{"id":10685,"date":"2011-12-06T10:09:54","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T15:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=10685"},"modified":"2011-12-06T12:44:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T17:44:28","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-a-given","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/it%e2%80%99s-a-given\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Given"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Could it be?<\/p><\/div>\n

The current issue of Rolling Stone<\/em> has a feature article of the \u201c100 Greatest Guitarists.\u201d Would you care guess who came in first place?<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course he did<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Just like the fact that the Beatles are always going to win a Best Band of All Time poll, it is a given that Jimi Hendrix<\/strong> will take the top spot for guitarists. And although I only have Hendrix at Monterey<\/em> and a bootleg of Jimi playing while a hammered Jim Morrison \u201csings,\u201d I agree that Hendrix probably should have permanent number 1 status.<\/p>\n

As these kinds of lists go, I could agree with most of the people who made it, even if I don\u2019t like their music (eg, Eddie Van Halen, Frank Zappa), and I wasn\u2019t too outraged by those who should have been included but were left off the list (eg, Marc Ribot, Richard Lloyd, Django Reinhardt). But I wonder if they just start these things by arguing about who is in the number 2 spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Putting aside the ridiculousness of these lists in general, are there any serious contenders for Greatest Guitarist<\/em>? Clearly, this is about more than chops. Influence and having a distinct style are easily as important as ability. As far as I can see, the only possible contender is Robert Johnson<\/strong>, who came in at a feeble 71 on the list.<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re on the subject, are there any serious contenders for the Best Band<\/em> slot? I\u2019m a Stones guy and even I can\u2019t deny that the Beatles belong in the number one slot.<\/p>\n

I assume somewhere there are lists like this for bass players and drummers, but what is the conventional wisdom regarding the Greatest Rhythm Guitarist of All Time<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current issue of Rolling Stone has a feature article of the \u201c100 Greatest Guitarists.\u201d Would you care guess who came in first place?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[59,165,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}