Originally Posted by mr dave

frusciante is kind of like flea in a sense. he'll get listed as a top player on most lists by people who don't really know much about the respective instruments. they (like the chilis) are gateway musicians, if you start paying attention to them and reading their interviews you WILL learn about greater musicians.

if you only compare him to the readily available mainstream (both above and below ground versions) then he'll come across as one of the top guys. on the other hand if you start comparing him to more avant garde and experimental musicians he's still not that bad but not nearly as outstanding as some people would like you to believe.

ultimately frusciante is like a modern hendrix only difference is it's impossible to directly compare hendrix to a predecessor and frusciante's comparison is incredibly obvious.

having said that, he'll still always be in my personal top 3 (tied with hillel slovak) along with hendrix and kim thayil.