to play guitar during the entire decade of the 80's wanted to be Eddie Van Halen!

This is ridiculous. This man is one of the few rock players who deserves to be in the top 20.

quote: 72. Joni Mitchell. As to why the hell she is on this list, I can't even begin to fathom.

Neither can I.

quote: Joe Satriani Andres Segovia Al Demolia

Agreed.

quote: Slash The guitarist(s) for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Are you on ****ing drugs or something?

quote: Chet Atkins Django Reinhardt Charlie Christian Pat Methany Joe Pass Steve Vai

Agreed.

And also:

Barney Kessell
George Benson
Wes Montgomery
Johnny Smith
Julian Bream

and the most technically gifted player

John Williams

And

There's a couple of Australian guitarists, the Emmanuel Brothers. I recommend their CD "Terra Firma" to anyone who cares about the guitar (I've seen them play live - they are technically unsurpassed). These guys can play the pants off anyone on RS's list.

	07-09-2003 11:37									#22
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quote: Guitar solos are the biggest waste of egotistical BS ever...

Most great performers are egotistical bastards.

	07-09-2003 11:39									#23
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The only solos I could really stand were from Jimmy Page .

	07-09-2003 11:39									#24
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quote: The only solos I could really stand were from Jimmy Page

At least we can agree that Jimmy Page is god.

	07-09-2003 11:41									#25
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ahh I forgot about Joe Satrioni. This guy was great.

Steve Vai and Yngvie Malmsteen weren't bad either

	07-09-2003 12:21									#26
	Re: The lamest "top 100" list ever? Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists. Remove this text

quote: Originally posted by JohnT 87. Joan Jett. *JohnT drops dead in horror, revives, and then drops dead again*

Do you know something about Joan that I don't? Her mp3s are quite good.

	07-09-2003 12:47									#27
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How the **** could you leave out Joe Satriani?

Somebody needs to listen to Borg Sex, Surfing with Alien, Rubina, Ceremony, etc.

	07-09-2003 17:04									#28
	Re: The lamest "top 100" list ever? Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists. Support Apolyton

quote: Originally posted by JohnT To be quite honest, a lot of the newer guitarists I've never heard of (I pretty much fell out of the music scene around 1992). But to think that they are better than Iommi, Segovia, Reinhardt, or Van Halen is pretty damned ignorant.

That's a funny paragraph.

On a serious point, the poll is "Greatest". Not "Best". The semantic point is significant, because it places more weighting on historical impact rather than technical accomplishment.

Still, it's nice to see Kevin Shields and Richard Thompson on the list. Pity they missed off Nick Drake, however.

	07-09-2003 17:07									#29
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Actually, by my reckoning only one guitarist on the list (Jack White) started recording later than 1992.

	07-09-2003 17:12									#30
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What a ****ed-up list! It's not even factually accurate!

The correct list should be:

1. Keith Richards
2. Brian Jones
3. Mick Taylor
4. Ron Wood
5. er...
6. that's it