Great guitarists? Who says so?

For some reason I have been looking at lists of the so-called 100 or 400 or 500 or 10 top guitarists 'of all time', a claim that is a little pessimistic given there are really good musicians growing up all the time, so, let's be pedantic and just say 'To Date'.

Point is that all such lists are purely subjective with many, many critics and fans when discussing and listing 'great guitarists' tend to concentrate on the 'well of course they have to be included' artists, those of the likes of May, Van Halen, Hendrix, Page, Slash, Clapton, Knopffler, Fripp, etc., etc..  but why am I telling you this?  You know already, because you are reading this and have therefore perused my feeble attempt at a web site and as such are an intelligent, knowledgeable human being capable of working this out for yourself. Well, let's just say I need a rant every now and then and so this seems as good a place as any; particularly as actually no one seems to have read any of this rubbish. 

So, my 10 cents - my 'beef' is that most lists put artists such as Rory Galagher and Steve Hackett way down when they are as good if not better than most of the usual suspects at the top (I've even seen a list that includes Noel Galagher!  How did that happen?) and what about the work Andrian Belew did with King Crimson, Zappa and others, an amazing player. Who else?  of course, John McLaughlin, Wes Montgomery, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steve Vai, Kenny Burrell......

So, why aren't the likes of Gordon Giltrap, recognised far better than have been and even worse, fail to mention?  Why do we rarely hear or read about John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson (probably the best in the world, ever, so there), John Fahey and Django Reinhardt!  That's just criminal.... and 'folkist' and jazzist' and lots of other '....ists' that vast numbers of people seem to actually enjoy being, thereby negating any general advance of human development to becoming more accepting, tolerant, peace-loving, just plain decent individuals; in fact putting the final nails in humanity's coffin!  Now there's a pessimistic thought for a Thursday (Monday to Wednesday yes, but Thursday?  I think not).

Which leads me again to my belief that the day of the professional 'critic' (for which read 'self-opinionated failures' come mi stesso) should be numbered.  We all read the, usually very mixed, user reviews on Amazon, etc. and they are the useful ones to my mind.  Anyone who really loves music has their own 'lists' which they are at liberty to share - and that should be good enough.

Anyhow, leaving aside the absolute crap spoken by those who should know better (Galagher brothers, Townshend, me, etc.), this crap is my personal view and knowing that this vlog will probably not be read by anybody, I feel perfectly at liberty to set it in print.