How didn’t “Don’t fear the reaper-blue oyster cult” not make the list that is one of the most beautiful guitar songs ever….

James Gang “Walk away” (Joe Walsh) . Curt Cobain, Radiohead guy,all the other inferior players get behind Joe

Big Bad Omission - The Velvet Underground. So many possible songs. “Waitin For The Man”, “White Light White Heat”, “Rock & Roll” or so many from my favorite guitar record from the Velvets - “1969″, the double live album from Dallas - like “Beginning to See the Light”, “What Goes On”, etc., etc., etc.; or any version of “Sweet Jane” (one of the most copied riffs there is). Or when Lou Reed was a “Coney Island Baby” and wanted to play football for the coach, he was just as good as the Prince of Purple Rain.

Big Bad Omission - The Velvet Underground. So many possible songs. “Waitin For The Man”, “White Light White Heat”, “Rock & Roll” or so many from my favorite guitar record from the Velvets - “1969″, the double live album from Dallas - like “Beginning to See the Light”, “What Goes On”, etc., etc., etc.; or any version of “Sweet Jane” (one of the most copied riffs there is). Or when Lou Reed was a “Coney Island Baby” and wanted to play football for the coach, he was just as good as the Prince of Purple Rain.

why didn’t green grass and high tides make the list, the guitar’s solos stretch to almost ten minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome>> Pumpkins made the list!!! But I dont see why Queens of the stone age, Lenny Kravitz, And Some White Stripes are doing on the List? There are countless waaaaaay better songs!!! U GUYS FEEL ME, BA HUMBUG!!

Most of these are pretty good, but how can “Sultans of Swing” (or anything by Mark Knopfler) be left off?

I can not believe not one song from ten years after; some of the fastest cleanest rifts in the history of rock guitar playing.Its 50,000 miles beneith my brain how the Who got left out too! My young son Kyle even agrees and he just started playing.

would have put pearl jam and the pumpkins closer to the top.

Billy Corgan rules, everything off Siamese Dream should be on this list.

Bliz

I agree both that cherub rock is a better guitar song than Bullet with Butterfly Wings, and that Geek USA is better for guitar than Cherub Rock. I would even throw Rocket in there. Corgan has something like five guitar parts going at once in that one! How are the white stripes on the list twice? He doesn’t even play solos. It’s all chords. I mean I get the “sticking to the basics” thing, but come on. There had to be one white stripes fan sending in a thousand votes somehow. People are funny.

book!

Oh, And I agree Luna, Soma should be there, but if any one pumpkins song I think it should be Geek U.S.A

Well this just proves how dumb the general public is. Smells like teen spirit at #1, Seven nation army at #13, while Little Martha is nowhere to be seen. Oh well.

P.s. What’s with that guy writing a book and song below me? Nobody cares man.

Well this just proves how dumb the general public is. Smells like teen spirit at #1, Seven nation army at #13, while Little Martha is nowhere to be seen. Oh well.

P.s. What’s with that guy writing a book and song below me? Nobody cares man.

“Cherub Rock”?? Is this just singles? Where the hell’s “Soma”?

