With the recent news that Blender might not be long for the world, it’s good to see that Rolling Stone is stepping up to fill the subjective list void. To construct a list that is sure to have something annoying for everyone, the magazine uses the following criteria:

This is what makes a great rock & roll guitar sound: an irresistible riff; a solo or jam that takes you higher every time you hear it; the final power chord that pins you to the wall and makes you hit "play" again and again. Every song here has those thrills. But these are rock's greatest guitar moments because of what's inside the notes: hunger, fury, despair and joy, often all at once.

And what guitar riff, might you ask, most fully encompasses the hunger, fury, and despair of true rock greatness? The answer is “Johnny B. Goode,” by Mr. Chuck Berry.  There’s no denying that the song has a sweet guitar line, but methinks the good people at Rolling Stone see a little bit more in that one than most music fans. Jimi Hendrix is in second place with “Purple Haze,” and the top five is rounded out by Cream’s “Crossroads,” “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks, and “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones. While most music fans will have an axe to grind with a list as sweeping as this, the most grievous errors have to be the inclusion of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” before anything by Led Zeppelin, and the criminal (yes, criminal) placement of Randy Rhoads tour de force on “Crazy Train” at number fifty-one on the list. Crazy, indeed. [Rolling Stone]