Most Overrated Dead Musician

Freddie59

Lennon
Morrisson
Cobain

Freddie59

Alright - who was the flute who voted for Freddie - possibly the greatest frontman EVER! COBAIN COULDN'T BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS HIM!

Nailz

Ian Curtis is definitely the most over rated between the lot of them with regard to his music not being as good as the rest of them, but a lot of those are hyped up big time. Here's a few individual notes;

• John Lennon: The Beatles were generally over rated anyway, that's not to say they're bad! By no means, the Beatles were excellent, their later stuff was awesome, particularly that of which Lennon wrote, but I would say the general Beatles love-in has gone further than it should.
  
  
• Jimi Hendrix: You have to like the Experience in fairness, some excellent tracks, including some killer covers, but far too much filler too. By no means the "Greatest Guitarist Ever", the lad was so badly out of tune and note during live performances it would be difficult to tell what song he was playing. He's gained more of a status as an icon than a musician at this stage. The same goes for the likes of Lennon and Morrison.
  
  
• Dimebag Darrell: If one obtains the ability to appreciate music and listened to all of Pantera's last 5 albums, then attempted to point out flaws in the music and denote this as an average/over rated band or music, I could only begin to doubt your sincerity. Pantera were no short of being awesome, in the true sense of the word, and a lot of that is down to how Dimebag Darrell plays, without delating the involvement of his brother, Brown or Anselmo, of course.
  
  
• Duane Allman: "Freebird" done a lot for his post-death recognition, but I wouldn't consider him over rated, I know a lot of people who don't even know who he is, and I'm talking about musically knowledgeable people too.
  
  
• Brian Jones: Good, maybe great, but not excellent. The 27 Club done a lot for people who died in his generation for a later era. But I still can't see how he is over rated, the Stones could only contribute so much before 1969, and anything they did release before then was bloody impressive anyway.
  
  
• Jim Morrison: Another guy who has become more of an icon than a singer. One of those things where people think it is just some guy on a T-Shirt rather than band merchandise (like the Misfits, Rolling Stones and Ramones logos). He wasn't as involved in the Doors' music as much as the average music listener would think due to how he's being made out, the main guys there was Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger, in fact if you ask them lads they'd probably say Jim was more of a burden with his hissie-fits than he was a necessary part of the band. :pac: So, yeah, I would say Jim Morrison was over rated, but he done wonders for the image of the Doors, if not in their music...
  
  
• John Bonham: Savage drummer, not the best, but still savage. If he was still alive today I can only imagine his reputation would be near enough the same as it is now, in the same sense that Jon Lord or Ray Manzarek are regarded as brilliant keyboard/piano players.
  
  
• Keith Moon: Definitely over rated, if he wasn't as much of a party animal/headcase as he was, I doubt he would've received as much attention as he does now. Another for the icons list, though.
  
  
• Bon Scott: Well, AC/DC never really sloped after his death, probably due to Back In Black, but they haven't a patch on what they were with Scott on vocals, no disrespect to Johnson but Scott is far better. I wouldn't even consider myself an ecstatic AC/DC fan, but Bon Scott could read from the phonebook and make it sound cool and dirty, that's class. Not over rated, in my opinion.
  
  
• Freddie Mercury: Amazing frontman, calling him the best would be debatable, depending on opinion, but if someone said he was to me I probably wouldn't totally agree will them, but I'd find it hard to argue with. Not over rated, either.
  
  
• Ian Curtis: As mentioned before, I think he's the most over rated there. When I was young I used to like a bit of Joy Division's music, but to me it all seems a bit "meh" now. I would go as far to say he was a poor singer and the majority of his music wasn't anything special. It would come down to him having problems with epilepsy, first and foremost, and also his down trodden style of music in what was a very murky and gritty Britain in the late 70's, just catching the rise of the Thatcher era.
  
  
• Kurt Cobain: "Inventor of Grunge"? No, that would be Neil Young you're talking about. "Voice of a Generation"? VERY clichéd, yes, but put into context I would find it hard to disagree. This was generation X, as they call it, and down to the general feeling among the generation, no matter how stereotyped or stupid it is looking back to that time; when MTV was actually playing cool music and Beavis & Butthead was the most looked-to music critics in the developed world, I think that the Nirvana sound and their attitude really did epitomise that in a broad sense.
  
