I'm quite aware of that. In fact, I 'm quite in to that notion, and I like a lot of the artists from the era partially because of that. Nevertheless, I don't give an artist a free pass in terms of their real musical talent or contributions just because they were considered icons of the era, o ra "spokesman of a generation". When I was a teenager, I did buy a Bob Dylan "Best of" double record. I listened carefully to all of the songs, repeatedly. Nothing really grabbed me, other than a handful of songs. And I couldn't stand (and still can't stand) his voice. Yes, in a previous post I mentioned Neil Peart, and yes, I like Rush (among many many many artists), and no, I don't like Geddy Lee's voice. But, Rush compensates with great instrumental virtuosity, and with hard/progressive rock, the actual tone or sound of the singer's voice is not as crucial (and thus, for those who like Rush, Lee's voice is tolerable). And even though he has a castrated wail, he does make decent use of what he's got. But with folk music (Dylan's genre), IMO, it's extremely crucial that the singer has a pleasant voice, because there's not a lot of musical muscle or virtuosity, or lot's of artistic exploration. It's usually just acoustic guitar, with minimal back up instrumentation, to go along with the singing. So the voice needs to be good. At least for me.
I have one positive image whenever I think of Rush: [youtube]e6LPCM8iflI[/youtube] Geddy Lee was awesome when paired with these guys. Bonus Christmas note, not including Mr. Lee and not really having anything to do with the thread other than stream-of-consciousness: [youtube]g-QB433pSiY[/youtube]
They used the Doug and Bob McKenzie thing in the current tour, as an intro to one of the new songs. It was pretty funny.
I would definitely put Stewart Copeland on the short list of great drummers. Not as good as Peart, though.
Play the first YouTube link in the other guy's post. That has Geddy Lee talking to Doug and Bob McKenzie.
Anyway, I seriously diverted this thread. A) Whatever it was that Sting tried to do after the demise of The Police I thought early Sting solo releases exceeded Police material. But then he got predictable and too in love with himself. B) David Byrne's World music Talking Heads stuff was better, but his solo stuff has been pretty good. C) Mick Jones of the Clash does pasty, white English rap First Big Audio Dynamite album was quite good - the rest were crap. D) Cat Stevens is now Yusuf Islam Why a westerner converts to Islam is beyond me. E) Why Eric Clapton stopped rocking out for most of the last 30 yrs. He got older, and wanted to explore different things. Anyway, he's maintained his great playing and good singing, but hasn't released anything all that interesting since the 70's.
his "Unplugged" made me want to stick knitting needles in my ears. OTOH, From the Cradle is pretty good. the lineup Eric Clapton - Guitar and vocals Dave Bronze - Bass guitar Jim Keltner - Drums Andy Fairweather-Low - Guitar Jerry Portnoy - Harmonica Chris Stainton - Keyboards Roddy Lorimer - Trumpet Simon Clarke - Baritone Sax Tim Sanders - Tenor Sax Richie Hayward - percussion on "How Long Blues"
first of all, the blues invasion from England that spawned Joplin and the SF psychedelic music scene would not have the kind of cachet it had then. the main reason is that the British Invasion was sparked at first by The Beatles and Stones, both of which far surpassed any other musical act of the past 50 years, with the possible exception of Queen, a band i don't happen to like that much but can appreciate how they are viewed. second, rap and hip hop have taken over the anti-establishment focus. there isn't much room for the kind of music that Dylan and his cohort and Joplin and the SF scene played.
I can add another one to the list: Bruce Springsteen going "Hollywood" in the mid 80's. He had some excellent songs (Brilliant Disguise, Human Touch, Tunnel of Love for example) but overall his albums completely diverted away from what made him so great, IMHO. Production turned glossy, the poetic lyrics became somewhat amatuerish and the music was far from The Boss-like. One of my favorite songs by him now is the version of If I Should Fall Behind from the most recent live CD, Live in Dublin. However, the original from Lucky Town is downright awful.
Maybe I'm Amazed Live and Let Die Band on the Run...all great tunes!!! Macca's strangest career move was the duets with Michael Jackson!!!
Canibus, if anyone remembers him. He squandered what critics universally thought was an enormous amount of talent by entrusting his career to one of the biggest hacks in hip-hop, and then followed that up by picking a fight with LL Cool J, of all people.