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Rolling Stone ought to roll off a cliff.

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A few days ago, I stumbled upon the issue of Rolling Stone with the Top 100 guitarists, and, before I say that Billy Corgan ought to be on there, 90% of the guitarists there should have been there. But, what disturbed me the most was the inclusion of The Edge and Kurt Cobain. Really, does The Edge play guitar that well? And, where the heck were Johnny Marr and Porl Thomspon; they could have taken the place of the Edge - a mediocre player with a hilariously bad name. The inclusion of Cobain, I expected, although he could only play about 4 chords and was known more for his lyrics than his guitar playing. Guitar-wise, Gish was a stronger album by SP, but obviously, no one at Rolling Stone has listened to it. Now, I can bet if they did a list of the 100 best bass players, they'd forget Hooky completely, put Simon Gallup toward the end, and say that Paul McCartney was the best bass player of all time.

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Agree :nod:

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Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you and say that Paul McCartney was the best bass player of all time.

You're going to give me nightmares :(, I never want to hear that name ever again

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Originally posted by The Governator > Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you> > and say that Paul McCartney was the best bass player of all time.

You're going to give me nightmares :(, I never want to hear that name ever again

Paul McCartney is dead since the 60's, don't you know??? :laugh:

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Originally posted by Server Error in "/" Application > Originally posted by The Governator > Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you> > and say that Paul McCartney was the best bass player of all time.

You're going to give me nightmares :(, I never want to hear that name ever again

Paul McCartney is dead since the 60's, don't you know??? :laugh: But i keep seeing this man who looks like him who has almost 800 million dollars to his name and plays crappy, expensive gigs to white upper middle class people, and he made money off of 9/11 :nonono:

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Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you A few days ago, I stumbled upon the issue of Rolling Stone with the Top 100 guitarists, and, before I say that Billy Corgan ought to be on there, 90% of the guitarists there should have been there. But, what disturbed me the most was the inclusion of The Edge and Kurt Cobain. Really, does The Edge play guitar that well? And, where the heck were Johnny Marr and Porl Thomspon; they could have taken the place of the Edge - a mediocre player with a hilariously bad name. The inclusion of Cobain, I expected, although he could only play about 4 chords and was known more for his lyrics than his guitar playing. Guitar-wise, Gish was a stronger album by SP, but obviously, no one at Rolling Stone has listened to it.Now, I can bet if they did a list of the 100 best bass players, they'd forget Hooky completely, put Simon Gallup toward the end, and say that Paul McCartney was the best bass player of all time.

i got to take an issue with this post, sorry.

yeah, kurt cobain wasn't a talented guitarist and he blatantly ripped off Killing Joke on 'come as you are.' but, thier reasoning is he probably is influential to many a guitarist---that i can totally see---thus his inclusion is justified. and The Edge, i find U2 to be unendurable and he has milked the same riffs for 20 some years, but they are interesting and better than most "chugging" power chord riffing. which is most rock bands, anywho.

but billy corgan? why should he be included? solid riffs and some fine songs (back in the day). ok, fine, actually he probably should be on that list.

but, really, these rolling stone lists prove absolutely nothing.

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Originally posted by twist What about Bob?? How was Robert Smith ranked?

Considering Porl wasn't even on there, do you expect Robert to be?

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Originally posted by Grell > Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you> A few days ago, I stumbled upon the issue of Rolling Stone with the Top 100 guitarists, and, before I say that Billy Corgan ought to be on there, 90% of the guitarists there should have been there. But, what disturbed me the most was the inclusion of The Edge and Kurt Cobain. Really, does The Edge play guitar that well? And, where the heck were Johnny Marr and Porl Thomspon; they could have taken the place of the Edge - a mediocre player with a hilariously bad name. The inclusion of Cobain, I expected, although he could only play about 4 chords and was known more for his lyrics than his guitar playing. Guitar-wise, Gish was a stronger album by SP, but obviously, no one at Rolling Stone has listened to it.> Now, I can bet if they did a list of the 100 best bass players, they'd forget Hooky completely, put Simon Gallup toward the end, and say that Paul McCartney was the best bass player of all time.

i got to take an issue with this post, sorry.

yeah, kurt cobain wasn't a talented guitarist and he blatantly ripped off Killing Joke on 'come as you are.' but, thier reasoning is he probably is influential to many a guitarist---that i can totally see---thus his inclusion is justified. and The Edge, i find U2 to be unendurable and he has milked the same riffs for 20 some years, but they are interesting and better than most "chugging" power chord riffing. which is most rock bands, anywho.

