Who is the greatest artist musical talent of all time

joeguevara

biko wrote: »

It's a toss-up between Beethoven and Mozart

Could there be a single adult person on this planet who hasn't heard of these and like some of their music?

Loved beethoven in Saturday night fever.

https://youtu.be/KSXC_lPWoyo

JupiterKid

Incredibly hard to pick just one - I mean we are talking the past 10,000 years since human civilisation began - but I imagine Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninov, Tsichovsky, Holst, the Beatles, Elvis, David Bowie and Elton John must feature in this list...

ILoveYourVibes

joeguevara wrote: »

Apoligies missed the Sammy video. Loved the Wagner post. Very interesting.

Yeah overrated musically ..horrible human being .woman beater ..racist ..anti semite ..sucked dick to his way to the top...

For a long time he blamed the success of Jewish composers for his lack of success despite the fact that Meyerbeer ( a successful jewish composer) had loaned him huge amounts of money and never asked for it back when Wagner was in Paris.

He wrote a lot of antisemitic and racist essays which he published in newspapers.

Not only did he use the Princes crush on him to get money. He then threatened to OUT him thus blackmailing him for money.

joeguevara

Well the world voted and the Wolfe Tones won.. Lol.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.independent.ie/irish-news/elation-once-again-as-wolfe-tones-top-bbc-world-song-poll-26024989.html

ILoveYourVibes

joeguevara wrote: »

Well the world voted and the Wolfe Tones won.. Lol.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.independent.ie/irish-news/elation-once-again-as-wolfe-tones-top-bbc-world-song-poll-26024989.html

BY A BBC POLL! :pac:

Sinister Kid

Ray Charles deserves a mention if he hasn't already gotten one

The Tetrarch

Glen Campbell

jiltloop

A genuine genius that's worth a mention is Richard D James aka Aphex Twin. This guy's skill and dexterity with electronic music is astounding.

He has broken new musical ground so many times and open up different genres and also inspired many other more commercially successful musicians and bands.

Incredibly his first album includes music that he made in his bedroom studio with DIY synths and equipment that he had adapted and built himself with self taught electronics knowledge, some of which at the tender age of 14.

Im not putting him up as a serious overall contender against the likes of Prince, the beatles, Miles Davies, or classical composers but he definitely deserves a mention.

pm.

ELVIS

Yamanoto

Quite a few mentioning Prince.

I get that he was an all rounder - performer, producer, multi- instrumentalist, but from the (admittedly) little I know of his back catalogue, I've never sensed the sort of musical development that's apparent over just a few short years with the likes of Brian Wilson or the Beatles.

Perhaps a Paisley Park afficianado can fill in the blanks a bit.

Yamanoto

pm. wrote: »

ELVIS

If we were talking in terms of pure performance or as a cultural phenomenon, then yes.

As a musical talent, at the very least, I think you need to be writing your own material to even be part of the conversation.

Ash.J.Williams

Dog Murphy wrote: »

Probably Bach,Beethoven,Mozart,Wagner people like that.

Anytime there's a discussion involving music I always say I only listen to the likes of the above mentioned, cuts them down to size fairly quickly, I'll never be looked down on by any supposed music snobs again.

If you said “x y and z and people like that” I would not be cut down to size and I would suggest you know very little about the subject you are talking about

Ash.J.Williams

Yamanoto wrote: »

Quite a few mentioning Prince.

I get that he was an all rounder - performer, producer, multi- instrumentalist, but from the (admittedly) little I know of his back catalogue, I've never sensed the sort of musical development that's apparent over just a few short years with the likes of Brian Wilson or the Beatles.

Perhaps a Paisley Park afficianado can fill in the blanks a bit.

Timing is key.

Dog Murphy

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

If you said “x y and z and people like that” I would not be cut down to size and I would suggest you know very little about the subject you are talking about

Well done for taking the post too seriously.

Ger Roe

Jeff Lynne ?

His work with his own projects and groups (The Move, ELO) is incredible and then there is his work with others such as the Beatles, the Wilburys and just about anyone else you could mention.

He plays just about any musical instrument and then produces just about everything .... a true musical genius.

Check out the 'Wembly or bust' ELO concert from 2017.

EmmetSpiceland

Hoagy Carmichael. Or, maybe, Art Tatum or Fats Waller, even.

Ash.J.Williams

Ger Roe wrote: »

Jeff Lynne ?

His work with his own projects and groups (The Move, ELO) is incredible and then there is his work with others such as the Beatles, the Wilburys and just about anyone else you could mention.

He plays just about any musical instrument and then produces just about everything .... a true musical genius.

Check out the 'Wembly or bust' ELO concert from 2017.

I happened to see a ELO gig on tv and knew most of the songs and thought they were amazing without being a fan as such.

Ash.J.Williams

Dog Murphy wrote: »

Well done for taking the post too seriously.

I only go to see the bands in small print at festivals

Ash.J.Williams

joeguevara wrote: »

Leonard Cohens music was so personal to him it would be pointless if he didn't perform them. It wasn't about credit. It was him. Somebody else can perform them but their meaning would be lost. It's not all about sweet voice. Sometimes hearing the pain, love anger etc is the point.

