Neil Young - Guitarist


We all know Neil for his outstanding songwriting skills and some may even recognize his talents with a guitar but is he underrated? in 2015 Rolling Stone ranked him as number 17 of 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Can anyone pull more raw emotion out of a guitar than Neil?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijrkKNZRIfM
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Neil Young's guitar ability is severely hampered by his political views.
We saw CSN&Y at Bethel Woods some years back and the group was still quite good and in tune with each other. Sadly toward the end Neil Young began with his political tirade and turned off a very large segment of the audience that got up and left.
I have not bought a copy of Rolling Stone in years but am quite surprised RS didn't list him much higher given their political views are well matched. 
IMO, one's stance on any subject has nothing to do with how well they are able to perform at their chosen profession.
 The notion that he’s on a list of top guitar players, kind of took me aback.

I do feel,  however one links the notion of a song in one's head and then somehow interprets that into an emotional connection to others ..is Neil's unique gift. 
Because I like Neil's guitar playing, all I wanted to hear was "Like a Hurricane" when I went to see Neil Young in Albuquerque, NM, 2012. The tickets weren't cheap, and the venue had a grass area in back that was about $50 per ticket. That area was packed. The area where I sat cost ~$200/ticket and was half empty. Maybe because of this, Neil Young and Crazy Horse played "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain" for an encore, sang one song that was mostly whistling, and another song where he yelled the f-word several times. I consider Neil to be one of the best (top 50) guitar players, but considering his concert in Albuquerque back in 2012, I was really disappointed. I think a lot of people were disappointed with the song selection for the concert as well. Neil Young fans want to hear the songs that made the musicians famous, not the experimental music.