The Rolling Stone top 100 Guitarists List

[cemaphonic]

31. I think all three are defendable in terms of influence

Which is kind of reflected in the writeups for each entry. It's not just about technical virtuosity.

I follow a bunch of guitar forums, and when beginners are looking for easy songs to learn, "Come As You Are" is almost always among the first suggestions. There's something to be said for simple and accessible, yet catchy and memorable - it's not an easy combination to achieve. I'd rate Cobain a lot higher as a songwriter than guitarist, but I'm not surprised to see him here.

And Peter Buck, along with Johnny Marr are shoe-ins as far as I'm concerned. So many bands from the 80s on have tried to ape their sound it's not even funny.

I'm not sold on Thurston Moore either. He had a pretty unique approach, but a lot of it was taken from his time playing in Glenn Branca's ensembles. Also, not especially influential stylistically, even as popular as Sonic Youth was.

As for the Beatles, I'd agree that John was a solid but not exceptional rhythm player, and doesn't really belong. George Harrison was great though. Cool rockabilly riffs early on, beautiful melodic solos in the last few years of the Beatles, and a really distinctive slide guitar style post-Beatles.