POLL: SPIN's Greatest Guitarists of All Time

http://www.spin.com/#articles/spins-100-greatest-guitarists-all-time?page=0

which weirdo at SPIN was pushing for Jam Master Jay as the 10th greatest guitarist of all time?

just kidding.. placing him as a better guitar player than The Edge was a good call.

not to get all Rolling Stone on you kids but that dude who wrote "Little Wing" wasn't bad

Guy who covered it a little bit later wasn't too bad either.

I have some quibbles with certain exclusions from the list, but all is forgiven when reading the comments section. When these Guitar Center dopes get worked up into a lather over their gods being disrespected, it's the funnest shit in the world.

I mean, I get it.. It's refreshing to see names like D.Boon and Greg Ginn and J Mascis getting some heavy recognition for once in place of boring technical masturbation dudes like Yngvie or Steve Vai or like the dude who played on "Free Bird" or whatever.. but if it's at the cost of placing dudes who don't play the guitar over Jimi Hendrix then I don't really know if I want to care. I think SPIN used to love Jimi Hendrix; what happened?

Voted Eddie Hazel

kinda appreciate the diversity of this list (kristin hersh!) even if leaving off hendrix altogether is some pathetic challopsy bullshit.

Johnny Marr

someone should poll those comments
holy shit

and Jimmy Page doesn't make the Top 50?

I mean, I get it.. It's refreshing to see names like D.Boon and Greg Ginn and J Mascis getting some heavy recognition for once in place of boring technical masturbation dudes like Yngvie or Steve Vai or like the dude who played on "Free Bird" or whatever.. but if it's at the cost of placing dudes who don't play the guitar over Jimi Hendrix then I don't really know if I want to care. I think SPIN used to love Jimi Hendrix; what happened?

― billstevejim, Saturday, May 19, 2012 3:11 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

damn, yeah, finally i can hear about how great greg ginn is. at long last

skrillex... the master troll WGW's career has been buildiung up to

xp maybe I'm alone on this but I legit love the guitar on "The Process Of Weeding Out"

I was a little surprised at how canonical and safe the list feels, even as I love everything on it. like the more challenging - but also timely/real - gesture at this point be to mix your Robin Guthries with your Jimmy Pages

*would

Where is Kristin Hersch because I would totally vote for her.

I'm kinda 0_0 that they managed to find a whole 2 women for the top 50, like this is actually progress compared to your usual... 0. But I want to vote for Hersch and I don't see her.

cock

kristin didn't crack the top 50, she's at 82. the bottom 50's more interesting, predictably enough.

haha i just realized viv albertine from the slits made it too, at 92. kinda funny since they're one of those bands who basically expose the whole idea of rock as something defined by 'great guitarists' as total bs.

yeah, I saw nearly half a dozen people I'd vote for in the bottom 20. ;_;

I think I'm going to avoid the Kevin Shields v Robin Guthrie quandary (oh, is Jonny Greenwood in there, too? didn't see him the first time, but I think his best work is not on guitar, actually) by voting for Eddie Hazel.

hurrah

Yes, that is your fault. :-P

I could always dust off a couple of socks, though?

If only I could split the difference between Shields and Guthrie and vote for Benjamin Curtis.

Jonny Greenwood I would totally vote for as a theremin/ondes martenot/modular synth/laptop/melodica/banjo/singing saw player, but as a guitar player? nah.

love the '&' entries, bet Lou is annoyed.

Seth Copeland13 days ago
This is beyond terrible. Spin is officially what's wrong with the world. Spin watches E! and forces its daughters to enter beauty pageants for seven year-olds. Spin has a Rick Santorum bumper sticker. Spin is an alcoholic mother who sends her kid to rehab for pot. Spin watches Dancing with the Stars and doesn't think Community is funny. Spin didn't realize Anakin was going to be Darth Vader until Revenge of the Sith. Spin tells the person in front of them at the concert to sit down because they can't see. Spin bombs abortion clinics. Spin is that middle-aged woman in a college class who wastes everyone's time. Spin is that cow that panics and runs out into the road when you drive by, denting your grill. Spin is your neighbor's chihuahua that won't stop barking at you.

