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SPIN's 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time

OMG, Vernon Reid of Living Colour is on that list. They stink.

I saw them open for the Stones in 91 and play Xmas jam a few years ago and they were terrible both times.
 
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Its too bad too - the discussion of the best guitarists is always a good one. Instead of this hipster bullshit, we could be arguing Hendrix vs. Page vs. Clapton, etc.
 
I am not a big metal fan either, but Dave Mustaine blows away every metal guitarist on that list. The chord progressions that guy plays are just not natural.

Its funny because I saw a youtube with him and Dave Navarro (#80) showing him this chord progression that Mustaine invented, and Navarro was just shaking his head.
 
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Looks like SPIN made the all too common mistake of confusing "best" with "favorite."
 
I am not a big metal fan either, but Dave Mustaine blows away every metal guitarist on that list. The chord progressions that guy plays are just not natural.

Its funny because I saw a youtube with him and Dave Navarro (#80) showing him this chord progression that Mustaine invented, and Navarro was just shaking his head.

spider chord
 
I am going to assume that maybe 2 people ariound here have ever heard of John Fahey. He absolutely belongs on a top 10 list of greatest guitarists.

 
I am going to assume that maybe 2 people ariound here have ever heard of John Fahey. He absolutely belongs on a top 10 list of greatest guitarists.

Lesser-known but similar to Townes Van Zandt, especially in lifestyle. I don't know if I'd put him in top-10 but Fahey was great. His live stuff was always much better than studio.
 
Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo @ #97 is a flat out crime. The dude is seriously underrated and can flat out wail on a guitar.


 
A lot of my favorite artists on this list (glad to see Nels Cline get love, but I don't think they use the word "somnambulent" correctly), but there's no way they belong in a discussion of "greatest," especially the following:

Annie Clark (St. Vincent) - I am batshit crazy about St. Vincent, check out their version of Big Black at Bowery Ballroom (LOL at Steve Albini being ranked so highly and they specifically call out Kerosene, a great tune, but again, not so complex), but as awesome/sexy/punk as she is, she's nowhere near technically gifted enough to be here.
Syd Barrett - great songwriter, at least in my opinion, but i don't even consider his guitar playing all that revolutionary. pretty standard psych/experimental stuff.
PJ Harvey - utterly brilliant, maverick musician, but WTF? as it suggests, she's a minimalist. not a ton of impressive technical stuff going on, and her voice is the real instrument.

Then their #1 choice? They are clearly just vying for cred with this list, but they kinda disrespect a lot of the greatest, most influential guitarists by just handpicking some lo-fi and underground legends.
 
Bad list, but it's clear they weren't going for conventional. At least they had the sense to put Moore and Ranaldo as a tandem. Thurston gets the credit all too often, but I think Ranaldo is the better player (and it's his sig guitar that I have and not Thurston's). Same with Moon's favorite Television tandem.

Oh, and I love St. Vincent's stuff, but yeah, Townie, she's more of an effects player than a technically gifted player. I dig her style, though. There's a lot to be said about making the guitar a canvas rather than just an instrument.
 
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