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

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.