Jerry Garcia
Ah, Captain Trips, how I miss him. Some folks are dismissive of the Dead ...and that's OK. But to ignore the talents of Jerry Garcia is to miss out on a player who truly loved all kinds of music - and who displayed that love as a quite unique style of guitar playing. Jerry loved old-timey music, bluegrass, country and jazz. He took all of those styles and distilled them into something else. If you want to hear him living in those influences, give a listen to some of the Old & In The Way material or maybe the Miles Davis stuff his did with David Grisman.
The Dead may have been sloppy at times, but nobody sounded like Jerry Garcia.
Bruce Springsteen
When I was learning how to play the guitar, a lot of time was spent listening to Darkness On The Edge Of Town. There's some truly nasty guitar work on that record. I loved the way he 'leaned into' the solos. Lots of passion, lots of tension. Springsteen did learn how to make that thing talk (and check out his duet with Warren Zevon on The Wind ...he nearly rips the strings off the guitar).
Pete Townshend
Maybe my favorite rock guitarist. The body of work he's helped to create with The Who (plus his solo stuff) is pretty stunning. The list of great songs (with those great riffs) seems endless. I don't think rock music would have been the same without him.
"Substitute" was one of the first rhythm parts I ever learned how to play. It still rocks. It always will.
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Rodney Welch
Isn't Lindley also the guy who does the howling backing vocal on Zevon's "Wild Age"?
2 - Tom Johnson
I would have to add to just about any list that didn't have him Michael Hedges. That guy did things . . . I have no idea how he did the things he did. What a shocking loss his death was.
I'd also offer up Steve Howe, but his solo material just doesn't measure up to his work with Yes. He does, however, elicit the same feelings in me that Bill Frisell does - a kind of "what's next" excitement in everything he plays. Like Frisell, he knows the power of playing very close to out of control, where his fret work is on the very edge of being completely incoherent, yet reigns it in just enough to maintain some sense of melody. Frisell is the master of this, but Howe was first . . .
3 - Eric Olsen
Very cool Mark, a lot I agree with and some new guys I didn't really know (guy, and I haven't paid that much attention to Ribot). And man, put "Substitute" and "Can't Explain" (guess that's Page along on the BIG RIFF) together and nothing can piss me off. Really, all of Meaty Beaty is timeless mod rock and the group's peak.
Glad to see Bruce, too, he kicks the llama's ass on "Darkness"
4 - JR
That's not Steve Van Zandt playing guitar on "Darkness..."?
5 - Jim Carruthers
I have to agree this is a righteious list. I was surprized how many of the guitbox arteests I listed in a previous article made the RS list.
But I'm ashamed I didn't mention Marc Ribot.
And Rolling Stone, Robert Quine has done more than the Voidoids. One of the guitarists I didn't list was Lou Reed. But Reed is more important for hiriing better guitarists like Mike Rathke.
6 - Eric Olsen
JR, Steve isn't on "Darkness" - it's all Bruce.
7 - JR
He's listed in the liner notes, both as production assistant and on guitar. I'm not up on Springsteen lore, what's the story here?
8 - Eric Olsen
Sorry, Steve did come in on the production end and ended up playing some guitar, but Bruce played all the leads. He is listed as "lead guitar" - his electric lead style is not unlike Neil Young, furiously hard picking wringing the guitar neck like a doomed chicken, making vicious, almost unnatural noise.
9 - JR
I believe that's my cue to actually listen to the record...
10 - Jim Carruthers
Hey, I think I saw that chicken this week at at CNE!
11 - S.A. Smith
The Rolling Stone list unsurprisingly sucked in that faux controversial only Rolling Stone can do. I liked your observation about Bruce's playing on Darkness. When I was in high school, waaay back in the mid-80's, I had a friend who was a black sabbath/led zeppelin kind of guy and new of Bruce only as the commercial monster he became after Born in the USA. One lunch time I kidnapped him and we snuck off and I blasted a little Adam Raised a Cain and Candy's Room and set him straight. I broke in my 18th birthday present strat working out the solos on Darkness.
