Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

[Kickass Rock 'n Roll]

And I genuflect and make the sign of the cross at the mere mention of his name. Oddly enough no boy band guitarist made. Here's an editorial by some chap with a blemished past and present.

Jimi Hendrix: The Greatest Guitarist of All Time

The bridge between the blues and modern sounds

By Pete Townshend

I feel sad for people who have to judge Jimi Hendrix on the basis of recordings and film alone, because in the flesh he was so extraordinary. He had a kind of alchemist's ability; when he was on the stage, he changed. He physically changed. He became incredibly graceful and beautiful. It wasn't just people taking LSD, though that was going on, there's no question. But he had a power that almost sobered you up if you were on an acid trip. He was bigger than LSD.
What he played was ****ing loud but also incredibly lyrical and expert. He managed to build this bridge between true blues guitar -- the kind that Eric Clapton had been battling with for years and years -- and modern sounds, the kind of Syd Barrett-meets-Townshend sound, the wall of screaming guitar sound that U2 popularized. He brought the two together brilliantly. And it was supported by a visual magic that obviously you won't get if you just listen to the music. He did this thing where he would play a chord, and then he would sweep his left hand through the air in a curve, and it would almost take you away from the idea that there was a guitar player here and that the music was actually coming out of the end of his fingers. And then people say, "Well, you were obviously on drugs." But I wasn't, and I wasn't drunk, either. I can just remember being taken over by this, and the images he was producing or evoking were naturally psychedelic in tone because we were surrounded by psychedelic graphics. All of the images that were around us at the time had this kind of echoey, acidy quality to them. The lighting in all the clubs was psychedelic and drippy.
He was dusty -- he had cobwebs and dust all over him. He was a very unremarkable-looking guy with an old military jacket on that was pretty dirty. It looked like he'd maybe slept in it a few nights running. When he would walk toward the stage, nobody would really take much notice of him. But when he walked off, I saw him walk up to some of the most covetable women in the world. Hendrix would snap his fingers, and they followed him. Onstage, he was very erotic as well. To a man watching, he was erotic like Mick Jagger is erotic. It wasn't "You know, I'd like to take that guy in the bathroom and **** him." It was a high form of eroticism, almost spiritual in quality. There was a sense of wanting to possess him and wanting to be a part of him, to know how he did what he did because he was so powerfully affecting. Johnny Rotten did it, Kurt Cobain did it. As a man, you wanted to be a part of Johnny Rotten's gang, you wanted to be a part of Kurt Cobain's gang.
He was shy and kind and sweet, and he was ****ed up and insecure. If you were as lucky as I was, you'd spend a few hours with him after a gig and watch him descend out of this incredibly colorful, energized face. There was also something quite sad about watching him. There was a hedonism about him. Toward the end of his life, he seemed to be having fun, but maybe a little bit too much. It was happening to a lot of people, but it was sad to see it happen to him.
With Jimi, I didn't have any envy. I never had any sense that I could ever come close. I remember feeling quite sorry for Eric, who thought that he might actually be able to emulate Jimi. I also felt sorry that he should think that he needed to. Because I thought Eric was wonderful anyway. Perhaps I make assumptions here that I shouldn't, but it's true. Once -- I think it was at a gig Jimi played at the Scotch of St. James [in London] -- Eric and I found ourselves holding each other's hands. You know, what we were watching was so profoundly powerful.
The third or fourth time that I saw him, he was supporting the Who at the Saville Theatre. That was the first time I saw him set his guitar on fire. It didn't do very much. He poured lighter fluid over the guitar and set fire to it, and then the next day he would be playing with a guitar that was a little bit charred. In fact, I remember teasing him, saying, "That's not good enough -- you need a proper flame-thrower, it needs to be completely destroyed." We started getting into an argument about destroying your guitar -- if you're going to do it, you have to do it properly. You have to break every little piece of the guitar, and then you have to give it away so it can't be rebuilt. Only that is proper breaking your guitar. He was looking at me like I was ****ing mad.
Trying to work out how he affected me at my ground zero, the fact is that I felt like I was robbed. I felt the Who were in some ways quite a silly little group, that they were indeed my art-school installation. They were constructed ideas and images and some cool little pop songs. Some of the music was good, but a lot of what the Who did was very tongue-in-cheek, or we reserved the right to pretend it was tongue-in-cheek if the audience laughed at it. The Who would always look like we didn't really mean it, like it didn't really matter. You know, you smash a guitar, you walk off and go, "**** it all. It's all a load of tripe anyway." That really was the beginning of that punk consciousness. And Jimi arrived with proper music.
He made the electric guitar beautiful. It had always been dangerous, it had always been able to evoke anger. If you go right back to the beginning of it, John Lee Hooker shoving a microphone into his guitar back in the 1940s, it made his guitar sound angry, impetuous, and dangerous. The guitar players who worked through the Fifties and with the early rock artists - James Burton, who worked with Ricky Nelson and the Everly Brothers, Steve Cropper with Booker T. -- these Nashville-influenced players had a steely, flick-knife sound, really kind of spiky compared to the beautiful sound of the six-string acoustic being played in the background. In those great early Elvis songs, you hear Elvis himself playing guitar on songs like "Hound Dog," and then you hear an electric guitar come in, and it's not a pleasant sound. Early blues players, too -- Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Albert King -- they did it to hurt your ears. Jimi made it beautiful and made it OK to make it beautiful.
(From RS 931, September 18, 2003)

