I'd say Jeff Beck off the top of my head.
Neil Young - Guitarist
We all know Neil for his outstanding songwriting skills and some may even recognize his talents with a guitar but is he underrated? in 2015 Rolling Stone ranked him as number 17 of 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Can anyone pull more raw emotion out of a guitar than Neil?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijrkKNZRIfM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijrkKNZRIfM
72 responses Add your response
At first mention, 17 seemed way high on the list of guitarist but then I stopped to think about who I would rather listen to and that raw emotion thing took over and now 17 seems kind of low. I can not go very long without getting me some Neil Young in my rotation. That 9 fingered gal is lucky to have him. |
When I saw this, I knew, again..that Neil is a superb guitar player. A mature player, one well seated into his skills. Which are very much on display. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skJddbSJQjA |
So for me the thing about Neil's guitar playing is the sense of time he keeps. This became even more clear to me with the release of the "Massey Hall" and "Live at the Cellar Door" LPs. His playing is great on both these albums--not the kind of pyrotechnics you see on "Cortez" (which is one of my favs)--but just an incredible rhythmic consistency that few can touch. |
While I do like Neil Young's music I don't see anyone, especially Rolling Stone, ranking him in even the top 100 guitarists. There are many artists that accompany their singing with a guitar and many do it very well. Like Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, and others. But, the original post asked the question about Young's skill as a guitarist. Best 100 guitarists??? That's a broad question. You would have to include those who just play the instrument in a band or in a recording studio. The most praised musicians are those who sing, write songs, and even those who play decent guitar. Rolling Stone has a narrow focus on the true sphere of music. There are too many names I can list here but there are ones that, in addition of singing, are excellent guitar players. Here's just a few........ Leo Kottke, David Bromberg, Steve Goodman, Glen Campbell, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Al Collins, Dickey Betts, and many more. No rap on Neil Young but, as a guitarist myself, when I listen to or buy music the first thing I tune into is how the guitar sounds if there is one in the particular song. |
Neil is a great musician, top 100 guitarist of all time is a stretch is a very good guitarist . A top 100 Musician absolutely. Jeff Beck which I have seen and have a signed magazine. Probably the most complex UNDER RATED guitarist alive ,but does it so effortless. He lost a lot of support when he took years off in the 80s just to get his head straight .he was playing in several great bands since the 60s. |
+1 onhwy61 +1 jrpnde If you play the guitar fairly well and understand the instrument, the RS top 100 greatest guitarist of all time list seems a jumbled mess. Some folks have no business being on the list. Other truly great guitarists are buried under flotsom. Neil Young at number 17 is an example of a great songwriter that plays a decent guitar getting uber grade inflation. Mark Knopfler is number 44? You ever tried to play like MK? You can't. He plays both rhythm and lead basically simultaneously. Clapton has MK play at his concerts. You ever tried to play like Neil Young? Well, lots of people can...he is easily covered. That doesn't mean he isn't really good. But lots of people are really good. Johnny Ramone at number 28? Thousands of people can cover Johnny Ramone. You don't even need to know any scales. John McLaughlin at number 68? I'm fairly confident McLaughlin can play all of Neil Young's stuff and NY can't cover much of JM's catalog, if any. I really like Neil Young, but I never put him on to listen to serious guitar prowess. |
Like Charlie Watts, Neil is one of those players whose decades of playing constantly did absolutely nothing to improve his skills. He is as bad now as when he was when he was screeching out single note guitar solos with Buffalo Springfield. If every other guitar player in the world died tomorrow he still wouldn't make the top 100 list. |
Finnaly something I can contribute to you all. I thought I was a 63 year old expert regarding music. Learning so much, but here is a Neil Young story. Seen CSN & Young about 12 years ago in Milwaukee. I paid big bucks to be close to the stage. Picked the 12th row over the 2nd row for the same price. $750.00 for the two tickets. First time seeing one of the most influential groups that shaped and addicted me to the joys of music. Near the end of the show they played some of their individual stuff. Neil did Rocking in the Free World, still can see his rocking back and forth style. He ended up finishing the song with only 3 strings, just fricken nuts. That show broke down to about $3.00 a minute, the best money I ever spent. Thanks to you all for your valuable info regarding gear. Here is a good one, one of my Infinity Kappa 8's was sounding funny the other day, I first checked the speaker cable, and I go what is this wire, turned out to be electrical cord, pulled out the Infinity Manuel and it said that wire is fine for a 12' distance. I had some Audioquest Cable that I hooked up. A whole new experience. Running a reworked Thorens TD 160, Adcom GFA 555 II, and a B&k PT -3 which I just got to replace my Adcom GPT 500 II that just started a balance problem. Ordered a new NAD in box C 165BEE for a little under $800.00 with shipping. |
Neil Young's guitar ability is severely hampered by his political views. We saw CSN&Y at Bethel Woods some years back and the group was still quite good and in tune with each other. Sadly toward the end Neil Young began with his political tirade and turned off a very large segment of the audience that got up and left. I have not bought a copy of Rolling Stone in years but am quite surprised RS didn't list him much higher given their political views are well matched. |
Because I like Neil's guitar playing, all I wanted to hear was "Like a Hurricane" when I went to see Neil Young in Albuquerque, NM, 2012. The tickets weren't cheap, and the venue had a grass area in back that was about $50 per ticket. That area was packed. The area where I sat cost ~$200/ticket and was half empty. Maybe because of this, Neil Young and Crazy Horse played "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain" for an encore, sang one song that was mostly whistling, and another song where he yelled the f-word several times. I consider Neil to be one of the best (top 50) guitar players, but considering his concert in Albuquerque back in 2012, I was really disappointed. I think a lot of people were disappointed with the song selection for the concert as well. Neil Young fans want to hear the songs that made the musicians famous, not the experimental music. |
