This is even sicker than I thought. I mean, c'mon, Jack White at 17!? Ok, he's not a BAD guitar player. Heck, he's pretty good. But the only reason he's on the list is because the media has been bowing down to his band for the past year. What about Joey Ramone at 16? He may be one of the more *influential* guitar players, especially for the punk scene, but that doesn't make him eligable for a list about the best guitar players.
The only thing that made my heart sing was seeing Robert Randolph on the list. But where is Phil Keaggy? John Petrucci? Oh well, who gives a crap what Rolling Stone thinks, anyway.
peace.
UPDATE
Don't like the Rolling Stone list? Pick your own favorite guitarists with our own poll here.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - TDavid
Duane Allman, Robert Johnson and Ry Cooder ahead of Eddie Van Halen? Puh-lease.
Is this a list for guitar influences or who are the top 100 guitarists?
This reminds me of every rock countdown list where Stairway to Heaven is usually the winner. Stairway is a great song, an eternal classic, but it isn't the #1 rock song on every list.
Angus Young makes the top 100? Every AC DC song is what, 3 or 4 chords? I like the early AC DC stuff, but they have made a fortune off of a handful of chord combinations and I can't say Angus is one of the top 100 guitarists of all time.
On a positive note, I do agree with many of the people on this list and I think Hendrix at #1 is solid.
2 - JR
42. Robert Fripp
Good call, Eric.
But the list is still risible.
3 - JR
Can't find Joe Satriani. You'd think the guy who's actually made a successful career of instrumental guitar music over the past fifteen years, and who taught Kirk Hammett (#11!?!) and Steve Vai, would show up in the top 100.
And some of the people who are on this list! I don't want to knock musicians who've made good music, but to the extent that some of these guys actually played guitar, they might as well have put Elvis on the list!
(Why do I bother arguing with Rolling Stone?)
4 - Rodney Welch
Placing 16, 17, and 18 over 19 is an absolute insult -- Richard Thompson is one of the greatest ever. But I am at least pleased to see him represented, as well as Fahey and Verlaine.
5 - SineSwiper
This is on par with Blender's Top 50 Worse bands, where the put up ICP as #1, even though they rated their "worse album" (The Wraith) for the "worse band" (ICP) as 3 out of 4 stars in an earlier review. Even if you hate ICP yourself, you'll have to agree that it still isn't as bad as some of the other bands they listed, such as some of the really BAD 80's bands.
They also listed Emerson, Lake and Palmer (#2), Pat Boone (#18), The Alan Parsons Project (#21), Primus (#22), Creed (#23), Crash Test Dummies (#28), Skinny Puppy (#29), Paul Oakenfold (#35), The Doors (#37 ?!?), Blind Melon (#40), The Spin Doctors (#46), Goo Goo Dolls (#47), Master P (#48), and Iron Butterfly (#50).
Please note that some of this bands rated are rated WORSE than Manowar (#44).
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/13/1060588441379.html
As far as this list goes, it is completely invalid if Joe Satriani is not on the list.
6 - SineSwiper
I also want to note that lists like these are merely for culture and marketing masterbation for the parties involved (ie: Rolling Stone).
7 - The Theory
Ahhahaha. "market masterbation"... good call.
8 - Cindy Collins Smith
What a weird list!
I have no qualms about Hendrix at #1. But as someone pointed out, Richard Thompson at #19? (when he should probably be in the Top 10!). No Joe Satriani?
And why is Johnny Ramone even ON the list, much less on the list at #16? I mean, okay, I love the Ramones. But Johnny Ramone is ahead of a lot of much better guitarists... like The Edge, for example. In fact, why is The Edge down at #22? And Kurt Cobain at #12? Oh, I get it. The Edge is alive and U2 is over-exposed. But he's still a great guitarist. And Cobain was a better songwriter than guitarist.
And did you see where Les Paul is??? And John McLaughlin? No way are those guys in the low 40s!
But hey, at least Dick Dale is represented, and that's pretty cool.
9 - andy
I agree Cindy. And I can't understand why Pete Townshend is way down in the 50s. I'm glad to see Jack White on the list though. He truely is a great guitarist.
