Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Top 100 Guitarists Redux, Again

Hmm. I just looked at the real list. I didn't feel like scrolling through the whole darn thing I looked for a simple text list. Wrong one. Poor Steve. Do you think he smashed all of his guitars and cancelled his subscription?

Randy Rhoads wasn't British. Born in good old Cali-for-nai-yay.

Haven't heard much Jeff Beck, have definitely heard Page and Allman.

No Satriani!

That'd take him a couple of days. He has over 100!

I think that the voters were looking for the same things as art historians---influence.

An artist's importance is measured by the significance of his/her contribution to following generations. How many practitioners (of note!) owe a debt (and how big) to some one who came before constitutes "a master."

There is an old adage that, in the 20th century, no artist could stand completely clear of Picasso's shadow. It's easy to understand the players who qualify for that moniker. Then there's the unsung, or undersung players a lot of voters included (like Steve Cropper). Then there are the mavericks who are so "out there," that the extent of their identifiable influence is too small to acknowledge.

There really haven't been any guitarists who adopted Steve Howe's playing/ideas, and we all know it. The kid in Dirty Projectors is the only one I can think of that begs the comparison.

It's not Rolling Stone. All lists have these ups and downs. That's why they're fun! It's open season on disagreement!

Oops, I was on the wrong list. Its cool to see Les Paul on the list. Anyone who thinks it's a good idea to make a guitar out of a fence post is OK by me.

You're missing out. He is one of the most versitile guitarists I know.

Robert Johnson at #71?

I was thinking about this in the car today, and - like Jack - identified Django as a inexcusable omission.

While I know that at least half the fun of these things is picking them apart, RS didn't title the list "100 most influential rock guitarists". They called it "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

So, they demonstrably and objectively suck.

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Eric Clapton
3. Jimmy Page
4. Keith Richards
5. Jeff Beck
6. B.B. King
7. Chuck Berry
8. Eddie Van Halen
9. Duane Allman
10. Pete Townshend
11. George Harrison
12. Stevie Ray Vaughn
13. Albert King
14. David Gilmour
15. Freddy King
16. Derek Trucks
17. Neil Young
18. Les Paul
19. James Burton
20. Carlos Santana
21. Chet Atkins
22. Frank Zappa
23. Buddy Guy
24. Angus Young
25. Tony Iommi
26. Brian May
27. Bo Diddley
28. Johnny Ramone
29. Scotty Moore
30. Elmore James
31. Ry Cooder
32. Billy Gibbons
33. Prince
34. Curtis Mayfield
35. John Lee Hooker
36. Randy Rhodes
37. Mick Taylor
38. The Edge
39. Steve Cropper
40. Tom Morello
41. Mick Ronson
42. Mike Bloomfield
43. Hubert Sumlin
44. Mark Knopfler
45. Link Wray
46. Jerry Garcia
47. Stephen Stills
48. Johnny Greenwood
49. Muddy Waters
50. Ritchie Blackmore
51. Johnny Marr
52. Clarence White
53. Otis Rush
54. Joe Walsh
55. John Lennon
56. Albert Collins
57. Rory Gallagher
58. Peter Green
59. Robbie Robertson
60. Ron Asheton
61. Dickey Betts
62. Robert Fripp
63. Johnny Winter
64. Duane Eddy
65. Slash
66. Leslie West
67. T-Bone Walker
68. John McLaughlin
69. Richard Thompson
70. Jack White
71. Robert Johnson
72. John Frusciante
73. Kurt Cobain
74. Dick Dale
75. Joni Mitchell
76. Robbie Krieger
77. Willie Nelson
78. John Fahey
79. Mike Campbell
80. Buddy Holly
81. Lou reed
82. Nels Cline
83. Eddie Hazel
84. Joe Perry
85. Andy Summers
86. J Mascis
87. James Hetfield
88. Carl Perkins
89. Bonnie Raitt
90. Tom Verlaine
91. Dave Davies
92. Dimebag Darrell
93. Paul Simon
94. Peter Buck
95. Roger McGuinn
96. Bruce Springsteen
97. Steve Jones
98. Alex Lifeson
99. Thurson Moore
100. Lindsay Buckingham

Coming from Rolling Stone, I guess, for the most part, much of this list is pretty predictable. Right off the top, their first BIG mistake is that any list that puts Clapton 2nd and Stevie Ray Vaughan 12th, is a joke. Clapton couldn't hold SRVs pick. As an old player myself and the one's I listened to over the years from whom I actually learned something are present and older players in the Jazz genre who compared to most on this list, when it comes to outright ability and talent, are in another league altogether. I wouldn't even know who to place first.

Out of the top 100 list that rolling stone provided I would say Eddie Van Halen as a combination of having the outright ability/talent/chops to play just about anything and being influential and revolutionizing how to play guitar. But how do you not have guys like Vai and Satriani or Malmsteen. Not even one of these guys? Richards at 4 doesn't make sense to me but the rest of the top 10 O.K. But yeah SRV should be higher.

But the list is somewhat pathetic. But if you actually go on the website and see who Rolling stone had picking the list you see musicians from bands like Blink 182 and Weezer.

When I look at this list is see lots of songwriting ability as opposed to playing guitar for many of the individuals.