Rolling Stone top 100 Guitarists

[My Dream]

That was interesting, throughout the years I've seen several of these list and although I'm not sure how this was comprised the last list I saw had Angus Young as #5 and this one has him at 24. On Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists Kirk Hammett of Metallica was ranked 11th. I went back around 30 and couldn't find him.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I know of maybe twenty or so on the list and neither agree or disagree with the list; however, how can any list such as this not include Chet Atkins? Maybe even Glenn Campbell.

 

[HFWR]

I know of maybe twenty or so on the list and neither agree or disagree with the list; however, how can any list such as this not include Chet Atkins? Maybe even Glenn Campbell.

And Jerry Reed.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, since you asked...

Which list is that?

Paco de Lucia should be on his own list: a list of one!

And John Williams too!

And I am sure there are others, because as ERD50 said,

I kind of hate any sort of list like this. There are great musicians that are great in their own way, and trying to claim one is 'greater' than the other gets silly pretty fast.

I have seen a list of classical guitarists somewhere. It lists them alphabetically, so as not to attempt to rank them in any way.

Seriously, I have found that I like different guitarists performing different pieces. Even a magnificent musician may simply have a "bad hair day", right? And then, a lesser known musician may spend a lot of time to practice a particular piece, such that it becomes his masterpiece.

Thanks to youtube, I have found for myself several guitarists whose performance of a particular composition would move me emotionally more than other much better known musicians. I have posted one such youtube video a while back: it was Jim Greeninger performing Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of Alhambra). Same as other wonderful guitar pieces, just close your eyes and you are transported to different beautiful Spanish landscapes. Or if you have not been there, it makes you want to surf the Web looking for a cheap ticket to that locale.

I just checked and the view count of Jim's above performance has gone up to near 3 million. Jim deserves to be heard!

 

[Midpack]

Largely personal tastes governed by whether you liked their music in the first place of course, but my top 10 in rough order:

• Jimmy Page
• Eddie Van Halen (often overlooked)
• Pete Townsend
• Eric Clapton
• John Mayer (his live covers are incredible, he seems to hide his ability in his own songs)
• Jimi Hendrix
• Carlos Santana
• John McLauglin
• Keith Richards
• Kurt Cobain
• George Harrison

Some for their overall ability, some not technical wonders but they came up with some truly memorable riffs and a few for being ahead of their time, George Harrison for example.

 

[ziggy29]

The Rolling Stone Magazine just released their list of the top 100 guitarists of all time. 100 Greatest Guitarists: Ry Cooder | Rolling Stone

Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Keith Richards
Jeff Beck
B.B.King
Chuck Berry
Eddie Van Halen
Duane Allman
Pete Townshend

All very, very good, but this looks a little too Boomer-centric to me. It's as if the suggestion is that all the greatest guitar work took place in the '60s and '70s. Much of it did, but *this* much?

 

[Tiger]

I guess Rolling Stone doesn't think that there were any jazz guitarists worthy of their list. My favorites were (in no special order):

Charlies Christian
Mundell Lowe
George Benson
Kenny Burrell
Barney Kessell
Jim Hall
Laurendo Almeida

Remember those people played without the benefit of electric guitars & amps. They were pure musicians who didn't need tricks to sound good.

I also felt that the blues guitarists Howlin' Wolf & Willie Dixon deserved mention.

Maybe these lists should be separated by genre, then you are comparing apples to apples. It seem that on the RS list they made sure to include the lead guitarist from every modern RnR group. If it wasn't for Les Paul most of the people on the list wouldn't have been able to plug their insturments in and play. IMO Les Paul was "the" guitarist of all time.

 

[HFWR]

No surprise that a list from Rolling Stone is rock-centric.

A list of favorites is one thing; a list of "best" has to include some objective criteria for judging; i.e. abilities on acoustic and electric, single note leads, arpeggios, chording, range (of styles), fingerpicking/flatpicking, alternate tunings... And, of course, creativity, which is more subjective, but, for instance, many guitarists can play "like" Hendrix, but he did it first.

 

[Nemo2]

Gábor Szabó

[youtube]Gkg7Uqdc7Go[/youtube]

 

[foxfirev5]

Carl Peachey at Captain Tony's Saloon Key West.

 

[Midpack]

And, of course, creativity, which is more subjective, but, for instance, many guitarists can play "like" Hendrix, but he did it first.

Zactly! A few on my list aren't technically brilliant, but they broke new ground which is worth a lot IMO too...