Go to rollingstone.com/greatestguitarist and add a post for Prince. THere is no way a list that includes Joan Jett should not have Prince on it. I heard the argument that the real Prince guitar work is not on record - what the hell has Joan Jett done? WHen was the last time you heard someone says, "man, did you hear that riff from Joan?"

And how the hell is Van Halen way down at 70 and a loser like Ike Turner at 61? No way is Santana only 16 while Kurt Cobain at 12.

I will acknowledge the fact that they included Vernon Reid from the seriously underrated category that Jesse Johnson rules: kick ass black guitarists that get ignored because their black.

LaMont said:

Pretty fucked up list.. thats for sure. and I dont believe its because PRince isnt on the list.. I really admit he should, but its the line up and order in which that list is presented.. just shitty.

I flipped through that magazine the other day and I was pissed. I agree with you both. Prince should be on that list and the whole list is fucked up. K Cobain ain't even in the same building with Carlos, Prince etc. People say that I don't know much about guitaring because I have Prince as a top 5 guitarists, but I know this much, I am a huge admirer of Jimi Hendrix Santana and Page, and no one can tell me that he is that far behind from any of them. Hell he probably plays Santana better than Santana. And his version of Whole Lotta Love is fuckin' great. If K Cobain is really no#12 of All Time, then what FUCK should Prince be? Top 2 Definetly, K Cobain could touch Prince with a Infinity foot poll.

camille2002 said:

excuse, he could'NT touch Prince with AN Infinity foot poll.

Who still reads - or gives a flying fuck - what Rolling Stone has to say about anything?

Least of all, music.

What an asswipe magazine.

herb4 said:

True. THeir credibility has decreased exponentially with the quality of popular music

Yeah ... Prince in the top-10 ...
and it will really be hilarious if they print a photo of Prince with his symbol-guitar on the same page!

Our great rockstar!

You really can't understand the public opinion, do you?


Kurt made history with three chords ...
and anybody who made history should be on that list!

greatest?

they
probably
meant
most
popular

It's a testament to the complete and utter incompetence of Rolling Stone. Guitar mags are not much better. Vernon Reid is a great player, but I do sense that he's always included for being a great black guitarist who played in a black ROCK band, so at least they can appear non-racist while at the same time staying savely within their boundaries.

I'm also sick of the way they pretend funk guitar began and started with Jimmy Nolen. Just as often on those JB classics, you're hearing Alphonso 'country' Kellum or Phelps 'Catfish' Collins (didn't stay with JB long but contributed some of the greatest riffs), but someone once wrote about Nolen so now he's lazily included as the token funk player in any list. Just like Eddie Hazel is the only p-funk player who ever gets any attention because well he died and the others didn't. And where the f*ck are Nocentelli, Troutman, and Bonner in those lists?

Kurt Cobain made history by ripping off the Pixies and selling out, first killing off underground music by turning it into commercial grunge and then committing suicide. I truly don't see how that places you on a greatest guitarists list.

Ok, end of rant. I think I'll lie down for a minute now.

LaMont said:

Arguments like this are so inflammatory and stupid. Who was #1 on the list? Jimi. Because he was black? Of course not. Who else was in the top 10? Chuck Berry and Robert Johnson. Because of their race? Hell no. Include Bo Diddley, Eddie Hazel, Freddie King, BB King, Vernon Reid and Ike Turner, and you've got a great list of trailblazers and incredible players. Could there have been more blacks? Sure. Prince, for one. Jesse? Not even close. But there are plenty of guitarists out there, of all races, who were not included. Remember, music is colorblind.

WTH ARE THEY THINKING!!!

I started a link in the non-prince forum when this list came out.

Rolling Stone is a part of the mass media machine for the sheep and their opinion means nothing to me and everyone else that knows better. The list is missing so many names, I'm over it now.

I don´t mind that fucking list since ROLLING STONE IS NOT INCLUDED IN MY LIST OF THE 100 GREATEST MUSIC MAGAZINES.

MrHappy said:

Rolling Stone's "list" is a popularity contest. Any list that doesn't list BB King as the greatest guitarist of all time can kiss my ass.

Prince is the greatest to me, that's all that matters.

But fuck Rolling Stone in their stupid asses anyway.

JC said:

yeh RS is only a popularity contest.
i dunno why people even care what
RS print in their spew-inducing rag

papabeat said:

Well if you were smart enough to get the contemporary reference that I was making, you would realize the rock music and rock guitar in particular has been considered a white thing since Hendrix. Hendrix is no 1 because its undeniable. Chuck Berry is high because he invented rock guitar. Rock music IS black music. Black people invented it. Yet, we still only have exceptions like Prince or Lenny Kravitz that will be considered rock artists or rock guitarists. We still have so called rock stations that wont play any black artists other than Lenny. Ask Vernon Reid of Living Colour how hard it was to get signed as a black rock group. Rock music has been segregated into a white boy club since the 70s (since Hendrix died). Look at MTV - they would play black artist at all when they started in the early 80s. They answered protests by saying that their format was rock but then played white artists that were not doing rock (George Micheal, Madonna, Boy Geroge). THere top artist were white artists doing the same music that some of their black counterparts were doing. THere is no way that someone as large as Rick James was then should not have been on MTV - but he was too black.

Every thing in this world is effected by race wether you like it or not. Refusing to recognize that fact is where we have problems. We learn from history. But we first have to know it. Read a book.

take it from a guitarist, thats the worst attempt at creating a greatest guitarist list Ive ever seen.

