[MUSIC] Rolling Stone's Best Guitarist of all Time

i couldn't disagree with you more, subtomic. granted, his earliest work was defined by his influences...especially page...and this was easily reflected in that early work. radio listeners even thought they were listening to led zepellin when they heard "working man" on the radio the first time. they were calling in to radio stations saying play the new zeppelin song. but, to say his guitar playing is not unique and is a reflection of the times...i don't see that at all. and, if you stopped at "roll the bones", then you are missing quite a bit of rush music in your opinion. hatred or love of rush aside...alex's style of playing stands on its own and is readily identifiable as the unique alex sound...even on his non-rush efforts such as work he has done solo and on movie soundtrack projects. granted, his guitar parts fit into the context of the overall rush sound. this is undeniable. but, they stand on their own as far as uniqueness imo and noone is confusing alex's playing with some other guitarist. i'm sorry it didn't stand out as "cool" and not unique to you...but i think you would find that many guitarists in great bands and others have been influenced by lifeson's guitar style and playing. yes, it is true that many guitarists' sound is influenced by those guitarists they follow. but, alex clearly veered into his own unique style from that and his sound has always been evolving to date from a heavier ballsy rock sound into more of an organic heavy rock sound to replace more of the keyboard sounds in the band. alex wasn't strongly influenced by new wave as much as he had to adapt his playing while competing with ged's heavy use of keyboards in the 80s. he has admitted that was a difficult era because his sound had to compete with keyboards in foreground of the sound. alex and rush has basically replaced a lot of the keyboard in the 2000s by doing more organic stuff with layered guitar. it was a conscious choice to do so...as alex felt he was being drowned out way back then. rush has always been about experimentation and evolution of the sound. to say alex was somehow left behind and overshadowed by his bandmates is completely wrong imo. but, you're no expert and i'm no expert. these are just opinions like you say. but, while you and some people you know may think he isn't unique...there are countless others who believe otherwise. all three band members in rush are equals. the band doesn't exist without any one of them.

 

mark my opinion as one that is different, then. While that record was released 20 years ago and they've done plenty since then, I still think we'd disagree if you don't think anything he did before that stood out or had any creativity. It's ok for you to be wrong. I don't take it personally.

 

If you're a blues enthusiast you'd do yourself a service by checking out Joe Bonamassa (sp?). He's actually doing a show tonight. But I'd recommend checking him out on YTube.

The current list is an upgrade from what they put out a few years ago. This one was compiled by other artists.

 

dang man use some paragraphs.

 

This list is crap. John Mayer isn't even on there.

 

any mr. show fans remember this bit? its a 7 minute mockery of eric clapton and tears in heaven - david cross better watch out!

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lol. my bad. i was late for a meeting and just said to hell with it as i didn't want to lose what i wrote. sorry. i'm usually pretty good about it when not in a hurry. but, now i'm in this all lower cap mode and i know that pisses off a different breed of you. i'm just rebelling against f-ing caps right now.

 

Hendrix's rhythm playing is ridiculous. Listening to tapes of his jams with other artists, his rhythm playing is so amazing.

 

How are Angus Young and Kurt Cobain on this list? Especially Cobain. I understand if you place Nirvana as a top band all time because they changed music, but at guitar? Cobain is a joke. At the same time as him Eddy Vader and Billy Corgan were performing and they actually had talent... Yet where are they on the list?

 

No worries, wasn't trying to be grammar police or anything just my crappy eyesight wasn't reading it very well, you like some kick ass guitarist too.

 

Indeed. Someone shared the story of how Hendrix scared Clapton offstage the first time they met, and while it's easy to believe it was his soloing prowess that did it, I'm of the opinion that it was his intro for Killing Floor (which is the song that was played) that really terrified Clapton. Too bad there's no recording of that show.

Even funnier, while watching the movie of Jimi's performance at Monterrey Pop, Clapton apparently (according to Al Kooper) yelled some taunts at the screen right before Jimi played his version of Wild Thing. However, the sight of Jimi burning his guitar into history pretty much shut Clapton up.

It's really a shame that Billy Cox wasn't able to join Hendrix right away. He was so much better than Noel Redding, and the band with Hendrix, Cox and Mitchell really grooved better than the original Experience. Plus, given that they were old army buddies, Cox might have helped keep Jimi a bit more grounded.

 

Maybe because they came up with great riffs that made great songs. That's why the top 10 are there. They wouldn't be without the songs.

 

Call it song writers then.

 

There are many great songwriters, but few that could come up with the riff for Unchained. You have to have both.

 

On the other hand EVH>>>>>>>>>>>>>Cobain

So your point makes little impact.

 

Elliott Easton

Here are some unrecognized guitarists:

** Elliott Easton

Some of my favorite all-time guitar solos are from Easton. I can't explain it, you just have to listen to them. Here are some of the best:

Touch and Go, You're All I've Got Tonight, Tonight She Comes, Shake It Up

**Robbie Krieger

Guy never, ever used a pick when playing. Came from a flamenco guitar playing background. Listen to Spanish Caravan, L.A Woman, Light My Fire, and Cars Hiss By My Window. Great stuff.

 

He gets endless crap because of his equipment even though its not like he just steps on a pedal and it writes/plays the song for him. Also, you see people criticize him for always sounding the same, which is an odd criticism because you never hear that about Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, or Pete Townsend. You could mix and match songs from every Led Zep album and not realize they don't go together but the Edge has had very distinct sounds that belong to certain albums and don't fit elsewhere.

This video is 10 minutes long, so I would say at least watch Bullet The Blue Sky at 2:00 and Love Is Blindness at 5:25.

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i agree w/ your premise about cobain not being worthy of being on that list, but "eddy vader"?

the only reason anyone even knows about that dude is b/c he is darth's son. that cat could shred w/ force!

 

and if anyone has seen that movie w/ him page and jack white, the edge can actually play. there were a couple parts where he even surprised me and ive been a fan for about 25 years. its not like what he does is limited by his abilities - thats just his style - which for the record, im a big fan of.

on a totally unrelated note,

Q: What do you call it when a doctor turns off the life support systems of an elderly man who has been officially classified as an imbecile?

Spoiler

A: “Eric Clapton: Unplugged.”

 

Yea, there is no possible argument for saying Cobain or Angus Young is better than EVH.