And I can be happy with a list for once. A list that not only forgot not my favorites, but actually let them have their spot above Cobain. But what's with all the nu-metal? And where's Peter Buck? And why the fuck is Mark Tremonti on there taking up space?
Here 'tis:
99 BILLY JOE ARMSTRONG
98 NIGEL PULSFORD
97 GREG TRIBETT
96 JOAN JETT
95 NOODLES
94 MICHAEL SHANKER
93 DAVE GROHL
92 KYLE GASS
91 JAMES "MUNKEY" SHAFFER
90 JOE STRUMMER
89 MIKE MUSHOK
88 MARK TREMONTI (what the fuck!?)
87 VITO BRATTA
86 BRIAN ROBERTSON
85 BILLY DUFFY
84 BRUCE FAIRWEATHER *squeals*
83 DAN DONEGAN
82 TONY ROMBOLA
81 JOHNNY RAMONE
80 RICHIE SAMBORA
79 DEAN DELEO
78 STEVE TURNER
77 JOSH HOMME
76 JIMMY STIFF
75 JACK WHITE
74 MIKE EINZINGER
73 STONE GOSSARD (*shocked*)
72 GARY HOEY
71 CC DEVILLE
70 CLINT LOWERY
69 NEIL YOUNG
68 WOODY WEATHERMAN
67 ZAKK WILDE
66 JEFF BECK
65 JAMES IHA
64 JAKE E. LEE
63 ACE FREHLEY
62 LENNY KRAVITZ
61 DAVE DAVIES
60 KURT COBAIN
59 SAMMY HAGAR
58 MICK MARS
57 VIVIAN CAMPBELL
56 DUANE ALLMAN
55 MARTY FRIEDMAN
54 ROBBY KRIEGER
53 JOHN PETRUCCI
52 CHRIS DEGARMO
51 DAVID GILMOUR
50 K.K. DOWNING
49 KENNY WAYNE SHEPARD
48 WES BORLAND (what???)
47 DICK DALE
46 RUDOLPH SHANKER
45 FRANK ZAPPA
44 HILLEL SLOVAK
43 RONNIE MONTROSE
42 STEVE CLARK
41 ADRIAN SMITH
40 DAVE MUSTAINE
39 YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
38 PETE TOWNSEND
37 IZZY STRADLIN
36 ADAM JONES
35 RITCHIE BLACKMORE
34 STEVE STEVENS
33 NUNO BETTENCOURT
32 STEVE VAI
31 CHRISTOPHER THORN
30 DAVE NAVARRO
29 ROBIN TROWER
28 TONI IOMMI
27 JAMES HETTFIELD
26 GEORGE THOROGOOD
25 THE EDGE
24 ANGUS YOUNG
23 TED NUGENT
22 JOE PERRY
21 ERIC JOHNSON
20 BRIAN MAY
19 "DIMEBAG" DARRELL PANTERA
18 ALES LIFESON
17 KIM THAYIL
16 KEITH RICHARDS
15 VERNON REID
14 JOHN FRUSCIANTE
13 KIRK HAMMET
12 CARLOS SANTANA
11 JOE SATRIANI
10 JERRY CANTRELL
9 STEVIE RAY VAUGHN
8 MIKE MCCREADY
7 ERIC CLAPTON
6 RANDY RHOADS
5 JIMMY PAGE
4 TOM MORELLO
3 SLASH
2 EDDIE VAN HALEN
1 JIMI HENDRIX
Virtuoso · Member since
"No one, not the greatest virtuoso-a-mahoosey, is going to be able to replicate Hendrix's style."
How do you know that??Yngwie does EXACTLY the same thing and sometimes better.He replicate's Purple Haze like if it was no big deal.
Instance-Hendrix:First color TV
-Yngwie,Petrucci,Vai,etc.:Plasma TV
Which one of these is better?
geeksandgeeks · Member since
Okay, i am going to say this one last time.
I DO NOT GIVE A SHIT how many frets where when or why a guitarist wanks in what solo! If I were basing it purely on THAT, yeah, the virtuosos would win every time!
