Rolling Stone Magazine Botches “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time”

21 thoughts on “Rolling Stone Magazine Botches “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time””

1. Holy cow!

2. Must disagree about King Crimson. Fripp is a far better guitarist than Belew.

3. Absolutely MONSTER post, Carl. Someone had to do this.

   I saw that RS thing, and looked at if for a while, and I thought: “WTF?”, repeatedly.

   There are a lot of problems with it. One thing is, what do you mean by “guitar song?” I think they mean “key moments in the history of rock guitar”. In that case, they should be picking the ur-recordings, as well as key highlights, also, as you note, the key artists even if it is hard to pick just one song. But, as you say, weird, extraneous criteria seem to have crept into the woodwork, including some hippie nostalgia which makes me gag.

   Your list is better.

   A few quibbles. I can see the case for Johnny B. Goode being first. First as im “first in time” more than “best of all”.

   For AC/DC (pretend the slash is a lightning bolt) I would have Highway to Hell. Their breakthrough moment, and a bulldozer of a riff with a blistering solo.

   For Judas Priest, I would have to say Livin’ After Midnight, their canonical song, with a classic riff and, again, a blistering solo.

   There should be a Sex Pistols song, but the song should be Pretty Vacant.

   Sweet Jane should be on there. Sweet Jane is to “alternative” what “Smoke on the Water” is to Classic Rock.

   The Ramones have to be on there. Rockaway Beach would be a better pick.

   I’ll stop there.

4. Awesome post Carl.

5. Carl, your passion is strong but unfortunately your ignorance of music, its history, evolution and players, is staggering. Your comments make you look petty, biased and simply wrong much more often than not. RS is certainly not going to come up with a list which actually lives up to its title, but then no one has taken Jann and his crew seriously since about the 3rd issue. You clearly care about music, but, to quote your boys Deep Purple, “listen, learn, read on” before you reach your conclusions. (And yes, “Smoke on the Water” is indeed conspicuous by its absence!)

6. Bob K says, in effect, “I have different taste from you”, when he says “your ignorance is staggering”.

   People get really vehement about music. I used to. When I was 16, if you did not love the Clash, you were a moral cripple. I grew. Now I get vehement about other stuff.

   This list would have been better if they had surveyed a bunch of knowledgeable people and gotten a dozen top ten lists from different angles. This approach does not really work.

   As to Smoke on the Water, it depends on what you mean by “Top 100”. If you mean influential on rock guitar, it has to be on the list, since millions of people learned it as their first song. If you mean most exciting use of the instrument, it is not in the top 10,000. The whole thing is ill-conceived.

7. I find comments like Bob K funny. He doesn’t realize that in fact I have spent my whole life with music in one form or another. I could argue the obscure or the popular. I chose to argue the popular, since I thought that was more in the spirit of the “top 100 guitar songs” list.

   The first song people learned for years and years was smoke on the water… that was what I meant by it being #1. In some sense, that is the uber-criteria for a “top 100 song”. I agree that I don’t really like the song too much, either.

   I like Highway to Hell a lot. I barely crossed out “Whole lotta rosie” from the list… it was right at the edge and all things considered I should have probably put it back.

   I used to play in a band that did a lot of Judas Priest so I have an unfortunately deep well of knowledge on this. My favorite is “green manalishi” but I left in “breaking the law” out of its cultural significance from Beavis and Butthead. I like the early era right prior to British Steel best.

   Rockaway Beach is a great song. I think it is a better song than “blitzkrieg bop”. but from a guitar (only) standpoint, blitzkrieg bop gets me marching faster.

   I thought a lot about the sex pistols, too. There are a few songs you could pick from that album, of course anarchy in the UK including the Megadeth cover. There are a lot of good ones to choose from and you don’t lose.

   I had “hurt” by nine inch nails and it barely missed the cut. If pressed I’d put that ahead of sweet jane a bit.

