I was poking around Digg today and I came across a Rolling Stone article titled, “The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.” Some items on the list made sense and others made me wonder, “What the hell were they thinking?” Here’s the top 6:
“Johnny B. Goode” - This I can agree with. As soon as you hear that intro guitar solo, you know what song it is. The guitar makes the song, not the lyrics or singing. You could argue that this was the first “guitar song.”
“Purple Haze” - Classic Jimmy Hendrix, I can’t argue with this.
“Crossroads” - No familiar with the song as much as others so I won’t “yay” or “nay” this. But it’s Eric Clapton so I’m thinking that it’s probably a pretty good choice.
“You Really Got Me” - I can see why they chose this because it has great groove that is instantly recognizable. I prefer the Van Halen version instead of the Kinks, however.
“Brown Sugar” - Like “You Really Got Me” I can see the choice but I wouldn’t consider it a top 5 guitar song of all time.
“Eruption” - I had to include this because this is the song by the man that inspired me to learn the guitar. Eddie Van Halen transcended guitar throughout the 80’s and “Eruption” was his calling card. Easily, should be 3 or 4 on this list, at least.
I won’t go through the complete list but many songs seemed to be chosen because of popularity instead of how it influenced guitar. I agree with some choices but cannot believe some of the choices on the list. Most notably, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which was rated at #10.
What!!!!!
OK, I get it. This song spoke to a lot of people and many loved/loves the mysteriousness of Kurt Cobain but a top 10 guitar song of all time? I don’t think so. Nirvana has it’s place in music history but this isn’t the list.
Anyway…..
I’ve seen this before. From sports, movies to music there will always be controversy/disagreements in these types of lists. Who knows? Maybe Rolling Stone did this to create a buzz on the article. If so, then it worked. I have a piece of advice for Rolling Stone, create a “Top 100 Guitarists of All Time” list and put that eight year old kid who got a perfect on Dragon Force in expert mode on Guitar Hero at #10. That should generate some buzz.
I started Guitar Musings because I have a passion for music that I wanted to share to all that are willing to read. I know and appreciate that I can write pretty much anything I want with the knowledge that I will not be hauled away to jail for writing something not approved by the government. Therefore, I want to dedicate this post to fellow Bloggers in China who are risking far more than embarrassment or a reputation in posting their passion. Truly humbling and inspiring!
Links:
YouTube Video on Chinese Blogger Jailed for blogging criticisms against his government.
Been working on Tommy Emmanuel’s Dixie MacGuire for some time and thought I finally had it performance ready. So much so, I’m attempting to record it and post on YouTube, thinking I would give this Internet performance thing a try. Anyway, two tries and and an hour and a half later, I find out that I don’t know the song as well as I thought. If you read my last post on learning a song, you will see that I’m stuck on step 3. This setback is a bit frustrating but I think these past two recording sessions have also been very productive. With the camera on me, I have to focus a bit more and those little mistakes I ignored earlier can’t escape the camera and I must bite the bullet and work it out. It’s making me a better player but I’m impatient and want to get something worth posting. Hopefully soon so keep an eye out for me YouTube debut!
Sidenote: If you are Posting to YouTube, what are you using to record? I’m using the Flip Video portable video recorder. It’s a solid unit for a starter but will want to upgrade sometime because I would like plug in a microphone.
Have you seen the YouTube Guitar Hero clips where some kid is playing Dragon Force on expert mode, with no errors and wonder how good they would be if they actually practiced a real guitar instead of playing some wannabe video game. According to Gizmodo.com, we might have an answer to that question. The program is called Guitar Rising and apparently you can plug in any electric guitar and play. I looks as if it works similar to guitar hero except your actually playing the guitar. It starts out with learning the basics of the guitar and progresses to much harder levels. Does this mean, there will be a guitarist in the future that says his/her influences were Vai, Satriani, Emmanuel, and Guitar Rising?
Have you had one of those days where no matter what you do, the guitar will not cooperate? Of course you have! Well, I’m pretty sure today is my turn. Here’s the deal; my guitar won’t stay in tune, my 9 volt went dead and my left and right hands have decided not to cooperate with each other. I know these things happen and I shouldn’t get frustrated but I am. I’ve been advised by many that when this happens, it’s time to put the guitar down and walk away and play another day. So, as I write this, the guitar is sitting on it’s stand, put to bed, mocking me. Must resist the urge to pick it up…..
