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

Bad example - Unchained is cool, but a fairly derivative sus4 riff (in the same vein as one of the riffs Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones). I would go with Ain't Talking Bout Love as a great EVH riff.

Otherwise, your point is true - the great guitarists write great music with guitar and that's what elevates them above the legions of Shrapnel label guitarists with blinding technique but awful songs.

Kurt Cobain probably doesn't belong on the list, although I've said before that I think his "solo" on In Bloom is one of the coolest and most unique solos over the past 20 years (regardless of its technical demands).

 

My case for why Jimi Hendrix IS the best guitarist of all time. (Personally I would call Hendrix the best rock guitarist of all time but that is splitting hairs)
Or at least why I think he gets voted thus,

I was in 7th grade loved rock music, big Beatles, Animals, and Rolling Stones fan, played guitar when I think I first heard Hey Joe played by Hendrix

This was a time looking back when the #1 pop rock band in America was the Monkeys, the Beatles released Penny Lane and Cream was being formed.

Yep, Keith Richards was amazing and so was Eric Clapton and so were alot of other rock guitarists like Townsend. Hendrix had a pressure effect on rock guitar that pushed eveyone else forward.

Hendrix was just way outside America's box, I mean way outside, black rock guitar player hitting acid smoking dope and doing whatever he well pleased on the electric guitar in ways no one had seen or heard before.

You would have to understood America in 1967 to get the proper affect.

This was a time when bangs on boys with a Beatle hair cut would get you sent home from school.

Everyone (and I think this is what the older rock guitarist today understand) was trying to be the next Clapton or Richards in that day, it was the days of Rock copy cats and wanna be's. And everyone was copying each other's style and it sounded the same, until Hendrix. Nobody tried to be Hendrix, he just ate up the competition of his day like he slew the fender strat. Laid back 'let's jam' bam rip to shreds, boom, in your face, smile soft spoken, what the 'heck' is he doing, electric lady land.

This was before Metal, before computers, before everything we think is sacred about rock today. He just blew the doors off the lead guitar. period.

You didn't get Clapton or anyone trying to step up to what he was doing, everyone either loved him or was angry and jealous.

Because of Hendrix every rock lead guitarist started pushing forward.

Everything after was because he went there, he blazed a wide path for rock guitar.

Sure it would have happened anyways. Sure there are players faster, harder, louder, more technical blah blah blah. If you want fast take Prince or any of several dozen metal lead guitarists, if you want technical take alot of great guitarists already mentioned. (Hendrix was fast, would never call him technical)

If you want to know who blew the doors off rock lead guitar in 1967 while everyone else was sounding like everyone else... then go listen to Are You Experienced in the context of Hey Hey We're the MONKEYS!:grin:

All the young folk aren't going to get it because you just don't get where rock music was when Hendrix played.

(Not a bad take for a almost 60 yr old church pastor, of course I can't say I remember it all that well, but it was something like that.)

 

Well said, rhester, including the part I "spoilered" just to shorten the quote. People not around then and peering through the lens of many, many years simply don't understand how things were. But geez! The 7th grade?? I thought you were older than that! ;-D- One of the things I was doing in 1967 was sharing herbal goodness with the drummer of the 13th Floor Elevators, Danny Thomas, who was a cool cat with some of the best salad greens I've ever had. The older sister of one of my girlfriends was his girlfriend, thus the connection. Fortunately, the Vomit Comet (my '62 Merc clunker) had an auto-pilot that I could engage whenever needed. It was needed a lot.

 

Could you possibly be more sanctimonious? But this is what happens when you try to debate something as silly as best/greatest rock guitarist of all time.

 

personal top 3

1. Paul Gilbert
2. Jason Becker
3. Guthrie Govan

Shawn Lane and Allan Holdsworth deserve a mention too
also lately love Tosin Abasi

 

agree w/ everything you said, but as someone who was born long after hendrix was dead (1975) i must take exception to this last comment. it doesnt take an expert on music/rock history to know exactly where hendrix stands...

from post #5 in this thread...

/THREAD.

 

it was the summer of 68 for me, I was 14 hitch hiking to Allen's Landing (grew up in Dickinson) and hanging out with the big boys, remember all the banditos and the shops, bought my first lid for about $5

loved 13th Floor, would have fainted to meet the band,

saw the Byrds in the Coliseum, man can you explain the Coliseum

 

I've been dying to see this guy live! He, by far, is doing some of the most creative guitar work I've seen in years. I hope they headline their own tour soon rather than continuing this route of supporting emo/metalcore bands -- I can't bring myself to go to one of those shows...

 

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Just saw this! I probably saw you walking around Allen's Landing, which is trippy. The Coliseum? It was sorta like a gigantic concrete barn. The acoustics were awful. They exerimented with different stage setups (I remember at least 4 different ones), but the best seemed to be having the stage at one end. That's where Hendrix played, although I saw him first at the Music Hall, thank god, an amazing venue. How to get around the Coliseum's awful acoustics? Make your way to the middle front, where it didn't matter. If I didn't score tickets there, I always managed to wiggle my way to a great spot, regardless. When everyone was on their feet dancing, or just groovin' to the band, it wasn't hard. You just had to have a bit of nerve, which I had in spades back then. Today? I'd probably sit in my bad seat and complain. ;-)-

And Hendrix was the best rock guitarist of all time. Possibly the best, period. And I saw them all.

With all due respect, rhester wasn't being the least bit "sanctimonious." America in 1967 was almost like another country, compared to the America of today. I could spend a couple of hours explaining why that was so, but I don't have a couple of hours, this isn't the thread for it, and you obviously weren't there, so you wouldn't "get it" anyway. And I'm not saying that to give you a hard time. That's just the facts, Jack.

 

HELL YEAH! Mr. Early Kyler on the guitarifying makin' machine!

 

Late to the thread, but I have to agree that Hendrix has to be #1 Rock guitarist. Of Course, there is a lot of difference between best and favorite guitarist. I have always favored the tricky guitarist like Jeff Beck, Mick Ronson and Johnny Mahr.

Deckard your take on the old coliseum is dead on... I saw quite a few shows there and the sound was pretty horrendous. On the other hand, the music hall is/was outstanding. Did they tear all that down or do they still stand? Have been away from Houson a long time now.

 

I like Robert fripp

 

Thanks for the Coliseum comment. The Music Hall? It's gone, and when I found out, I was very saddened by the news. I was lucky enough to see countless concerts there, and usually paid $5 bucks or less for a ticket. No service charge. The entire "service" charge business should be investigated by Congress. It is an incredible racket that is ruining the concert experience to a large extent, at least for me.

 

Uli Jon Roth should be in there somewhere.

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Ran across a good column on "best rock guitarists" that I thought some of you might enjoy. It's from Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle. For those Van Halen fans, he thinks a lot of Eddie! Just click on the link:

http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/01/10/todays-special-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time/#2436-1

 

It's buried until the 3:15 mark or so and then it is unleashed...
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My vote.

 

Because he has such a unique playing style.

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Rhester dominated this thread...

 

How could Rolling Stone leave out the one and only Ben. LOL.


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