The 100 Greatest Electric Guitarists of the Blues/Rock Era

Rolling Stone's controversial ranking of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time" is a curious mixture of historically astute observation and almost ridiculous pandering to popular taste. In a very real sense, it is incoherent. What exactly are the criteria? If there is no mention of Chris Parkening or Andres Segovia, it is because this is not about classical music. And if most of the great jazz guitarists are not on the list, it is because it is not about jazz--except perhaps insofar as jazz is related to, or an influence upon, rock music. And why place Robert Johnson at #5 and leave so many great acoustic blues players from the 30s (Mississippi John Hurt or Leadbelly, for example) off the list altogether? Let's stick to apples and oranges, and leave the peas and grapefruits out of it.

If Jimi Hendrix is the consensus choice for #1, it is because this poll is really about (1) the past 50 years, and not "all time"; (2) the electric guitar, which is the authentic voice of rock and not the acoustic guitar; and (3) while it is broadly concerned with all of contemporary music, as Jimi was, its focal point is rock. With that in mind, it makes sense to reserve the highest honours for those who gave the guitar its modern sound in the 60s and 70s, followed by the electric blues and R&B giants who most influenced them, and then the jazz-rock and heavy metal pioneers who most helped to carry the torch of innovation, musicianship and influence forward.

I shall give you my list of the Top 100 Electric Guitarists in Rock History , (each is followed in brackets by the ranking given in Rolling Stone). I hope that you will agree that it is an improvement over that of RS.

Let's start with The Top Ten:

1. Jimi Hendrix (1)
2. Eric Clapton (4)
3. Jeff Beck (14)
4. Jimmy Page (9)
5. Duane Allman (2)
6. Chuck Berry (6)
7. B.B. King (3)
8. Albert King (---)
9.  Stevie Ray Vaughn (7)
10. Keith Richards  (8)

Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page and Allman were the most skillful and innovative of the people responsible for defining modern rock guitar in the late sixties and early seventies. Clapton took Robert Johnson, Freddie and Albert King along with other influences to help forge the original blue-eyed modern rock guitar sound. Why did I move Jeff Beck up to #3? Can you think of any other guitar player who was cutting -edge in the mid-60s and is still cutting edge today? Albert King was a huge influence on Hendrix, Clapton, Otis Rush and especially Stevie Ray Vaughn; he was the most ripped off guitarist in history and to not include him in the RS's list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time is to rip him off all over again. I place him at #8!!! (In terms of his impacts on contemporary guitar music generally and cutting-edge rock specifically, he could even be ranked ahead of B.B. King.) Stevie Ray Vaughn was the foremost interpreter of both Hendrix and Albert King as well as being a unique stylist in his own right; and has been a huge influence on the latest generation of blues-rock guitarists, such as Kenny Wayne Sheppard, and John Mayer.

The Next Ten : Pride of place goes to the remaining pioneers of style and technique--blues and R&B initially; then jazz-rock and heavy metal. Imagine RS putting Johnny Ramone at #16--for his "buzzsaw" technique--and then putting Eddie Van Halen down at #70. It really should be the other way around!! It would be wrong to place Carlos Santana ahead of Peter Green, to whom he owed much, but he still deserves credit for defining that unique Latin-blues-rock sound.

11. Buddy Guy (30)
12. George Harrison(21)
13. Eddie Van Halen (70)
14. Pete Townshend (50)
15. Freddie King (25)
16. Peter Green (38)
17. Carlos Santana (15)
18. Mike Bloomfield (22)
19. Mark Knopfler (27)
20. Les Paul (46)

The Next Ten : (Just ask Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck about the influence of Les Paul; or Mark Knopfler or Randy Bachman about the importance of Chet Atkins. Larry Coryell and Sonny Sharrock were pioneers of jazz-rock in the 60s and 70s, very nearly on a par with John McLaughlin.)

21. Steve Cropper (36)
22. Bo Diddley (37)
23. Steve Howe (69)
24. Jerry Garcia (13)
25. Chet Atkins (---)
26. Frank Zappa (45)
27. Ry Cooder (8)
28. Roy Buchanan (57)
29.Larry Coryell (---)
30. John McLaughlin (49)
Johnny Winter and James Burton flesh out the list of great 60s and early 70s blues-rock innovators. Brian May, Joe Walsh, Ritchie Blackmore and Robin Trower were all huge in the seventies, helping to fill the huge void left by Jimi Hendrix.