10 - Eric Olsen
A few things: this is rock, obviously, with a couple of blues guys thrown in, and as such it could be worse. You can argue about the order - Jack White at 17???? - but there are some fairly brave and subtle choices as well.
Really glaring omissions for me include Phil Manzanera, Chris Spedding, they have Tom Verlaine but not Richard Lloyd which his odd because they really go together like the Sonic Youth guys, and Mick Ronson way down at 64 is a crime, and Bruce Springsteen is a very fine guitarist as well.
11 - Eric Olsen
Oh, and how could they leave out Robin Guthrie, Terje Rypdal and Robert Smith? No one sounds like any of them.
12 - mike
Eric Clapton ahead of Robert Johnson is a crime against humanity.
13 - JR
As long as we’re mentioning glaring omissions, let’s talk about:
Andres Segovia
Charlie Christian
Django Reinhardt
Julian Bream
Wes Montgomery
Joe Maphis
John Williams
Allan Holdsworth
Alex Lifeson
Al Di Meola
Larry Carlton
Paco De Lucia
Adrian Belew
Michael Hedges
Uli Roth
Eric Johnson
Andy Summers
Bill Frisell
Junior Brown
and (donning flak jacket)
Steve Vai
Yngwie Malmsteen
Given RS’s willingness to include rhythm guitarists, I’m surprised they didn’t include John Lennon. He could play the odd solo (“The End”), he was an adequate fingerstylist (“Julia”), and he was a brilliantly subversive rhythm player (“I Call Your Name”). Oh, and he wrote a decent tune or two. Might even have influenced a few people to take up the guitar.
14 - Marty Thau
Any list that omits Phil Keaggy cannot be considered credible. I'd definitely rate him in the top 10. But then again this is Rolling Stone. What do you expect?
15 - Natalie Davis
Leo Kottke! Where is Leo Kottke? And so many lame choices. Plus the affront of putting Richard Thompson at only 19. And Kurt Cobain? Better than 9-1/2-fingered Jerry Garcia? Please.
This list bites. But we knew it would; practically anything RS takes on sucks big time. Big time, Jann, big time! I'm surprised Boz Scaggs isn't topping the list.
Glad to see Bert Jansch and the late Danny Gatton on there, though.
16 - The Theory
I agree Natalie. Leo Kottke the folk guitar icon.
17 - Rodney Welch
Question no one has asked yet: Where's Slash?
18 - BRICKLAYER
Answer: In a purple smokey haze, lying buck naked (except for the top hat) in a circular bed atop a penthouse suite in Vegas, watching 2 Amazonian show girls get to know each other better.
19 - Rodney Welch
You and your wet dreams.
20 - andy
Ok Eric, maybe not #17, but I'm glad they put him on. Jack White is definately an amazing guitarist. Not #17 amazing, but list worthy I think.
21 - Natalie Davis
Yeah, Jack White is listworthy, but his positioning helps make the list itself (as any subjective ranking would be, I guess) useless. What is with this need RS seems to have to fold more modern performers into the top tiers of these best-ever lists, anyway? Is it merely a ploy to keep the teens and 20somethings happy? I mean, it's too bad that the young'uns don't have a Hendrix of their generation (yet, and he's just an example), but Hendrix is as much theirs as old people's. The shame is that some clueless tween will believe this ranking is truthful.
22 - andy
But take heart knowing that when they mature in taste and years, they'll realize it's a fraud, and start listening to Hendrix. Their generation, our generation, your generation, we all have a Hendrix cause the man was cross generational(now anyway haha)
23 - BRICKLAYER
The dudes in Iron Maiden kill all these gits.
24 - Rodney Welch
I'm not sure Jack White is listworthy. Will he be there on the list of 2023? And where will he rank, if at all? I think the real interest of a list like this is to survey it for people whose real heyday, so to speak, was years ago, like Scotty Moore or Tom Verlaine or Neil Young. They don't rank high, but I'll bet you anything they'll make that future list where a lot of these flashes in the pan will be mere memories.
25 - The Theory
this should be about talent, and not where they'll rank 20 years from now. In my mind, it's too early to say whether Jack White should have made the list at all, let alone at 17th slot. Sure, he can do some cool stuff with his guitar, but he seems like more of a good song crafter than a guitar god.