Mark Dannels15 days ago
This list makes me want to vomit! Leave it to Spin to come up with such a bull shit concoction of drivel just to prove that they are the anti Rolling Stone. This pretentious as fuck list is trying WAY to hard to cater to some holier than thou hip crowd yet only succeed in alienating their magazine as a "We're cool cuz were different" crap rag. I will admit that I love the fact that they give a nod to Nells Cline, J. Mascis and rate Prince so high. But the fact that they leave out Jimmi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Clapton all together is utter bull shit! I understand that singing their praises can be monotonous but there is good reason for it. And then, to put Skrillix on a list of guitar players is the biggest joke I believe I may have ever heard in all of my born days! They might as well have said that shrimp flavored ramen noodles are one of the best guitar players of all time, cuz guess what? Shrimp flavored ramen noodles dont play the fucking guitar, and neither does Skrillex!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then, no offence to RUN DMC, but they put Jam Master J, a fucking DJ in the top 10?!?!?!?!?! I'm sorry but this is a list of guitar players, Spin magazine completely lost every ounce of credit they may have ever had by creating this joke of a list (complete with people that may, or may not, have never played a fucking guitar in their life)! After holding back my urge to regurgitate my late night tamales all over my laptop, I finally get to the end of the list, holding onto hope that I may be delighted with their #1 choice... Sonic Youth. Spin magazine, GO FUCK ­YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!!

I was a little surprised at how canonical and safe the list feels

To you and me, maybe. But I watched reactions to this list unfold at a couple dipshit guitarist comments sections and one of the most common complaints was "I don't even know who any of these guys are!" It was really eye-opening to me how narrow so many people's field of music is. For some folks it really does go Eric Clapton->Jimi Hendrix->Jimmy Page->Eddie Van Halen->Randy Rhodes->Steve Vai->Zakk Wylde and that's all they need to know.

But I want to vote for Hersch and I don't see her.

Absolutely.

fuck, I forgot Stevie Ray Vaughn and Darrell Abbott in my list.

Alan Vorse15 days ago
While some of the choices are questionable, and I would put Nels Cline at number 1, I think this list is great! Come on! The usual lists are always 1.Hendrix 2.Clapton 3.Van Halen...etc. Lets get some fresh blood in there! Any list that has Vernon Reid, Fripp and Belew, John McLaughlin, Zappa, Sonny Sharrock, Blood Ulmer, Robin Guthrie is awesome!
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3 replies

Scott Burnett15 days ago
There's a reason Hendrix, Clapton & Van Halen are usually first... if you're not sure why, enjoy reading SPIN.
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2 replies

stoner dude14 days ago
Enjoy your classic rock radio stations.

I am glad to see a list break free from the calcified shackles that most lists suffer from...Eric Clapton is the most overrated musician to ever do a line of coke.
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1 reply

andrew jackson11 days ago
Agreed. Clapton is so overrated its not even funny. He played a little fuzzier than some of his contemporaries, and played some cool guitar solos in Cream, a band whose roaring engine was Jack Bruce. He then became an adult contemporary artist and master of the clean tone elevator music guitar solo. His music is the audio equivalent of a polo shirt tucked into jean shorts accompanying black socks and sandals. Nothing about Eric Clapton has rocked in about 40 years.

guitar whites

Randy Peterson15 days ago
Is this some sort of joke or what ?
Reply

Randy Peterson15 days ago
Is this some sort of joke ? WTF ?

voted for Nile Rodgers.

Would honestly put Curt Kirkwood ahead of all of the other SST band dudes. Rick Bishop should've made the list as well. Out of this bunch it's either Fripp or Bailey or Fahey.

love the '&' entries, bet Lou is annoyed.

Zoot Horn Rollo & Antennae Jimmy Siemens would have got my vote

damn, yeah, finally i can hear about how great greg ginn is. at long last
^this

love the '&' entries, bet Lou is annoyed.
and ^this

Say what you want about elevator music, Spin commentator, but Derek & the Dominos is a perpetual Untuck Your Polo Shirt Free card.

Did Richard Thompson make the long list?

Jesus, that's a criminal omission. So we have Tom Verlaine but no Richard Thompson?!??!?

I know right!

Also, if it's Verlaine & Lloyd it should definitely be Quine & Julien. Where's Johnny Thunders, by the way?

Voted Syd Barrett

Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd (Television)
Johnny Ramone
Eddie Hazel (Funkadelic)
This little sequence is amusing to me for some reason.

