Screw you and your slideshows.

If Frampton's DO YOU FEEL LIKE WE DO ain't there, this list ain't sheeet

You, my friend, have never partaken of a little known musical entity known as Rapeman.

Johnny B. Goode? Really? What a useless song. It may have been near the first but it is nowhere near the greatest.

I dunno, man. I click on the link and see "Page 1 of 40," and I just don't have the heart to muddle through it.

It's not that music has gotten worse.

It's that what's gotten POPULAR has gotten worse.

I am not clicking through 40 pages.

I thought Johnny B Goode was first played by Calvin Klein in Hill Valley, California in 1955.

This article also proves I won't click through more than 3 pages.

7of7: Johnny B. Goode? Really? What a useless song. It may have been near the first but it is nowhere near the greatest.

Without it, most of the other songs would never have happened. There are a lot of Stones songs on that list, and as we all know, Keith Richards is nothing more than a Chuck Berry-Wannabe. He has spent his entire career ripping-off Chuck.

JerseyTim: I thought Johnny B Goode was first played by Calvin Klein in Hill Valley, California in 1955.

He should have stuck to more mellow fare, like Earth Angel.

CHUCK! CHUCK! IT'S YOUR COUSIN MARVIN... MARVIN BERRY! YOU KNOW THAT NEW SOUND YOU'RE LOOKIN' FOR? WELL LISTEN TO THIS!

Confabulat: It's not that music has gotten worse.

It's that what's gotten POPULAR has gotten worse.

Sort of, but the way I see it, music in general hasn't gotten either better or worse. It's still the same ratio of 10 percent good stuff and 90 percent crap that we've always had.

What's happened is that starting in the mid-to-late 70's, the major record companies started getting more conservative regarding the music they were willing to release. In the last 30 years the trend has not only continued, but has gotten stronger. So the good stuff is now just a little harder to find.

unremarkable asterisk: 7of7: Johnny B. Goode? Really? What a useless song. It may have been near the first but it is nowhere near the greatest.

Without it, most of the other songs would never have happened. There are a lot of Stones songs on that list, and as we all know, Keith Richards is nothing more than a Chuck Berry-Wannabe. He has spent his entire career ripping-off Chuck.

Easy, I don't think he recognizes any music prior to Linkin Park.

Rolling Stone editors want you to stay off their lawns.

Two Dogs Farking: Rolling Stone editors want you to stay off their lawns.

This is essentially the crux of Rolling Stones' editorial mission. While a certain fondness for the music of your childhood is certainly going to bleed through, it seems that Rolling Stone is hellbent on ignoring the fact that music happened after the single for Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" was released.

god, they really nailed it! OF COURSE kurt cobain should come in higher than jimmy page. wanking stone: another arbitrary list.

7of7: Johnny B. Goode? Really? What a useless song. It may have been near the first but it is nowhere near the greatest.

The Judas Priest version is better.

clicking through 40! pages?? Fark that.

Outlaws 'Green Grass and High Tides' FTW

John Buck 41
Outlaws 'Green Grass and High Tides' FTW


Back in the 70's I was stoned and listening to that album-the record had a big scratch in it but I couldn't tell if it kept repeating or not or if it was just me! (Me in the 70's was roughly similar to Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High).
Good thing I had my Cheetos to comfort me. 3 hours later I finally turned it off.

Every decade the corporate music Moloch consumes more of its own tail. Eventually it's going to disappear up its own asshole.

There's still lots of great music out there...you just don't hear it on the radio any more.

Secret Agent X23: Sort of, but the way I see it, music in general hasn't gotten either better or worse. It's still the same ratio of 10 percent good stuff and 90 percent crap that we've always had.

I've said this many times, every kind of music has some "good" songs and a lot of each kind is crap. companies don't want to sign a band/artist who can't sell 5 million of each album and few can actually do that. there is a market for people who can sell a solid 500k if they can get it out there.

How about... nostalgia > quality for most music fans, including you subby.

Most of "Teen Spirit" came easy, The Pixies wrote it

FTFY

Because guitars are the only instrument that matters in music, right? fark you subby.