You who says that Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) is not in the top 100 as far as talent goes, can just go fly a kite. Can your virtuosos play their most difficult solo (which, in this case, is enough to drive anyone up the wall) behind their heads? Can they plkay the "EVenflow" solo, or it's equivalent, while simultaneously riding on the shoulders of their singer? Do they play a right-randed guitar, despite being left handed? Do they do all of this while having a very problematic intestinal disease that often gives people arthritis? Didn't think so. Judging by your criteria, you should love this guy.
Personally, I think "Top 99 Guitarists" is too general a heading. It is not "Top 99 Guitarists With The Most Technical Prowess" or "Top 99 Guitarists Who Can Play The Best 10-Minute Solos" or "Top 99 Guitarists Whose A Strings Are Out Of Tune The Least Often." This does leave their criteria open to quesiton. Usually, these are the guitarists who the people creating the list like the best. Major major major major kudos to them for not letting their Seattleness get in the way of their sensibility when it came to Kurt Cobain.
Also, what's so damn special about playing with an orchestra? REM did the same thing. Just ask John Paul Jones, he did their string arrangements. And Peter Buck's not even on the damn list.
Every guitarist cannot be the new Hendrix. It's still just a guitar. Unless you have an extra arm, there is only so much the average person can do with a guitar. ONce in a while we need to appreciate the folks who can play who are NOT the technical maestros. The guitar is very versatile, there's a thousand ways to be good at it.
goinback · Member since
I'm surprised Brian beat David Gilmour (51) by so much...Pink Floyd is a lot more popular in the US than Queen.
The Real Wizard · Member since
"The guitar is very versatile, there's a thousand ways to be good at it."
How many of these styles do you hear in the top 20 of the billboard charts? 1, 2 at most? Pop and grunge/punk. But to spice it up, there's also the next over-rated Santana collaboration with a lame pop artist to look forward to.
"ONce in a while we need to appreciate the folks who can play who are NOT the technical maestros."
What? These guitarists are always the ones who get the commercial success and the credit that they don't deserve. I'm sick of the praise that the guitarists from modern rock bands get.
There are 10,000 jazz players in this world who are better guitarists than Hendrix ever was. The top 100 of those will put the virtuosos to shame. Do they play a mile a minute? No.
Case closed.
Moving fingers fast is far different than "brilliantly" moving your fingers fast. It's like comparing Billy Corgan to Yngwie Malmsteen. They can play equally fast, but what kind of fast? One is crap, the other is brilliant. Without some kind of musical training over a lengthy time, one cannot see the difference between the two.
At a Zwan concert, everybody cheered when Corgan had his distortion up to 10 and was playing a barrage of crap between the 17th and 20th frets which "appeared" to be this blazing A+ guitar solo. I stood there laughing, and only one other person around me understood why. Everyone else actually thought Corgan was some kind of a guitar mastermind.
These are the kinds of people that often cut the virtuosos and jazz masters to shreds, but of course they have NO clue what they're talking about. If they don't have the musical training to properly base their opinion on, then their ignorance is understood. That's why trained musicians usually smile and nod to these kinds of people, and inevitably understand that their favourite band will always be Nickelback.
geeksandgeeks · Member since
"and inevitably understand that their favourite band will always be Nickelback."
Nickelback is one of the worst bands in the world for reasons other than a shitty guitar. If you are comparing Nickelback to Pearl Jam and the Pumpkins, that's cardinal sin.
And who are you to blast people without musical training? It's an amazing, amazing musician who can play an instrument like that purely by intuition. You can't tear someone to pieces simply because they lack formal trainin, or even because they lack sightreading ability. That is not the same as musical capability.
The Real Wizard · Member since
"If you are comparing Nickelback to Pearl Jam and the Pumpkins, that's cardinal sin."
No, I wasn't doing that! I was just taking the extreme to make my point.
"And who are you to blast people without musical training? It's an amazing, amazing musician who can play an instrument like that purely by intuition. You can't tear someone to pieces simply because they lack formal trainin, or even because they lack sightreading ability. That is not the same as musical capability."
