The 10 Biggest Classic Rock Douchebags

LA Weekly ^ | July 15, 2014 | Jonny Whiteside

[EveningStar]

While rock 'n' roll is necessarily classified as a form of pop music, it is actually an idiom whose radical, destructive primitivism established a new type of socio-cultural disorder. It's about rejection of the status quo and celebration of the dis-imprisonment it instills.

Always exploited for profit, rock's unmanageable aspects have been steadily diluted by a sinister, commercially driven course of revisionist myth-making. There is no acceptable role in the marketplace for radicals like Charlie Feathers, Poly Styrene, Lux Interior or Roky Erickson, but there's always room for the homogeneous, money-hungry, play-it-safe phonies on this list.

These douchebags all have one thing in common -- they screwed up rock 'n' roll, big time.

[tet68]

This guy probably wasn’t even born when Zappa was breaking
ground and Jerry was a great musician not just a guitar
player.

[plain talk]

Jonny Whiteside is a douchebag. Is “Jonny” his real first name? Hey Jonny - work on fixing your first name before lecturing us about musicians. I absolutely hate critics like “Jonny” who make up snarky stories to make a buck and have never created anything

[Secret Agent Man]

good list. i would thrown on there james taylor, phil collins, and sting.

[Steve_Seattle]

10. Jerry Garcia
9. Bob Dylan
8. John Fogerty
7. Lou Reed
6. David Crosby
5. Bruce Springsteen
4. John Lennon
3. Phil Spector
2. Carlos Santana
1. Frank Zappa

I'd put Garcia and Reed and Zappa in the way-overrated category, Springsteen and Dylan in the "legend-in-their-own-mind" category, Lennon in the great-musician-but-sometimes-a-jerk category, Crosby in the good-musician-but-usually-a-jerk category, and Spector in the criminal category. I don't have much of an opinion about Fogerty and Santana, but who can deny CC's string of hits? I understand Zappa was an excellent guitarist, but his music had little direct impact on me or most of the public.

Contrary to the author, all of these people had a connection with at least SOME good music. I don't know if Spector made The Ronettes or hindered them - or both - but they had three or four classics.

[Gay State Conservative]

Jerry Garcia
Bob Dylan———>wrong,wrong,wrong,wrong!
John Fogerty-—>wrong
Lou Reed
David Crosby-—>wrong
Bruce Springsteen
John Lennon——>not while with the Beatles
Phil Spector-—>wrong,wrong
Carlos Santana->wrong
Frank Zappa

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Fogerty and CCR. Great songs/music. “Proud Mary”, “”Travelin’ Band”, “Fortunate Son”, “Put Me in Coach”.
Personality - egotripping ahole

Lou Reed: Had a voice that could take wallpaper off in seconds.

Crosby, Garcia, Dylan, Lennon, Zappa. Highly overrated. Hard to dance to anything they sang.

Phil Spector - His “Wall of Sound” was awesome, aka The Philly Sound, and Ronnie Spector was pretty good on most songs. Ronettes doing “Sleigh Ride” is awesome too.

Santana - Good musician (”Natural”, “Something’s Coming Up”.
Politics - a communist sympathizer ahole. Should be ashamed of himself.

Springsteen - 50/50. Early stuff was very good, esp. “Glory Days”, “Dancing in the Dark” (could have been a Star Trek episode title); “Freeway of Love” (I think he did that one with Aretha Franklin, always a queen of rock and soul).

Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead. Didn’t they do “Truckin”? My wife likes them but a lot of their stuff does sound like they are on drugs and singing/playing inside a 40 foot trailer.

Bad article on the 20 worst Country Music Singers. Tobey Keith, Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift - rock! Rascal Flats should be on this list because they are so nasally-off tune that they could strip paint off a wall in no time flat.

Re the 20 Hottest Women of Rock/Music/Country. They left out Lita Ford, the blond sister in Heart, the lead female singer of Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, etc.