Actually my favourite guy who would have been a very cool inclusion on the list is Michio Kurihara.

i'm kind of curious what the process to arrive at this was ... like whether there was a ballot or whether it was an afternoon's spitballing

i enjoy the list, tho. tho it does kind of remind me of wire's 'in praise of the riff' thing from a few years back - which was all 'hey wouldn't it be awesome to have edgard varere on the same list of BORIS, wouldn't that be great and redefine our categories, that would be so awesome of us' - is how i feel about the presence of the odd improv dude or guitar composer here

voting fripp based on both technicality + inventiveness

i'm a bit surprised by the lack of postpunkers. no keith levene, john mcgeoch, rowland s howard, daniel ash, geordie, roger miller etc?

WHERE'S VINI REILLY??????????

Went to a Prince after show last night. That swayed my vote. He tore the place down.

I'd be more annoyed if I were, like, Bilinda Butcher or Ed O'Brien and just left out of the "&" altogether. ;)

I mean that says something, doesn't it? In a band with 3 guitarists you pick the one who spends the least time playing guitar.

Surprised Keith Rowe and Kevin Drumm aren't on the list.

Annoyed Pete Townshend and Bo Diddley aren't.

voted McLaughlin. hadn't noticed that King & Hanneman are paired. lol their styles are actually really different if you're like listening to the way they play, you know, the guitar

I get what they're trying to do here, but I don't get not including people like Doug Martsch or Joey Santiago while they include footnotes like King Buzzy and Dimebag Darrell.

umm Dimebag is not a footnote at all

Buzzo, ok he introduced sludge to a bunch of indie rock dudes who were never going to hear about it otherwise, it's important that the sludge dude also be the indie dude

Buzzo's style was kind of low hanging fruit that was bound to be copped at some point in the late 80's/early 90's. Santiago influence seems much larger (as does Martsch in the following decade).

and while Dimebag may not be a footnote, I don't hear much individuality in his style. maybe I'm wrong...

ha yeah, santiago and martsch are major oversights in this list. both pretty major dudes in terms of the last 25 years of the guitar i'd say.

Surprised Keith Rowe and Kevin Drumm aren't on the list.

Are you really surprised by this?

well the last 25 years of indie guitar, but yeah since that's what the list is

xpost

Derek Bailey.

Hendrix really is a criminal omission imo

Hendrix and Sonic Youth together basically form the center of my personal guitar universe, so having one at #1 and the other completely excluded def doesn't sit right with me

my problem with this list is that they're trying to have it both ways by insisting that they celebrate these less famous dudes, but then still include trad guitar hero dudes like Zappa, Neil Young, McLaughlin, Iommi, The Edge, etc.

voted dealwithit.gif

you 'got the people talking,' that's what you wanted

whiney did you have like a 'voting process' or was it more of a 'hey guys who would you find it amusing to put on this list' process

Would honestly put Curt Kirkwood ahead of all of the other SST band dudes.

― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Saturday, 19 May 2012 11:21 (4 hours ago) Permalink

Absolutely.

some dude, your whole attitude about this has been really shitty and tiresome

my attitude about this has been exactly the same as 30 other ppl on this board, take it personal if you want but be advised your favorite word "BUTTHURT!!!!!!!!" will be dispensed

those 30 other people post about it once and you post about it non-stop

Like if you're trying to deej me, i guess it worked? ("YAY HE <b>RESPONDED</b> ROFLOLOLOL")

that's just patently untrue, lots of people have posted about this list as much or more than me

why don't you make me a list of them

Are you really surprised by this?

Legitimately surprised that Rowe isn't on the list; find it somewhat curious that Drumm isn't.

whiney under your own 'say something nice too if you're gonna critique' rule i complimented the hell out of the guitarist infographic in the issue, sorry if that wasn't your baby and this 'lol skrillex' stunt was. but it's not like croup and aero and strongo and m@tt and elvis telecom were all giving you high fives for this and then i broke up the celebration.

croup was giving the list lots of props between his criticisms actually!

omg shut UP.

Whiney if this list had been made by another magazine I bet you would have hated it and be on here complaining!

But you voted eddie hazel so all is well!