Well, I like rock ok, but the title should have said "100 greatest rock guitar . . ." because there are so many good guitar songs out there that are not rock. In the world of guitars (been playing daily, generally 1-2 hours for 44 years (I'm 57) rock guitarists are the step children. None of these songs is particularly well constructed musically - they are simple and boring. When I was in college I had the wonderful opportunity to jam with Muddy Waters - my life has been dull since then.

I have a hard time considering "Eruption" a song.

With that said, the 70's were the best for guitars. AC/DC, The Ramones, Television, Neil Young, Van Halen, ZZ Top and more, all playing new and interesting stuff.

/ But that doesn't mean I don't love Velvet Underground, the Stooges, MC5, Jimi Hendrix, and Chuck Berry.

If you want to see the whole list on one page click the print button.

Nice to have them link to performances of most of the songs.

I was happy to see one Neil Young and Crazy Horse tune on there [#17]. Though I tend to think Like A Hurricane had superior guitar work to Cowgirl In The Sand, especially in terms of epic soloing deliciousness.

dhudd: Well, I like rock ok, but the title should have said "100 greatest rock guitar . . ." because there are so many good guitar songs out there that are not rock. In the world of guitars (been playing daily, generally 1-2 hours for 44 years (I'm 57) rock guitarists are the step children. None of these songs is particularly well constructed musically - they are simple and boring. When I was in college I had the wonderful opportunity to jam with Muddy Waters - my life has been dull since then.

Wow. I can't even imagine how cool that would be.

Confabulat: It's not that music has gotten worse.

It's that what's gotten POPULAR has gotten worse.

Yes, this * 10²³

I can find tons of good new music, it just isn't played on the radio like it was in the 60s and 70s.

I can appreciate they put Black Sabbath (#17) and Frank Zappa (# 60 something)...

BUT WHERE THE FARK IS DEEP PURPLE "SMOKE ON THE WATER"?

/list is teh fail!

musicky: Because guitars are the only instrument that matters in music, right? fark you subby.

Alrighty. How about we start a list of the 100 best Mellotron songs of all time?

zappaisfrank: BUT WHERE THE FARK IS DEEP PURPLE "SMOKE ON THE WATER"?

Isn't that the song everyone plays the first time they pick up a guitar? Hell, even I can play that riff.

musicky
Because guitars are the only instrument that matters in music, right? fark you subby.

Well, they're more important that TURNTABLES!

/turntables are NOT instruments!

Pentaxian:

If you want to see the whole list on one page click the print button.

Thank you for that practical solution to what was an otherwise discouragingly intimidating number of page click-throughs.

/bigged n bolded so others might see your pointer

Good thing I was laid off Friday, plenty of time to click through 40 pages.

Ant
zappaisfrank: BUT WHERE THE FARK IS DEEP PURPLE "SMOKE ON THE WATER"?

Isn't that the song everyone plays the first time they pick up a guitar? Hell, even I can play that riff.

Exactly!

If we're talking rock I'd like to say that it peaked in the 70s.

without looking at the page, since it's Rolling Stone, it's going to be filled with self-important divas who can't play a guitar to save their life. Also: I'm fairly certain none of the following bands' songs will be in the list (though they should be)

Slayer, Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen, Satriani, Vai, (I know Hendrix will be on there... Farking hippies) Eric Roberts, Doyle Frankenstein - Hell, any of the hardcore bands from the early-80s.

rocinante721: Screw you and your slideshows.

This. 40 pages? I don't farking think so.

If Frampton's DO YOU FEEL LIKE WE DO ain't there, this list ain't sheeet

Not this. Peter Frampton makes me want to poke my eardrums out with a hot paperclip.

Ordinarily, I view debating the merits of Rolling Stone lists as akin to debating the merits of the performances by the special needs kids classes at the school talent show - but...

Seriously, you label the list "Greatest Guitar Songs" and then fail to provide any criteria for "greatest"?