but billy corgan? why should he be included? solid riffs and some fine songs (back in the day). ok, fine, actually he probably should be on that list.

but, really, these rolling stone lists prove absolutely nothing. Actually, really, both Corgan and Cobain probably shouldn't be on there, but if they had to pick a guitarist from the "Grunge" era of rock, I think Corgan would've been a better choice, although the later pumpkins albums, in which James Iha actually plays, kind of overshadowed his earlier solos. Also, I remember a list, not in Rolling Stone, of some of the greatest guitar solos ever, and the intro to "Smells like Teen Spirit" - can it really be considered a solo - was ranked higher above the guitar solo in "Geek USA" from SP's Siamese dream. While the solos from "Bury Me" or "I am one," would've been better choices, I was still irked that a thrashing around of a few chords overshadowed something that actually seemed like a solo. Of course, the "Smells like teen spirit" solo was ranked fairly high, above other reputable guitarists's solos. But I don't really remember who, since this was back in '98, and I was a strict Pumpkins fan then.

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I had to take issue with Pete Townshend's low ranking (number 50, I believe) - when I think of "rock gods" I always think of Pete crashing his guitar into the stage, the drumkit, anything to burst it apart. I guess the whole "kiddie porn" thing kept RS from doing justice to the 3rd-best guitarist of all time (behind Hendrix and Clapton). :guitar:

I skimmed through the list myself, a whole lot of "usual suspects" and some "newer inclusions" that most "Hip" magazine lists aim for. Note to RS: Quit hyping the teeny-bopper shit. Were the Carpenters ever on the cover? Probably not, so why put Britney et al on the cover multiple times? Get back to rock journalism, you pucks!:nod:

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Originally posted by Grell > Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you> A few days ago, I stumbled upon the issue of Rolling Stone with the Top 100 guitarists, and, before I say that Billy Corgan ought to be on there, 90% of the guitarists there should have been there. But, what disturbed me the most was the inclusion of The Edge and Kurt Cobain. Really, does The Edge play guitar that well? And, where the heck were Johnny Marr and Porl Thomspon; they could have taken the place of the Edge - a mediocre player with a hilariously bad name. The inclusion of Cobain, I expected, although he could only play about 4 chords and was known more for his lyrics than his guitar playing. Guitar-wise, Gish was a stronger album by SP, but obviously, no one at Rolling Stone has listened to it.> Now, I can bet if they did a list of the 100 best bass players, they'd forget Hooky completely, put Simon Gallup toward the end, and say that Paul McCartney was the best bass player of all time.

i got to take an issue with this post, sorry.

yeah, kurt cobain wasn't a talented guitarist and he blatantly ripped off Killing Joke on 'come as you are.' but, thier reasoning is he probably is influential to many a guitarist---that i can totally see---thus his inclusion is justified. and The Edge, i find U2 to be unendurable and he has milked the same riffs for 20 some years, but they are interesting and better than most "chugging" power chord riffing. which is most rock bands, anywho.

but billy corgan? why should he be included? solid riffs and some fine songs (back in the day). ok, fine, actually he probably should be on that list.

but, really, these rolling stone lists prove absolutely nothing.

two points i agree on:

  1. the edge has a guitar style all his own, though it gets overdone. but you are right, he should be on that list. how overdone is the power-chord chug? 100's of bands of been doing since... well f*ck, it has been too long.

  2. RS lists are as useless as the gloss used to cover the pages of the mag. when the upper-end of the "bands of the millenium" list include Brittney Spears, and the backstreet sissies, you have to ask yourselves "how do these 'bands' compare to Louis Armstrong, Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, and NO/JD? have they accomplished anything besides getting their faces on the side of the paper cups from McDonalds?"