(Yes, I know I should have just quietly un-bookmarked the thread instead of complaining but I can't do that from my iPhone and you know, taste of your own medicine etc.)

my problem with this list is that they're trying to have it both ways by insisting that they celebrate these less famous dudes, but then still include trad guitar hero dudes like Zappa, Neil Young, McLaughlin, Iommi, The Edge, etc.

that's because the list is about social positioning more than guitars. that group can figure on the list & still allow to list to throw a big middle finger at the big, bad boomers - "hey fuck you dad!!! I DIDN'T INCLUDE JIMI HENDRIX!!! Neil Young is way better anyway!!!" type o' deal

whiney save a dealwithit.gif card for yourself man, you're the fuckin guy who put Skrillex, whose name will be as well-remembered in twenty years as Peter Lemongello's is now, on a list of "greatest guitarists" instead of at least two dozen actual good guitarists. if you're going to troll for abuse at least be cool about getting what you paid for imo

yeah i mean he had to expect worse from the ilx peanut gallery than he's actually gotten, is my thing

croup was giving the list lots of props between his criticisms actually!

no i wasn't

while i enjoyed seeing you celebrate the indie guitar paradigm of 1995, I wouldn't say I was giving the list "props"

you did call it "informed trolling"...which i assume is better than uninformed trolling

well yeah, whiney read the SPIN Alternative Record Guide as religiously as I did

guys we're ruining this thread, can someone please save it and talk about the 'ondes martenot' some more

Well, croup, I thought it was kind/touching that you immediately recognized an important similarity in our upbringings that ultimately led me to produce something. Sorry, I accidentally took that as a compliment.

I am old enough to have read the Trouser Press list of Top 100 Guitarists at the end of the seventies so was unsurprised by this approach

you're the fuckin guy who put Skrillex, whose name will be as well-remembered in twenty years as Peter Lemongello's is now, on a list of "greatest guitarists" instead of at least two dozen actual good guitarists.

take it to the spin comments section, buddy

whiney you spend most days bashing and flaming your generation of fellow hipsters, then turn around and praise their decades-old canon while mindlessly bashing a few-decades-older canon in the same breath. if you're hurt when people point out the irony online, don't be a contradictory dick online.

Old enough to remember Peter Lemongello too

found the trouser press list: http://trouserpress.com/magazine/blurbs/guitarists.html

I don't see where you guys are getting the idea that I'm hurt/concerned/interested in anyone's criticism of the list except some dude's who's just been an especially sniveling, deej-poking brat about the whole thing.

i got the idea from your previous post

when I thought you said something nice to me and then you came back to assure me you couldn't possibly have said something nice to me? maybe that's not about the list, dude

i'm sorry you think i 'turned on you' at some point in the last couple years, i guess you're going to lose the patience and respect of one or two people who've tried so hard to like you and get along with you on your glorious path to becoming the most banned poster in the history of the board.

Wow, much more old school than I had thought, I only remembered the Johnny Ramone and Lou Reed inclusions. Whiney really is breaking new ground

when I thought you said something nice to me and then you came back to assure me you couldn't possibly have said something nice to me?

ok now who's conflating the list and the writer

hey, having mick jones, steve jones and verlaine on an 'all time' list within 24 months of their debut albums ain't bad for forward-thinking (xpost)

haven't read the thread yet but voted robert quine.

Yeah, somedude, I just looked a little closer and saw those others

I like this thread a lot even tho lol guitars

tbf i did think the familiarity of the list was charming when i was just scanning & before i read the intro. and i could, can and have said something nice about whiney, just not his addiction to trollage.

Fripp

Where the hell is Ted Falconi?
Paul Westerberg?

would take greg sage over both of those two

was helios creed on the list?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhZUoqQ9enQ

Uncle Acid was robbed lmao

re: Jonny Greenwood I haven't heard anything else like his guitar in "Just" except for maybe "Paranoid Android"

I think some of his 90s guitar stuff was pretty inventive.

yeah they were a good guitar band when that was their whole deal. he was their mike mccready!

Between Nels Cline and John McLaughlin right now. The flawed and egalitarian McLaughlin would be ahead in the sheer chops department.

Fripp's up there too obv.

Voted McLaughlin in the end. Guy is just superhuman.

Despite my criticisms, btw, I do think it's pretty cool that Spin included people like Bailey, Branca, Sharrock, Ribot, Chadbourne on this list.

voted Ribot

I voted for Robert Fripp

xp Sonny Sharrock is in SPIN's favorite 90's albums also, which is essentially the reason why I know he exists.

anyway, this list is weird and very spin-like in various ways (admirable, sad, funny, etc). i'm not annoyed by any exclusions, cuz that seems to have been the point, and it's nice to see some love for sonny sharrock, eddie hazel, d boon and robert fripp on airport newsstands.

i voted for john fahey, which seems both way too easy and lol old man, but i've got about 20 albums by the dude that consist of little more than fingers and strings, and i never get tired of them/him.