Javier said:

Ok, first at all is impossible to choose 100 guitarist because thera aren't a clear argument. The guitarist who plays fast, the one who has composed the best solos, who is able to play with feeling?
It's said that Prince plays like Santana, Hendirx or others, but I think that this is untrue, he is a very original guitarist, and the prove is that when you hear a lot of songs of funky bands you think (wow, it sounds like Prince!).
But, if it's necessary to have one "classic"song, Prince has "Purple Rain" (recognized for everything, for example it has been covered by John Petrucci), or even "Peach", "Kiss" (rhythm guitar) and more. If we talk about to play fast, we have songs like "Joy in repetition" in One Nite Alone, but songs in albums like "Let's Go Crazy", "When Doves Cry", "Live 4 Love", "3 chains o' gold", "THe Holy River" and so on.
If we talk about playing with feeling we have "The Question Of you", "I hate you", "Sign O' the times", etc.

And of course, he has innovated all the time with the sounds, the effects and a lot of things.

If all these thins aren't enough, then we have to think that this list is a big shit.

But, at last, who can mesure one guitarist's ability?

well first of all, nowadays, "100 greatest (fil in the blank) of all time" are basicly popularity contests.

This magazine has lost their credibility years ago. Remember, they featured the olsen twins on their cover, don't take this list so seriously.

and as far as the whole race thing goes, yes, in many cases race is an issue, but ot neccesarily in this case. Jesse wasn't featured on there 'cause he isn't well known. Go up to your average joe and ask who jesse johnson is, then ask the same person who someone on the list is (anyone, black or white) and compare the responses.
It's a popularity contest, not all the greats are popular, they didn't include jesse 'cause he isn't well known.

It still vexes me why people pay attention to these lists

Actually, God has cast his vote
and God says that Prince is Number One.

It is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of the truth, and whether you happen to know it or not is irrelevant.

All of you relativists, vulgar historians, statisticians, and perspectivists,
do not know what art is.
The crowd is untruth.

Prince is the greatest.
And I am so glad and blessed to know and experience this truth.

LaMont said:

Ah, yes, the 'black people invented rock' argument. It's an amusing rhetoric, but it has no basis in reality. Given that music is organic, and always morphing out of past influence, can Chuck Berry get credit when his blueprints were country and folk tunes? Or when some of the earliest rock songs from the Coasters and the Drifters were written by Lieber and Stoller, two white guys? Or what about Buddy Holly? Or even Ritchie Valens, a Latino? Or Elvis? Or Sam Phillips? The Chess Brothers? Allen Freed? Music is too varied and wild that to claim ownership is the province of fools. Especially by claiming that one race invented rock and roll - it evolved into what it is based on many different origins.


Ask Vernon Reid to write a decent song or to play a guitar solo that doesn't sound like shit. Further, ask him not to marginalize black rock artists by forming the 'Black Rock Coalition.' Tom Morello didn't need that - he just played the fuck out of his guitar, and didn't bother to harp on his race.


Maybe MTV was playing to its largest audience - people who had cable. I don't have the numbers, but I would guess that there were more white middle class households then black middle class housholds in the early 80s with cable tv. As such, MTV chose to broadcast to the larger audience. Does that make it a crime that they didn't air a played out chump like Rick James? No. They made their move when artists that appealed to their audience came about, namely Michael Jackson and Prince. Is it fair? Who cares? MTV thought they could make more money airing Duran Duran videos, there's no crime in that.


Are you sure you're a Prince fan? Do you even remember the Revolution? The whole point was that race, gender, sexuality didn't matter. "White, Black, Puerto Rican, everybody just a freakin"


I suggest you take your own advice.

Interesting discussion y'all are having on this thread.With regards to the MTV thing,former MTV veejay Nina Blackwood recently did an interview with Wave magazine,and she addressed this very issue.




Wave magazine: In the early days,MTV was criticized for not playing black artists.Do you think that was a valid criticism?

Nina: "That was overblown.MTV really started off as a "rock and roll" channel.So,we were playing music that was on FM radio rock stations,for the most part.Of course,it did move into pop.This had nothing to do with MTV,but there were not alot of black rock and roll artists.I mean,there really were none.I remember running into Rick James once because we had the same agent.I ran into him in Hollywood and he was so upset.But his funky stuff didn't fit into the format.It was never a question of race".

Of course,Nina Blackwood got it all wrong.The early days of MTV showed alot of "New Wave" videos and in the early 80s,many Black artists were branching out and doing that kind of music too...


"Super Freak" by Rick James (1981)
"Alligator Woman" by Cameo (1982)
"The Wanderer" by Donna Summer (1980)
"Controversy" by Prince (1981)
"Dirty Mind" by Prince (1980)


In summer 1983,MTV began airing a new Robert Palmer video called "You Are In My System".But they never bothered to play the original version of that song,recorded by The System only months earlier.Hmmm...

Why should we care wheter Prince is on the list or not?

The list is crap, ignore it and listen to Just my magination on the Small club- boot. Nough said...

this cat reads rolling stone and expects relevance out of it...

NOt only should Prince have been on the list (in the top 25 at least), where was Ace Frehley from KISS? He was very influencial and considered to be huge by their fans.

Also, was the guitarist for Cheap Trick (Rick Neilson?) on the list? I always thought he was amazing and fun and alot of bands site them as their influence.

Having the olson twins on the face of your magazine doesn't disqualify you from being able to judge. I think I could judge very well and I'd love to have the olsen twins on my face.

There isn't even Nile Rodgers on that silly list