Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time

I got a little booklet with the last issue of Mojo magazine and it listed their picks for the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of all time. Here are their picks for the years 1976 through the present (I picked that timeframe because it is sorta the beginning of the punk era). I’d be interested to hear everybody else’s picks for best guitar albums.

Ramones – Ramones (1976)
Marquee Moon – Television (1977)
Never Mind the Bollocks – The Sex Pistols (1977)
Van Halen – Van Halen (1978)
C’est Chic – Chic (1978)
Metal Box – Public Image Ltd. (1979)
Boy – U2 (1980)
Back in Black – AC/DC (1980)
Damaged – Black Flag (1981)
Fire of Love – The Gun Club (1981)
Pirates Choice – Orchestra Baobab (1982)
Kill ‘Em All – Metallica (1983)
The Smiths – The Smiths (1984)
New Day Rising - Husker Du (1985)
Psychocandy – The Jesus and Mary Chain (1985)
Evol – Sonic Youth (1986)
Reign in Blood – Slayer (1987)
Songs About Fucking – Big Black (1987)
Surfer Rosa – Pixies (1988)
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)
Loveless – My Bloody Valentine (1991)
Nevermind – Nirvana (1991)
Spiderland – Slint (1991)
The Bends – Radiohead (1995)
Elephant – The White Stripes (2003)

David Lee Roth - Eat 'Em And Smile
Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy
Iron Maiden - Live After Death

i think they were all 1986? i remember wasting my last year of school, drinking beer and listening to those

\m/ (>.<) \m/

the living end....austrailian rockabilly punk.

Daydream Nation- Sonic Youth (1988)
Goo-Sonic Youth (1990)
come on die young Mogwai (1997)
Death to all Nels Cline The Nels Cline Singers (2000)
Ghost Town Bill Friswell(1999)
American Nervoso Botch (2001)
Endless Summer Fennez (2001)
Pat Metheny, maybe (?)

ELECTRIC LADYLAND
WHEELS OF FIRE
THE WHO LIVE AT LEEDS
ABRAXAS
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS AT FILLMORE EAST
LED ZEPPELIN IV
EXILE ON MAIN STREET
LONDON CALLING
ZEN ARCADE
DAYDREAM NATION
NEVERMIND

[Edited on Aug 25, 2003 by zenhell]

Are You Experienced? ~ Jimi Hendrix
Axis Bold as Love ~ Jimi Hendrix
Birds of Fire ~ Mahavishnu Orchestra
Born Under A Bad Sign ~ Albert King
DayDream Nation ~ Sonic Youth
Disraeli Gears ~ Cream
Django Reinhardt ~ Django Reinhardt
Exile On Main Street ~ The Rolling Stones
Houses of the Holy ~ Led Zeppelin
Question and Answer ~ Pat Metheny
Ramones ~ Ramones
Rare Birds ~ Joe Diorio/ Mick Goodrick
Revolver ~ The Beatles
Santana ~ Santana
The Segovia Collection ~ Andres Segovia
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar ~ Frank Zappa
Smokin' at the Half-Note ~ Wes Montgomery
Van Halen ~ Van Halen
Virtuoso ~ Joe Pass

Iggy Pop - New Values
P. J. Harvey - Rid of Me
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Van Halen - Van Halen
Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare
Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
AC/DC - Back in Black

I liked Guitar's earlier stuff, but ever since "Here Comes Guitar" it has all been downhill.

Reign in Blood - Slayer
Axis Bold as Love - Jimi Hendrix
Eternal 1919 - Black Label Society (Zakk Wylde)
Vulgar Display of Power - Pantera
Anything by Stevie Ray Vaughn!!!
Destroy Erase Improve - Meshuggah
Anthems of Rebellion - Arch Enemy

AC/DC - Powerage - The best rock and roll record ever



Jimmy Rivers with Vance Terry - Brisbane Bop Wicked country swing. Jimmy Rivers on his doubleneck Mosrite and Vance on Steel guitar send your head spinning

Protein - Ever Since I Was A Kid You've gotta hear it to believe it. Josh Zee rules.

Rumble - The Best of Link Wray The Master

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain Who says a funk band can't play rock and roll?

Sister Rosetta Tharp - The Orginal Soul Sister Amen, sister!

Charlie Christain - Genius of the Electric Guitar One of the first to plug in and take off

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz Randy Fuckin' Rhoades


Julie London - Julie Is Her Name Barney Kessel is sublime on this one.

Travis Wammack - That Scratchy Guitar From Memphis Jimi Hendrix stole a lot from this guy

oh so many more...

Maybe I missed it... but haven't yet seen:

"Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" (Neil Young)
"Quicksilver Messenger Service" (Quicksilver Messenger Service)"
"Truth" (Jeff Beck)
"IrishTour" (Rory Gallagher)

I love how they always throw one album that just came out in with these "Greatest of All Time" lists.

Alright, well here goes. My criteria is the influence it had on guitar playing after it, not the player's virtuosity.

The Ramones The Ramones
The Sex Pistols Nevermind the Bollocks
Television Marquee Moon
Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
The MC5 Kick Out the Jams
Nirvana Nevermind
The Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man
Bob Dylan & the Band Blonde on Blonde
The Beatles Revolver
The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
The Kinks Kinda Kinks
The Who The Who Sings My Generation

Maybe not the greatest, but I enjoy them more than the riffs-n-solos kind...

Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
Slint - Spiderland
Sonic Youth - Evol & Washing Machine
Sigur Ros - Aegetis Byrjun

Anything with Pete Townsend.

THANK YOU!!!

I was afraid no one else would know who he is! Mr. Vai has simply ungodly talent.

I cant ever pick albums, straight up. But I know a few general geniouses...

Nirvana - Nevermind, Audioslave, or anything Tom Morello has done. Hendrix - Machine Gun, not an album, but this is like the best guitar solo ever. Led Zeppelin, anything. AC/DC, anything. A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms, Radiohead - OK Computer. Metallica - The black album, well, just about anything really.

I know I know, not huge guitar albums, but they all really showcase the skill of the musicians themselves.

You can relax, Philzilla already noted "Eat 'Em and Smile", which is a de facto Vai album.

Many of my choices have already been noted above by others.

That said, I don't think I saw anyone mentioning:
=> "The Pretenders" -- The Pretenders
=> "Grace" -- Jeff Buckley
=> "Live and Dangerous" -- Thin Lizzy
or any number of David Bowie albums that feature stellar guitar playing.

my favorite to _listen_ to:
Jimi Hendrix - Are you Experienced?
- Blues (compilation from '94)
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Richard Thompson - Watching the Dark (compilation)
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
AC/DC - Back in Black
Willie Nelson - something live a friend of mine has, but I can't remember right now...and Stardust
Led Zepplin - IV
the Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Neil Young - Everbody knows this is Nowhere
Spatula - Despina by Land
and that's enough

shadowy men from a shadowy planet

The Cult - Love.

Break it out and put on Pheonix.

Why does everyone think Back in Black is a good record? It has a couple good songs on it, (You Shook Me All Night Long, Shoot To Thrill, Back In Black) but as far as AC/DC goes it pales against what came before it and everything after it has been complete garbage.

Brian Johnson ain't worth a drop of the vomit in Bon Scott's lungs.

oh hell yeah,speak the word brother!!

I agree about the AC/DC, but since the focus of the list is guitar, "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Back in Black" alone qualify that album for the list.

agreed, but i would accept swappin' back in black's fun listening pleasure for highway to hell's ROCK! in deference to Bon Scott's superiority. But we are really talking about Angus, right?

this one's a little different: Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food - best rhythm guitar album i know!