What this thread reminded me of: goddamn, I'm glad I don't have to rely on my opinions about music to put food on the table.

i've got about 20 albums by the dude that consist of little more than fingers and strings, and i never get tired of them/him.

I went to sleep to The Yellow Princess last night.

What else should I look for? (Have Womblife already.)

guys we're ruining this thread, can someone please save it and talk about the 'ondes martenot' some more

― man pipes blog (some dude), Saturday, May 19, 2012

this post was already a lol but i invite everyone to read "ondes martenot" in a maurice chevallier voice.

Ribot

Derek Bailey

I would automatically disqualify ALL punks no matter how much they practiced. I'm voting Zappa in protest.

Neil

Ended up voting for Asheton.

Where the hell is Ted Falconi?
Paul Westerberg?

i thought james williamson played lead guitar on raw power?

He did. Ronnie played bass. Is that what it says in the article?

nnnnevermind

Voted Carris Brownstein.

Chet Atkins

Where are Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, authors of the song "Karis"?

I voted Prince though I had second thoughts and tried to voted for Ron Asheton

Algorithm for voting in these polls
1) Is there somebody I actually think is the best and is he on the list? If so vote for him
2) Is there somebody who deserves better but is probably going to get zero votes unless I step up? If so, vote for him
3) Is there somebody who influenced or blazed a path for half a good number of the other jokers people in the running? If so vote for him.
4) Keep clicking on the thread from time to time until the spirit moves me to pick somebody.

Sorry forgot 3b)
Is there someone whose vocalist said of their band: "If someone told us we had to play Chuck Berry or die, we would have to die," vote for him.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

RIP The Blues I guess

Luckily the blues had a baby

Kurt Cobain


The "solo" that snakes through the final third of Nirvana's course-changing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is little more than a sly rip of the song's chorus melody.

EVERY Cobain solo is that. Was it always a "sly rip" when he did that bullshit?

Like does anyone ever go "DAMN that Cobain solo is fucking rad"

nice rhythm guitarist tho

Like does anyone ever go "DAMN that Cobain solo is fucking rad"

yes - people who are really into the Cobain mythos/memories of the 90s imagine they hear something v. great in his playing

DAMN that Cobain solo is fucking sly

http://www.thisheartsonfire.com/images/SlyFox03.jpg

The funniest part of that line is that Cobain actually plays the verse's melody. He plays it over the harmony and rhythm of the chorus, which is the sly part, I guess.

I'd never claim the guy to be a lead guitar genius or anything but I think there were only a couple of songs where he actually just played the verse's melody for the 'solo'. IIRC there was a highly chromatic solo on one of the In Utero album tracks.

(Definitely wouldn't rank him as the 4th greatest guitarist of all time though.)

I'd never claim the guy to be a lead guitar genius or anything but I think there were only a couple of songs where he actually just played the verse's melody for the 'solo'. IIRC there was a highly chromatic solo on one of the In Utero album tracks.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, May 24, 2012 5:13 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well he didn't have that many guitar solos. Unfortunately he put them on some of his best songs.

Like does anyone ever go "DAMN that Cobain solo is fucking rad"

In Bloom is probably my favorite 90s guitar solo

EVERY Cobain solo is that.

I'm pretty sure he only did that on Teen Spirit and Come As You Are.

youre dumb

heart-shaped box?

You're right that he did bother to actually write a solo for In Bloom though, good for him.

nah "heart shaped box" solo does not copy the vocal melody. pretty sure he only did that in 2 songs. :)

although you could be referring to the part that copies "i got a new complaint" but that's not really the solo section.

EVERY Cobain solo is that

Please see "Serve the Servants."

The funniest part of that line is that Cobain actually plays the verse's melody. He plays it over the harmony and rhythm of the chorus

The chord progressions for the verse and chorus are identical, only the rhythm changes, and the chorus has a brief turnaround at the end.

although you could be referring to the part that copies "i got a new complaint" but that's not really the solo section.

― billstevejim, Thursday, May 24, 2012 9:30 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Don't follow you here... I don't know what part of the song could be seen as copying that melody OTHER than the solo.

But yes, not EVERY cobain solo was just the vocal melody... But doing it in three different singles is a bit much don't you think?

Surprised Keith Rowe and Kevin Drumm aren't on the list.

Annoyed Pete Townshend and Bo Diddley aren't.

^ this. Except for Kevin Drumm, never heard him.