Man all you kids… my opinion is WAAAAAY more fucking important than yours!!! I would have voted for Skinny Puppy’s “dogshit” as the best song ever! or Vanilla Ice or how about Fucking MANOWAR… Best band EVER!!! Here are some titles: Die for Metal, Brothers of Metal… Kings of Metal… The God’s Made Heavy Metal… Secret of Steel… Every band you like would get schooled by this shit… If Jimi Hendrix came back to life he would join Manowar… Stevie Ray Vaughn he’d join manowar too… Rhandy Rhodes… dude he’d want to be in manowar so bad… but he’d just be their roadie… If Johnny Cash could have only made another album he would only cover songs written Manowar or Marilyn Manson. Fuck the Led Zeppelin reunion Jimmy Page is joining up with Manowar too. Manowar would kill David Lee Roth to get Eddie Van Halen unfortunately mid way through tour he will realize that smoking does give you cancer for real. Lynyrd Skynyrd is a cover band these days and half of those fuckers are dead… Their one remaining guitarist… That’s right He’d join Styx, realize how much they suck, then join Manowar. Keith Richards… he contributed to Manowar’s last album… Their about to tour together. David Gilmour would reform Pink Floyd with Manowar and play all of the classics even better than Roger Waters, Roger Waters would then in turn start performing Manowar songs and sing them off key to get back at David Gilmour. Manowar actually played at Kurt Cobains Funeral by his last request, he signed it on the suicide note that Courtney Love wrote for him (Dictated not read). Pearl Jam hasn’t written a good album since their first three their solution is that Mike Mccready, Stone Gossard, Jonny Greenwood and and Lenny Kravitz would form a Manowar cover band the chick from the white stripes and play vegas. Meg White has vowed to finally learn the double bass just for the purpose and is finally expanding to a full kit. Jack White thinks Manowar are the most influential band on his career as an actor. John Lennon actually fathered all of the members of Manowar (past and present) that’s why their so fucking awesome Paul McCartney plans to marry again but to only former wives of Manowar members, he plans to join a polygamist sect in order to do so. Slash started gun’s and roses as a tribute band to Manowar and Genesis. Red Hot Chili Peppers got their first break while touring with Manowar and Prince. The half time show where Prince took a jab at the Foo Fighters also included a ten minute opening that was edited for length issues that featured classic solos from Manowars first album. Manowar deserve their own Guitar Hero special edition with actual real guitars programmed specially for Manowar. All you kids will learn to shred the proper way instead of learning 5 colored keys so you better get to practicing those licks… Oh yeah despite the fashion of the film Back to the future starring Michael J. Fox which contains a historical inaccuracy… Manowar actually built a time machine and traveled through time and space to the time of Christ and wrote the original Johnny B. Goode which Chuck Berry Covered almost two thousand years later. The original recording was put in the cave with Christ and the recording was later recovered by archeologists and given to Chuck to help the plight of African Americans. If you play Manowar’s second album backwards you can actually hear Christ and the Devil having a discussion about the strengths of the album in comparrison to other contemporary music at the time. Metallica’s riffs have all originated from a lick originally written by Manowar, the BeeGees, a Donna Summers album, or as in the case of Load and up they borrowed from Hanson, the barking dog cd and the theme song from M*A*S*H, Never mind the math on that one Load was influenced by Hanson Lars got a advanced copy with his superior negotiating powers. On A side note Black Sabbath, Billy Corgan, R.A.T.M. are collaborating on a song about how people who argue the merits of one band’s bad ass song over the other are fucking lame, Manowar will contribute as a producer. Now Fucking Rock Out to these Manowar Lyrics…

Strike while the iron is hot
Steel is strongest so say we all
And if we all were not brothers of metal would we fall? - no -
They tried to test our spirit
They tasted steel before we were done
Grinding their bones into the dust of the past
All blown away like a shot from a gun

We cast our lot together four still stand as one
Here well remain forever till our kingdoms one

Brothers of metal
We are fighting with power and steel
Fighting for metal metal thats real
Brothers of metal will always be there
Standing together with hands in the air

Let us drink to the power drink to the sound
Thunder and metal are shaking the ground
Drink to your brothers who are never to fall
Were all brothers of metal here in the hall

Our hearts are filled with metal and masters we have none
And we will die for metal, metal heals, my son

Brothers of metal
We are fighting with power and steel
Fighting for metal metal thats real
Brothers of metal will always be there
Standing together with hands in the air

Let us drink to the power drink to the sound
Thunder and metal are shaking the ground
Drink to your brothers who are never to fall
Were all brothers of metal here in the hall

Brothers of metal
We are fighting with power and steel
Fighting for metal metal thats real
Brothers of metal will always be there
Standing together with hands in the air

ps people who need lists to tell them what their favorite song should be are douches…

At least Cherub Rock made the list! Wahey!!

You dont need to have intense guitar playing to be a great song cobain hated teen spirit but it still was simple and catchy. it changed the world far more than any other song out there thats why it made the number 1 spot

Dear Sean:

I know of no one under the age of 16 who has even heard of Paranoid Android, if that was what you were implying.

I’m a huge Nirvana fan, but i would have put Teen spirit around 5-6. IMO, #1 should have been Jumpin’ Jack Flash by the stones. Oh, and btw, I am a 14 year old, and I listen to the stones constantly. Also, for the Record, It’s Ball and Biscuit, honestly, I would have assumed they would get THAT right.

“Wet Sand” being ignored once again…this is ridiculous!!!…RHCP RULE!

this list is retarded, anybody really into music is laughing at this list, its obvious children did the voting. rolling stone should be embarressed…..shine on syd!!