Re old time Rock and Roll young women as good lookers and singers - Linda Scott (I’ve Told Every Little Star, Never in a Million Years, etc).Anette Funicello - she was DISNEY. Shelley Fabrere; Sherry Jackson (Star Trek episode - who cared if she could sing or not); Mary Wells (if you hadn’t seen her in that tight, full-length white dress she performed in, then you have not seen one beautiful, talented woman. Miss her. I’ll also throw in the Mandell Sisters - now that would have been one helluva triple date, if you could survive it.

I guess my age is showing but some of the “Golden Oldies” women in music were just that - beautiful, talented, quietly feminine, and pretty wholesome.

[Steve_Seattle]

I thought the 20 hottest women rockers list sucked. I think most of the women on that list are skanks. The Ronettes had more sex appeal in one act than all those others put together. When women try too hard to be sexy, they aren’t.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Roger Waters.

[Ransomed]

“Early stuff was very good, esp. “Glory Days”, “Dancing in the Dark” (could have been a Star Trek episode title); “Freeway of Love” (I think he did that one with Aretha Franklin, always a queen of rock and soul).”

None of that 80s stuff is what I would consider early Springsteen. Post 70s he lost edge in direct proportion to gaining pomposity.

FReegards

[Fresh Wind]

John Lennon was a good songwriter, but a great musician? Hardly. Definitely belongs on this list.

I don’t think Zappa gave a **** whether the public cared about his music which automatically takes him out of the douchebag category, as the author defines it.

I never understood why people thought Lou Reed was something special.

I never thought Garcia was a great guitarist, and he had a lousy voice, but the Dead made some great music when they were at their peak (late 60s, early 70s). But a douchebag? No way.

Springsteen. Worthless, just worthless. He’s my no. 1 douchebag.

Santana. Good musician, but never moved me off top dead center.

Spector. A pioneer in overproduced manufactured music. Bad trend. I guess being a murderer classifies one as a douchebag.

Dylan. Great songwriter with a marginal voice, tremendously influential in the mid 60s. Not overrated at all.

Fogerty. Like a lot of his songs, don’t know much about him otherwise.

Crosby: Good singer, but he means almost nothing to me.

[equaviator]

FZ? No way! Substitute Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon) for Frank and I MIGHT go along with it...But then again, you’re still talking about three more; who along with Frank, are dead.

Hell, you may as well have listed Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, Lowell George and Steve Marriot.

[muir_redwoods]

In the words of Mel Brooks, “ After the birth of the Arts, came the inevitable after birth of the critic”.

Most of these are douche bags. Lennon and Dylan, while never as big as their reputations, did however, add quite a bit to Rock and Roll. Zappa was a genius.

[needmorePaine]

I always heard that Mike Love from The Beach Boys is one of the biggest douches in music.

[SamAdams76]

Eddie Money.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

Never liked any of them.

[wardaddy]

No kidding

Garcia was about the least prima Donna non Rock star fame sort ever

Wholly inappropriate

[who knows what evil?]

Only owned one album by anyone on that list...Santana’s ‘Abraxas’.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

That would be a pity. Lennon was truly an anti-American jackass who needed punching.

http://i.imgur.com/zB1IOhJ.jpg

[Jim from C-Town]

Springsteen was great all the way through ‘The River’ album. ‘Born to Run’ is on e of the best albums ever made.

After the mumbling in ‘Nebraska’ and the overly poppy ‘Born in the USA’ I haven’t had much need for him. He did, and does put on one Hell of a show in concert and gives 3+ hours giving all he has in live performances.

Just too much mumbling after ‘The River’. Too much damn lefty Obama loving as well.

STFU and sing! You are nothing but a trained monkey and a lucky one at that!

[Labyrinthos]

The author of this article sucks as a writer regardless of the merits of his opinions. This reads like an obnoxious wine review where the author has to interject multiple four syllable words into a verbose run-on sentence to show everyone how brilliant he thinks he is.