Oh nvm bill you meant that outro part right?

ok ok the heart shaped box solo is really more just him playing the bass line from the chorus than the vocals. Kinda hard to separate the two in my mind.

voting Wayne Kramer & Fred "Sonic" Smith (MC5) cause at their best lead/rhythm merge and they function as ONE. also cause Sonic's wall of sound and songwriting skills paved the way not only for Sonic Youth but Nirvana too

wayne kramer is the most effortlessly cool guy on this list as far as i can tell

voted for Nile Rodgers.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, May 19, 2012 6:20 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

listen to his solo on "savoir faire" it fuckin shreds!!!!!!!!!!

Like does anyone ever go "DAMN that Cobain solo is fucking rad"

In Bloom is probably my favorite 90s guitar solo

― billstevejim, Thursday, May 24, 2012 2:31 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

god yeah in bloom solo is so good

Like does anyone ever go "DAMN that Cobain solo is fucking rad"

I love the one in 'Pennyroyal Tea'.

i thought this list was just greatest guitarists, though, not greatest solos or greatest lead guitar parts? obviously cobain wrote d0pe ass riffs

But yes, not EVERY cobain solo was just the vocal melody... But doing it in three different singles is a bit much don't you think?

Well, there's kind of a point to doing it that way which is a whole anti-guitar-heroism thing but I don't really feel like getting into it.

its true the in bloom solo is awesome

voted for Nile Rodgers.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, May 19, 2012 6:20 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

listen to his solo on "savoir faire" it fuckin shreds!!!!!!!!!!

― he bit me (it felt like a diss) (m bison),

or "Real People"!

truth be told i was on the wrong side of history in '92 and was a Pearl Jam fan who was lukewarm on the first three Nevermind singles and then "In Bloom" hit and i was like holy shit this is great

The chord progressions for the verse and chorus are identical, only the rhythm changes, and the chorus has a brief turnaround at the end.

You're right. I should have said he plays it over the rhythm and arrangement of the chorus.

dudes how come now one is talking about his flight of the bumblebee between the speakers on "breed"

I think with this list Spin has finally and officially surpassed Rolling Stone as the most pathetic music publication.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtdWf-mJIZs/TzB0D4n3FwI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/n31OU7uPPmY/s1600/congrats11.jpg

"Too many notes."

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Z2pvpfssa5w/TC38lKv9EoI/AAAAAAAAMTg/j3vDOfPI0SM/s1600/jeffrey-jones-amadeus.jpg

its sad they were a magazine

I liked your list, Whiney. I even bought two or three albums because of it. Was there any SPINsider drama about leading off with Skrilldog though?

Given the logic of the list, two surprising omissions are Michael Karoli and Michael Rother. They seem like essential parts of the narrative.

I had thought about Karoli when I read it. Never heard of Rother.

He was in a couple of bands you might have heard of...

Oh, duh.

I'm much more of a fan of CAN than NEU, but I had one of their records once.

no doubt it's Fahey.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Prince? I like his playing, although it's mostly just blues runs and nothing to write home about

Fair enough.

In Bloom solo reminds me of Limelight

I like that guitar thing at the end of "Let's Go Crazy"

I was about to call out ILM for picking Hazel over Hendrix, but then I realized it was Spin itself who challopsed here.

Exactly. They gave us challops, we made challopini

lol otm. Picked Hazel of course.

Prince? I like his playing, although it's mostly just blues runs and nothing to write home about

otm

i voted for tom verlaine & richard lloyd

i like neil young fine but come the fuck on

if you factor in what a great acoustic player he is i don't think it's a stretch

Its a massive stretch

you're a massive stretch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyuE6SCRIxg

who the fuck voted for Greg Ginn

i think his later lead playing is p innovative

(i didn't vote in the poll)

greg ginn is fucking awesome wtf!

i didn't vote in this poll either, but i could've voted for many of these dudes. a lot of this music is my favorite music.

greg ginn as decent guitarist is one of the great historical snow jobs, that guy sucks

I love opinions, I could watch people have them all day.

Just FP'd myself for that.

i probably would have voted for robert quine

I love opinions, I could watch people have them all day.