  Nevermind is always at the top of album countdowns for one reason or the other, but it is a great album, all the same. Bleach is looked over far too often, their Unplugged session was quite good, In Utero is also highly regarded... This isn't just a new age mistake brought upon a popular 27 year old musician doing away with himself, although it may exaggerate their popularity there-in, but everything before it does matter too. I know I typically wouldn't agree with myself to say this, oddly enough, and it is going against popular opinion, but I don't think Kurt Cobain is as over rated as he is made out to be, he is also an iconic figure as well.
  
  
• Layne Staley: I love Alice In Chains personally, and I think Staley was a class singer, but Cantrell is the real brains behind that case. Still, I don't think Staley has gone over the radar too much to deem him over rated in it's common use of the term. He's highly regarded among the fans of the genre though, which grew into the Metal fanbase also...
  
  
• Cliff Burton: A damn good bass player, the man is lucky in a sick sort of way, in the sense that Metallica only went to pot from their fans point of view after Burton died. No one really knows how it would've went if he was alive, it certainly saved a dent in his reputation, I mean that in that in the nicest possible way too. I think Burton is a hard one to judge, because Metallica wrote some excellent Metal in those first four albums, particularly the latter three, and Burton was a huge part of them. Imagine how it might have been if Metallica didn't have to contend with Lars' **** drumming conventions!? :pac:

TEMPLAR KNIGHT

Whoever voted for cliff burton, I would love to hear you defend your decision??

latenia

Nailz wrote: »

[*]Dimebag Darrell: If one obtains the ability to appreciate music and listened to all of Pantera's last 5 albums, then attempted to point out flaws in the music and denote this as an average/over rated band or music, I could only begin to doubt your sincerity. Pantera were no short of being awesome, in the true sense of the word, and a lot of that is down to how Dimebag Darrell plays, without delating the involvement of his brother, Brown or Anselmo, of course.

After all the people talking about Dimebag Darrell here I had to check who he was. The guitarist with Pantera? That band all the teenage heavy metallers used to have on their t-shirts when I was a kid? Like Cannibal Corpse and Death? Did I miss something? Maybe they weren't making infantile asinine dross for adolescent boys to mosh to. Better have a quick look on youtube. Cowboys from Hell. I remember that from the t-shirts. Turns out my prejudice was well-founded. There's a reason most teenagers stop listening to that shíte when they turn 17. I voted for Dimebag Darrell. God rest his smelly rocker soul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7EQlfprV9E

ger10

Why isnt Tupac on that list. Oh wait "he isn't dead"

vider12

Kurt Cobain.. There was only a couple good Nirvana songs that he wrote!

windingo

Alot of these musicians most of us have not heard about them.

Rothko

Nailz wrote: »

• Duane Allman: "Freebird" done a lot for his post-death recognition, but I wouldn't consider him over rated, I know a lot of people who don't even know who he is, and I'm talking about musically knowledgeable people too.

I don't think they can be that knowledgeable if they've never heard of Duane Allman.

Malice

latenia wrote: »

After all the people talking about Dimebag Darrell here I had to check who he was. The guitarist with Pantera? That band all the teenage heavy metallers used to have on their t-shirts when I was a kid? Like Cannibal Corpse and Death? Did I miss something? Maybe they weren't making infantile asinine dross for adolescent boys to mosh to. Better have a quick look on youtube. Cowboys from Hell. I remember that from the t-shirts. Turns out my prejudice was well-founded. There's a reason most teenagers stop listening to that shíte when they turn 17. I voted for Dimebag Darrell. God rest his smelly rocker soul.

Out of curiosity do you like metal music at all?

Nailz

Suas11 wrote: »

I don't think they can be that knowledgeable if they've never heard of Duane Allman.

I should point out when I say knowledgeable, I mean it as people who actually take an interest in finding out about good music, I don't mean they're that great at it by the way. Sorry, I should have made that clearer...

Davyhal

John Lennon is not an over-rated musician, songwriting genius truly, popular amongst all generations... However, he may be an over-rated person. I am a huge Beatles fan, owning every single album and numerous books and articles on the subject, but I find that while everyone tends to discuss the personal lives of musicians, people tend to over look John Lennon's personal life prior to Yoko Ono... As in his wife-beating and child neglect days!

leincar

Three people have now voted for Freddie Mercury. They obviously don't know who their Father's are....he noted sniffily.

latenia

Malice wrote: »

Out of curiosity do you like metal music at all?

