Rolling Stone Editors Pick 100 Greatest Guitarists

[Resident Loser]

...to the discussion? Lyrics (more or less) for Tasty by The Good Rats:

We had a flying guitar man
Maybe the fastest in the land
But he was going no where fast
Speed ain't nothing without class

He couldn't play tasty
Ta-a-asty
Ain't it time we mellowed out...

We had a man named crazy Ott
He overplayed his bass a lot
We had to kick him in the pants
His fingers moved like bodies dance

He couldn't play tasty
Ta-a-a-sty
Ain't it time we mellowed out...

We had a drummer named Joe
He played so fast we let him go
He ran away with all our songs
Now he's school where he belongs

He couldn't play tasty
Ta-a-a-sty
Ain't it time we mellowed out...

Basically...speed, technical proficiency (or pyrotechnics if you will) and a phalanx of effects pedals is what drives the demographic and ergo...SELLS...

Folks like Chet Atkins or Andres Segovia?

jimHJJ(...now dem boys is GOOD...)

[DariusNYC]

I feel less guilty about my flame-like earlier post because I see what a nice discussion it started. I don't have time to contribute intelligently to this discussion, but I had time to scan it and appreciate it nonetheless. Dusty Chalk was right that I just posted to start an argument. Not my greatest moment, but I do believe strongly what I said about liking the list for not focussing always on technically great (or even sometimes technically very good guitarists). In addition to not giving too great emphasis to guitarists that favor solos and the like. Other classic picks for me on this list that may be less inflammatory to mention than my initial highlighting of the Edge and Cobain would be Keith Richards and Neil Young (too low in my book given his contributions with Crazy Horse). Great to see the guitarists in Radiohead get a mention (although they are actually technically top notch, unlike someone like Cobain). Anyhow, I think a list like this has little value separate from the article that would presumably be interesting to read for someone learning more about rock music.

[DariusNYC]

I really do have to get back to work, but let me take a moment to say further that I first decided I thought Cobain was a great guitarist when I heard "Serve the Servants" off of In Utero at a loud volume -- breathaking guitar on that song. Since then I've come to appreciate Cobain's (in my subjective view!) awesome dirty and big guitar style in live recordings and even on the overly-slick-and-brittle-sounding Nevermind album.