Rolling Stone polled other players, and this is what they came up with. Can’t think of too many people they missed, except Bruce Cockburn (called the world’s best by Eddie Van Halen).
100 greatest guitarists
8 thoughts on “100 greatest guitarists”
Comments are closed.
The RS list was total bullshit. Sure, Hendrix should be at No. 1, but many great ones didn’t make the list at all, including blues-rock guitarist Kim Simmonds and R&R player Nils Lofgren. Richard Thompson was ranked low on the list, and he’s easily one of the top five guitarists in the pop music world, if you grade according to originality, audacity and technique… Which brings up the question, what was the main criterion used in the ranking? Popularity, technical prowess, style?
Steven Stills is (was) a great songwriter, not a great guitar player, and I know people who live withing a few blocks of me who are more competent and interesting players than the Black Sabbath guy and some of the other trash rockers who made the list.
If you call the list “Greatest Guitarist” than it can’t be so rock/blues heavy. No Charlie Christian? No Kaki King? No Joe Pass? Call it “The 100 Greatest Rock/Blues Guitarists with Bonus Points Scored for Being Recent” and the order makes more sense.
The Edge at 38? Anyone who believes in all musical history only 37 guitarists were better needs to get out more. A lot more. And Robert Johnson at 71? All he did was create the vocabulary that created both the blues and rock-n-roll but somehow Joe Walsh is a better guitarist. A fun list in that any such leads to interesting discussions but beyond that I would say it’s pretty bad and grossly a-historical.
The more I think on it the worse the list becomes. No Doc Watson, Andres Segovia, Danny Gatton, Julian Bream, Sharon Isbin, Paco de Lucia, Django Reinhardt fercrisake, he’s not one of the 100 best?, Christopher Parkening, and on and on…
Remember, this was a survey of rock guitarists. They probably never heard of those people.
I understand – but that’s why I said don’t call it “The 100 Greatest Guitarists” list. Without any qualifier in there the list should be all inclusive – there’s no reason to leave other styles of music out if it’s just “the greatest”.
Look at all that shiny hair!
Bob is right. The big mistake was calling it “100 Greatest Guitarists.” Bruce Springsteen is a good guitarist, but he’s a long way from being a great guitarist. Utter corporate bullshit.
Ah yes, at least there were two girls. Tokens. Number 75 and 89. And Joni rates higher than Bonnie? No Django. No Julian Bream. Where’s Jorma?? Very weird list. I agree: This list should not be titled 100 Best Guitarists, when it is rock and sort of blues oriented. RS should state that. Still, it’s a weird list. Me thinks they just wanted people to talk and whine. Looks like they succeeded.