Rolling Stone and their idiotic editors
 

Has anyone seen the latest issue of Rolling Stone? They, in their infinite wisdom and creativity, decided to compile a list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all-time. Here are some of the highlights or lowlights depending on your view of the world:

Jerry "F-ing" Garcia (#13)ranked ahead of such guitarists as Angus Young (#96) and Eddie Van Halen (#77).

Jack White of White Stripes (#17), who I think are amazing in their own right, but certainly should not be ranked ahead of Dick Dale(#33).

The only thing they could not f-up was putting Hendrix at number one; although, how the hell does Duane Allman (#2)rank ahead of Stevie Ray Vaughn (#7).

I would assume that they, the editors, were either too drunk to show up to work to sort out the list or they had an inexperienced pimple faced 19 year old intern do it. What ashame that what is supposed to be one of the strongest and most influential voices in music dropped the ball big time on this one.

Here is the complete list:
1 Jimi Hendrix
2 Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band
3 B.B. King
4 Eric Clapton
5 Robert Johnson
6 Chuck Berry
7 Stevie Ray Vaughan
8 Ry Cooder
9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
11Kirk Hammett of Metallica
12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana
13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
14 Jeff Beck
15 Carlos Santana
16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones
17 Jack White of the White Stripes
18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
19 Richard Thompson
20 James Burton
21 George Harrison
22 Mike Bloomfield
23 Warren Haynes
24 The Edge of U2
25 Freddy King
26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave
27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits
28 Stephen Stills
29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges
30 Buddy Guy
31 Dick Dale
32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service
33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
35 John Fahey
36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's
37 Bo Diddley
38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac
39 Brian May of Queen
40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival
41 Clarence White of the Byrds
42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson
43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
44 Scotty Moore
45 Frank Zappa
46 Les Paul
47 T-Bone Walker
48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith
49 John McLaughlin
50 Pete Townshend
51 Paul Kossoff of Free
52 Lou Reed
53 Mickey Baker
54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane
55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple
56 Tom Verlaine of Television
57 Roy Buchanan
58 Dickey Betts
59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead
61 Ike Turner
62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band
63 Danny Gatton
64 Mick Ronson
65 Hubert Sumlin
66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour
67 Link Wray
68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape
69 Steve Howe of Yes
70 Eddie Van Halen
71 Lightnin' Hopkins
72 Joni Mitchell
73 Trey Anastasio of Phish
74 Johnny Winter
75 Adam Jones of Tool
76 Ali Farka Toure
77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
78 Robbie Robertson of the Band
79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps (1997)
80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids
81 Derek Trucks
82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
83 Neil Young
84 Eddie Cochran
85 Randy Rhoads
86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
87 Joan Jett
88 Dave Davies of the Kinks
89 D. Boon of the Minutemen
90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper
91 Robby Krieger of the Doors
92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5
94 Bert Jansch
95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine
96 Angus Young of AC/DC
97 Robert Randolph
98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer
99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag
100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Actually, IMO, BB King should be #1 with Hendrix as #2 - especially considering BB King TAUGHT Hendrix ;)

Van Halen definitely should have been higher too, as well as some of the other things you pointed out.

I could go on naming each problem, but it'd take more time than I think is worth it.

There's bound to be controversy with a list like this. Don't think too much of it. No matter how it's done, it's impossible to please everybody.

No Steve Vai or Satriani? No Peter Frampton? No Slash? They put fuckin Kurt Kobain and not Slash??? Bullshit. Kurt was a great front man. Not a great guitar player. Anyone who plays guitar e'll tell ya most of Nirvana's songs are easy and rather boring to play. Trey Anastacio is better than him. I mean if they wanted to put an influencial grunge band down to satisfy these stupid fuckin little kids Mike McCready of Pearl Jam is a far better guitar player than Kurt Kobain. I love Nirvana and all but they're givin em a little too much credit right there.

Asta!!

Check out the table of contents page in the issue:

"It's the list that launched a thousand arguments: David Gilmour's too low! Kirk Hammett's too high! Who's Hubert Sumlin? (You really owe it to yourself to find out.) Here they are, the hundred guitarists that the rock world couldn't live without, complete with each one's essential work. Complainers, take your best shots."

After I read that...all the fun of complaining was taken away from me. :)

Every list is bound to have tons of hits and misses. Whaddya gonna do.

Kill em?

Asta!!

ok...i can see putting jack white and kurt cobain on the list because they are relevant and created a different sound from what everyone else was/is doing at the time. but then how can hendrix be first??? he is not revelant now. and if hendrix is first then how is eddie at 70. they both are probably the most influential guitarists of this century. nobody played guitar like eddie before eddie. but hes not relevant now so he is at 70. so how can the 2 most influential guitarist have such a disparity in ranking? the whole list is a contradiction. and kurt cobain gets 12 for playing like every 13 y/o whos been playing for 3 months. you could have went to any kids garage and heard nirvana's sound.

Yeah... i would have to agree. Kurt Cobain had absolutly no talent at all when it came to guitar. At all.

This is by no means THE DEFINITIVE LIST of Greatest guitar players...I'ts not meant to be read like, whoever is list first is better than everyone else on the list. No way is that what they were trying to say...it is simply a list of good guitar players. It's not just Rolling Stone who puts out these list either, check out any guitar magazine. At least once a year there is a list just like it. It' only a list...not the final word.

The reason why they always put Hendrix 1st on any of these lists is because he's a "safe" choice. He's the choice everyone can agree on. Lord forbid anyone make a list and NOT put him first cause then they'll really get some complaints. Is he the best guitarist ever? I dunno I haven't heard every guitarist and I know he's pretty damn excellent. I was kind of a little more pissed at MTV's top 20 bands of the last 2 decades as decided by "the fans" yes the fans who voted No Doubt the 8th highest band above Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Van Halen, The Cure, etc.

Asta!!

Rolling Stone should burn for this.

I didn't notice slash missing when this was posted elsewhere. I haven't read RS in a long, long time and now I know why!

Word yo word

Asta!!

This is typical headline tripe at its worst. The list is far more of a compilation of "most influential" than "most talented," if you ask me. But it's "Best Guitarists EVAR" that grabs people at the newsstand and gets them all enraged so other people go and buy a copy. Despicable.

Yes, this is a double post- the other one had created alot of chat!
And man..... I agree......Holy Shit....... I completely forgot about Slash! Think I'll put him on my Under rated guitar player thread!:D

The one that confused me was Jerry Garcia. Jerry fawking Garcia? When people think of guitar, no one ever thinks of Jerry Garcia.

Baffles me completely.

Re: Rolling Stone and their idiotic editors
 

what the hell? Johhny Ramone actually considered in the top 100?

I love the Ramones but i know that Johhny was far from great, catchy but not great by any means

awful list

I'm the one who mentioned the Slash man :D
http://www.terra.com/specials/bodyar...lery/slash.jpg

Asta!!

Another Guitarist who's underrated and deserved a spot ahead of some of the others.
http://www.angelfire.com/art/aliens/images/dave.jpg

Asta!!

well, who said a little bit of controversy doesn´t sell a magazine.

its certainly spurned about 10 threads in this forum recently.

and its managed to get its name back into conversations.

and after all, all publicity is good publicity.

as for the list... well, its complete bullshit as far as i´m concerned.... but wasn´t that the idea?

Carlos Santana needs to be top 10!!! The man is damn near 1000 and hangs with the best of 'em