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Interesting that we're discussing the obvious failings of RS, because I was reading Elvis Costello's essay for the rereleased Get Happy in which he blasts the magazine pretty good in a quote that says it all. I'll try and post it here sometime this weekend (the old computer seems to be fucking up occasionally, so I might not be heard from depending on my luck....but don't start celebrating just yet :D )

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Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you > Originally posted by Grell> > > > Originally posted by Androgynous kid with a camera that follows you>

i got to take an issue with this post, sorry.

yeah, kurt cobain wasn't a talented guitarist and he blatantly ripped off Killing Joke on 'come as you are.' but, thier reasoning is he probably is influential to many a guitarist---that i can totally see---thus his inclusion is justified. and The Edge, i find U2 to be unendurable and he has milked the same riffs for 20 some years, but they are interesting and better than most "chugging" power chord riffing. which is most rock bands, anywho.

but billy corgan? why should he be included? solid riffs and some fine songs (back in the day). ok, fine, actually he probably should be on that list.

but, really, these rolling stone lists prove absolutely nothing. Actually, really, both Corgan and Cobain probably shouldn't be on there, but if they had to pick a guitarist from the "Grunge" era of rock, I think Corgan would've been a better choice, although the later pumpkins albums, in which James Iha actually plays, kind of overshadowed his earlier solos. Also, I remember a list, not in Rolling Stone, of some of the greatest guitar solos ever, and the intro to "Smells like Teen Spirit" - can it really be considered a solo - was ranked higher above the guitar solo in "Geek USA" from SP's Siamese dream. While the solos from "Bury Me" or "I am one," would've been better choices, I was still irked that a thrashing around of a few chords overshadowed something that actually seemed like a solo. Of course, the "Smells like teen spirit" solo was ranked fairly high, above other reputable guitarists's solos. But I don't really remember who, since this was back in '98, and I was a strict Pumpkins fan then.

yeah, did cobain really have any solos? i thought it was just some trashings...

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He had small solos, but they were really mostly "thrashings". It's pretty obvious on the live album "From the muddy banks of the wishkah" that the solos aren't done well. In fact, the bass player, krist novoselic, who pretty much disappeared after Nirvana ended, had better bass lines than Cobain's guitar lines.

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and that, sir, is saying quite a lot! :laugh:

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Just stole the complete list of top 100 guitarists according to Rolling Stone from another forum.

1 Jimi Hendrix 2 Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band 3 B.B. King 4 Eric Clapton 5 Robert Johnson 6 Chuck Berry 7 Stevie Ray Vaughan 8 Ry Cooder 9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin 10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones 11 Kirk Hammett of Metallica 12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana 13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead 14 Jeff Beck 15 Carlos Santana 16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones 17 Jack White of the White Stripes 18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers 19 Richard Thompson 20 James Burton 21 George Harrison 22 Mike Bloomfield 23 Warren Haynes 24 The Edge of U2 25 Freddy King 26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave 27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits 28 Stephen Stills 29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges 30 Buddy Guy 31 Dick Dale 32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service 33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth 35 John Fahey 36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's 37 Bo Diddley 38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac 39 Brian May of Qeen 40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival 41 Clarence White of the Byrds 42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson 43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic 44 Scotty Moore 45 Frank Zappa 46 Les Paul 47 T-Bone Walker 48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith 49 John McLaughlin 50 Pete Townshend 51 Paul Kossoff of Free 52 Lou Reed 53 Mickey Baker 54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane 55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple 56 Tom Verlaine of Television 57 Roy Buchanan 58 Dickey Betts 59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead 61 Ike Turner 62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band 63 Danny Gatton 64 Mick Ronson 65 Hubert Sumlin 66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour 67 Link Wray 68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape 69 Steve Howe of Yes 70 Eddie Van Halen 71 Lightnin' Hopkins 72 Joni Mitchell 73 Trey Anastasio of Phish 74 Johnny Winter 75 Adam Jones of Tool 76 Ali Farka Toure 77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat 78 Robbie Robertson of the Band 79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps 80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids 81 Derek Trucks 82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd 83 Neil Young 84 Eddie Cochran 85 Randy Rhoads 86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath 87 Joan Jett 88 Dave Davies of the Kinks 89 D. Boon of the Minutemen 90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper 91 Robby Krieger of the Doors 92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5 94 Bert Jansch 95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine 96 Angus Young of AC/DC 97 Robert Randolph 98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer 99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag 100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Where's Andy Gill of Gang Of Four? This list definitely is NOT to be taken seriously.

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Alot of overrated shit in that list. Kurt C better than Jerry Garcia?? Christ, Kurt was rated higher than Sonic Youth. Who is shooting smack now?? Joan Jett--affirmative action for you.

Rolling Stone sucks and has sucked for decades.:thumbdown:

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17 Jack White of the White Stripes ?

