Just...better.

If there are 10,000 guitarists in the world (and there are probably more), only 1% belong on the "Top 100 Greatest Guitarists" list. It's an exclusive list. You're asking me to defend my opinion, and I'm going to do the same thing you do when I bring up a good point -- ignore it. Of course it's my opinion, of course it's based on the criteria I find important. It's an opinion. Deal with it.

Don't get me wrong -- not being included on a greatest guitarists list doesn't make him a bad player -- he could still be in the top 10%. Do you know who I think is worse? All the Beatles (any of them that played guitar, that is). Angus Young. It's not that I am outraged at his placing at 16, it's that I'm outraged that some that are lower (17 on up) are not placed higher. They're better. John Frusciante is better; Brian May is better; Peter Green is better; Robert Fripp is better; Steve Howe, Eddie Van Halen -- they're all better. Andy Summers is better. Adrian Belew is better. Some are better in some ways, some are better in others. The only thing that matters is that they're better.

Heck, sometimes they're incomparable. How on earth could one compare say, David Gilmour with say, Rodrigo Y Gabriela (all three of whom are better than Johnny Ramone)? You can't. So you have to make an executive decision. It's hard. But sometimes, it's easy. You can't really compare the Edge with Jimmy Page, but Page is clearly better. It's not a difficult thing to state. You can't really explain it, but you can still decide.

You're trying to paint me into a corner, and I'm not playing. I will walk on the paint. You want to villainize me for picking on your idol -- I did it to piss you off (hey, there's a familiar sentiment), there are plenty of others there that I would (a) rearrange, and (b) knock off the list completely, in favour of others more qualified.

Hey, feel free to explain what interpretation of "contribution to music" would merit inclusion on a "greatest guitarists" list. See, you ignored that one.