31. Johnny Winter (74)
32. Brian May (39)
33. Joe Walsh (---)
34. Joe Satriani (---)
35. Steve Vai (---)
36. Dick Dale (31)
37. Sonny Sharrock (---)
38. James Burton (20)
39. Warren Haynes (23)
40. Jack White (17)

There are a few more of those great blues artists who were the sources of modern rock and jazz guitar. Howlin' Wolf's guitarist Hubert Sumlin (who also played briefly in Muddy Waters' band and as a solo artist)was a vital catalyst to the British blues boom of the early and mid sixties, by providing a link between Mississippi acoustic blues and the electric guitar. Otis Rush and Albert Collins were amond the unique guitarists who followed. And a few more blues-influenced white guitar masters who surfaced later: Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Ron Asheton, Paul Gilbert and Dickie Betts, who was second only to Duane Allman in creating the Allman guitar sound. And watch out for the new kid on the block: Joe Bonamassa!

41. Wes Montgomery (---)
42. Hubert Sumlin (65)
43. Otis Rush (---)
44. Albert Collins (---)
45. John Frusciante of RHCP (18)
46. Billy Gibbons (---)
47. Richard Thompson (19)
48. Muddy Waters (---)
49. Paul Gilbert (---)
50. Robin Trower (--)

51. John Scofield (---)
52. Bill Frisell (---)
53. Jennifer Batten (---)
54. Stephen Stills (28)
55. Ritchie Blackmore (55)
56. Jeff Healey (---)
57. Ali Farka Toure (76)
58. Neil Schon (---)
59. Curtis Mayfield (---)
60. Dickie Betts (58)

61. Yngwie Malmstein (---)
62. Adrian Belew (---)
63. John Martyn (---)
64. Kirk Hammett (11)
65. Eddie Hazel Funkadelic (43)
66. Robert Fripp (42)
67. David Gilmour (82)
68. The Ventures (Bob Bogle and Don Wilson)
69. Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath (86)
70. Lightnin' Hopkins (71)

Wes Montgomery stands out like a "sore thumb"--no pun intended! I was going to leave the mainstream jazz guitarists like Pass, Montgomery and Benson out of this altogether, but then I reflected on how Wes's sound found its way onto Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" and Eric Johnson's "Ah Via Musicom" and his octave and thumb-playing got into into so many guitarists' repertoires, I just had to put him in.

71. Joe Perry of AeroSmith (48)
72. Scotty Moore (44)
73. The Edge of U2 (24)
74. Johnny Ramone (16)
75. Ron Asheton of the Stooges (29)
76. Kurt Cobain (12)
77. Tom Morello (26)
78. Mike Stern (---)
79. Eric Johnson (---)
80. Robbie Robertson of the Band (78)
81. Derek Trucks (81)
82. Alan Holdsworth (---)
83. Link Wray (67)
84. Mike McReady of Pearl Jam (---)
85. John Petrucci (---)
86. Vernon Reid (66)
87. Gary Moore (---)
88. Luther Allison(---)
89. Neil Young (83)
90. Mick Ronson (64)

91. Clarence White of the Byrds (41)
92. John Fahey (35)
93. Mickey Baker (53)
94.Paul Kossoff of Free (51)
95. Pat Metheny (--)
96. Eddie Cochran (84)
97. Hank Marvin of the Shadows (---)
98. Jorma Kaukonnen (54)
99. Robby Krieger of the Doors (91)
100. Bonnie Raitt (---)
101.Randy Bachman (---)
102. Joe Bonamassa (---)
103. Hiram Bullock (---)
104. J.J.Cale (---)
105. Peter Frampton (---)
106. Jean-Paul Bourelly
107  Allan Holdsworth
108 Takeshi Tarauchi
Over 40 of the guitarists listed above do not appear on Rolling Stone's deservedly much-criticized list. I hope that in some small way I have contributed to the correction of RS's misrecognition of so many great artists. --MC

P.S.  Thanks to readers who are more knowledgeable about 50s and early 60s guitar than I am --Link Wray and Dick Dale clearly deserve to be on this list, and I initially left them off.  The reason for this error was that I am most familiar with classic rock from the mid-60s to the 90s-and the blues and  R&B artists who they cite as their greatest influences.  While a perfect list is impossible, the purpose of this exercise is to come up with a list that is a LOT better than Rolling Stone's, and I think that I am succeeding.


Most elevated: Albert King, the King of the Blues Guitar, who so greatly influenced the most important rock guitarists of the 60s and 70s, from somehwere off RS's list to #8 on my survey. Steve Howe (69), the great Yes guitarist who was the perennial winner of Guitar Player's best all-round guitarist category in the seventies, stands somewhat outside the blues tradition, but nonetheless deserves to be raised 46 notches to #23. Eddie Van Halen (70), who rises 56 notches to 27th place in my estimation of his originality, skill and influence in guiding the evolution of guitar music in the 1980s and beyond.  Then I raised him to #11, which might be a little high. (There is a conspicuous divide between the great all-round guitarists who forged modern rock and those later innovators who specialized in a particular technique, using that to fill in a small part of the broader canvas which Hendrix et.al painted. Van Halen belongs at the head of that second, albeit lesser class.)