What the....? How did this joker get to be ahead of Pete FREAKIN' TOWNSHEND? :nuts:

Yep, RS is dead, long live Tiger Beat Version 2.0 :nonono:

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Originally posted by Taboo # 7 17 Jack White of the White Stripes ?

What the....? How did this joker get to be ahead of Pete FREAKIN' TOWNSHEND? :nuts:

Yep, RS is dead, long live Tiger Beat Version 2.0 :nonono:

:clap: what was wrong with Tiger Beat, so innocent, so stylish

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Originally posted by Taboo # 7 17 Jack White of the White Stripes ?

What the....? How did this joker get to be ahead of Pete FREAKIN' TOWNSHEND? :nuts:

Yep, RS is dead, long live Tiger Beat Version 2.0 :nonono:

Or Johnny Marr. Or even Barney, for that matter.

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Rolling Stone is a crap mag, it should have folded years ago.

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Originally posted by Buffer Low Rolling Stone is a crap mag, it should have folded years ago.

Indeed, although in the early '90s, it did do a few decent articles on Smashing Pumpkins. But, crap mags continue to exist, and that's why millions of 15 year-olds buy Circus - a crap mag if there ever was one - once a month.

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Case in point as to how crappy magazines are: A while back, a new magazine called "Revolver" premiered, and for the first few issues it featured great articles on The Who, Jim Morrison, and even featured Ian Curtis' grave in a "cemetary tour" of rock landmarks:thumb:......then, somewhere around the fifth or sixth issue, the editors suddenly decided they needed to go after the "angry-suburban-white-guy-who-listens-to-Marylin Manson" subculture, and now the crap mag features almost all the flash-in-the-pan "hardcore" groups you can imagine, with the stupid proclaimation of being the world's "loudest rock magazine" :nonono:

RS should've folded the minute they put Britney on the cover for the first time (pre-boob job). About the only thing that's worth reading is usually the movie reviews...

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Originally posted by Taboo # 7 Case in point as to how crappy magazines are: A while back, a new magazine called "Revolver" premiered, and for the first few issues it featured great articles on The Who, Jim Morrison, and even featured Ian Curtis' grave in a "cemetary tour" of rock landmarks:thumb:......then, somewhere around the fifth or sixth issue, the editors suddenly decided they needed to go after the "angry-suburban-white-guy-who-listens-to-Marylin Manson" subculture, and now the crap mag features almost all the flash-in-the-pan "hardcore" groups you can imagine, with the stupid proclaimation of being the world's "loudest rock magazine" :nonono:RS should've folded the minute they put Britney on the cover for the first time (pre-boob job). About the only thing that's worth reading is usually the movie reviews...

They did write a good review of Zwan's album and New Order's "Get Ready," although they gave Britney's second album a higher rating than PSB's "Nigh Life".:eek:

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i recall a few years ago they ranked Unknown Pleasures in the Top 50 College Albums, whatever that means.

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Originally posted by His Holiness, The Pope i recall a few years ago they ranked Unknown Pleasures in the Top 50 College Albums, whatever that means.

college albums = lots of indie-rawk? thats always been my assumption.

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Originally posted by Grell > Originally posted by His Holiness, The Pope> i recall a few years ago they ranked Unknown Pleasures in the Top 50 College Albums, whatever that means.

college albums = lots of indie-rawk? thats always been my assumption. yes, that seems to be the case. pity most of that indie rock is piss-boring shite.

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Originally posted by One Brain 89 D. Boon of the Minutemen

This is a travesty - I reckon Merv Hughes was a much better guitarist

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Neil Young way below Steven Stills???

No Johnny Marr?

No Nick Drake or did I miss him?

The Edge is pretty distinctive but if he's there the unpretentious people he stole from ought to be too: Andy Gill of Gang of Four and our Barney.

Yes, RS is a joke now. They had devolved over the years into covering mostly macho and teenybopper crap and putting naked women on every second cover. Then they made a conscious, specific decision to dumb down in a big way all at once a couple years ago. No more articles over two pages long, for instance. It's not recognizable as the magazine it was in the 70s or early 80s. But even back then, they barely covered the important music.

You can follow the magazine's progression by looking at their picks in lists like this.

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Originally posted by His Holiness, The Pope i recall a few years ago they ranked Unknown Pleasures in the Top 50 College Albums, whatever that means.

They ranked Love Will Tear Us Apart as the second best music in all times, loosing only to Starway to Heaven.

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