100 Greatest Rock Guitarists

Rolling Stone magazine is out with a list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists.  I saw the issue in the 7-11 the other day, but I bought some beer instead.  Listology is a site I have not explored, but I think I should.  Here's some commentary somebody posted on the 100 guitarist list, and I expect it may be at least as interesting as whatever Rolling Stone had to say.

I agree with the commentator that Rolling Stone put Kurt Cobain too high and put Eddie Van Halen too low.  It's a list of best guitarists, not a list of which band put out more schlock.  I was a little disappointed that the commentator didn't have more to say about Link Wray at #67.  I think that's too low.  I also agree that David Gilmour is too low at #82.

It's interesting that Greg Ginn and D. Boon make the list, but Bob Mould does not.  This was not noticed by the commentator, who did not know who D. Boon was.  I think it's quite magnanimous of me, really, to be saying so many nice things about a commentator who doesn't know D. Boon, but indie credibility is pretty unimportant for evaluating a list of rock guitarists.  I could make a case for Nick Salamon (Bevis Frond) being on the list or maybe Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo) or Doug Martsch (Built to Spill), but I don't feel all that strongly about it.  Fred Frith and Gary Lucas should both be there, but you can't fault a mainstream publication for ignoring the avant-garde.

Oops - just did a bit more exploring and I find that the commentary on listology is from 2003.  The new 2011 Rolling Stone list appears to be pretty different from the 2003 list.  I'll need to come back to this with more commentary later.