Entertainment For Lively Minds
My 10
Posted by Gordon Kerr on 26 June 2009 - 2:48pm.
Elvis Presley
The Beatles
Chuck Berry
Buddy Holly
Frank Sinatra
Ella Fitzgerald
Marvin Gaye
James Brown
Brian Wilson
Bob Dylan
No Michael Jackson I'm afraid although he'd be on the subs bench
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My 10
Elvis Presley
The Beatles
Johnny Cash
Ray Charles
Frank Sinatra
Bob Marley
Brian Wilson
Bob Dylan
Prince
Michael Jackson
I'm not a huge fan of MJ, but I think he has to be there.
Elvis Chuck Berry Rolling
Elvis
Chuck Berry
Rolling Stones
The Who
Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Willie Nelson
Johnny Cash
Bob Marley
David Bowie
10 what, though?
Seriously, some parameters are required.
You only need 3
Elvis. Beatles. Michael Jackson
'50s, '60s. . .'80s
You forgot the '70s: ABBA.
Marley
Mine today (in no particular order)
And these are the ones that mean the most to me (I have decided I cannot speak on behalf of everyone else - I don't have the energy. Its been a long week).
Morrissey/The Smiths
New Order
Sigur Ros
The Beatles
Frank Sinatra
George Gershwin
Elvis Presley
Johnny Cash
Bob Marley
The Undertones
For what
it's worth. In no particular order-
The Beatles. ( Frankly, any ten without them simply can't be taken seriously ).
Elvis. ( If only for his Sun recordings ).
Howlin Wolf. ( Did what Elvis did only much better- but was black. And ugly ).
Hank Williams. ( Hillbilly Shakespeare doncha know. Although he only 'read' comic books and was reputedly illiterate ).
Bob Dy- ( Oh, you know who I mean ).
The Stones. ( Defined 'rock band'. Pantomimic now but untouchable between 64 and 72 ).
Jimi Hendrix. ( Before him the electric guitar sounded like elastic bands being twanged down the cardboard tube of a discarded toilet roll ).
Frank Sinatra. ( Nastier than any rocker. Wore suits though. )
Velvet Underground. ( The only real rivals to The Stones in defining what it is to be a 'rock band'. Records were often rubbish but they wore shades like no other ).
David Bowie. ( No two albums sound the same. Took risks. Was occasionally a prat. Always on the verge of genius ).
Bubbling under are The Kinks, The Who and The Smiths.
So...
Assuming this is a list of the most influential acts in the history of recorded music:
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Les Paul
Frank Sinatra
Hank Williams
Miles Davis
Elvis Presley
Bob Dylan
The Beatles
Kraftwerk
Difficult to argue
I would take out Dylan just because i feel he is over-praised and probably replace him with another jazzer. Jelly roll morton, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker - take your pick.
Can see we are getting pretty near a consensus
But interesting how difficult it is to see artists from after 1977ish getting into the frame. The Smiths I think is an excellent shout as they surely defined what an indie band should be as no others have. So on this basis a post-1977 top five would have to include
Smiths
Prince
Michael Jackson
but beyond this I'm struggling, Kraftwerk and Bowie were established by then. Anyone want to pitch post-77ers who could get into a five-a-side?
Good Point!
I hadn't thought of it like that, but you're right - post-'77 is somewhat sparse in the 'all-timers' list.
Guess you have to consider Nirvana, and I'd throw Shane MacGowan into the mix, but after that I'm struggling.
Radioh...
Oh, it doesn't matter.
I´m sorry but
Had Nirvana been what they are if Kurt had still been alive? Impossible to know, but I´m guessing no.
Mine
Jimi Hendrix
Michael Jackson
Ray Charles
The Beatles
Billie Holliday
James Brown
The Rolling Stones
Stevie Wonder
Aretha Franklin
Johnny Cash
Mine
Amon Düül II
Budgie
Peter Sarstedt
Slayer
George Chisholm
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Anita Harris
The Bachelors
Jesus and Mary Chain
Dana
I'd forgotten Slayer
but you are taking the piss with JAMC aren't you?