   Thanks for the positive comments on the post! I appreciate it!

8. For Deep Purple, give me My Woman from Tokyo any day.

   (My band’s response to that one is here.)

9. I am still scratching my head over Born to Run, hardly an effort worth mentioning for guitar work – or anything else imho.

10. Good Woman from Singapore!

11. No Rush?? Rolling Stone mag continues to suck. Tom Sawyer, Limelight, closer to the heart, freewill–SPIRIT OF RADIO– hello..the list goes on ”¦2112??? ”” give me break no rush tunes. Don’t know what the issue is with RS and rush but its more than just a little noticeable.

    We are talking about guitar tunes, not club tunes for chicks.

    Yes and to all above….all the other bands that either missed or had their b sides posted to this list. WTF

12. Gotta disagree with you on Rumble. This song laid the foundation for heavy metal all the way back in 1958.

13. Fun stuff. Nice work. Not sure exactly what your list is trying to capture. Influential on rock guitar? Most exciting use of the instrument? A little of both? Anyway, lots of fun. Here are a few sugestions that would fall into “a little bit of both.”

    * AC\DC – agree re: Highway to Hell, though Back in Black and You Shook Me… are very close.
    * Eagles – Life in the Fast Lane – iconic riff from Joe Walsh
    * Joe Walsh (speaking of) – Rocky Mountain Way: Who doesn’t know this riff?
    * Rush – I think Spirit of Radio, Freewill, or Limelight trump 2112
    * Duane Allman – Statesboro Blues: “No, but kind of close”??? What slide work!
    * Jeff Beck – Led Boots from Wired
    * Eric Johnson – Cliffs of Dover
    * The Who – tie between Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again
    * Allan Holdsworth – Devil Take the Hindmost – solo is unreal
    * Ozzy – I like Over the Mountain, but Crazy Train is probably more recognized and influential

    FWIW…

14. Wow – a little love for Helmet. Nice pick. For a simple little song from a one hit wonder, you hear echos of that riff in much of the hard music created since then.

15. For King Crimson:

    1) Fripp is the guitarist. Belew is the assistant guitarist.

    Best song depends on Old Crimson v. New Crimson, so I’ll list both:

    Old Crimson – “Fracture” off “Starles and Bible Black”. Think 1 minutes of insanely difficult cross-pick work. Honorable mention – “Lark’s Tongues in Aspic Pt.1” which has a massively heavy mid-song riff followed by two minutes of musical dada guitar crosspick.

    New Crimson – “Dinosaur” off of “Thrak” or “Discipline” from “Discipline” – depending on if you want radio hooks or instrumental.

    As always, YMMV.

16. Correction to above – Fracture is 11 minutes, almost 12.

17. Find it hard to belive that no one even suggested this one…he ROCKS!- I play LOUD to “frighten children and annoy neighbers”-can’t spell, either.

    Leo Kottke – “power failure”-can’t find a link…darn…”is on Chewing Pine (1975)”

    This might work…:http://www.leokottke.com/cgi-bin/recs/discinfo.cgi?performer=Leo+Kottke&rectitle=Chewing+Pine

18. Where the heck is Hotel California???!!!!

19. Hey man, Rolling Stone may not always be right or fair but your list is just as bad and filled with cliche guitar songs that 15 year olds listen to when they pick up their first guitar. If you think Smoke on the Water is the best guitar song ever you must be crazy. My five year old nephew can play that song on guitar. At least Johnny B. Goode is a solid guitar track with some technical stuff that an average/casual guitar player can’t pull together. Everyone and their mother can learn how to play Smoke on the Water. As for the rest of the list you need to branch out of main stream rock and roll.

20. Re: Boston – More Than A Feeling. Probably the right choice, but Hitch A Ride is clsoe second. That trade-off/harmony guitar solo is beautiful.

21. What a joke..again RUSH gets no love from this crap ass Magazine

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