Is SPIN really circling the drain?

i skipped the middle of the list so maybe i'm wrong but it seemed overly reactionary - i'm all for overturning the canon list of classic rock guitarists but it seems like it would have been more effective trolling with some of those dudes scattered around, like jimi hendrix at no. 2 and THEN lee ranaldo and thurston moore at no. 1. but far be it to tell whiney how to troll people. hendrix is not on this list at all btw, unless i missed him.

some of the guitarists that got the same considered "we could have paired you with your bandmate but FUCK YOU" that Mike McCready, Mary Timony and David Byrne got:

Ivan Julian
Tanya Donnelly
James Iha
David Gilmour (tbf Syd is in the alt guide but not Pink Floyd)
Syl Sylvain
Scott Kannenberg
Ed O'Brien (man, they really prefer the guitarist that sometimes drops the guitar to twiddle knobs, don't they?)
James Williamson (shots fired!)
Belinda Butcher

Had Robert Fripp in but he popped up eventually. Guess that guy has an "indie pass" for all the non-King Crimson stuff in the guide.

i skipped the middle of the list so maybe i'm wrong but it seemed overly reactionary - i'm all for overturning the canon list of classic rock guitarists but it seems like it would have been more effective trolling with some of those dudes scattered around, like jimi hendrix at no. 2 and THEN lee ranaldo and thurston moore at no. 1.

that's the funny thing, this really wasn't an overturning of the classic rock canon but a reaffirmation of the classic spin one. with the addition of late discoveries like shuggie otis and james brown guy.

Did they skip Michio Kurihara?

if we had to include hendrix and jimmy page, our list would be like 75% overlap woith the RS list(s)

Also Anthony, i do hope we UPDATED the classic spin canon

well it'd be weird if you didn't include anything after 1995. and some of you whippersnappers are clearly cooler with Pantera et al than your teachers were.

I don't understand why Bez Bez was left off this list.

i kinda like that SPIN's only reason for existing at this point is for trolling RS readers

that's a noble pursuit imo

which is why i said i kinda like it

i mean as much as i disagree with completely leaving Hendrix off the list, the thought of Lesfetz going apoplectic with rage makes me smile

It's kind of funny that "fuck your blues-rock paradigm, we're on some LOU REED shit" can still ruffle feathers

i definitely would not let anyone from spin fuck my blues-rock paradigm

especially not if theyre already on some lou reed shit

guy prob shared needles

who was Rolling Stone trolling when they came up their narrative. Leonard Bernstein?

oh man i just realized Peter Buck isn't on here. How did HE get left out of the Lou Reed family tree?

so embarrassing for us

i'm just noting the irony. Peter Buck's a big reason you guys even have a narrative.

buck has a lot of tasty licks

Anyway, I just bought some records based on that list, so thanks wgw.

if we had to include hendrix and jimmy page, our list would be like 75% overlap woith the RS list(s)

that shouldn't matter to you fyi

i know aero will have my back, but given the nature of the list Andy Cohen of Silkworm/Bottomless Pit TOTALLY should be on this list

xpost

it really shouldnt matter to do something unique and different?

i've said this elsewhere, but the primary word in "SPIN's 100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time" isn't "All-Time" but is, in fact "SPIN"

yeah I don't wanna fight with you, whatever. list is just kind of dumb imo, like when I finish clicking through it I go "well, you made me look - good job, my bad." Euronymous. I mean - Prince is on Rolling Stone's list, too, so's Dimebag. If you wanted to do something different, you might have assigned some of the list to people who're into guitar & can talk in non-impressionistic ways about how people play. You would then be doing something Rolling Stone hasn't done since the mid-seventies: focusing on musicality instead of image.

I gotta say though I'm now really looking forward to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau getting listed as one of the top 100 MCs

yeah as much as i like the list there's too much blatant trolling...like Jam Master Jay...and Dave Navarro

plus prince is a lame inclusion cuz he's such a classic rock showoff anyway, he's totally RS bait

Skrillex was kinda a place to start the list because from what I saw, a lot of people didn't even get past that. By putting him 100th, you're trying to sell guitar music to people who are fans of Skrillex, which like, I think more people still like Led Zeppelin than dubstep.

kinda a poor place

If Sleater-Kinney joined forces with J Mascis in a New Jersey basement to channel late Black Flag and early Smashing Pumpkins, they might come up with something approximating Paternoster's maelstroms.

*dies*

who the fuck is the #99 guy, can someone tell me?

otoh, I think I got the Jim Dunlop Guitar Products facebook page to really like me this afternoon, so maybe next week I'll win a free Phase 90 or something.

99 guy is awesome! I hadn't heard of him either.

also if you're gonna go with a guitarist who wouldn't be shit w/o his effects rack go with the motherfuckin' OG The Edge instead of Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

they went with the edge.

skrillex. you know, for the kids.

aerosmith, did you honestly just find the complicated, roundabout way to say, "These writers don't know the first thing about playing a guitar, man"

sorry joe perry wasn't on the list :(

yeah they did go with the edge.

zinner is possibly the most defensible 2000s choice!

Also, if anyone thinks there's some mysterious agenda for putting Skrillex on that list beyond exactly what my blurb says, i got some illuminati websites to show u

perry is on the list with the jam master jay placing in a way

alright whiney, you've convinced me to load up the list to read your skrillex blurb.

i think i'm too dumb to understand your blurb. sorry. i guess he's the 100th best guitarist bc his music translates really well to guitar covers?? and bc 'riff' = 'drop' or something?

to make up for skrillex you have to put tom morello on your lists of the greatest DJs of all time

oh good, this generation's "smoke on the water"

which skrillex generation is the worst?

are we still on generation Y

or are the millennials different?

i hear those kids think they are hot stuff with social networking and entitlement

anyway jeff beck owns man, dig on beck-o-la and come talk to me

aerosmith, did you honestly just find the complicated, roundabout way to say, "These writers don't know the first thing about playing a guitar, man"

well, yeah! I mean, you wanna characterize that as an unsophisticated stance, I guess but when literally none of the writers seem to know anything about guitar, it's hard to think of the list in any serious way - the list might be called "list of 100 people we wish to associate ourselves with publicly," because in 100 entries about guitarists (or, in one case, a guy who samples guitarits), there literally won't be on non-impressionistic description of somebody's playing. To write about who's the best guitarist, some credential beyond "I'm good at creative writing" sorta oughta go with the territory - you're talking about a technical skill, playing guitar, so "write about how the people play guitar and what makes their playing distinctive or innovative" hardly seems like a big muso demand.