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Okay, not exactly. But Rolling Stone’s readers did recently pick the 25 most underrated guitarists of all time/this week, and while you can’t knock the No. 1 choice, personally I find it hard to imagine Prince as “underrated” at anything. At least he’s ahead of Daniel Johns from Silverchair at No. 18, who trumped Funkadelic’s Eddie Hazel way down at No. 24. Actually let me repeat that: Daniel Johns. From Silverchair. Beat the guy who played on “Maggot Brain.” Is Johns some kind of John Mayer-like (guitar) wanker of the type you’d never know about unless you were super-familiar with Silverchair album cuts? Anyway, the full list is after the jump and Mssr. Johns is really the only OMG WTF LOL inclusion, even if the usual lack of Andy Gill brings the lone tear:
1. Prince
2. Kurt Cobain
3. Neil Young
4. George Harrison
5. Ace Frehley
6. Mike McCready
7. Lindsey Buckingham
8. Mick Taylor
9. Nels Cline
10. Johnny Greenwood
11. Tom Verlaine
12. Carrie Brownstein
13. Mick Jones
14. Robert Fripp
15. Johnny Marr
16. John Frusciante
17. Izzy Stradlin
18. Daniel Johns
19. Vernon Reid
20. Robbie Robertson
21. Mick Ronson
22. Billy Corgan
23. Elliott Smith
24. Eddie Hazel
25. Phil Keaggy
The 25 Most Underrated Guitarists [Rolling Stone]
Hazel easily should have been #1.
LOVE vernon reid. glad he’s on the list.
oh, and as far as Prince being underrated as a guitarist. i totally buy into that. After that whole mid ’90s fiasco where people paid more attention to his make-up than his music, people really forgot that dude could play.
i know that Hall of Fame performance of “while my guitar gently weeps” caught many people off guard.
Loving Izzy Stradlin’ on this list. But seriously, is George Harrison underrated?
underrated? like how? if you’ve been living under a rock for decades?
while I’ll be a Kurt Cobain fanboy till the day I rock Docs up on a cloud, even I wouldn’t rate him as a good guitarist.
and oh yeah, where’s Sterling Morrison?
It’s a typo, I’m pretty sure they meant Daniel Johnston…
My fav guitarists are on this list, Robbie Rob, Johnny Greenwood and Johnny Marr, but one is missing – D Boon – he was brill! He should be in there for sure.
Does anyone else think Johnny Thunders was underrated? I just can’t decide, oooh!
yknow who are a couple of under-rated guitarists? Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia.
@jetblackturd: Johnny Thunders should get on there for Hurt Me alone, and D. Boon yes yes yes. Billy Corgan? eh. At #22 I can live with it but he wouldn’t be on my list.
richard thompson. never see him included in these lists, which is pathetic. which means he is truly underrated.
@rogerniner: @dog door: exactly. if 90% of the rolling stones readership knows who they are, they aren’t underrated. oh shit, but this is a rolling stones readers’ poll. it’s your old catch-22.
I’m not sure I get this either. Are the average Rolling Stone readers saying “Robert Fripp’s okay…..but he’s not that great.” If you’re even aware of who he is your estimation of him is probably dead on. Ditto Tom Verlaine, Nels Cline…. The Elliott Smith/Prince/Lindsay Buckingham listings seem more appropriate for what this list should be.
Ace Frehley? Really?
And Johnny Marr is all the way down at number 15?
Wait, it’s a Rolling Stone list. No one actually put any real thought into this.
Certainly John Frusciante was accidently placed here instead of on the Overrated list.
But where’s Wes Borland?
Lindsey B. is my #1, but I’ve never heard anybody underrate the guy. Most people think he can play. The whole “underrated” concept is hard to pin down. I can see Eddie Hazel absolutely being on there. I see this list, despite a few aberrations, as more in line with my taste then the usual Nuno/random Dream Theater guy kind of stuff. Maybe it’s guitarists for people with better taste?
I am simply stunned that Carrie Brownstein made it on at all. The Rolling Stone readership know who she is?
I once happened to somehow catch Prince shredding the guitar on fucking Oprah. Anyone who can pull off a guitar solo on Oprah gets my vote.
No Vini Reilly? I QUIT.
I’d say Kurt Cobain is actually overrated.
Nice to see Neil Young so high on the list. He was somewhere in the 80s or 90s on RS’s “Top 100 Guitarists of All Time” list.
Why is Verlaine on the list when Lloyd isn’t? I was always under the impression that the latter did more of the heavy lifting in Television.
Where’s Clarence White? Where’s Ry Cooder?
Oh. Right. “Rolling Stone.”
I’m not sure what grosses me out more, Rolling Stone readers’ idea of “underrated” or this post’s canonical bullshit.
Why the disrespect for Daniel Johns?!?
Are you seriously judging his abilities from the very first album he wrote when he was 13??
Silverchair have become the Beatles of Australia, and Daniel, the John Lennon. Educate yourselves and take a listen to their last two albums “Diorama” and “Young Modern”.
I can understand Prince being on the list. Fair enough. But Cobain was 12 on their 100 greatest guitarists of all time – which is a major WTF? for me. I have to say I’m a little bummed Kevin Shields was not on this list.
Maybe I’m not too clear on the definition of “underrated,” but to me
this just looks like a list of guitarists who are not Jimi Hendrix and
Jimmy Page.
@Mwalkin1: In that case, I, Charlie Kerfeld’s Jetsons Tee, am the Beatles of Somerville, MA.
Prince is definitely the most underrated guitarist ever. I know a lot of people who don’t even know he plays guitar, let alone the fact that he’s awesome at it.
@Mwalkin1: Amen. The last 3 Silverchair albums are absolutely great.
Also, Vernon Reid is, by far, the best player on this list.
found this late but i cannot possibly understate how incredible eddie hazel was as a guitarist. i think prince may deserve #1 because he isn’t thought of as a guitarist as much as he is a singer or whatever. prince really is mesmerizing to watch play. however, if eddie hazel had only ever produced maggot brain he would still rank in the top 5. he did that solo on the first take with the only rehearsal being to learn the chord progression. it helped that he was out of his mind on acid too i guess.
@harumph: i always loved the story of what George Clinton told Eddie before they rolled tape… “Play like you just found out your mama died.”
@FionaScrapple: Vernon Reid has always struck me as “a guitarist’s guitarist” – meaning a guitarist that only OTHER guitarists can appreciate.
I’ve been playing guitar for fourteen years, and I can’t STAND those kind of guys. Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch… Give me SOMETHING else to go on other than blind technique.
I’ve always felt guys like that look at guitar playing more like a sport than an art form.
@OingoBobo: PRECISELY!
Somehow I don’t think the people polled know what ‘underrated’ means…
Oh right, Rolling Stone…right.
@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee:
Solace of You
Fight the Fight
Leave it Alone
Flying
Find these songs, listen to them, and realize how truly foolish it is to compare Reid to Malmsteen or Satriani
@brainchild: “now imagine she’s alive”
i know.
those early funkadelic records really need to be properly remastered and possibly expanded. for how seminal they are they are not nearly as widely known as they deserve to be.
I absolutely love Silverchair and think that is crazy.
@Zach Isso:
It’s true, I don’t think I’d necessarily consider Daniel John’s a hugely underrated guitarist, he would fit more into the underrated songwriter list.
@ Harumph: They were, about 3 years ago. The “Maggot Brain” disc has an alternate version of the title track that is nearly as good as the album version. Worth looking for.