Pleased to see many of my favourite guitarists on the list; Steve Howe (Yes #123), Adrian Belew (King Crimson #118), Richie Blackmore (Deep Purple #75), Robert Fripp (King Crimson #59).
I was hoping to see John Williams included, if only for his sublime work with the British-Australian classical/prog rock fusion band Sky, but soon realised classical guitarists were outside the remit of the list.
How some of the names made that list at the expense of Allan Holdsworth, I have no fucking idea. Allan Holdsworth - Wikipedia
No one knows Allan Holdsworth except the most die hard guitarists and the cycling community of Southern California. Fun fact, one of his solo songs was dedicated to Tullio Campagnolo.
Another thought I had was should someone be on a “greatest” list if almost no one has even heard of you?
Well, there is this from his Wiki
Van Halen, Frank Zappa, Shawn Lane, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Neal Schon and Gary Moore have proclaimed Holdsworth one of the most advanced guitarists of his time.
It is sort of like saying who is the greatest triathlete of all time and the pro triathletes talking about someone who maybe only raced one season but couldn’t be beat vs the public saying Iron Cowboy.
And, sad to say, but a good bit of the average public right now has never heard of Shawn Lane, Steve Vai, Neal Schon, Gary Moore, or John Petrucci, and I bet even Zappa is on the edge of what people know.
In Youtube scrolling, one of the frequent guitar content creators I see will occasionally do a “man on the street” type of video where he talks to random people and asks them guitar related questions, and if they get them right, he’ll give them a guitar. The number of them who don’t know names like Hendrix, Van Halen, etc (especially with younger people) is astounding to me.
