Wondering what Cafe Dopers think of this list of the 100 Greatest Rock Guitarists. I know, it’s all opinion, just curious what others think…
I can’t argue with Hendrix and Page at the top.
But imho, putting Clapton and Satriani above Stevie Ray Vaughan is a crime!
Duane Allman below Chuck Berry?
What say ye?
Links to alt lists are welcomed, btw.
Nyeh. So many of them just seem like the same old thing. Do we really need Eddie Van Halen ANED Randy Rhoads AND Yngwie Malmsteen AND Paul Gilbert AND Steve Vai AND Uli Jon Roth in the top 30? Sounds like it’s tilted towards the metalheads to me.
I’d rather list guitarists by who created unique styles and did new and interesting things. Of this list I’ve been most impressed with:
Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Eddie Van Halen
Eric Johnson
Brian May
Bo Diddley
Chuck Berry
Mark Knopfler
Alex Lifeson
Pete Townsend
Peter Frampton
Plus, hell, some of those guys just don’t deserve to be on the list at all. They might be great songwriters but they’re nothing special as guitarists.
And no list can be taken seriously if it doesn’t have Les Paul on it at all. And Scotty Moore not in the top 100? It is to laugh.
Duane Allman should be in the top 5, no doubt. I don’t see how anyone can argue that Satriani is better than him. That’s an insult. Actually, I don’t see how anyone can put Satriani at the top of any list, but maybe I’m biased. 
Hendrix always comes in first in these lists, and I’m not entirely sure I agree with that, although I guess I can’t think of anyone better to go up top.
Tony Iommi should be higher, for sure. Who else would they credit with innovating the heavy metal sound? Sure, Led Zeppelin started it, but Black Sabbath created it.
The rest of those can be argued/debated all day. It’s a matter of preference over talent for most of them.
I love David Gilmour’s sound and style and was glad to see him in the top 10.
He gets overlooked a LOT.
Some of the most memorable solos ever.
The biggest mistake was putting Angus Young on the list and not Malcolm Young. Malcolm is the reason you feel AC/DC in your balls (or ovaries). Angus basically plays typical blues solos that sound so great because they’re layered on what Malcolm is putting down. That said, I don’t think Angus deserves to be any higher than 48. I don’t think he’s great.
The list is really skewed toward the showmen. I think “The Edge” puts more feeling into a throwaway single than Joe Sat puts into an entire album. . .check that, career.
That sums up why I hate Satriani. He’s technically gifted, but there’s no heart and soul there. I need my musicians to bleed for me.
So far as I have ever been able to determine, until Dick Dale came along, there were the blues and Frank Sinatra-type 50’s music.* And if you listen to him now he just sounds like one of the bunch in Rock n’ Roll (and still rocking at 70!)
You would think the man would get a bit more recognition for inventing the largest genre of the modern day (outside rap.)
Mark Knopfler
David Gilmour
Rick Miller of Southern Culture on the Skids (think Bo Diddley x Dick Dale)
That was my first impression. I was surprised to see Gilbert and Becker in the top 20 even applying the criteria at the top of the page. And I like Uli Roth well enough, but #27?
BTW, Jonathan Chance, you’re alter-ego is listed (albeit post-200).
Also important to note, we don’t really know whose list this is. Sounds to me like it’s just a random guy with a website. It’s all opinion.
God, what a boring list. Hardly any punk/post-punk artists - does anybody really believe the guy from White Lion or Neil Schon was a better guitarist than Bob Mould or Thurston Moore or Robert Quine or J. Mascis or The Edge (not to mention Peter Buck and Tom Verlaine and Mick Jones of The Clash, who didn’t even make it into the also-rans, unless I missed them)? I’m with Indygrrl - technical skill doesn’t mean much when you’re just recycling soulless blues/hard rock riffs; give me some passion any day. George Harrison should have been higher - he never showed off, but just think of how inventive he was in songs like “Strawberry Fields FOrever” and “Got To Get You Into My Life”, where he played about two bars and three notes and still managed to stand out. And Clapton and Page (except for their work in the Yardbirds) always cure my insomnia. Blecch. WHat a waste of a list.