I was happy to see that Richard Thompson wasn't ignored. And I know I'll be ripped apart for saying this but, with all due respect to Hendrix, we all know that Keith Richards is rock-n-roll guitar.
12 - Marty Friedman
I think the Rolling Stone's Magazine is full of lies. First of all, how do they dare to put Kurt Cobain in the TOP 100 guitarist?? I mean, thats the BIGEEST LIE I'VE EVER HEARD! There should be Mary Friedman, so i say that the rolling stones magazine sucks!!! they ahve to be informed before they make such a wrong thing!
Thanks a lot!
13 - adamsj
Springsteen is a vastly underrated guitarist, as shown once again on Zevon's "Disorder in the House"--but don't forget Zevon's playing. He's the only guitarist on Life'll Kill You. That's him sounding just like Peter Buck on "Porcelain Monkey", and him doing all the neat picking.
I think about Belew's stellar work on Frank Zappa's Sheik Yerbouti. That's the only Zappa album (I think) with only two guitarists. Of course.
14 - Kenny Allday
Sure I agree that Jimi was great because nobody made those sounds back then come out of a guitar. But nowdays it seems that everyone is. Everything sounds the same in the mainstream. Honestly the list made me sick. Right when I saw Jack White of the white Stripes i almost fell over. That pathetic guy ovver someone like JOHN PETRUCCI!!!!! this is an outrage. and deaf person could tell that an amazing musician such as John Petrucci from Dream theater is 50 times the guitarist than half of the people on that list. I WANT TO KILL WHOEVER WROTE THAT LIST! ahhhhhhh
15 - Taloran
I've spent far too many hours over the last three decades listening to music and trying to determine which guitarist I considered the greatest - there are a whole bunch of 'em, guys who make your jaw drop listening to their licks the way Peter Forsberg does handling a hockey puck. How the heck did he do that??? Ah, what a wonderful argument Rolling Stone, in their infinite wisdom, has cooked up!
A few "How does he DO that?" moments:
Jorma Kaukonen's fingerpicking on Hesitation Blues, the first track of the first Hot Tuna album.
Page's fretwork on the live version of Dazed and Confused.
The first time hearing SRV's version of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
Jeff Beck's entire Blow By Blow album
John Butcher's At The Feet of the Master from Positively the Blues
Watermelon in Easter Hay, Joe's final imaginary guitar solo from Zappa's Joe's Garage
Then there's the ones that make your heart sing and your head spin, even if you actually understand what the guy's fingers are doing. A few:
Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom --> Cliffs of Dover
Santana's Samba Pa Ti and Europa
Hendrix's Captain Coconut and Peace in Mississippi
Kottke's Vaseline Machine Gun
Albatross by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
No doubt everyone reading this has songs that do similar things to them - I'd like to hear which ones they are so I can download them illegally and listen to them. (Just kidding, sorta.)
16 - The Theory
thank you for the Kottke mention... that guy is madly underrated.
17 - JR
So Mark, where's that list of jazz players?
18 - Mark Saleski
dat's a good question....i'll work on it.
19 - raymond mcgee
Glad also tha the world is waking up to Richard Thompson....and David Lindley.Now,surely,some mention for the extraordinarily skilful and adaptable Albert Lee?
20 - raymond mcgee
Addendum
Rory Gallagher???
21 - Eric Olsen
I knew Albert Lee for a time when he hung out in the South Bay in the '80s, great player, nice guy.
22 - upanddidit
I think that robert Johnson should be in the number one spot. That mans way of play blows my mind and no matter how many times i try i cant do it. Maybe he did sell his soul but it was worth it. He has inspiered so many artist and no one today really knows who he is
23 - Nick
WHERE IS YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
24 - zakkster
wheres zakk wylde
25 - pat o'brien
ok. lets face it. the edge from u2 is the greatest guitarist ever. i mean just listen to him and you will see what im talking aboot.