[The Poet]

As for the validity, or lack of same, of that Rolling Stone list, one must first begin by accepting the difficulty (if not impossibility) of comprising such a subjective ranking with the appearance of objectivity. That being said, we could all partly agree and largely disagree with it. Jimi first? If not a given, at least hard to dispute. Clapton two? OK, hard to argue, though if you listen to Key To The Highway off the Layla album you'd hear he's the second-best guitarist of that song. Jeff Beck at five? Ehh, pne could quibble, but that's about right, even though it is one spot below Keith Richards. But Pete Townshend at ten and Freddy King at fifteen, while Johnny Winter and John McLaughlin are buried in the sixties? I saw all four of those guys live, and that's just dumb. No offense to Pete or Freddy, as the one was better than often given credit and the other is too sadly ignored by most. Still, I'd put the the two Johns above both of them, not fifty spots below.

Yet here is where the subjective clashes with the objective. I like what and whom I like, as do you.