Is this based on influence? Then "Smoke on the Water" is strangely absent. It and "Magic Carpet Ride" launched a thousand metal bands.

Is this based on technical achievement? Then where's Joe Satriani? Eric Johnson? Hell, Eric Gales? And why not include "Jessica" instead of "Statesboro Blues"? And while I agree "Kid Charlemagne" is a great song, the guitar is weak at best. "Reelin' in the Years" has a scorching riff that takes 20 times the technical ability to play.

And if it's based on popularity where are the Beach Boys? "Surfin' USA" has one of the most memorable riffs of all time. Same can be said for "Aqualung". Or "Bad to the Bone". Or "Man in the Box". Or a thousand songs that are more popular, and equally excellent "guitar" songs, than what's on the list.

Which leads me to conclude that the only "criteria" for this list's compilation was "which band has fans sitting in on the meeting where the Rolling Stone staffers pulled this list out of their collective ass?"

The lack of Richard Thompson has shorn my gruntle clean off.

/Can't win

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" Is number 10.

That riff was written by Cobain as a joke.

/This article fails.

I'd like to add to the previous idea of the 10% good / 90% crap ratio. I agree that if you look at any point, most of the music is crap, with a small amount of good stuff.

What people forget is that there's little bit of selection bias going on here. People don't remember ALL the music from the 60s, 70s, etc. They remember the good music from that time. That's why they remember it.

So they're comparing the BEST songs of the 60s to ALL of the songs of today. Hardly a fair comparison.

Not to mention it's being prepared by a bunch of fossils whose musical tastes ossified thirty years ago.

For the ADHD types:

1 "Johnny B. Goode" Chuck Berry (1958)
2 "Purple Haze" The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
3 "Crossroads" Cream (1968)
4 "You Really Got Me" The Kinks (1964)
5 "Brown Sugar" The Rolling Stones (1971)
6 "Eruption" Van Halen (1978)
7 "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" The Beatles (1968)
8 "Stairway to Heaven" Led Zeppelin (1971)
9 "Statesboro Blues" The Allman Brothers Band (1971)
10 "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana (1991)
11 "Whole Lotta Love" Led Zeppelin (1969)
12 "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968)
13 "Layla" Derek and the Dominos (1970)
14 "Born to Run" Bruce Springsteen (1975)
15 "My Generation" The Who (1965)
16 "Cowgirl in the Sand" Neil Young with Crazy Horse (1969)
17 "Black Sabbath" Black Sabbath (1970)
18 "Blitzkrieg Bop" Ramones (1976)
19 "Purple Rain" Prince and the Revolution (1984)
20 "People Get Ready" The Impressions (1965)
21 "Seven Nation Army" The White Stripes (2003)
22 "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles (1964)
23 "Over Under Sideways Down" The Yardbirds (1966)
24 "Killing in the Name" Rage Against the Machine (1992)
25 "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" The Rolling Stones (1971)
26 "How Blue Can You Get" B.B. King (1965)
27 "Look Over Yonders Wall" The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
28 "Where the Streets Have No Name" U2 (1987)
29 "Back in Black" AC/DC (1980)
30 "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" Bill Haley and His Comets (1954)
31 "Keep Yourself Alive" Queen (1973)
32 "Sultans of Swing" Dire Straits (1978)
33 "Master of Puppets" Metallica (1986)
34 "Walk This Way" Aerosmith (1958)
35 "1969" The Stooges (1969)
36 "Interstellar Overdrive" Pink Floyd (1967)
37 "That's All Right" Elvis Presley (1954)
38 "Stay With Me" The Faces (1971)
39 "Black Magic Woman" Santana (1970)
40 "I Can See for Miles" The Who (1967)
41 "Marquee Moon" Television (1977)
42 "Hideaway" John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (1966)
43 "Holidays in the Sun" The Sex Pistols (1977)
44 "Dig Me Out" Sleater-Kinney (1997)
45 "I Saw Her Standing There" The Beatles (1963)
46 "Miserlou" Dick Dale and the Del-Tones (1962)
47 "Panama" Van Halen (1984)
48 "London Calling" The Clash (1980)
49 "Machine Gun" Jimi Hendrix (1958)
50 "Debaser" Pixies (1989)
51 "Crazy Train" Ozzy Osbourne (1981)
52 "My Iron Lung" Radiohead (1995)
53 "Born on the Bayou" Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)
54 "Little Wing" Stevie Ray Vaughan (1991)
55 "White Room" Cream (1968)
56 "Eight Miles High" The Byrds (1966)
57 "Dark Star" Grateful Dead (1969)
58 "Rumble" Link Wray (1958)
59 "Freeway Jam" Jeff Beck (1975)
60 "Maggot Brain" Funkadelic (1971)
61 "Soul Man" Sam and Dave (1967)
62 "Born Under a Bad Sign" Albert King (1967)
63 "Sweet Child O' Mine" Guns n' Roses (1987)
64 "Freebird" Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)
65 "Message in a Bottle" The Police (1979)
66 "Texas Flood" Stevie Ray Vaughan (1983)
67 "Adam Raised a Cain" Bruce Springsteen (1978)
68 "The Thrill is Gone" B.B. King (1958)
69 "Money" Pink Floyd (1958)
70 "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" Smashing Pumpkins (1995)
71 "Take It or Leave It" The Strokes (2001)
72 "Say It Ain't So" Weezer (1994)
73 "Summertime Blues" Blue Cheer (1968)
74 "La Grange" ZZ Top (1973)
75 "Willie the Pimp" Frank Zappa (1969)
76 "American Girl" Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)
77 "Even Flow" Pearl Jam (1958)
78 "Stone Crazy" Buddy Guy (1970)
79 "Silver Rocket" Sonic Youth (1988)
80 "Kid Charlemagne" Steely Dan (1958)
81 "Beat It" Michael Jackson (1982)
82 "Walk - Don't Run" The Ventures (1960)
83 "What I Got" Sublime (1996)
84 "Gravity" John Mayer (2006)
85 "You Enjoy Myself" Phish (1988)
86 "I Ain't Superstitious" Jeff Beck (1968)
87 "Red" King Crimson (1974)
88 "Mona" Quicksilver Messenger Service (1969)
89 "I Love Rock N Roll" Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (1981)
90 "How Soon Is Now?" The Smiths (1985)
91 "Drunkship of Lanterns" The Mars Volta (2003)
92 "Memo from Turner" Mick Jagger (1970)
93 "Only Shallow" My Bloody Valentine (1991)
94 "Money for Nothing" Dire Straits (1984)
95 "Omaha" Moby Grape (1967)
96 "New Day Rising" Hüsker Dü (1985)
97 "No One Knows" Queens of the Stone Age (2002)
98 "Under the Bridge" Red Hot Chili Peppers (1991)
99 "Run Thru" My Morning Jacket (2003)
100 "Vicarious" Tool (2006)
101 "Big Bottoms" Spinal Tap (1985)

Selective memory strikes again.

It's easy to cherry-pick the 'Golden Oldies' from those decades now when you can sit back with Dick Clark and one or two songs that are supposed to represent an entire decade. But that method is completely and utterly glossing over the fact that those decades produced as much crap, if not more, than nowadays. If you need proof, take a trip this afternoon down to your local thrift store and thumb through their vinyl collection. After you've gotten your fill of Jim Nabors, Arthur Fielder and the Pops and "Organ Melodies for the Family" discs, come back and tell us more about '60s and '70s music.

78 "Stone Crazy" Buddy Guy (1970)

I'm not your Buddy, guy!

44 "Dig Me Out" Sleater-Kinney (1997)
45 "I Saw Her Standing There" The Beatles (1963)

Look, I like Sleater-Kinney. But this attempt by Rolling Stone to make themselves appear to be objective and not entirely fixated on older music is just ridiculous.

Nevermind. The more I look at that list the more it just makes my logic circuits melt. It's like trying decipher the static on TV. Horrible.

34 "Walk This Way" Aerosmith (1958)

WTF