The Byrds sang Dylan songs better but the grit and pain were missing.

every chance he gets ray Darcy says a certain cover "in fairness" is way better than Cohen and I want to punch him through the radio

Invisibleman

Lennon McCartney Harrison, and you’d have to mention Pink floyd. Don’t get the Eminem thing? He talks fast over other people’s music

nkl12xtw5goz70

No mention of Ireland's own Van Morrison on this thread, but he's a contender — especially for Astral Weeks, which some consider the best album of all time. He has an extraordinary voice, incredibly rich musical knowledge, and is still performing and recording at the age of 74.

Heckler

Nick Cave or Trent Reznor. Cave lyrically puts more in one song than most bands put in an album.

NIN and Bowies score for Lost Highway was fantastic.

Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead has done some outstanding work especially in film scoring. Think he was nominated for an oscar.

Capt'n Midnight

Ger Roe wrote: »

Jeff Lynne ?

His work with his own projects and groups (The Move, ELO) is incredible and then there is his work with others such as the Beatles, the Wilburys and just about anyone else you could mention.

He plays just about any musical instrument and then produces just about everything .... a true musical genius.

Check out the 'Wembly or bust' ELO concert from 2017.

Check out
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

Capt'n Midnight

Invisibleman wrote: »

Lennon McCartney Harrison, and you’d have to mention Pink floyd.

The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think,
Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?

Marhay70

I think the measure has to be if your music is still played daily, worldwide, in fifty or sixty years time, in which case hard to beat Lennon/Mc Cartney, Brian Wilson, Jagger/Richards, Orbison, Andersson/Ulvaeus, Sedaka, Diamond.

Ger Roe

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Check out
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

My favourite album ever!. Just on the basis that I have played it more often than anything else, since it was released in 1978. I also saw the original cast staged performance (with Justin Hayward) .. twice.

I would love to be hearing it for the first time again.

Also an honourable mention to Mike Oldfield and tubular bells, even the Tubular Bells 2 release in 1992 (check out the live performance at Edinburgh Castle).

The Rape of Lucretia

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

NO ONE HUMS WAGNER ...HA HA HAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaa

I know. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has heard of this one for example :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C5FOW2ekHo

The prelude to act 1 is surely a masterpiece :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqk4bcnBqls

The Rape of Lucretia

To maybe put things in some sort of perspective, on a 10 point scale :

Mozart and Beethoven are off the top of it.

Bach, Handel Schubert, Haydn, Verdi, Handel are the 10s
Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Brahms, are among the 9s
Rossini, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Wagner, Donizetti, Dvorak are among the 8s

And so on.

The best of the others cited above, Beatles, Brian Wilson, Prince, or whoever, rank about 5. Which is not to say they werent talented, produced good works, and are worth listening to. But they are miles of even being close to the leagues of the above.

BDI

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

To maybe put things in some sort of perspective, on a 10 point scale :

Mozart and Beethoven are off the top of it.

Bach, Handel Schubert, Haydn, Verdi, Handel are the 10s
Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Brahms, are among the 9s
Rossini, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Wagner, Donizetti, Dvorak are among the 8s

And so on.

The best of the others cited above, Beatles, Brian Wilson, Prince, or whoever, rank about 5. Which is not to say they werent talented, produced good works, and are worth listening to. But they are miles of even being close to the leagues of the above.

Why?

Before the Beatles you pretty much could only get sounds in popular music that could be recreated with an orchestra,
they put together chord structures that had never been put together before in a song that could be made popular,
they could record an album in a few days,
they made sounds and music that were never anything but annoying noises to western ears popular in western culture(Indian music for one)
Techno dance rave drumming patterns seemed to have started with them in popular music,
They changed fashion, mindsets, politics and had the intelligence to go against the thoughts fed to them by their education system of their native country ( take John Lennon’s couple of anti British in Ireland songs)


To say Bach is a ten and they are a five because they were from the old days and I said so is the kind of problem with the whole Irish education system and our problem with rules.

Me: Dad why can’t I eat sweets before dinner?
Dad: because I said so

Junkyard Tom

Nile Rodgers has had a huge impact in the last half century.

Besides his own stuff he's worked with the likes of Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Thompson Twins and Daft Punk.

dubstarr

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

Nile Rodgers has had a huge impact in the last half century.

Besides his own stuff he's worked with the likes of Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Thompson Twins and Daft Punk.

He certainly helped put Madonna on the map.

completedit

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but longevity isn’t the be all and end all it’s made out to be. Many artists who are still revered today benefit from being the first wave of music experienced by the baby boomers post world war 2. At no point in time has music been as saturated as it is now, it was a lot easier to stand out and be remembered. The early Beatles stuff was fairly run of the mill through a modern lens. Music’s place in society and culture has changed, musical artists don’t tend to be as defining as they once were. They exist in their own sphere as passive entertainment for the majority, and even the ones that put out good music, it doesn’t have the same significance as in the past.

