Music: Who Are Your Top 11 Musicians of All Time?

[Elvis P]

Who are Your Top 11 Musicians of All Time? (I excluded the Blues from mine) Mine are in no order:

Bob Marley
Ray Charles
Aretha Franklin
Little Richard
James Brown
Jimi Hendrix
Chuck Berry
The Rolling Stones
Elvis Presley
Bob Dylan
The Beatles

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[Shareefruck]

I assume you just mean musicians, so....

1. John Coltrane
2. Captain Beefheart
3. The Velvet Underground
4. Bob Dylan
5. Sun Ra
6. Brian Eno
7. Thelonious Monk
8. Miles Davis
9. Faust
10. The Beatles
11. Ravi Shankar

HM. Can, Neu!, Fela Kuti, Joy Division, Aphex Twin (feels weird putting him together with that kind of company, but SAWII just blows me away so damn much)

 

[Roo Returns]

Based on technical ability or how they moved people? Do vocalists count?

I'm going to include both here or else the list would be all technical metal guitarists. Is Jaco a better bass player than boots because of how he revolutionized the bass ,or did Bootsy move more people because of the singles he was involved on?

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Miles Davis
3. Freddie Mercury
4. Minnie Rippington
5. Stevie Wonder
6. Frank Zappa
7. Django Reinhart
8. James Jamerson
9. Joe Zawinul
10. Paul Chambers
11. Joni Mitchell

 

[davemess]

Pretty rock centric list for me

1) Bob Dylan - yip
2) Richard Thompson - Once heard him described this way, "Writes like Dylan, Plays like Hendrix", and that's pretty accurate.
3) David Gilmour - Not the flashiest guitarist around but his playing tugs at my heart strings more than any other Guitarist.
4) The Band - Not sure any group has had a stronger group of vocalists and this much musical talent/variety.
5) Neil Young - Tonight's the Night might be the most heart breaking album I have ever heard.
6) Warren Zevon - Hugely underrated and sadly overlooked.
7) Bruce Springsteen
8) John Bonham
9) Jackson Browne
10) Tom Petty
11) Marcus Mumford

 

[left hand path]

Aphex Twin (feels weird putting him together with that kind of company, but SAWII just blows me away so damn much)

he's one of the few musicians i don't feel uncomfortable calling a genius

 

[OzzyFan]

All things considered I assume, I'll add "nominees"/in the discussion:

=Pink Floyd(Gilmour is listed already though)
=Stevie Ray Vaughn
=The Yardbirds
=The Doors...maybe

=Buddy Guy(just because I love his work, even though he did some things and influenced a tremendous amount of people, he might deserve here)

 

[RobBrown4PM]

1) Freddie Mercury
2) Serj Tankian
3) The Beattles
4) Dave Brockie
5) Dee Snider

 

[tony d]

1. The Rolling Stones
2. George Jones
3. Bruce Springsteen
4. The Beatles
5. Merle Haggard
6. Elvis
7. Bob Dylan
8. Queen
9. Carrie Underwood
10. Tom Petty

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Non-classical:

Louis Armstrong
James Brown
Captain Beefheart
Thelonious Monk
John Coltrane
King Tubby
Howlin' Wolf
Duke Ellington
Dixie Hummingbirds
Fela Kuti
Parliament/Funkadelic

 

[kihei]

Miles Davis
Bill Evans
Pat Metheny
John Coltraine
Paul Desmond
Vieux Farka Toure
Jimi Hendrix
Neil Young
Jonny Greenwood
Buddy Guy
Steve Winwood


HM: Thelonius Monk; Bill Bruford; John McLaughlin

 

[Shareefruck]

I'm not familiar with the former, but Vieux Farka Toure over Ali Farka Toure?

 

[kihei]

I'm not familiar with the former, but Vieux Farka Toure over Ali Farka Toure?

Great guitarist and more my style.

 

[plank]

Pretty rock centric list for me

1) Bob Dylan - yip
2) Richard Thompson - Once heard him described this way, "Writes like Dylan, Plays like Hendrix", and that's pretty accurate.
3) David Gilmour - Not the flashiest guitarist around but his playing tugs at my heart strings more than any other Guitarist.
4) The Band - Not sure any group has had a stronger group of vocalists and this much musical talent/variety.
5) Neil Young - Tonight's the Night might be the most heart breaking album I have ever heard.
6) Warren Zevon - Hugely underrated and sadly overlooked.
7) Bruce Springsteen
8) John Bonham
9) Jackson Browne
10) Tom Petty
11) Marcus Mumford

I like that list.