I like Suicidal Tendencies, the first couple of Metallica albums, Zeppelin (obv) and other bits and pieces...

hidinginthebush

Nailz wrote: »

[*]Jimi Hendrix: You have to like the Experience in fairness, some excellent tracks, including some killer covers, but far too much filler too. By no means the "Greatest Guitarist Ever", the lad was so badly out of tune and note during live performances it would be difficult to tell what song he was playing. He's gained more of a status as an icon than a musician at this stage. The same goes for the likes of Lennon and Morrison.

I know its a purely subjective view, but out of interest, who would you consider the greatest guitarist? I tend to change my mind on it a lot, then I'll hear his phrasing in little wing or see a video of him at Woodstock or Monterey, and it brings me back every time. Sure he couldn't shred like paul Gilbert or sweep like buckethead or legato like satch or have the knowledge of vai or play blues like bb king, but none of them can play like jimi. He just had this charisma, yeah he became an icon, but I think its easy to overlook the fluidity and comfort he played with.

Good point on the "too much filler ", some of his studio stuff is a bit too early experimental, but live, he was untouchable imo

Da Shins Kelly

I think Hendrix was sensational. He just made it look so easy, and had a great musical ear, I think. He was also exciting and innovative. Sure, it wasn't always perfect, but perfection is overrated.

Love this video of him.

RayCon

cloptrop wrote: »

John Lennon was a genius , and probably one of the most deserving artists on any best artist list , he was at the top of his game and the music business for 20 years , he didnt just muddle along with uncharting albums , he wrote some of the greatest songs of all time with the beatles and solo , he was hilariously funny , and a great frontman/spokesperson . He shouldnt be getting any votes here.

I prefer this guys account (from another forum) ...

The whole idea we have of John Lennon these days is the image promoted by Yoko Ono. She clearly saw icon potential in the guy, and is raking in the money from selling his image as some sort of latter-day troubadour/hippie/freedom fighter.

The guy supported the IRA for ****'s sake, he organised a concert for them.

I find John Lennon a mostly repulsive individual based on accounts of the way he treated his first wife and son. Furthermore, I've seen it mentioned that he might have caused the brain haemorrhage that killed Stu Sutcliff, having previously lashed out at him and kicking or punching him in the head. Seemingly he was a violent bastard who didn't like people getting close to him. He found it difficult to form emotional bonds and was abusive and manipulative. At the same time he harboured some ridiculous victim complex.

Listen to his song "Mother". Like pretty much half of his repertoire, it involves him yelling his offensively basic lyrics through an echo machine over some basic chord structure. However in this song he is playing the victim of parental neglect. He can whine and shout for 5 minutes about how his parents left him, yet he pulled the EXACT SAME STUNT on his son Julian, depriving the boy the role of a father in his life. ****ing asshole.

Somebody made a lame fan video for Mother that shows bombed out British streets and kids in tin helmets. It doesn't matter where in the UK the photos were from, it all looked the same after WW2, but somehow Lennon was the only emotional victim of the atrocities of WW2 if you believe his ****e.

People view John Lennon as having some sort of deep insight into the world, but his lyrics are naive in their uncompromising nature. What was he trying to achieve with a song called "Women is the ****** of the World", which is on a par with most of his solo work being a clichéd rock and roll song with some slightly obtuse lyrics. Was he trying to go for a feminist vibe here? No, a lot of his ideas and output is horribly disconnected and half-baked in its outlook. He spent far too long chugging Brandy Alexanders with Harry Nilsen when he could have been out there promoting a message. He seems to have been a reluctant figurehead and an insecure individual.


Mark David Chapman is perhaps the most hated figure in the world. Apparently the law on incarceration should be modified for his case alone, because he wiped Lennon of the face of the Earth. Perhaps it is only fair that Chapman did what he did, given that Lennon used to impersonate (crudely) the behaviour of mentally handicapped people onstage to amuse fans. You could say it was a sign of the times, and that values were different back in the 1960s; well I apply the same logic to all of Lennon's bull****. It was important at the time perhaps but **** the whole lot. He is now reduced to a lame cartoon character for the benefit Yoko's bank account.

Da Shins Kelly

I'm not that into Lennon or The Beatles (like them, but not obsessive), but I don't know how Lennon's personal life really has any bearing on whether he's overrated as a musician. Maybe people oversell his whole "make love not war" message and make him out to be this icon of peace a bit too much, but as a musician I think his output, for the most part, was pretty solid. Overrated as a person? Maybe. Overrated as a musician? I don't think so.

Sinfonia

yeah bu like imagine all the people like. ya know. doin stuff. livin life in peace.guys a GEANIOUS