At his best Neil sings and plays with great focus and intensity, acoustic or electric, which I think makes for a great performance even if it’s a one note solo. I had a similar experience with a CSNY concert in Minneapolis about 2006 as golden210 did. Best concert of my life by far, no matter the style popular or classical. I wouldn’t want to be on stage with Mr. Young if I was a guitar player. He kicks everybody’s ass with shear willpower. As the OP asked, no, no one plays with more raw emotion in my opinion. That doesn’t make him the greatest technical player. Couldn’t care less. Some people will also claim that their Yamaha receiver with .0001% THD is technically better than my Pass Labs with .5% THD. They can have it and their favorite speed metal guitarist du jour. It would be a cruel world if you could only have one guitarist to listen to. If that were the case I’d have to go with Neil, partly because of the shear volume and variety. Hendrix would be second. Neither for their proficiency. As for his politics, as mentioned above, I was a little disappointed in the delivery of the message, because it lacked artistry and subtlety. I believe he was so pissed that he couldn’t muster more, but I was fully on board with his intent, as was 99.9% of the audience. |
onhwy614, 03-22-2018 7:58pm Don’t take those Rolling Stone rankings seriously. Neil Young is a fine musician, but he’s only a great guitarist in the sense that Mick Jagger or James Brown are great vocalists.Exactly. I play guitar. #17 is laughable. #100 would have been laughable. Maybe top 100 in songwriting, but probably not top 10,000 in guitar playing. |
I don't play anything but vinyl so am in no position to even understand much less critique technical aspects of musicianship. But being almost 62, Neil Young was certainly a major influence in shaping my listening preferences early on. With over 4K LP's in my collection, he probably has the most repeat runs in one iteration or another. I only recently discovered "Psychedelic Pill", done in 2012 I believe, and I keep playing it over and over. Fabulous example of his talents IMHO. As for his political rants, we are on opposite sides, generally, of the spectrum, but I'm not about to let that spoil the enjoyment I derive from his music. |
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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 know they have classical music competitions--the Cliburn piano competition being among the best-known. I think it's generally accepted that a great deal of both technique and musicality are required to do well. I don't see why a list such as this one of Rolling Stone's shouldn't be the same. It's not all about emotion and neither is it all about technique. |
It would be interesting to poll professional musicians, and publish the results. I'm guessing it would be very different from the RS one. Would it be more "valid"? Is the opinion of a musician of more "worth" than that of a non-musician? Even amongst other artists, opinions about a guy like, say, Lou Reed, are highly divided. |
The Rolling Stone list was compiled primarily by other guitarist. The list is titled "Greatest", not "Best" and it is clearly not based on technical skill. Still the list doesn't include Rick Derringer, Robin Trower, Gary Moore, Marvin Tarpley, Shuggie Otis, Marshall Crenshaw, Danny Kirwan, Earl Hooker, Magic Sam, David Hildago, Bill Conners, Dave Alvin, etc. Here's a link. |
I like Neil Young's music, but as a technical guitarist, he doesn't make any list, top 100 or even top 500. That's OK. Neil plays guitar very well for what he needs to do - accompany his voice. But he is no virtuoso on the guitar, and why should he be? There are many excellent guitar players out there, from Jeff Beck to Steve Howe... and some that you probably didn't know about. (Check out Glen Campbell on YouTube sometime, or give James Taylor a good listen.) And remember that VERY few rock guitarist could hang with the real virtuosos, like Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel, George Benson, Pat Martino, Tal Farlow, Stanley Jordan and on and on and on... Neil Young is a great singer & songwriter. He never aspired to be a great guitarist. |
Guitar playing is so much more than just technical skill. It’s also sound and energy. Neil has all of it and then some. The greats are always very distinctive, regardless (to a large degree) of the guitar they pickup. Willie Nelson playing Johnny Cash’ guitar on VH1 Storytellers ,after he broke strings on his guitar, first comes to mind for me. |
aalenik's post begs the important question: Is technical ability what distinguishes one as a superior guitarist---or singer, or drummer, or whatever? Or is it something some elusive, more abstract, more, dare I say it, artistic? In the mid-70's I jammed with a guy who, when the subject of The Band came up (as it often does if I'm in a musical conversation ;-), dismissed Robbie Robertson's guitar playing. I knew exactly why, as I myself at first had. That was before I realized the musical contribution his playing was making to the song itself. This guy was talking about Robertson's abilities at playing a guitar solo, the yardstick by which he judged all guitarists. How small. I didn't waste my breathe in the hopeless task of raising his musical consciousness---that comes from within. I have heard plenty of guitarists whose playing I find unmusical at best, downright ugly if not, that's right, vulgar, at worst. Others consider them virtuosos. At what? Not making good music, in my opinion. To admire their playing is to me like considering a fast runner a great dancer. If that makes any sense. |
Hmm...I'm struggling with accepting the idea that "artistic" doesn't involve technical skill. In music, it does. Playing a musical instrument "greatly" requires many things--one of those requirements is deep technical skill. Frank Zappa wrote the challenging Black Page #1 for the drum kit and then used it to audition his drummers. If you couldn't play Black Page #1, then you weren't playing for Zappa. It turns out Zappa had a few truly great drummers! Playing Black Page #1 doesn't make anyone a great drummer. It simply demonstrate deep technical chops. The same concept applies to great guitar musicianship. Technical skill combined with musicality, originality, practicing for improvement, and a well trained ear are a few of the foundations for musical greatness. |