Come on, clearly Steve Lukather of Toto is a far greater guitarist than Adrian Belew, Johnny Winter, Kirk Hammett, and, of course, Jerry Garcia and Dickie Betts. His work on Africa was packed with much more energy and emotion than In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.
Oh, and Johnny Ramone didn’t make it into the top 200? Laughable.
It’s a pretty good list, with only a couple of glaring mistakes:
That is all.
The Edge never did much for me. I hear that fast mandolin sounding “chi ca chi ca chi ca chi ca chi ca chi ca” stuff it seems like is in half the U2 songs and just want to rip my ears off.
As for the whole list, seems like they just rounded up all the guitar players and put them in there someplace.
A notable exception (and I’m NOT a fan of his music, but the guy can flat play) is Junior Brown. He’s not even listed in the “Country” category (and I’m NOT a fan of country music). He may not be your cup of tea, but he can wail on a great many of the wankers on that list IMHO.
Does J.J. Cale not qualify as rock? I would say so and I would have in him in there.
Random observation: It would seem that women are not very good at playing the guitar.
Geez – I don’t understand the Joe Satch animosity here. I don’t understand how anyone who has heard Rubina, Rubina’s Blue Sky Happiness, or Always with Me, Always With You could say he’s got no feeling. Whenever I hear them, the first makes me feel so love-stricken it hurts, the second makes the world seem brighter by a degree, and the third send shivers up my spine.
It’s tough to quantify guitarists, but I’d think chops have to be considered, which is why I also think some people aren’t ranked higher. I mean, it’s not a “rank the music” list, nor a “rank the songwriter” list – it’s a guitarist list.
Some guitarists can’t be separated from the band. For instance, as much as I dislike the Greatful Dead, I think they produced some of the most layered, complex, and distinctive tunes around. Do I think Jerry Garcia was a great guitarist? No. Do I think Johnny Ramone or Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes; I include him 'cuz he’s not on the list at all – who knew that acoustic could be so grungy?) are great guitarists? No; notable, certainly, but not great.
On the other hand, there’s something to be said for influence and/or innovation. Thurston Moore, Steve Howe, Bo Diddley, Frank Zappa, and Tommy Iommi all deserve props.
Personally, and totally subjectively, my top 10 (in no particular order, and 10 because I couldn’t leave anyone off the list) are:
[ul]
[li]Joe Satriani - see above[/li][li]Eric Johnson - one of the “cleanest” sounds around, like listening to a waterfall[/li][li]Jimi Hendrix - paraphrasing Neil Young, he didn’t just play the guitar, he treated it like a woman and made love to it[/li][li]Steve Vai - OMG, are those sounds really coming out of a guitar?[/li][li]Eddie Van Halen - chops plus inspiration; how much guitar work post-Eruption takes from him?[/li][li]Stevie Ray Vaughn - exposes the very soul of the guitar[/li][li]Mark Knopfler - I’ve yet to hear anyone duplicate his sound and feel[/li][li]Jimmy Page - technically, not the best guitarist, but man could he write and arrange[/li][li]David Gilmour - one of the few guitarist whose solos make me shiver[/li][li]The Edge - who knew you could do so much with “three chords and the truth”?[/li][/ul]
I’d like to see people who think the list is junk propose some measure by which to rate a guitarist. Don’t take that the wrong way – I’m not challenging anyone’s taste. I just think it would be an interesting exercise. Of course, it wouldn’t be worth a damn as far as satisfying subjective taste goes.
I cannot take seriously anything like this that rates Johnny Marr so lowly
The list is limited to “guys whose groups sang in English”
Any list of rock guitarrists missing Rosendo Mercado is inherently flawed.
Walter Trout is number 77. I would place him in the top 25 or so.
Hey, I wanted to add him! I was listening to “Doublewide” in the car this morning and damned if that song doesn’t have some of the best surf guitar to be had. I’d also throw Jim Heath (Reverend Horton Heat) in there too.
In general, the list linked in the OP seems to be not so much the best guitarists as “the first 200 guitarists we could think of.” The fact that Dale only barely makes the top 100 (at #86) is proof of that. They’ve got a lot of guys from genres that don’t require guitar virtuosity on that list (i.e., punk and metal) and very little from genres that do (rockabilly/surf).