Slash NOT on Top 100 Guitarist list in RStone

[Mattman]

Yeah, when I read that list, I was totally stunned.  I looked for my man Eddie Van Halen in the Top 5, and he was nowhere to be seen.  What the...?  I moved down to the Top 10, and he STILL wasn't there.  Frantically I went down, past 15, 20, 30, 50, until I found his name wallowing in the gutter of #70.  WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!  This man reinvented the guitar god after it had degenerated into a heavy, blues-based sludge, and he was one of the most original players ever.  When I think of a guitar god, I think of Eddie Van Halen.  But that's just the tip of the iceberg on this toilet paper list.

I couldn't believe that Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen and Dave Gilmour were all outranked by Lou Reed.  Excuse me, didn't Lou Reed only know like three chords?  I mean, personally, I love that kind of ragged guitar playing where they only know a few chords but they cover it up with feedback, distortion, and pure ingenuity (like Neil Young and Kurt Cobain), but to put them above masters of the instrument like Eddie is sacrilege, pure and simple.

So many of the people on that list I don't know.  Who the hell are Warren Haynes, John Fahey, and Mickey Baker?  And why do they all outrank Randy Rhoads?  This is just stupid.  The worst part of all, though, is that Slash doesn't even make the list.  Come on, he was more original than half the guitarists on that list (I've never heard people talk about the guitar genious of Ali Farka Toure), and his playing is some of the most emotional I've ever heard, cough*NovemberRain*cough.

Whoever put together this list definitely had a blues fetish - the whole top 10 is basically blues players or rock guitarists who almost considered themselves blues players (I always hate it when Eric Clapton says how loyal he is to the blues).  That's fine, but they should at least have found room for other types of players in the Top 10.  I'm sorry if I sound like I'm sucking up here, but EVH has no business outside the Top 10.  Just my opinion.

Still, I think that they did pick the right guy for the #1 listing.  As far as I'm concerned, Jimi Hendrix was the guy who really took the guitar into the spotlight, the prototype for the modern guitar god.  He was more wild and theatrical than boring Eric Clapton, and his style was the first to incorporate all those untamed rock elements like feedback and mega-distortion combined with the whammy-bar and wah-wah pedal.  He was a genius on his instrument, but he could play with emotion on it.  Hendrix definitely paved the way for all the metal guitar heroes that followed.  And that's why he's #1.

Anyway, here's the list for anybody who hasn't seen it:

1 Jimi Hendrix: The Greatest Guitarist of All Time
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 Bo Diddley
38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac
39 Brian May of Queen
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

[Pviljoen]

Dude, in case you didnt know, Slash was probably the most bluesy guitarist to come out in the last 20 years.

[Jesse James]

Total Guitar's list had Slash on number 4.

1.Hendrix
2.Jimmy Page
3.Eric Clapton
4.Slash
5.Brian May

(rolling stone sux)

[Mattman]

Dude, in case you didnt know, Slash was probably the most bluesy guitarist to come out in the last 20 years.

Yeah, I know - throw me a frickin' bone here.  That's one of the coolest things about Slash: in the middle of the 80s, at the height of the poofy metal shredder era, he brought back raw bluesy rock guitar, but (and this is the cool part) with a more aggressive style than most.  Kind of a blues/punk/metal/rock thing.  And all the bluesy guitar players at the top of the list were more straightforward bluesy than Slash.  I mean, there were some pure blues players (Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, basically Eric Clapton), and some strongly blues-influenced rock 'n' rollers (Keith, Jimmy Page, Chuck Berry, the god Hendrix, Duane Allman).  And I was just saying that Slash played in a more aggressive style than any of the pure blues players on there.

Besides, Slash wasn't on the list in the first place, so this conversation is moot.

[Hammy]

This list is stupid i mean it is saying Kurt Cobain and Jack White are better guitarists than Angus Young,Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen and Slash WTF?

[Seb]

RStone isn't the best magazine around anyway

[Lionel Hutz]

Haha, just ignore these crappy lists. Most of the time Jimi Hendrix is number one, and that's pretty much how I think it should be too. To have Eddie Van Halen on #70 is however scandalous. If anyone's close to Hendrix, it's Van Halen. The only reason why Hendrix should be higher than Eddie is because noones been able to copy Hendrix style, yet.

And WHERE the fkeu is Slash!?!!?

[Mattman]

Dont get me wrong Im as pissed off as you about the list, but you do not take the props away from blues guitarists. . .EVER.  Before you even reply, I want you to watch Stevie Ray Vaughan play anything at all, . . not listen, Watch.  In blues, the true blues guitarists play so much on their own that they are almost a one mand band. (i.e. SRV's live pride and joy w/ a twelve string acoustic)  

Personally, I think EVH deserved to be where he is.  I thought they said it well when they said that he could make a simple scale sound like a lot.  

No, no, I'm not saying that the blues players aren't worthy enough to make up all of the Top 10.  It's just that they kind of put too much emphasis on the blues players and not enough on the other guitarists with different styles.  It just seems a little narrowminded to me.  But you're right, the blues players that are on there ARE some of the best players ever, you can't deny that.  I mean, I saw a video with Stevie Ray Vaughan once, and he's probably the best blues guitarist I've ever seen (eschewing rock players that play blues).  He plays with so much emotion.  Plus, he manages to play for ages and still make it interesting, unlike a lot of virtuosos who overplay and forget about good melodies.  There's this one part where as he's playing, he breaks one of the strings, and then, WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT, he continues the solo on another guitar someone brings out for him.  Incredible.