Most egregiously overrrated?---Hmmm....I brought Kurt Cobain (12) down 29 notches, compared to 58 notches for Johnny Ramone; 53 notches for Kirk Hammett and 49 for the Edge. After listening to Jack White (17) & watching a Stripes video, I only brought him down 23 pegs. It is daring in today's context to just play guitar and drums with old equipment; even if a lot of his originality lies simply in how well he has learned Hendrix and Page and the older blues artists.

The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time?

Rolling Stone's ranking of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in its August 2003 issue has served to stimulate controversy and raise the profile of a number of guitarists whose originality, musical skill, influence and impact on music merit wider recognition. The difficulty is that the precise criteria for this list is not clear to either the readers or (0ne suspects) the simple critics who voted on this question.

If the glaring omissions of classical and flamenco greats from Segovia to Parkening to Paco DeLucia are made explicable by reference to Rolling Stone's emphasis on contemporary music, then we can also forgive the omission of Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, and Django Reinhardt. If we limit our list to rock and pop music, and the blues and R&B tradition most directly connected to rock, then their list starts to make more sense. BUT...

It is nice that B.B. King, the dean of blues guitarists, is ranked as the third greatest guitarist of all, after Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman, and that a number of other bluesmen are sprinkled throughout the list: Robert Johnson (#5) Freddy King (#25) Buddy Guy (#30) T-Bone Walker (#47) Muddy Waters' guitarist Hubert Sumlin (#65) Lightin' Hopkins (#71) are all rightly honoured as primary influences upon rock's greatest innovators. But where the hell is Albert King? NO great blues guitarist has been more ripped off than Albert King--maybe the simple critics who were surveyed for the Rolling Stone poll just simply didn't know where all those licks came from. Imagine asking Stevie Ray Vaughn what he would think of such an oversight. But one need look no further than Wikipedia to recognize this error:

"His work on Stax Records was never monotonous and has a timeless appeal that eludes almost any other blues artist. King influenced many later blues guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Mike Bloomfield, Gary Moore, and especially Stevie Ray Vaughan, who also covered many of King's songs. He also had a profound impact on contemporaries Albert Collins and Otis Rush. Clapton has said that his work on the 1968 Cream hit "Strange Brew" and throughout the album Disraeli Gears was inspired by King.

King died on December 21, 1992 from a heart attack in Memphis, Tennessee, but he played till the very end. Joe Walsh spoke at his funeral, saying Albert King could blow Eddie Van Halen away with his amp on stand-by. This was probably not a knock on Van Halen, so much as an example of the difference in the audible and emotional power in King's playing and the popular Rock and Heavy Metal guitarists at the time. Although not the household name of a B.B. King, Albert King is often cited as more influential. Both Blues and Rock musicians imitate him constantly, whether they know it or not. "

I would even go so far as to say that Albert King has been far more influential on rock guitarists (Peter Green and one or two others aside) than B.B. King, with his lighter, single string playing, ever was. Robin Trower ranked Albert King with Jimi Hendrix as the best guitarists he had ever seen. Stevie Ray Vaughn felt the same way. Just listen to "Raining in California" and then "Texas Flood"; or "I'll play the blues for you" and then "Aint Giving Up on Love", and you'll recognize what a huge influence Albert King was on SRV.

While the majority of jazz guitar greats--viz. Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessell, Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Lenny Breau--have operated outside of the contemporary blues-rock idiom, a few of the greats have not. Both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck were disciples of Les Paul, who pioneered the modern solid-body electric guitar and several modern recording techniques. In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." Paul is recognized in the Rolling Stone list (at #46) and jazz-rock pioneer John McLaughlin is as well (#49), but two other great electric jazz guitarists were experimenting with combining jazz and rock rock sounds since the 1960s: Larry Coryell and Sonny Sharrock. Al Di Meola was a driving force in electric jazz-rock in the 70s and 80s .And the great jazz guitar voices of the 90s--Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Mike Stern and Bill Frisell--arguably merit consideration as well, as does the remarkable Hendrix-meets-James Blood Ulmer guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly.

Mark Knopfler and Randy Bachman have both cited country virtuoso Chet Atkins as a major influence, but that omission is perhaps not surprising. After all, room had to be made for the likes of Johnny Ramone (at #16!) Tray Anastasio of Phish (#73), Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper (#90)and Kim Thayill of Soundgarden ! My goodness! I think Rolling Stone succeeded in giving some great guitarists some richly deserved recognition, but all too often were simply holding a mirror up to popular culture and transient commercial success instead of meditating seriously on the evolution of the electric guitar in contemporary music. The result was that too many young fans continue to be in the dark about some truly great talents.

Next: To help rectify this problem, My own Top 100 List!