Rolling Stone‘s 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time

I just finished yesterday. This is a relief, though I was enjoying it more as we got closer to the top.

I personally got the list from Stereogum, through a simple Google search:

http://stereogum.com/10114/rolling_stones_100_greatest_guitar_songs_of_all_ti/list/

Actually, I am not quite done, because although I have gone through and listened to all of the 100, as well as read all the comments, I still want to go through and listen to music from the comments, and this will take a while, as there are many, and most of them are dissenting.

Obviously I have my own disagreements too, but I always feel that way about American Film Institute lists, or book lists, or lists of 100 places to go or foods to eat. 100 is a logical number to use for people who operate on the decimal system, especially when you are in a broad category where just using a top ten would be too restrictive. However, even if picking the number 100 is not arbitrary, once you are making your selections fit inside that number, things do get arbitrary.

Also, I think there can be an issue with definitions. Are the greatest guitar songs great songs that feature guitar, songs that were culturally significant, or songs that are really hard to play? I think the list does some of all of the above.

Personally, I did not find a lot of new stuff that I need to listen to over and over again. Actually, I think I found none of that, and it’s questionable whether I will as I go through the comments. Still, there were things that were good, especially in terms of putting the familiar in a new setting.

First of all, yes, I had heard Smashing Pumpkins “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” (69) and The Smiths “How Soon is Now” (90) before, and not thought much about them one way or another, but yes, they do have something interesting going on with the guitar that I had not noticed. That’s kind of cool. (Also, Billy Corgan has hair in the Pumpkins video, and I had not seen him that way for ages. A lot of people say that haired he resembles Gerard Way, but he reminded me most of Tom Delonge.)

It was also very interesting to listen to the Metallica selection, “Master of Puppets” (33). Now, Metallica is a lot like Duran Duran for me (bet you’ve never heard that before). My sisters (and my brother) are big fans, so they have been played a lot around the home. Even our mother recognizes James Hetfield’s voice right away. (Maria had set Mom’s ring tone to “Master of Puppets” briefly, but Mom gets flustered easily, and we just knew that someday it was going to go off in a bad situation and she would not be able to turn it off quickly, and that just was not a good thing.)

Anyway, I have heard Master of Puppets many times, but never really listened to it. While speculating about the list, Maria had thought maybe “Enter Sandman”, and that certainly has strong guitar work, but listening to them both, “Master” is the obvious choice. It starts out intricately, and it is strong and powerful, and then there is a changeover into a completely different theme that is still powerful, and there is just a lot going on.

Now let’s talk about expectations. While speculating, before actually viewing the list, my first thought was that “Eruption” by Van Halen would have to be on it. It comes in at 6, which seems reasonable, Follow up thoughts were that I would expect to see Hendrix, Eric Claption, Jeff Beck, Santana, and Yngwie Malmsteen, and then I wondered about the guys in GTR.

Hendrix (I am totally good with “Purple Rain” being number 2), Beck, and Clapton get multiple mentions, though Clapton is always under a group, not under his name. Incidentally, I had only heard the acoustic version of Layla before, and the other ways makes a big difference there. Santana is there. Malmsteen is not, and from the comments Steve Vai is not. I admit I had forgotten about him, but that does seem like a fairly glaring omission.

I was not too surprised to not find Steve Howe or Steve Hackett represented. I remember when GTR formed people saying it was like if Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck were forming a band, but I felt that they never lived up to the hype. It’s not that their music was bad, but it wasn’t what the expectations seemed to be leading to, and maybe they just never had a clear enough vision of what it should be. My understanding is that Hackett is not particularly happy with it in retrospect. Still, nothing on the list from Yes, Asia, or Genesis either.

Another thought that I had later was I remember many years ago thinking that it seemed like all the bands with the best riffs were kind of obnoxious. I can tell you that the bands who inspired that thought were Warlock Pinchers, the Offspring, and Blink 182. None of them made the list. I am glad to see the Clash (“London Calling”, 48) and the Ramones (“Blitzkrieg Bop”, 18) on there. I’m not sure it’s their greatest guitar work, but I’ve never really thought of it. I do sort of feel that Steppenwolf “Born to be Wild” should be on there.

There was a lot of flack about the omission of “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple. I suppose the argument against it is that every beginning guitar player picks it out, so it can’t be that hard, but at the same time, doesn’t that right there prove that it is classic and influential? I remember hearing my brother play it over and over again, and so when Jack Black has the kid try it out in “School of Rock” or Jake is moody and just keeps playing that and nothing but that on “Two and a Half Men”, it makes me smile.

I think the counterpoint to it is number 21, “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. Someone in the comments complained because he had seen a 7-year old kid playing it, showing how not great a song it was. Of course, someone else complained that “Eruption” should not be on there because it was not a great song, it was one person showing off. So we can go back to definition, but also, I remember when I first heard “Seven Nation Army”, and even though I didn’t exactly like it, I remember thinking how it was brilliant in how it just stripped down and went back to basics after so much overproduced crap was out there.

I did not expect to find My Chemical Romance there, because there seems to be a strong bias towards older music, and I don’t recall ever hearing anyone talk about how brilliant their guitars are, but remember, part of why I even decided to do this was because I was thinking how much I loved guitar, and I was thinking that because of listening to them. Just wanted to point that out.

Also, I have only just heard the song recently, so I may not have any perspective on it, but "Triumph of Venus" by Torche seems like it could reasonably be included. It just seems special to me.

Other listening material was that I pulled out my Best of Santana CD and all three of my Charlie Sexton CDs and gave them a listen. I don’t think any of Charlie’s work is on there. As a session musician, you don’t always know who is where, but I believe the Stevie Ray Vaughn songs predate Charlie. (He started working in 1983.) Still, interesting thoughts there, that will come back up later.

Also interesting was number 1, “Johnnie B. Goode” by Chuck Berry. My first thought was okay, that makes sense. It is a powerful riff, and it also must have been so new and revolutionary at its time. However, in researching more, I saw this on Wikipedia:

“The opening guitar riff on "Johnny B. Goode" is essentially a note-for-note copy of the opening single-note solo on Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman" (1946), played by guitarist Carl Hogan.”

Well I tried listening to Just Like a Woman, and it may have been the version that I found, but I didn’t hear it. Still, it’s interesting. Who did invent Rock and Roll anyway?