EVERYONE JUST FORGET ABOUT THE CLASH!OR RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! A BUNCH OF MUSICAL HEATHENS!

I’m positively surprised to see nirvana at number one.

Don’t ever do reader polls ever again. This list is embarrassing. Smells LTS is only #1 because everybody and their mother can play the song.

Also, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “November Rain” are primarily piano songs. (Although they have excellent solos) Did people even read what they were voting for? Or can all the Fall Out Boy listeners out there not tell the difference between a guitar and a piano?

can anyone read…its the READERS top 25….so if you didnt send in whatever song you wanted lost out…a whole bunch of kids pick a few crappy songs therefore they’re on this list..and without a doubt this list is a lame excuse more or less for guitar songs but you cant be pissed or base an opinion about a artist or a song…if you read issue with the top 100 songs they hit a nice number of songs and artists you guys and gals are complaing about so shut up and deal with it, other people have and opinion as well as you although it may not be the best

It doesn’t matter what songs are on these stupid lists. Everyone one will still find a reason to complain because it didn’t hit close enough to home for them. By the way, Cobain was actually a very good guitar player. He just didn’t write in a complex/difficult form. Otherwise no one would have paid any attention the way they did. Especially with the short attention span these kids have today. Lets all just admit that these songs are good. And the ones everyone else has mentioned, too.

pretty much the worst list ive ever seen. teen spirit was a hit but is really one of the tackiest riffs ive ever heard with a guitar solo that only follows the vocal line (how creative). without clapton, this list has no validity, but then again, i figure only 14 year olds read rolling stone. im shocked that 50 cent didnt somehow make this list

hey los… on your clapton note: he played the guitar on While My Guitar Gently Weeps which was #9. i mean, how much higher do you need him to be?

I agree that Teen Spirit isn’t the greatest guitar song ever, and Kurt Cobain would for sure agree, after all he said the song is basically a Pixies ripoff. Now where is Stevie Ray Vaughn on this list, Texas Flood should be in the top five. Oh and Led Zeppelin has so many other songs that are better than Stairway to Heaven, please put something else on there for once.

um,,,,this was a reader vote. Not what DBS thinks. Same goes for the rest of you holier than thou know it alls. jeesh, the time wasted on such bullsh#t.

hey luis h., you no speaka da english, eh?

everyone that is overlook is because yo did’t post them and if “smell..” is in that place is because of the same reason

No Eric Clapton, Bo Didly, Allman Brothers, The Ventures, George Thoughrogood, Steevie Ray? (I could go on and on here) Hang your head in shame. Your list (and Research Analysis Dept.) is ignorant to the history of Rock and Roll. Apparently “of all time” means anywhere between 1981 and the present. You guys should be ashamed of passing on such nonsense information.

I agree with Sean. I was almost positive either Hendrix or Led Zep would top the list. Granted, they’re all good songs by good artists, but it looks like whoever voted seems to lack some appreciation in guitar history. I just think it’s ironic that the artist topping the list probably has the least amount of guitar playing skills (no offense to Cobain, who was an amazing songwriter, but-let’s face it-was not the best guitarist, and this is coming from a HUGE Nirvana fan). One other sidenote, though: Cream or Clapton? Nowhere to be found. Honestly, people?

Money? What about the mind-blowing solos in Time or Comfortably Numb; surely these are great guitar songs by PINK FLOYD

wow this one sorry list. honestly the worst i have ever seen do rolling stone’s readers even listen to music or even know what a guitar is? and no its not that thing that plugs into the xbox. kurt cobain could barly play guitar never the less be ranked one of the best. pathetic..

This definitely was a 90’s heavy list.
One thing that sticks out is the complete lack of “deep cuts”. In most cases, the best guitar work isn’t on the radio songs, but yet that’s what nearly all of this list is comprised of.
Wasn’t “November Rain” like 10 minutes of piano with a couple of the most uninteresting solos Slash ever did?

I don’t think even Kurt Cobain would consider Smells Like Teen Spirit the greatest guitar song of all time.

Where is Santana?
or The Who.
Those guys rocked pretty hard.

Can’t believe they were overlooked

It’s pretty easy, by #1 and #2, to tell what demographic the polling ended up skewing towards.

‘Teen Spirit’ is a great song but I hardly consider it the greatest guitar song of all time.