Rolling Stone ranks Top 250 guitarists of all time

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-guitarists-1234814010/

Clapton is perhaps the most egregious.

Jimi is one of the best, but THE best?…..

 

Bonnie Raitt ahead of Mick Taylor? I'm out.

 

250? Am I on it? Why not a thousand? 10,000?

 

Chet Atkins?
Brad Paisley?

No?

List sucks.

 

When I started at 250…..and a few spots down were people like The National…..H.E.R……it’s just a ridiculous length.
Do the top 10 if you want……like I said……Hendrix is a great guitarist……THE best?……Thats got potential to be a lengthy debate.
Clapton is way higher than that though.
I think I’m the 407th ranked drummer in history.

 

Atkins is somewhere around 40. Not sure if Vince Gill made it, or Steve Warriner.

I always find these RS lists impossible to read. My screen keeps refreshing to the top of the page.

 

I know I saw Gill’s name in the 200’s….

 

You're hired! (As a session guy)

Yeah but no. 1 among drummers with nine toes! #TheFuckingClassics

 

It's an interesting list. I'll give them credit -- it includes a lot of really good guitarists who don't normally pop up on something like this, and it doesn't just give us the rote top 10 we've been force-fed since the 70s. Mdou Moctor and Ali Farka Touré are both brilliant and I didn't expect to see them here. (It filled my heart with glee to see Clapton at 35. I think he's wildly overrated, but it's somehow become unthinkable to leave him out of a top 5.)

Putting Joni Mitchell 9th is pretty ballsy. Don't know that I agree, but I suspect that's one that makes more sense if you can play, which I can't.

One immediate observation I had: if Paul Simon is on your list of greatest guitarists, the list is probably longer than it needs to be.

Several of my favorites made the list -- Johnny Marr, Peter Buck and Bob Mould. I think Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and Will Sergeant of Echo and the Bunnymen should be on the list, and I'm really surprised Mark Speer of Khruangbin isn't on there -- I think he's brilliant. But whatever.

 

"Hold my beer," says Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen.

 

I prefer one-armed Def over two armed-Def every day and twice on Sunday.

 

what’s particularly funny is how Clapton’s appreciation of some artists is used as a justification for their ranking above him. “Kobe Bryant had a deep appreciation for the mid-range game of Rip Hamilton, whose lone NBA title inspired Kobe to tweak one small aspect of his game in winning several more.”

Silly.