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Post by Kapitan on Mar 19, 2021 23:26:54 GMT
Brian Wilson Lou Reed Thelonious Monk
Bob Dylan Miles Davis
Freddie Mercury Jimmy Page Frank Zappa Paul McCartney W.A. Mozart
Igor Stravinsky
Jimi HendrixTom Waits Prince Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 20, 2021 1:05:23 GMT
Let's give it a try (in order of length of name): Kate Bush Syd Barrett Gary Numan Jean Sibelius Alice Coltrane Hector Berlioz Captain Beefheart Joshilyn Hoisington Dmitri Shostakovich Dieterich Buxtehude jk, you're in the lead for the most eclectic list, but if Kapitan keeps making alterations...
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Post by kds on Mar 20, 2021 12:58:58 GMT
Ritchie Blackmore David Gilmour Ronnie James Dio Brian Wilson John Lennon Freddie Mercury Bob Ezrin Eddie Van Halen Pete Townshend Steve Harris
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 20, 2021 13:09:12 GMT
Good one with Bob Ezrin. I actually have to consider him now. George Martin, too, for that matter.
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Post by kds on Mar 20, 2021 13:36:39 GMT
Good one with Bob Ezrin. I actually have to consider him now. George Martin, too, for that matter. I was considering Martin, and also Roy Thomas Baker and Martin Birch.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 20, 2021 14:12:47 GMT
Ritchie Blackmore David Gilmour Ronnie James Dio Brian Wilson John Lennon Freddie Mercury Bob Ezrin Eddie Van Halen Pete Townshend Steve Harris Lennon and no McCartney...interesting.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 20, 2021 14:13:54 GMT
Did anybody consider Phil Spector, for his entire catalogue including the Christmas album?
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 20, 2021 14:21:30 GMT
Gosh, this has got to be one of the most difficult lists to put together. No order of preference because it'd make me insane Brian Wilson John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr George Martin Jim Morisson Syd Barrett Jimmy Page Roger Waters ugh I hate it, so many people left behind I wanted to select Syd so bad but I couldn't pull the trigger. I've enjoyed the heck out of his stuff - including some of his solo work - but I wasn't sure if his total output was enough. Very close though.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 20, 2021 14:39:03 GMT
Good one with Bob Ezrin. I actually have to consider him now. George Martin, too, for that matter. I was considering Martin, and also Roy Thomas Baker and Martin Birch. Roy Thomas Baker got a moment's thought from me when I made that above-quoted post, but I decided against him. The only things I really love of his are Queen's, and when I considered how similar (and similarly good) the albums immediately after he stopped producing Queen still were, I decided to omit him.
Sheriff John Stone, to answer your question about Spector, I also gave him a moment's thought at that same moment (when I started thinking producers), but honestly while I love the Xmas album and a few other things he did, I decided he's a little too much a one-trick pony for me. His importance for me is more about having inspired Wilson than it is his own work. Plus the fact that he usually had other people write, other people arrange, other people play and sing ... his job seems largely to have been to hire more people to double (triple, quadruple) instruments, apply reverb, and wave guns around.
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Post by kds on Mar 20, 2021 15:25:03 GMT
Baker also did some great work with Journey, The Cars, and The Darkness.
I left off a couple favorites (Paul, George, Roger Waters) for variety. I couldn't have a top ten that didn't acknowledge Purple, Sabbath, Queen, Van Halen, and The Who.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 20, 2021 17:23:28 GMT
I wanted to select Syd so bad but I couldn't pull the trigger. I've enjoyed the heck out of his stuff - including some of his solo work - but I wasn't sure if his total output was enough. Very close though. I was thinking about this earlier today. I put him on this first version of the list but as I refine it he seems a little out of place for this exact reason. While I enjoy most of his stuff and consider at least half of it to be great, maybe it's too little if compared to everybody else on the list. How many excellent Syd Barrett songs are there? I'd say around 20 or 25ish at best if including some solo material. Is it enough for me to keep him in this top 10 for a long time? Not sure. Yeah, but you know, if you have 20-25 Syd songs that YOU THINK ARE GREAT AND YOU ENJOY SIGNIFICANTLY, I personally think that's enough. That amount would typically carry three or four albums worth in a group context (6 or 7 songs per album). I put Paul Simon on my list primarily for his work with Simon & Garfunkel, but that's basically a couple of albums. Same with John Fogerty. I put him on my list, but if I had to add up how many of his songs I really, really love, it might "only" be 20-25. But, oh, what a great 20-25 they are!
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Post by B.E. on Mar 20, 2021 18:43:00 GMT
I considered John Fogerty, but as a casual fan I don't think I've spent enough time listening to his music. Kapitan used the term "one-trick pony" regarding Spector - well, I gotta admit, I kinda think that way about John/CCR. Is my ignorance showing, or doesn't he/they stick to their style/sound?
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Post by B.E. on Mar 20, 2021 19:24:08 GMT
Sheriff John Stone , to answer your question about Spector, I also gave him a moment's thought at that same moment (when I started thinking producers), but honestly while I love the Xmas album and a few other things he did, I decided he's a little too much a one-trick pony for me. His importance for me is more about having inspired Wilson than it is his own work. Plus the fact that he usually had other people write, other people arrange, other people play and sing ... his job seems largely to have been to hire more people to double (triple, quadruple) instruments, apply reverb, and wave guns around. Yeah, pretty much my thoughts exactly. Although, among those "few other things" are some pretty important solo Beatle works to me. As for George Martin, honestly, I didn't even consider him. I'm a big fan, and I appreciate and acknowledge his many great contributions to the Beatles work, but I get the sense that he's actually overrated/that he gets too much credit. All else being equal, substituting George's contributions with the next best producer, and you've still got the great Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership and the great band - The Beatles. Might they only be thought of as "one of the best" as opposed to the best? Maybe. Anyway, for all you George Martin fans out there, I've heard good things about Kenneth Womack's The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Early Years, 1926–1966. I haven't read it yet myself. Hopefully someday I'll get around to it. (Maybe I'll come back and edit this post! )
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 20, 2021 19:34:50 GMT
I'm just such a big fan of so many of those string and horn arrangements, sometimes to the point I think of them as parts of the compositions rather than arrangements, that I rate Martin so highly. (His playing didn't hurt, either.) I'm not saying the Beatles wouldn't have been great without him, but I do think they were much better because of him. From giving them freedom, to arranging for things they couldn't, to translating their abstract thoughts into concrete music, he is big for me--much bigger than Spector.
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Post by kds on Mar 21, 2021 14:30:26 GMT
I considered John Fogerty, but as a casual fan I don't think I've spent enough time listening to his music. Kapitan used the term "one-trick pony" regarding Spector - well, I gotta admit, I kinda think that way about John/CCR. Is my ignorance showing, or doesn't he/they stick to their style/sound? I'm pretty familiar with most of John's catalog, so I think one trick pony is fair, but when you've perfected a trick, run with it. I'm impressed that he was able to have a couple of big hits in the 80s, without conforming to what was in at the time. The same can't be said about many of his peers. Fogerty's also a great quality over quantity example. For a guy who's been around as long as he has, he is not very prolific. But, with the possible exception of his guest star driven self covers album, his work is typically pretty high quality. I prefer that method to churning out album after album with diminishing results (Macca and Clapton come to mind).
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