Very true! But I'm not blasting people without musical training. I'm blasting people who make uneducated comments. If I went to a lawyer and asked about a certain law, and insisted my incorrect opinion was the right one, he has every right to call me ignorant!
Of course there are many musicians who have had no formal training, but I don't think any of the top musicians have gone without lessons of some kind. But if anyone would like to prove me wrong, then please do! I'd be very interested in seeing names of some popular and talented musicians who were entirely self-taught. Go for it. :)
But really, being a self-taught musician has to have its limits. I really don't think one can figure out harmonic and melodic minor scales, chords with extensions above the 7th, suspended, augmented and diminished chords, and the 7 modes all on their own. Major and minor chords and scales can only get one so far.
Certainly these minimal elements (major/minor) can create a #1 song these days, but the creators themselves know they are limited, so they do what sells best. Those with musical knowledge beyond those minimal elements are easily able to see this problem, while everybody else bops their heads to the new Britney Spears song.
So now that I've explained myself in further detail, this is the point I will conclude with:
Superior artists like Vai, Malmsteen, Dream Theater, Morse, DiMeola and Zappa have based most of their songwriting on such musical elements as those that I listed above. If people dismiss these styles of music without knowing of such elements, then the discussion ends with their overall opinion of the style/genre of music. The brilliance of the music cannot be denied.
Anyone who has read this post and furthermore says that Vai, Malmsteen, Dream Theater, Morse, DiMeola and Zappa are "too fast" and/or "crap" are ignorant to the furthest degree.
jasen101 · Member since
Vai, Malmsteen, Dream Theater, Morse, DiMeola and Zappa are too fast and generally crappy.
I would have to say that the soul and emotion that you put into a guitar riff or solo is the key. That's why Hendrix will be remembered forever and Dream Theater wont.
I'd have to say I generally agree with the list generally:P
The Real Wizard · Member since
"I would have to say that the soul and emotion that you put into a guitar riff or solo is the key. That's why Hendrix will be remembered forever and Dream Theater wont."
But then, it all comes down to what one defines as soul... and that's non-negotiable, because everyone has their own tastes. Just because they're too fast for some and they cannot see soul in it, doesn't mean someone else doesn't see soul in it.
But it cannot be denied that those above musicians have a brilliance that few can match. Hendrix was nowhere near that league in technicality.
Of course Hendrix will be remembered, because naturally, less people understand the technical side of things, because less people in the audience are musicians!
If you do a poll of all music fans, chances are only a few percent will have heard of and enjoy those above artists. But if you do a poll of musicians at a proficnent level who have heard of those artists (chances are they have), the results will be much, much different!
Fenderek · Member since
I'm sorry- WHERE THE HELL IS Steve Morse, now in Deep Purple (Dixie Dregs before)...?! He's definitrelly better than Slash... No 3 for him is some kind of a joke...
Stephan · Member since
John Petrucci on 53, this is a damn joke!!!!!!
Daburcor? · Member since
"10 JERRY CANTRELL"
I love his solo album "Boggy Depot". Great stuff!
7Innuendo7 · Member since
Lists...oh lists everywhere...the new SPIN mag mentions "Another One Bites the Dust" as one of the ten best roller-skating songs (I can relate, I can barely skate. Gimme a pair of skis!)
It's great GREAT that Brian is praised so highly. He seems to be one of the few (maybe the only one?!) on the list to have actually built his own and played it throughout his career.
My question is...where's Muddy Waters? Les Paul? Howlin' Wolf? Robert Johnson? B.B. King? Bo Diddley? Bueller? Beuller? Beuller?
Maybe they made up their list in a *bux after checking their stock portfolio.
Virtuoso · Member since
The list is a fucking joke,Vai deserve's to be in the top 10.Also,where's T-Bone Walker,Micheal Romeo...anyway,this is shit.
Music Man · Member since
Haha, how the hell did I miss out on this thread!? (I mean, I've apparently been here since May 15, 2003) I loved it. And I must agree that this list is, so to say, bad. My favorite lists are here:
