Neil Young - Guitarist

Whether it's a recorded concert on PBS, or Live Rust, or seeing him live I am always struck by the passion he shows when he's really into it. He literally dances with his guitar at times, it is an extension of who he is at that moment. There have been occasions where Cortez the Killer and especially Like a Hurricane found me totally absorbed and in awe of how he emotes through the instrument. That's what I'm after in the musical experience. I couldn't care less where he ranks as a technical player.

I own 12 guitars and taught for years which doesn’t mean my opinion is more valid but it does mean I know a thing or two about guitar playing.

He is easily in the top 100 not because he has amazing technical acrobatics that dazzles (he doesn’t) but because his tone, his understated nuanced touch and increadibly musical playing. His playing is literally genius. I can see how many listeners don’t notice these things. Think of the subtle complexity of a Rothko painting: a lot of people don’t see it. 

Okay, so they had him ranked around #15 I think.  If you look at the list of people he is in front of you'll see how ridiculous this is.  He's good, he's interesting but top 100 he ain't.  I would list some people who I don't listen to as much as I listen to Neil, but I recognize that they are the greater talent on the instrument.  And as much as I enjoy Mark Rothko's chapel in Houston, I don't know if it would even occur to me to list him as one of the top 100 visual artists.  In short, these things shouldn't be mere popularity contests.  Some evaluation of talent and skill should figure in, don't you think?

You can’t rank one’s own emotions against that of others.

And it pretty well comes down to that.

Trying to get logical on an emotional subject is a generally a recipe for disaster.

Audio forums are full of attack and vitriol partially due to this very human aspect of the subject at hand.