[Kickass Rock 'n Roll]

Jimi's followers in Rolling Stone Magazine's top 100 guitarists. Do you think they left anyone out. I think Jose Feliciano deserves a mention (seriously).

2 Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band
3 B.B. King
4 Eric Clapton
5 Robert Johnson
6 Chuck Berry
7 Stevie Ray Vaughan
8 Ry Cooder
9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
11Kirk Hammett of Metallica
12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana
13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
14 Jeff Beck
15 Carlos Santana
16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones
17 Jack White of the White Stripes
18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
19 Richard Thompson
20 James Burton
21 George Harrison
22 Mike Bloomfield
23 Warren Haynes
24 The Edge of U2
25 Freddy King
26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave
27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits
28 Stephen Stills
29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges
30 Buddy Guy
31 Dick Dale
32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service
33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
35 John Fahey
36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's
37 Bod Diddley
38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac
39 Brian May of Qeen
40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival
41 Clarence White of the Byrds
42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson
43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
44 Scotty Moore
45 Frank Zappa
46 Les Paul
47 T-Bone Walker
48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith
49 John McLaughlin
50 Pete Townshend
51 Paul Kossoff of Free
52 Lou Reed
53 Mickey Baker
54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane
55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple
56 Tom Verlaine of Television
57 Roy Buchanan
58 Dickey Betts
59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead
61 Ike Turner
62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band
63 Danny Gatton
64 Mick Ronson
65 Hubert Sumlin
66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour
67 Link Wray
68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape
69 Steve Howe of Yes
70 Eddie Van Halen
71 Lightnin' Hopkins
72 Joni Mitchell
73 Trey Anastasio of Phish
74 Johnny Winter
75 Adam Jones of Tool
76 Ali Farka Toure
77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
78 Robbie Robertson of the Band
79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps (1997)
80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids
81 Derek Trucks
82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
83 Neil Young
84 Eddie Cochran
85 Randy Rhoads
86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
87 Joan Jett
88 Dave Davies of the Kinks
89 D. Boon of the Minutemen
90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper
91 Robby Krieger of the Doors
92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5
94 Bert Jansch
95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine
96 Angus Young of AC/DC
97 Robert Randolph
98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer
99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag
100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

[hp sauce]

Rolling Stone BS. How can any list leave out one of the very few who can actually transcribe Frank Zappa:

Steve Vai

and his teacher:

Joe Satriani

and of course that great innovator of space rock:

Syd Barratt

But Joan Jett Puleeze .. music journalists really don't know d*ck.

[This message has been edited by hp sauce (edited 28-08-2003).]