Rock for me also, write songs/sing/play an instrument

Pete Townshend
Neil Young
Bob Dylan
Jason Molina
Willy Vlautin
Jay Farrar
George Harrison
Jerry Garcia
Bruce Springsteen
Tom Petty
Van Morrison
Jack White
Dave Grohl

 

[Mikeaveli]

Did individual musicians instead of groups. No particular order

John Coltrane
Lou Reed
El-P
Sun Ra
Frank Zappa
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Madlib
James Brown
MF DOOM
Michael Gira
Flying Lotus

 

[Shareefruck]

Did individual musicians instead of groups. No particular order

John Coltrane
Lou Reed
El-P
Sun Ra
Frank Zappa
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Madlib
James Brown
MF DOOM
Michael Gira
Flying Lotus

Nice!

 

[Jack Straw]

Excluding classical and jazz, individuals only, in no particular order...

Jerry Garcia
Tony Rice
David Gilmour
Mark Knopfler
Paul McCartney
Bob Dylan
Joe Strummer
David Byrne
Ian Anderson
David Grisman
Lowell George

 

[Big Ed]

My favorites (assuming that's what this thread is for) in no order

Pat The Bunny
Jesse Lacey
Erik Petersen
Chuck Ragan
Mike Kinsella
Billy Bragg
Jeff Rosenstock
John Darnielle
Theo Hilton
Scott Sturgeon
Chris Clavin

 

[Jumptheshark]

I think people are confusing themselves and others on the list

are we talking about Top Popular Musicians or top talented musicians

I will pick on one listed person as an example

Elvis Presley--while he was a good singer. As a guitarist he was not that good. in Elvis' early years a guy named Scotty Moore played all lead guitars on the recordings and Elvis mimed them on tv shows, in later years it was a guitarist names James Burton(who is a very good guitarist). And of the about 1200 songs that Elvis recorded--he actually only co-wrote I think 9 or 10 songs. The actual lyrics and music were written by other people

 

[Voight]

The Rolling Stones
Neil Young
Bruce Springsteen
The Beatles
Tom Cochrane
Elvis
Bob Dylan
Queen
Dave Grohl
Tom Petty
Johnny Cash

 

[The Waffler]

In no order.

The Rolling Stones
The Band
Led Zeppelin
The Eagles
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Johnny Cash
The Tragically Hip
Waylon Jennings
Jim Croce
Merle Haggard
Creedence Clearwater Revival

 

[Miamipuck]

I am going with the one I think is the most talented American artist of the last 50 years:

Stevie Ray Vaughn

but music is subjective, he was only mentioned once so far in this thread and there are a ton of people that have been that I think couldn't touch him as a musician. Again, only my opinion.

 

[Shareefruck]

Something about Stevie Ray Vaughan's music puts me off. Personally, I've always thought of greatness as having a helluva lot more to do with sense than talent anyways, so a guy being a super physically talented musician doesn't really mean a whole lot to me.

 

[Archangel]

Here are mine and why.

Randy Rhodes. While mostly known as Ozzy's guitarist. Randy also played 12 string acoustic classical music. About a month or so before he died he did a performance where it was just him and his 12 string.

Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. 40 years of Rush and so many different styles

Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Jeff Beck--I put these guys together in one bunch

Yngwie Malmsteen some of his lesser known stuff is his best

Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Clapton--all belong in the same category

Willie Dixon, BB King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker--Without those four --most of the guys mentioned above would not have existed

Gatemouth Brown(saw him play when he was 75--still blowing away guys 1/2 his age), Lightening Hopkins. Son House(if you can get his recordings from the 30s/40sthey will blow your socks off. Elmore Lenard.

Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lead Belly,

those are just the Guitarists--will do other spots later

 

[Pavelski2112]

Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, Neil Peart
Les Claypool, Larry Lalonde, Tim Alexander
Mike Einziger
Frank Zappa
Dean/Gene Ween
Michael Manring
Jean Baudin
M.I.R.V.
Todd Huth
cEvin Key
Danny Elfman, Steve Bartek

 

[Augscura]

Chuck Schuldiner
Luc Lemay
Phil Tougas
Mikael Akerfeldt
Nobuo Uematsu
Masami Ueda
Koji Kondo
Masafumi Takada
Shoji Meguro
Shinji Hosoe
David Wise