Sorry
It was a braino. I meant the Sisters of Mercy.
And Anita Harris
- not Vikki Carr?
I was going to suggest Nana Mouskouri
But I was afraid this would invalidate the rest of my Top 10 list
Sure you didn't mean
Anthea Redfern?
Vikki
I always found her tiresomely derivative, but each to his own, I suppose. But would we have had, say, "Rehab" or "Mercy" without Anita's "Just Loving You"? I don't think so.
Just as in Iran
let the people decide
For me it's VC's earthiness and husk over AH's control and sweetness
And it was my old Dad's favourite. God rest him
Not that I'm trying to win the sympathy vote or anything
Cor!!!!
Vikki Carr......Hot or Not?
Budgie...
inspired millions of kids to carry their turds around with them in a shoebox.
...all kinds of everything there, Archie...
non?
Nice to see the Bachelors making a return
Do you find that Mrs V goes out a fair bit when you've got the dansette fired up?
For What It's Worth...
Mine goes up to eleven...
1.) Bob Marley.
2.) Bob Dylan.
3.) James Brown.
4.) Jimi Hendrix.
5.) Lee Perry.
6.) Miles Davis.
7.) Brian Wilson.
8.) Johnny Cash.
9.) Hank Williams.
10.) John Coltrane.
11.) Otis Redding.
And still
No Spinal Tap?
The Sex Pistols
Sorry, any list worth it's salt has to include The Pistols. Punk changed all sorts of things along the way and left an influence that is still being felt today.
Oh and Bob Bloody Geldof for letting the dinosaurs in again with Live Aid. Bastard.
No one
Agrees with me on this, but I feel Sex Pistols/McLaren ruined punk and turned it into a fashion. Before them it was about short snappy songs with all the fat taken out, after them it seems it was mainly about putting a safety pin through your nose. I can´t deny their importance of course, but I still feel their part as "inventors of punk" is all a misunderstanding.
Maybe I would feel different had I been a teen in the late seventies.
10 off the wall influential bands.
Trying to get away from the usual icons...
1. Byrds - from Big Star to Teenage Fanclub and the whole Rickenbacker jangly twanging power pop scene.
2. Bo Diddley - everybody has to have at least one song with a Bo Diddley beat.
3. Gary Glitter - likewise the Glitter band's tribal glam stomp has to be slipped in somewhere in the repertoire.
4. Marc Bolan - that famous stabbing rythym guitar crops up on no end of songs.
5. Pixies - the quiet loud quiet template for Nirvana and countless other grunge and indie bands.
6. Discharge - awesome hardcore punk from Stoke On Trent started the punk/metal crossover Metallica, Anthrax etc etc
7. Dr. Feelgood - many New York CBGBs arty types were actually influenced by Essex boys live album Stupidity.
8. Ramones - taught the UK punks how it was done with their first London gigs.
9. Buzzcocks - first independent single release and they got the Sex Pistols sorted for their first gig in Manchester which was witnessed by most of the local scene, Ian Curtis, Mozzer etc.
10. Love - psychedelics that influenced the Liverpool scene Teardrop Explodes, Shack, Coral.
A Jazz Ten
Davis
Coltrane
Mingus
Monk
Blakey
Webster
Ellington
Holiday
Fitzgerald
Rollins
A fine list - but where's Armstrong?
Over on the Michael Jackson thread, which is where I guess this top 10 idea started, someone suggested that Jackson was the black artist who had most influenced white music. I think there's a strong case for Louis Armstrong being up there as well - a huge influence on black and white artists
His Hot Five and Seven recordings in the twenties established the idea of the central improvising soloist, and moved jazz away from the polyphony of New Orleans, and so influenced all the instrumentalists you have named. And also his colloquial swinging vocal style influenced both jazz and pop singers from Crosby, Holliday and Sinatra onwards. And this is still felt in popular music today.