I think a measure would also be how they changed the music landscape in their particular genre. Haven’t thought it through nor able to articulate it but that’s how I view it.

Aidric

From a rock perspective Roy Orbison sits on top of the tree. He is comparable to Pavarotti in terms of singers who can stop you in your tracks.

JupiterKid

The songwriting partnership of Lennon and McCartney is definitely up there with the classical greats.

The Beatles will still be listened to and enjoyed in 100, 200 and probably 500 years’ time. It’s rather fashionable these days to question their popular reputation but they really did make completely groundbreaking and original music. Other music artists of the late 20th century will also be remembered, listened to and discussed well into the future - exactly who is uncertain, but Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bowie, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Prince, The Eurythmics, The Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, ABBA, Queen, Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac are certainly among the contenders.

It is really only with the passage of time and a long-term perspective that we can get a properly objective view of great artists that made an important contribution the field of human creative endeavour. Time will tell.

Capt'n Midnight

completedit wrote: »

The early Beatles stuff was fairly run of the mill through a modern lens.

But at the time...

BBC 4 had a program about riffs and there was a bit about Alice Cooper hearing IIRC The Kinks - You Really Got Me for the first time while the lads are out driving. And it a "this changes everything" moment for him.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b049mtxw

Or the influence of Kraftwerk's 1975 UK tour on synth pop.


Today's chart music just doesn't have the same "wow what is that ?" factor when everything in the charts is reminiscent of Cher's Believe because of auto tune.

No more Green Onions

BrenMar

Yamanoto wrote: »

Quite a few mentioning Prince.

I get that he was an all rounder - performer, producer, multi- instrumentalist, but from the (admittedly) little I know of his back catalogue, I've never sensed the sort of musical development that's apparent over just a few short years with the likes of Brian Wilson or the Beatles.

Perhaps a Paisley Park afficianado can fill in the blanks a bit.

Well said. The versatility and song output of the Beatles was astounding and will probably never be equalled.

joe swanson

Has to be John frusciante . A musical genius. His contributions to rhcp are immense and there is a real down turn in quality on their albums without him .

In relation to Irish music, it would obviously be b*witched and Mickey joe Harte

statesaver

Prince

riclad

I Think people will as still be listening to the beatles, in a 100 years .
the eagles are great in terms, of no of top quality songs,
they were great musicians ,great songwiters, a great live band.
They blended rock with country music .
Abba are a fantastic pop group, the songs have complex melodys and theres very few pop groups who have 2 female singers who blend their
voices together to make a unique sound.
So singers continue to make new recordings of abba songs.
i think joni mitchell is in the top 5 of female singer songwriters .Her songs reflect her life ,they are not just simple love songs.

Bobblehats

statesaver wrote: »

Prince

Never really got him seemed to me he was like a MJ for adults. Only time I realised his skills was outside the context of his own stuff, actually a Beatles song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efhlDbZ4SmY

Theres a magic trick right at the end too

Wibbs

That's Hendrix level stuff right there.

NIMAN

Some talent in that clip, 2 geniuses who are sadly no longer with us.

Bobblehats

- he was channeling jimi alright you can hear the searing tone of his amplification too but all the while staying true to Harrison’s composition

He sure made that guitar weep. Little fecker probably pull that stuff off whilst doing the james brown too, so kudos to a true performance ‘artiste’ it’s just I was growing up I was subjected to Sexy MF and the like.

Tombo2001

The answer is Prince.

End of.

Read the question....

artist = single person, not four people

musical = its not about lyrics, its not about ability to deliver a live show. its about musical talent

There are lots of things that make great music, but if we are talking about one person whose musical talents shine over all others then that person is Prince.

The other one i would throw in the mix is Van the Man.

Tombo2001

Bobblehats wrote: »

Never really got him seemed to me he was like a MJ for adults. Only time I realised his skills was outside the context of his own stuff, actually a Beatles song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efhlDbZ4SmY

Theres a magic trick right at the end too

Because thats what the press wanted you to think.

Listen to the music, he's incredible.

suicide_circus

any of the classical composers who can make you start roaring crying with a few opening bars; Debussy, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt...those lads.

Brian?

KathleenGrant wrote: »

Freddie better.

He wasn't even the best musician in Queen, never mind ever.

Modern popular musc: David Bowie
Most influential to modern music: Robert Johnson
Classical music: Sergei Rachmaninoff


Imo of course.

Tombo2001

Brian? wrote: »

He wasn't even the best musician in Queen, never mind ever.

Modern popular musc: David Bowie
Most influential to modern music: Robert Johnson
Classical music: Sergei Rachmaninoff


Imo of course.

Freddie was an incredible frontman, one of the best. Doesn't make him a great musician, two different things.

Bowie is a good shout alright. Did you ever hear Lou Reed talking about his production of the Walk on the Wild Side album.....quite interesting.

I'd still have prince above him though.

In the Tower of Song.

Deebles McBeebles

Frank Zappa or Prince for me. Both absolute geniuses.

bottlebrush

Shane Mcgowan deserves a mention imo