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!