― Trey Imaginary Songz (WmC), Friday, May 25, 2012 1:00 PM (32 minutes ago)

greg ginn as decent guitarist is one of the great historical snow jobs, that guy sucks

― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 25 May 2012 12:59 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what the fuck is this shit! he wrote black flag songs!

flopson, aerosmith is from boston so you know he's all "slapshot this...ten yard fight that..."

sst stuff is for hippies and cambridge pussies

as a teenager i had some older punker dude lecture me on what a fraud greg ginn was too! does it have to do w/ a deep-seated anti-Hermosa Beach bias? i just remember the guy was from Reseda and had issues about "beach bands". it was a long time ago, can't remember exactly what his argument was. but he kept telling me "ginn sucks, man!"

there are a lot of popular arguments against ginn but i'd never heard any that had much to do with whether he was sufficiently skilled at his instrument relative to his contemporaries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTe5CIiiQTI

6 BLACK FLAG
“Thirsty and Miserable”
Damaged (1981)
GUITARIST: Greg Ginn

Well, at least Black Flag got the last half of the song title right. Punk rockers should never attempt shredding, even if they’re trying to be ironic. Greg Ginn performs his solo like a sloppy drunk having sex, and, mercifully, he gets his act over quickly before his flaccid notes have the chance to penetrate deep enough to do damage. Even worse, Ginn tries to mimic Jimi Hendrix with his overextended bent-note screams but ends up sounding like someone trying to bend Jimmy Kimmel. The guitarist claims Black Flag practiced about six hours every night. Apparently, that didn’t involve playing any musical instruments (though it certainly involved a ton of wanking).

man black flag are so cool

my real vote is a write-in for roger troutman

punk rock sucks

max can we collab on a '100 greatest dadrock guitarists of all time' list

#1 - #10 tony levin

was elvis costello on the spin list?

Ha, it was just me and aero for McLaughlin.

as a teenager i had some older punker dude lecture me on what a fraud greg ginn was too! does it have to do w/ a deep-seated anti-Hermosa Beach bias?

no, it has to do with him being a truly terrible guitarist. HB's ok by me

The guitarist claims Black Flag practiced about six hours every night.

Yeah a friend has stories about hearing Ginn practice for hours every day and the dude never getting any better.

Ginn is really a ham handed fucker.

The poll results in this were even worse than the original list-which I shocking since that list sucked so bad

there are a lot of popular arguments against ginn but i'd never heard any that had much to do with whether he was sufficiently skilled at his instrument relative to his contemporaries

Really? Greg Ginn's technical skill is taken as a given?

no, i just mean he was part of a scene/era in which chops were not a must

Oh, well, yeah.

i think his later lead playing is p innovative

Examples?

All the later albums tortured atonal strangling the guitar to death solos, figured he must have been a big influence on kerry king

What are some good tracks to check out? I don't know the album tracks.

(I did listen to the track that Spin singled out and wasn't really blown away. I can believe that it might not be the best example, however, considering their choices in other cases.)

(The sound on the video wasn't that great, admittedly. I'll look for a better-sounding version on Grooveshark.)

Nels Cline 0

rip ksh

love ginn's guitar playing, though he's obviously not the most fleet-fingered guy out there. the appeal is mostly in the riffs, tone, violence and roughness of his sound. he's a "great guitar player" in the same sense that henry rollins is a "great singer". they're both extremely limited, but in a way that suits the band's attack, makes them sound all the more brutal, anti and fucked-up. at least that's how i related to ginn & black flag when i was young. i liked the cro-mag quality. whether or not it was intentional, it sounded cool to me.

yeah word. also a lot of his stuff is kind of bluesy in a way most hardcore ended up not being (see: nervous breakdown)

Nels Cline was my #2 choice (but not primarily for Wilco).

anyway, i voted for john fahey based on quantity and overall quality of output.

just as easily could have gone for eddie hazel or robert fripp. hazel's responsible for my favorite single piece of guitar music ("maggot brain"), and fripp's played on a bunch of recordings i like almost as much (king crimson stuff, no pussyfooting and here come the warm jets (esp "baby's on fire"), heroes, "i zimbra", etc.)

Nels Cline was my #2 choice (but not primarily for Wilco).

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, May 27, 2012 3:59 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

ditto

Do you like Initiate? I love it.

seeing clime play guitar with a vibrator in the geraldine fibbers really blew my mind as a young college kid

Ha, Nels Cline in Anvil tribute shocker! Tbh, I don't know the Geraldine Fibbers. I love the Nels Cline Singers, solo Cline, and some of his 'out' jazz collaborations though.

Hm, Fibbers are sounding pretty good.

