corporate rock magazines still suck

[rone]

All you need to know about Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time is that Fripp and Zappa are #42 and #45, and Kurt Cobain and the nitwit in the White Stripes are #12 and #17.

If only they'd at least had the decency to say Greatest Rock Guitarists... i mean, hell, where's Andrés Segovia, you know? And where the fuck is Adrian Belew, anyway? I mean, it's nice they included Robert Johnson, but #5? The Edge and Tom Morello ahead of Brian May? It's small comfort that Kim Thayil managed to sneak in at #100... Fucking Rolling Stone. They'll lull me into giving them a shred of respect, then they put the American Idol cockmaster twins on the cover, and now this.

Comments

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Adrian Belew played with Zappa for a while. He was in 200 Motels -- where Frank was, of course, played by Ringo Starr.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yep, and the great Bob Dylan impersonation on Joe's Garage is done by Belew.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

You're clearly a man of taste. Zappa was one of the greatest rock musicians.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh. I don't think so; i just know how to fake it well. I didn't like Joe's Garage much; i do own One Size Fits All and i do like that a fair bit. Zappa is too all-over-the-place for me. There's no denying the man's talent, though.

[vspope.livejournal.com]

That's the thing about Zappa -- his catalog of albums is so massive that it's daunting to newcomers (especially since many-to-most are double or triple albums carrying higher price tags). THEN you get into the bootlegs, where any song could become an adventure on a given night...

Zappa not in the top 5 is a disaster. Santana behind Cobain and Hammett is an atrocity. Ike Turner mired at #61? Dick Dale behind Tom Morello? So much for any good karma I'd have granted them for remembering Danny Gatton and Mick Ronson.

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

Martin Carthy and Nic Jones are conspicuous by their absence too, but I suppose as folkies they would be wouldn't they. At least Richard Thompson is in the list.

[glaucon.livejournal.com]

yeah, but where the fuck is Nick Drake?
or Leo Kottke?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Or Michael Hedges, for god's sake.

[kodi]

I don't know, it's hard to be too mad at a list that leaves off Malmsteen, Satriani, Bettencourt and Vai.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Hey, full titles, please: Yngwie FUCKING Malmsteen.

And what list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time leaves out Django Reinhardt? For shame, Rolling Stone, for shame.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

What? Are you kidding? The Edge is obviously a little better than Mark Knopfler and Ron Asheton and a lot better than Eddie Van Halen.

Idiots.

[merde.livejournal.com]

the Edge at #5? jesus fucking christ. i have to go slash my wrists now.

did they at least have the decency to put Richard Thompson on the list? how about Charlie Byrd?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

No, they put Robert Johnson at #5 and The Edge at #24.

Richard Thompson is there, but Charlie Byrd isn't.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I doubt that anyone would be more amused at Cobain making the top 20 than Cobain himself, were he alive. I remember that shortly after Nevermind broke, Guitar Magazine interviewed him: his answer to pretty much every tecnical question was "I dunno" or "wow, that's all guitar geek stuff." He seeemed pretty clear about where he was playing-talent-wise, and mostly bemused by all of the attention.

While it's certainly way too early to start talking about Jack White as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, I'm actually gonna go out on a limb here and say that a case could be made for him in a few years if he keeps up his current level of output. The albums, much as I like them, aren't really a good indication of what he's capable of. See the Stripes live if you get the chance: he's pretty goddamn impressive in concert.

And I'll echo a comment above: at least they had the sense to snub those tuneless hacks Satriani, Malmsteen and Vai.

Multiple travesties...

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

I don't even know where to start with this. Let's take the good bits first: Hendrix on top, duh, agreement with this sentiment should be the litmus test for participating in the discussion. Duane Allman in the top 5, and Ry Cooder in the top 10, very good. Robert Randolph (The Word, Robert Randolph and the Family Band) on the list at all when his career is only a few years old, very good, although I'd put him higher than 97th. Not sure what is up with the prominent placement of a bunch of 3 chord wonders. If you list Johnny Ramone, why do you need to list Ron Asheton of the Stooges? That's the same trick. I'm with everyone else who

And now, in my estimable opinion, the problems. No Charlie Christian? No Django?! John Fahey but no Leo Kottke? Knopfler should be higher, top 20 maybe. No Wes Montgomery?! No Segovia or Christopher Parkening?!

(Fanboy opinions) Garcia should be higher (snicker). No Steve Kimock?! He's top 10 material, easy, but tragically unknown.

(Bar Fight #1) Clapton is up way too high; other than a few tracks the material is weak, and his live performances just don't hold up on tape. Good blues sensibility and dexterity but nothing technically groundbreaking anywhere in the canon that I can hear. He wasn't even the best guitarist on a given stage on a given night in the 60s.

(Bar fight #2) Any list that ranks Eddie Hazel 30+ positions below Jimmy Page is fundamentally flawed. Year in, year out, album for album, Hazel was playing *rings* around Page all through the early seventies. Heavier, louder, faster, funkier, superior playing in every way, *and* he could reproduce it live. Page was notoriously sloppy live, and like Clapton, got a lot of mileage out of a few licks and a pile of dramatic musical stunts. Compare and contrast: Duane Allman could solo for 20+ minutes on Elizabeth Reed, most of it simple pentatonic scale stuff, and keep you interested because the emotional content was palpable. Page can't do that.

You have to hand it to RS, though, at least they stimulate discussion.

Re: Multiple travesties...

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine is WAY WAY WAY too low at #95.

Steve Howe, Vernon Reid, and Jorma got screwed also, but not as badly.

Ok I'm done now.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Another huge omission, in my opinion: Lindsey Buckingham.

It's easy to make fun of Rush, but Alex Lifeson should be listed somewhere in there, too.

I was going to complain about Derek Trucks but then i realized that i was thinking of Derek Smalls.

John Paul Jones may be famous for his bass work, but he can play the hell out of any stringed instrument.

[nothings.livejournal.com]

My life has become simpler once I realized that anytime you see "The One Hundred Greatest ..." or "The Twenty Best ..." you instead interpret them as "100 Great ..." and "Twenty Good ...", and realize that the actual rankings and the claim of top-of-listness is just marketing (it sells the magazine because, I guess, most people are incapable of forming their own opinions).

Most of the time these discussions are obviously subjective, although clearly in this particular case there are some objective qualities to consider (technical prowess & innovativeness, at least; I think emotional aspects are subjective, though).