They have an agenda.

Jerry Reed is a guitarists guitarists. Can play any style, yet has his own distinct one.

Fuckin Rolling Stone is completely irrelevant anyway man. All poppy sheet and no idea of talent

Who chopped that guitar up, what a mess.

He is now my favorite guitarist beating out Roy Buchanan, Jeff Beck, John Renbourn and Danny Gatton.

@Clifford Yawn no

He was chets son in law

lol!

​@@jonwhite1134no. Not hardly.

I don't see how Roy Clark didn't get to tack "CGP" onto his name. His performances of 'Malaguena' (v=Pz2hXI7Ny9I)) with or without a couple of hours of concert straddling either side of that particular six-minute piece -- IMO -- really oughta had marked him up. Roy played a lot, and a lot of styles, too. I'll absolutely throw down with Jerry any day of the week/fortnight/month/year/decade/etc., but I'm saddened when recognition is preceded by "lack of". -- How many people would be upset if I wrote, "Keap you're peddle two the meddle, sun nevvre mind them breaks"?

@@MWGrossmann Yeh Roy Clark was well should be in that lot to, no doubt.

Truth. I never thought of Jerry as underrated because I was listening to him before I could talk (thanks to my dad). He was extremely popular as a country singer songwriter with great guitar leads and duets on his albums (glad my dad enjoyed his boom*chick instrumentals; it was my mom who liked his country music songs; me not too much). Plus, he was on TV all the time playing his guitar-- mostly on the music TV Hee Haw (sometimes with Chet!), either by himself or dueling with Roy Clark-- another master guitarist, but he was known for his lightning speed flat picking (as opposed to finger picking). My second guitar teacher (I started at age 7 in the mid 1970s) loved Jerry and played like him all the time. Every guitarist I knew knew of and thought Jerry was insanely talented. He was also always mentioned in Guitar Player. Smokey and The Bandit brought him fame outside the country music and Travis and Boom*Chick guitar playing categories, respectively.

@@MWGrossmann It was up to Chet to confer the honor. Some say there were only three, others say five. According to Wiki, the late great Marcel Dadi was one of the CGP's but apparently being able to play Chet and Jerry as well if not better than they could isn't good enough. The Dadi albums with Chet are all superb, however.

nobody underrates Jerry Reed . . . try again

Jimi Hendrix couldn't play this good

toscodav Totally different styles, but yeah Jerry is top 100 all time easy.

man thank you! every time I watch chet and jerry play I think the same thing. Anyone who says Jimi Hendrix or Jimi Page could play like these guys really don't know much about the guitar. This is a perfect example of how amazing Jerry really is, and Jerry's Breakdown is a great example of Chet and Jerry when they play it live. I'm glad to know there are other people kicking around that feel the same.

The difference between Hendrix and Jerry is Jerry is picker and Hendrix is a strummer. A picker plays both ends of the guitar and a strummer plays only one end. Much harder to be a picker plus Jerry sang while he played so he is doing 3 things at the same time. Rolling Stone isn't sophisticated enough to understand this. BB King who was listed by Rolling Stone as the greatest Guitar player ever can't sing and play guitar at the same time.

toscodav I don't think you have to take anybody down to build Jerry up. Hendrix was great. BB is great too. And of course Rolling Stone is a rag that cannot be taken seriously.

+thekingcobra63 There's literally no better combination of words to describe this.

@JESSE DANIEL I believe you're right.... SON!

I've got him at #2 on my list, behind only Chet Atkins.

@@cirrustate8674 Chet Atkins learned his main style (Travis picking) from him.

@@cirrustate8674And Chet had Jerry as #1 on his own list! 😊

I completely agree I've been playing for nearly thirty years and I had a hard time learning their stuff always loved it

Jerry, Chet, Roy and Glenn. People don’t realize that metal bands took lessons from these guys.

Or Glenn Campbell.

He has at least one Grammy and played on Elvis's album on a cover of his own song. He got some decent recognition though

Because it's near impossible to do, even for experienced guitar players.

Brilliant commentary, sir. Brilliant.

@ wagstag So true. Ciao

You took the words right out of my mouth. He was a huge talent.

Damn good comment.

LOLOL!!!

tomhits he had a long way to go.... But I do believe he got there....

Well, right after he puts that hammer down and gives 'em hell.

Clever! I remember watching a "making of" special about Smokey & the Bandit. I'm paraphrasing, but after a number of days of shooting, they pulled Jerry aside and asked about the music he had agreed to create for the film. His response was, "Oh sure, let me play a few licks I've been working on." As he played, no notes, just straight from the brain, the production execs looked at each other as if to say "We were worried?"

or just guitarists

@@cremebrulee6667 is still interested to know how long you yesterday yi

I loved Elvis’s “ guitar man” when I was a little kid, big influence on me

@@gearzilla4112 You mean Elvis' rendition of Jerry's "Guitar Man"?

MoonEyes Plays yup, it was kinda cool.. show em son! we don’t need no guitar man round here sonnnnnn....!

@@mooneyesplays7 You know that Jerry Reed played the guitar on Elvis' "Guitar Man" don't you?

@@drivernjax You know that that's because Jerry Reed WROTE the song, and recorded it before Elvis', and they couldn't get a guitarplayer that could do it right other than Jerry, don't you?

I don't know about that, Marcin (a younger fellow) is another level. Tommy Emmanuel is also quite brilliant.

May I suggest you listen to GC and what everyone says about him. Sorry, but he was on another level from everyone else.

"Period" 🙄

Chet Atkins claimed Jerry was the best he heard.

Phil Emmanuel does a great version of this song!

garcemac jerry reed was a musician way before Smokey and the bandit.... he also wrote and sang all the songs in that movie

I know him from gator!

But I also knew him from hee haw appearances and porter Wagoner.

I had forgotten he was actually talented. It's been so long since these days.

So true!

yeah, I knew he played, but I didn't know he could play like THIS….. awesome!

Brilliant PERIOD!!!!

John Rainey Why does it make me think of banjo playing? Is that the same technique? And would that be called classical guitar playing???

@@mgordan6355Jerry's early style was based on Merle Travis' fingerpicking style. It was unique in that it heavily incorporated "banjo rolls" as part of the guitar playing approach! So yep, you picked up on that stylistic similarity which remained an influence on Jerry's playing his whole life. He was an amazing talent, but what I rarely hear people mention is, he was also known for practicing 10+ hours a day! Talent + hard work, he was an incredible player...

Right on Daniel Reed! I'm sure Jerry watched out to protect his hands and such, but he fished a lot (got his fingers stuck by hooks) and did most of his own chores and general work around his house. By the way, nothing Jerry did on the guitar actually surprised me (he was awesome - awesome), but I find it interesting that in this song he threw in a couple of "octaves." Rare is it that a country picker (call his style whatever you'd like) throws in some octaves in his playing. Jerry had an, over-the-top musical creativity and I'm sure he simply felt those octaves needed to be there at that particular juncture of the song. It sure works. Manoman what a talent. I wish I could had met him, if only for five or ten minutes. Stevo

Well put. :)