Stanley Jordan, the most slept on guitarist of all time

Stanley Jordan's version of "Eleanor Rigby"


I've come to believe that the reason I enjoy the game "Guitar Hero" so much, most nights I can be found spinning around and looking at an imaginary camera with a "Glam-rock" influenced pouty-face while playing - its amazingly obvious that I'm just exercising my unfulfilled guitar potential. See, as a kid I idolized Stanley Jordan - an amazing guitarist known for his "tapping" style of play, I was so enamored by the man that I begged my parents to buy me a guitar and pay for some guitar lessons. I proved to be quite the quick study, impressing the flavor-saver of a mustache off of my then guitar teacher - I still have the image of him looking on like a proud parent, as I arrogantly folded my song book to put an exclamation point on the fact that I had already committed half of that pedestrian book to memory. But for some reason, I'm not sure if it was the waning interest in things that kids tend to have, but before long my guitar and amplifier began to collect as much dust as my penis currently has. More than 20 years later, I still have a soft spot in my heart for Mr. Stanley Jordan.

That's probably why I was so outraged when Rolling Stone failed to list him on their 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time list - I know that lists like these are usually compiled by individuals that you wouldn't trust to wash your car, but for some reason I had a higher standard for the good folks over at Rolling Stone. I mean, look at the list for Christs sake - its not beyond comprehension to say that Jordan can obliterate the likes of Joni Mitchell(#72), and say Dave Davies of the Kinks (#88)(Respectively) Come on Rolling Stone, wack ass reality shows on MTV featuring horrible writers aside, give Stanly Jordan his due.