They did a couple of classic albums imo

They didn't really sound like X but they are the only band that gives me the same feeling as early X

11 people voted correctly

Almost voted that way

Fibbers-era Cline is great
Greg Ginn is great
Eddie Hazel is the greatest

No
No
Yes

Have you even heard nels cline?

Argh, I missed this poll it seems. Would have voted for Zappa.

yeah Geraldine Fibbers remain just a major band to me, the album before Nels joined is imo maybe the best rock record of the '90s. Initiate is great but also a double disc that came out during a really prolific period of Nels Cline output, so i prob haven't paid it enough attention.

yeah Geraldine Fibbers remain just a major band to me, the album before Nels joined is imo maybe the best rock record of the '90s.

what are the second through one-hundredth best?

ps: i'm just fuckin w/ u cause of capn lorax in that other thread. do not take that zing to heart.

[quote=Actually my favourite guy who would have been a very cool inclusion on the list is Michio Kurihara.]
good to see someone beat me to mentioning him

yeah I woulda swapped a couple of these entries out for Kurihara and Hagerty

and I ended up being the only one who voted for Andy Gill. went for him, because his probably influenced mine the most of all these people listed

real talk whiney have you heard Lost Somewhere Between The Earth And My Home? incredible album, you should check it out sometime.

great album, but I like <i>Butch</i> better

yeah the fibbers were pretty good -- better live than on record imo, at least the times I saw them. that scarnella record that cline and bozulich did was pretty damn good too.

cline's best stuff was with Watt imo

yeah, or at least def his best sideman-to-a-vocalist work

Cline's instrumental compositional/improvisational work is so much more significant to me than his rock guitar playing (and I do really like his lead guitar playing with Wilco and Lee Ranaldo).

(especially when considering as a great guitarist)

I voted Ginn.

Have always been intrigued by his lack of prowess and totally rubbish tone. He was great.
He seemed to just jam along in any key, in a way that made me think he didn't even know what key he was in and certainly his scales were unique.

Ever since I heard My War back when it was released, that twat influenced my guitar playing. What he was doing sounded so random, angry and sludgy,.It was always the easy way out and I only played on stage 7 times and my career was over.

He still deserves my vote.

Now, Greg, let somebody with a clue remaster them classic SST albums

on greg ginn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4deAZAT21xc#t=53s

Have always been intrigued by his lack of prowess and totally rubbish tone. He was great.

I think I'm putting my finger on why I never liked Black Flag that much, one or two songs aside, and Ginn especially. Maybe even why I love some classic Amerindie and am left totally cold by some.

no, i just mean he was part of a scene/era in which chops were not a must

I've actually been thinking about this. I guess it depends what you consider to be his scene/era. I really like several bands on Ginn's own label - Sonic Youth, Husker Du, fIREHOSE, Meat Puppets - all of whom seemed to place some value on musicianship. I'd probably say that in some cases they were better musicians, at least as instrumentalists, than many mainstream rock bands of that time. I realize that most of these were 'indie rock' and not 'hardcore' bands (at least as far as the records I listen to go). But, while I get that chops were not a must, even some other hardcore bands seemed to have placed a greater emphasis on tightness, e.g. Minor Threat, whom I also dislike but for different reasons.

Thinking about why I don't like something often tends to be a first step in starting to appreciate it. I used to hate Pavement for similar reasons.

figured he must have been a big influence on kerry king

Can see this btw (and I love Reign in Blood obv).

WTF?! How could this list omit Kevin Okanyra?!

(j/k I made up that name)

loved the album he did with hans bennink and joe mcphee

imo he was kind of an overrated gimmick player, it's not like the 6th and 7th fingers on his left hand really contributed to his fretwork at all

wasn't he uncredited on some of those denny vertigo peel sessions?

imo he was kind of an overrated gimmick player, it's not like the 6th and 7th fingers on his left hand really contributed to his fretwork at all

― some dude, Wednesday, May 30, 2012 11:54 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

particularly on those records where he plays a stringless.

Incidentally, one of those was enough.

i disagree, i'd put him in the top five stringless baritone guitar players ever

His pit band work on the touring cast recording of CATS is kind of an overlooked gem though

little known fact: he invented that pick-holder that you stick onto your guitar. His nickname was "butterhand" for a reason.

okanyra shreds

Despite the moments of goofiness/trolling, this list (the full 100) is kind of amazing.

just scrolled through some of the comments again, re-confirming this list is basically the greatest thing to ever happen

carrie brownstien finishing over iommi lol