But I don't know who I would leave out of your list to accommodate Armstrong - all key figures. (Perhaps we could turn it up to eleven.)
I agree with you Melville
Louis Armstrong is a hugely influential figure. My list is 'a' list - from a period of Jazz I relate to more. My favourite era is actually hard-bop but I recognise that for originality the be-bop era is more influential. Louis predates all of that but forged what was later to come. So let's drop Sonny Rollins (as brilliant as he is) and replace with Satchmo. Job done!
If these top 10s are about influence..
then Rollins is probably the one to ease out, with cap doffed in respect, as the others were more influential. But still a great musician, and I've always slightly preferred him to Coltrane- there is always some joy in his playing (something that Armstrong also had).
Influential...
Fela Kuti
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Fairuz
Umm Kulthum
Victor Jara
Asha Bhosle
Ravi Shankar
James Brown
Another ten
Aretha Franklin
Debbie Harry
Diana Ross
Janis Joplin
Joni Mitchell
Kylie
Madonna
Patsy Cline
Patti Smith
Tammy Wynette
It depends
Who is influencing whom to do what...
What about...
Public Enemy
Kate Bush
To name but two...
We are standing on the shoulders of giants...
Bing Crosby
No-one has mentioned Bing.
Like him or loathe him he was massive through the 30's and 40's and well into the 50's. He probably had more influence than Sinatra (who was a big fan of Bing). He changed the way singers were perceived. Until he came along the singer was usually just a member of the band with a good set of vocal chords who stood up to sing once in a while. Bing was there just to sing. Suddenly he was the focus of attention and not just a member of the band. Then he went solo. The world of popular entertainment changed.
*points over there*
I mentioned him in the original thread that this came from :
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/michael-jackson-1958-2009
I agree entirely with your point. :)
Oh, go on then. I will probably change my mind tomorrow but...
Beethoven (argue amongst yourselves)
Gershwin
Robert Johnson
Buddy Holly
The Beatles
Jimi Hendrix
Bob Marley
The Ramones
Kate Bush
Michael Jackson
Here's my 10
Ah, F*** it, that'll do
Wilmer X should be up there!
My Top Ten
For What It's Worth
Tchaikovsky
The Beatles
XTC
ELO
ABBA
Elvis Costello
The Beach Boys
The Divine Comedy
The Go Betweens
Bob Dylan
Come off it!
Who did ELO influence?
Who Did ELO iinfluence ?
I don't care I just love em
anyway just a few
air
daft punk
The divine Comedy
Sorry...
I didn't read back far enough (lazy get!) - I thought it was the 10 artists who you thought had influenced music the most - not just 10 artists who you like. I'm not sure about the Air and Daft Punk connection - unless they've actually cited ELO themselves as an influnce.
Then again...
Phil Spector?
Fred Astaire?
I'm getting over a hangover and coffee deprivation. I'll think about it later.
Based on what´s on my shelf
The Band
The Beatles
Bruce Springsteen
Bob Dylan
Eddie Cochran
Elvis Costelloe
Hank Williams
Johnny Cash
Randy Newman
Tom Waits
If you don't mind me saying...
very male and very white - but if that's what you like.
Not to mention..
..middle-class and middle aged.
U rite bro
moozick suck anywez - me too bizzy wiv da dank n mi bitches
dissrispek me bro - get skank - pwn yo ass
Seen?
Peace. We out
R U svenska?
,
Only for the girls from ABBA...
No, I just turned my baseball cap around and a stream of absolute gibberish came out
10 that I'll listen to forever
1. Pearl Jam
2. Bob Dyla
3. Jimi Hendrix
4. Jeff Buckley
5. Eric Satie
6. Frederic Chopin
7. The Rolling Stones
8. The Beatles
9. Nina Simone
10. The Funk Brothers ( is that cheating ? )
Mein
Louis Jordan
Art Tatum
The Beatles
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonder
David Bowie
Kraftwerk
Brian Eno
Nick Lowe
Derrick May