Neil Young - Guitarist

+1 onhwy61 +1 jrpnde
If you play the guitar fairly well and understand the instrument, the RS top 100 greatest guitarist of all time list seems a jumbled mess. Some folks have no business being on the list. Other truly great guitarists are buried under flotsom. Neil Young at number 17 is an example of a great songwriter that plays a decent guitar getting uber grade inflation. Mark Knopfler is number 44? You ever tried to play like MK? You can't. He plays both rhythm and lead basically simultaneously. Clapton has MK play at his concerts. You ever tried to play like Neil Young? Well, lots of people can...he is easily covered. That doesn't mean he isn't really good. But lots of people are really good. Johnny Ramone at number 28? Thousands of people can cover Johnny Ramone. You don't even need to know any scales. John McLaughlin at number 68? I'm fairly confident McLaughlin can play all of Neil Young's stuff and NY can't cover much of JM's catalog, if any. I really like Neil Young, but I never put him on to listen to serious guitar prowess. 

Hmm...I'm struggling with accepting the idea that "artistic" doesn't involve technical skill. In music, it does. Playing a musical instrument "greatly" requires many things--one of those requirements is deep technical skill. Frank Zappa wrote the challenging Black Page #1 for the drum kit and then used it to audition his drummers. If you couldn't play Black Page #1, then you weren't playing for Zappa. It turns out Zappa had a few truly great drummers! Playing Black Page #1 doesn't make anyone a great drummer. It simply demonstrate deep technical chops. The same concept applies to great guitar musicianship. Technical skill combined with musicality, originality, practicing for improvement, and a well trained ear are a few of the foundations for musical greatness.  

@bdp24 Thanks for your further explanation. I respect your point of view. I would answer your question by saying that, in your illustration, Steve Smith is a vastly better drummer than Richard Manuel. Steve Smith has the technical chops to play different genres at a high professional level. That he chose to play RNR with Journey doesn't make him a pedestrian drummer, it makes him a gainfully employed drummer. And his drumming with Journey isn't pedestrian. Steve Smith was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2002. Richard Manuel will never be considered for that honor because he wasn't a serious drummer--he was a singer/piano player that sometimes drummed and when he did it, he did so admirably.
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Al      

@bdp24 Nice post. Thanks for the further input. I think you have great taste in guitarists.
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Al