Posted on 05/25/2016 7:20:38 AM PDT by Borges
Classifying anyone as the “most successful” at anything tends to reflect more on the source than the subject. So keep that in mind when I make the following statement: John Philip Sousa is the most successful American musician of all time.
Marching music is a maddeningly durable genre, recognizable to pretty much everyone who has lived in the United States for any period. It works as a sonic shorthand for any filmmaker hoping to evoke the late 19th century and serves as the auditory backdrop for national holidays, the circus and college football. It’s not “popular” music, but it’s entrenched within the popular experience. It will be no less fashionable tomorrow than it is today.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I find Andy Partridge of XTC is probably the closest thing to Brian Wilson.
Just listen to “Chalkhills and Children”, it’s absolutely brilliant, and not what most casual listeners of XTC would expect from them.
Thanks for that, anyone who experienced 80s rock as a young person (I was in my 20s) can probably appreciate how hilarious that movie was even more than anyone else.
Derek Smalls Airport Security - priceless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAargSCXQaQ
Or, Amazing Grace to the inspired tune of the Gilligan theme.
I'd say Irving Berlin, though many might not know the name, and certainly Francis Scott Key.
Regarding Stephen Foster, please see my old thread Who is Stephen Foster? (Now at 235 comments)
ML/NJ
Key wasn’t a composer.
Jimmy Page
Same here. Devastated by Emerson's suicide
Jimmy Page...a Colossus of Rock. Just think of how many dozens of bands his riffs influenced for decades.
“My brother Liam. He’s a wanker.”
“Or, Amazing Grace to the inspired tune of the Gilligan theme.”
I prefer “A Day in the Life” sung to the tune of the “Green Acres” theme. ;-)
Keith Moon
Peart is, without doubt, one of the most technical drummers of his generation, but even he says he worshiped Keith Moon—and yes, worshiped is the word he used.
There’s a documentary about Rush on Netflix (forget the name), and the other members of the band said they reason they added Peart was that not only was he technical, but he could “do the Keith Moon thing.”
Moon wasn’t real technical, but after a point it’s not about being technical.
BTW,
IMHO, the most underrated drummer from that period is Simon Kirke (Bad Company). I can’t count the number of people I’ve pointed the the 1st Bad Company album and said “learn to play everything here EXACTLY like Kirke did (especially the bass drum, as he has great interaction with the bass player).
He is, imho, the prototypical rock drummer. If you can learn to play like Simon Kirke, you will be better than 95% of the rock drummers out there.
On a side note, I remember an interview with one Skynard’s drummers (the one that was in the plane accident) where he said other people in the band had asked him if he could play more like Kirke.
Beyonce
...after Millenials completely re-write all known Boomer and X-er history when we’re gone
Wyld Stallyns!
*air guitar solo*
Actually he was a bisexual and not that open. I mean, it was obvious, but he never actually acknowledged it publicly.
As much as I like the Allman Brothers, you can make the argument that Skynard is THE great American rock band.
Eddie Van Halen
Let me toss another name in the mix as a great American songwriter: Hank Williams. He wrote in a limited genre but in the late 40s and early 50s, country music (particularly Hank) was quite mainstream.
Clapton!
Elvis Elvis Elvis
Yep
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