[This message has been edited by hp sauce (edited 28-08-2003).]

[strings]

How could any credible list leave out Sir Paul McCartney as well?

[strings]

By the way, I wrote the above very much in jest.

[Snaffled]

A list compiled by someone who doesn't really know anything  about rock guitarists... Tom Morello?!  Vernon Reid?!  
I agree they missed Satriani & Vai, but also Eric Johnson, Randy Rhodes, Ed King (Skynard) & Ted Nugent to name a few.

And not even Alvin Lee?  Yep, they don't know d*ck...

[expat1]

Well, I am a true Hendrix fan, followed by Carlos Santana, Les Paul, and one not on the list, Andres Segovia.

[funkev]

Agree with some of above replies.  One other that came to my mind (hope I did not misread the list), showing my musical bias:  Mick Jones of the Clash.

[funkev]

Oh about Paul (don't know how I forgot that, listening to Beatles now) - - I don't think they are including Bass.  Not sure if he played guitar in Wings, etc, but that work does not seem to be worthy of guitar mention (though i like some of that stuff).

[skank]

Suprised & glad to see Duane Allman got his due.

He was the one of greatest guitar players ever & just like Hendrix died at a very young age but not from drugs but in a motorcycle accident.

His most famous non Allman Brothers collaboration, the Layla album where he & Eric Clapton traded lead licks introduced Duane to a much larger audience

On his last Album Push-Push with Herbie Mann we were just beginning to see his jazz capabilites & then a few monthes later he was gone. A true tragedy

[the smiths]

no johnny mar either, surprisingly.

[GDTRFB]

Jerry Garcia behind Kurt Cobain.  You have got be f$$%%g joking.  

Paul McCartney?  You guys must be havin' a laugh.  Pual is a great muscian and song writer, but he is not one of the greats when it comes to strumming the guitar.

While my guitar gently weeps...

Les Paul at # 46? Just because he isn't in the mainstream?  I'd like to see the guys on that list rank the top 100.

Next year they'll probably put one of the Back Street Boys in the top 100.  

[the axeman commeth]

What a load of bollocks.....

No Johnson/Vai/Satriani but plenty of people that were influenced or taught by them (Hammett/Morrello etc). No Lukather? He's only played on just about every record ever made (including many by people listed here)

Loads of players missing at the expense of 3 chord thrashers. I'm sorry but as good a songwriter as Cobain was, he was never a great guitar player.

Someone as influential as Van Halen at number 70 while players that ripped off his techniques are peppered throughout the top 50?

Jazz/fusion/classical/etc etc.....missing.

Wes Montgomery
Django Reinhardt
Larry Carlton
etc etc

But those names dont sell magazines do they......

Complete tripe.

[GDTRFB]

How about Spanish guitar legend Julian Bream?  

True lovers of the six string should pick up this guys classical guitar albums.  One word, probably spelled wrong, but one word, MESMORISING.

I agree, a total load of crap.  

[hp sauce]

> the axeman commeth

good call. Django ... duh he was the Hendrix of the 30s / 40s inventing new guitar styles / technique. Jeez the guy only had three working fingers on his LH.

also missing

Larry Coryell
Pat Methany
Al Dimeola
Frank Marino (Mahogany Rush)

and possibly 2nd greatest jazz guitarist of all time

Joe Pass ??

[why do]

....?
No Alex Lifeson ?? Sacrilege!

[hp sauce]

What the heck is Ike Turner doing in there ? Curtis Mayfield deserves a placing better than him. At least he jammed with The Man (Hendrix) in the late 60s.

Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott ?

I think we should do our own Top 100. That would please the Kazaa downloaders  and give 'em so ideas

[alternative advocate]

Yeah but Rolling Stone's list for this 100 was about kickass rock and roll.

If it was about jazz guitarists etc they'd have to include others.

I think they left out that guitarist from Steely Dan.

[skank]

How about the man that invented the electric guitar

Charlie Christian

He rocked!

[Sir Cliff Richard]

I think they left out the man who influenced Mark Knopfler - Hank Marvin of the Shadows.