But back to my main point.  There are a lot of amazing non-blues guitarists out there who were given short thrift on the list.  Here's my suggestion for a revised Top 10 (and I encourage people to make their own, because there's bound to be some interesting selections in there).

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Eddie Van Halen
3. Eric Clapton
4. Jimmy Page
5. Stevie Ray Vaughan
6. Robert Johnson
7. Chuck Berry
8. The Edge
9. Keith Richards
10. Slash

Again, a lot of this is personal taste.  But if there's anything I've noticed while I was thinking up that tentative Top 10 list, it's that blues players tend to dominate the ranks of the best guitar players.  Okay, so I'll give you that.  I just think that there were plenty of players that were not PURE blues players that were given short thrift on this list.

[Dot]

here?s what Mr. Charlie Benante from Anthrax(God bless them) had to say about Rolling Stone and their top 100 guitarists:


Rantings: Anthrax, “Rolling Stone Should Be Stopped!”
We love it when metal vets speak their minds, and there have been no shortage lately of various hard rockers sounding off on a variety of topics.  Today we have Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, giving us his take on the Rolling Stone Magazine Top 100 Guitarist special issue and Britney Spears. Fun stuff!  

siN’s metal news has this rant from Benante:  

"WHO THE HELL makes these polls??

Who the hell reads ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE?

I remember a time when this magazine had some credibility. Yes, I'm that old. I was appalled to see this list of the top 100 guitarist and to find that 2 of the most influential weren't even in the top 50!!!!!

Eddie Van Halen - #70 Randy Rhoads -#85

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

Here are two guys who revolutionized guitar playing and they're not in the top ten?? If it wasn't for Mr. Van Halen or Mr. Rhoads there would be no Dimebag, Zakk Wylde, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai... None of those guys are in the Top 100 here are some other guitarist that beat him out- Lou Reed, Lee Rinaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Jack White of the White Stripes, should I go on?

This Magazine should be Stopped! Can you believe that Joan Jett beat out ANGUS FUCKING YOUNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's become "US" magazine with music. Now they have Britney on the cover trying shock us all , AGAIN. Here's a fact - When an artist does something "Shocking", it usually means that the music they made isn't very good. Take a look at Madonna's career, you'll see the blueprint for it all. I just wish Britney would just do the NUDE layout already and end it... but that'll be a bit later when all else has failed..."BRITNEY GONE WILD" will be in stores late 2005 - who's managing this kid anyway?? I know what I'm saying may not get us into Rolling Stone Magazine but... who cares? Can you imagine when they do the top 100 Drummers of all time and I come in at # 99, I will then renew my subscription to the BEST magazine in the world!!!!! Not bloody likely.

I must say that popularity polls aren't very good, it reminds me of school. Remember how shitty that was. I hated all the popular idiots and I still do. Being popular is great and all that but I would rather come in under the radar, it's cooler..-


*Taken from antiMusic.

[sweetslashes]

I hate these stupid lists.  It's pointless because it's being judged by a magazine that, let's face it, hasn't written a decent article in years.  Rolling Stone is commercial pap, with no real guts to it.  It's a magazine that trades purely on it's legendry reputation of being this kick ass mag, when nowadays, it blatantly is not.

Ah well.

Dave

fuck yeah! agreed!

[5thofwhiskey]

This whole Slash thing was utter bullshit. If you read the article you find that like 4-6 editors picked this list. There names are in the magazine. Someone should obtain this list and write and complain.

It is pretty simple that this group of guys has something against Guns n' Roses and Slash.

How stupid could they be.

This was done out of sheer hatered.

All they did is make themselves look stupid with this list. Someone post the email addresses of these bums.

-5th

[5thofwhiskey]

One other GOD DAMN THING ABOUT THIS FUCKING LIST!

Does anyone see that TERRIBLE TED NUGENT is not on this list.

Whatever!

GOD DAMN!

TED NUGNET IN  a guitar dual with 90 of these fuck ups. They would look fucking stupid. Here is guy that can do anything with a guitar. And has been since the early sixties.

What a stupid list. Kurt Cobain = good song writer ........not a good guitarist.

Kirk from Metallica = ya right ...............probably ashamed to be mention so high. and would admit it.

-5th

[pants martin]

i cannot beleive slash or dave navarro wernt in the top 100 i would have put both in the top10 how anyone can say slash is even outside the top 5 is madness slash coz of his pumpin riffs and incredible solo's and dave navarro because of truely awesome tune like "under the bridge"

[pants martin]

oh and my top ten is 1.JImmy Hendrix
                                  2.Slash
                                  3Jimmy Page
                                  4.Kirk Hammet
                                  5.Brian May
                                   6.John Friciante
                                  7.Dave Navarro
                                   8. Carlos Santana
                                   9.The datsuns lead guitarist (not sure of his name but he is awesome)
                                    10.Noel Gallagher

[MeanBone]

yeah, under the bridge is a great tune, too bad navarro didn't wrote it, nor played it on cd. that is john frusciante's work dude. and i wouldn't put dave navarro in top 100 list either

[billsguy]

Yeah but no slash?  Come on.


Mike

[Sebastian Bach]

the fact Kurt Cobain was in it and Slash wasn't says it all really

Slash >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>....Kurt

[John Daniels]

Kirk Hammet on top five!!! well that's a joke.

[axl_rose_700]

fuck man, no slash, thats low, plus with that fucker kobain on there aswell, hes on so respected cos hes dead

[Falcon]

No Slash.

No Billy Duffy.

No Dave Navarro.

No credibility.