Neil Young - Guitarist

Don't take those Rolling Stone rankings seriously.  Neil Young is a fine musician, but he's only a great guitarist in the sense that Mick Jagger or James Brown are great vocalists.

The Rolling Stone list was compiled primarily by other guitarist.  The list is titled "Greatest", not "Best" and it is clearly not based on technical skill.  Still the list doesn't include Rick Derringer, Robin Trower, Gary Moore, Marvin Tarpley, Shuggie Otis, Marshall Crenshaw, Danny Kirwan, Earl Hooker, Magic Sam, David Hildago, Bill Conners, Dave Alvin, etc.

Here's a link.

You  can be a great musician without being a great instrumentalist and you can even be a great instrumentalist without being a great musician.  I would argue that the former is far more common than the latter situation.  But being a great instrumentalist and even a great musician doesn't guarantee that you will produce great music.  It just ain't that easy.

ESPN recently came up with a list of the most dominate athletes in their specific sports.  They crunched the statistics and determined that Peyton Manning was #3 and Tom Brady was #20 across all sports.  I can understand someone arguing that Manning is "better" than Brady, but it is nonsensical to say there is a 17 place difference between them.  Similarly, I don't think many people are arguing that Neil Young is not a great musician and a capable guitarist, but there's no way on earth that he is #17 on a list of greatest guitarist.

It may be subjective, but some people can just flat out play better than others.

Now this is a real Top10 Guitarist list, just scroll down the page.  Check it out!

A key element of rock is excess.  It's the "too much ain't enough" ethos.  It's an element that is easily made fun of as in "my amp goes to 11", but it shouldn't be outright dismissed.  Good taste and restraint are usually admirable traits, but there are times when just go crazy is acceptable.  Throughout its history rock 'n' roll is one of those areas.  For instance, Steve Vai is an insanely good guitarist.  He's also a good musician.  But truth be told, it's not like I would want to listen to him very often, yet that doesn't take anything away from him being totally over the top amazing.  If you got it, flaunt it.  And don't think Gatton or Thompson aren't equally flashy, they just do it differently.