[the axeman commeth]

I knew that Guitar magazine had done a similar list recently so went serching for it. May not be my 100 but still it's a much better list than the rolling stone one...

1. Jimi Hendrix
 2. Jeff Beck
 3. B.B. King
 4. Jimmy Page
 5. Allan Holdsworth
 6. Eddie Van Halen
 7. Pat Metheny
 8. Eric Clapton
 9. Chuck Berry
10. T-Bone Walker
11. Stevie Ray Vaughan
12. Keith Richards
13. Pete Townshend
14. Robert Johnson
15. Charlie Christian
16. Peter Green
17. Steve Cropper
18. Richard Thompson
19. Steve Vai
20. Tony Iommi
21. Neil Young
22. Buddy Guy
23. Jimmy Nolan
24. George Harrison
25. Randy Rhoads
26. Robert Fripp
27. Les Paul
28. Wes Montgomery
29. Johnny Ramone
30. Prince
31. John McLaughlin
32. Elmore James
33. Frank Zappa
34. Freddie King
35. Jerry Garcia
36. Duane Allman
37. Thurston Moore
38. Syd Barrett
39. Nile Rodgers
40. Roger McGuinn
41. Kurt Cobain
42. Clarence White
43. John Fahey
44. Billy Gibbons
45. Joe Satriani
46. Carlos Santana
47. Michael Hedges
48. The Edge
49. Tal Farlow
50. David Gilmore
51. Eddie Lang
52. Andy Summers
53. Jim Hall
54. Ron Asherton
55. Dimebag Darrell
56. Mick Ronson
57. Eddie Jones
58. Curtis Mayfield
59. Ike Turner
60. Loe Kottke
61. Albert King
62. Muddy Waters
63. James Blood Ulmer
64. Merle Travis
65. Joe Pass
66. Ry Cooder
67. Derek Bailey
68. Chet Atkins
69. Dick Dale
70. Charley Patton
71. Johnny Marr
72. Carl Perkins
73. Doc Watson
74. Joni Mitchell
75. J Mascis
76. Yngwie Malmsteen
77. Mark Knopfler
78. Bert Jansch
79. Lowell George
80. Robert Lockwood Jr.
81. Link Wray
82. Angus Young
83. Adrian Legg
84. Nick Drake
85. Bo Diddley
86. Bob Mould
87. Kirk Hammett
88. Adrian Smith
89. Mike Stern
90. Kevin Shields
91. Steve Howe
92. Jorma Kaukonen
93. Eric Johnson
94. Steve Morse
95. Ricky Skaggs
96. Stanley Jordan
97. Jeff Hannerman
98. Vernon Reid
99. Wayne Kramer
100. Ritchie Blackmore

[hp sauce]

>axeman

Yep. You got it. Clearly a better standard of music journalism there.

No problem with that list. And thanks.

Kazaa .. chocks away !

[Apples]

Gary Moore?

[Sir Cliff Richard]

Guitar Magazine's top 100 still sucks 'cos they left out Hank Marvin!!!

[qwerty]

Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), how can they miss him Woodstock.....

I think I'm going home now !

[qwerty]

You listen J.J.Cale from the 70's and you hear where Mark Knopfler got his inspiration.

[Nancy boy spungen]

No YOU listen to Mark Knopfler's interview and he'll tell you it's Hank Marvin.

J.J. Cale used to wipe  his bum with Eric Clapton's lyrics. Clapton was never God except in some dope-addled fan's minds. Cale was a better guitarist anyday.

[funkev]

Good to see that Guitar Mag got Bob Mould on their list.  

[Greenrover]

So how does Bonnie Raitt, rate?

I thought she was supposed to be one of the best female guitarists in the world.

Has she been overlooked completely?

I do feel Santana has been under-rated and Al di Miola also deserves a spot there as someone said.

Never easy to do a list everyone agrees with but......nice try!

[Porridge]

Steve Lukather is the man. Check out the discography here: http://www.stevelukather.net/  WHat about Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour?