Who is the greatest artist musical talent of all time

Plopsu

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Frank Zappa or Prince for me. Both absolute geniuses.

Finally, 17 pages in, somebody said Zappa.

Ash.J.Williams

Plopsu wrote: »

Finally, 17 pages in, somebody said Zappa.

Zappa is too amazing to be discussed by humans

rECTAL fLAKE

Richie Kavanagh.

completedit

Have listened to so much old stuff and generally unless it’s their bigger songs, the likes of prince, hendrix, the doors, bore me. I really like deep purple though.

Deebles McBeebles

Plopsu wrote: »

Finally, 17 pages in, somebody said Zappa.

A shocking indictment on the quality of AH users. For shame.

Seanachai

I was gonna say Kate Bush, but then I remembered Moore the hoore

MOR316

Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Michael Jackson

Not a particularly big fan of any of them but, their legacy, influence, artistry is unrivalled in my opinion.
To this day, everyone tries to be Dylan and anytime I hear a pop song on the radio these days, I often think I've heard Jackson do it before years ago, add to the mix his music videos and performances.
The Beatles are obviously self explanatory

maccored

Animal from the muppets

MOR316

maccored wrote: »

Animal from the muppets

Call!

Bigbagofcans

Jeff Buckley is my favourite vocalist of all time. His voice especially on the tracks 'Grace' and 'So Real' - incredibly raw and full of emotion.

Layne Staley is a close second for me.

The biggest musical talents such as Paul McCartney and Bowie, while they have created such brilliant music, they have average enough voices.

MonkeyTennis

Prince

trashcan

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

The biggest musical talents such as Paul McCartney and Bowie, while they have created such brilliant music, they have average enough voices.

Nah. Try singing some of McCartneys songs and see how average his voice was. Here there and Everywhere for example.

Anyway, I would have thought the original question was to do with all round musical ability, rather than just vocal skills.

Chuck Berry is right up there. Absolute phenom.

Rothko

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

The biggest musical talents such as Paul McCartney and Bowie, while they have created such brilliant music, they have average enough voices.

I'd agree about Bowie but Paul had a great voice.

Wibbs

Rothko wrote: »

I'd agree about Bowie but Paul had a great voice.

I'd be with you here R, though I would say Bowie had a very distinctive voice too. On Macca, here's one of the Beatles more chintzy tunes(though as per usual, underneath more complex than it sounds), a demo where they're not really going for the take, but forget about the song and listen to McCartney's voice at the start, preferably in headphones. He's signing in that range beyond his speaking voice, yet pitch perfect, it almost sounds autotuned 30 odd years before that was possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI8Up6V2blg

And as he says at the start he's singing like that "with ciggie in mouth".

Or this one, a home demo on 1960's tape equipment, singing a guide track for a song he wrote for the register of a woman, Mary Hopkins, a recent signing to their record label Apple(Steve Jobs was to rue his later choice of company names* ).

He had a pretty good voice and range to be fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EIcqz-sjy4

*though Jobs named his company thus because he was a major Beatles fan, lawsuits kicked off, but things were settled. Apple computers could be free to do their thing, so long as they steered clear of music. If you own an Apple mac today, go into the Sound System prefs and you will see an alert sound called "Sosumi", an internal Apple thing they came up with, claimed to be a Japanese instrument sound, but... "so sue me"....

Tell me how

I never got the whole Beatles thing. Don't think they are bad as such but more that they have achieved a success and notoriety which is greater than their talents deserved. I kinda view them more as being in the right place at the right time but I recognize that many would say they made that time and place be right with their music.

Listening to Paul singing on the tracks above, I find them underwhelming, are they particularly difficult tracks to sing? They seem to be of a particular tempo and range which a lot of the Beatles music was, from a completely uneducated perspective, fairly narrow. Would Freddie Mercury not have been a more talented singer than Paul in this respect?
Would Jeff Buckley, Chester Bennington, Chris Kornell all not have had a greater range and delivery than Paul?

Zirconia

Philip Glass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rkuReIHhUA

Lefty Bicek

Agree with many of the above already mentioned, to which I would add...

Sonny Rollins
Tom Waits
Buddy Rich
Burt Bacharach

Zirconia

Michael Nyman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KL8BE5TAj8

Zirconia

Chris Cornell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QU1nvuxaMA

Arghus

Chris Cornell is a very underrated musician. Obviously, he's revered now as a departed rock god, but it's still kinda underappreciated how good he really was.

At his peak - early to mid nineties - his voice was just something else. I don't love this song as much as I once did, but his vocals are still absolute dynamite and the climax of the song, when he's already belting out the lyrics and then somehow finds a way to put even more into it, awww man! - still makes my hair stand on end - and I don't even have that much hair these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hURFXazJG7U

And his gifts as a songwriter are overlooked as well. On most of Soundgarden's best songs he's the only credited songwriter, and those boyos had a lot of good tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsLjEe6Ic0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPxowzz8rtQ

Not saying he was the greatest of all time, but holy sht he was good.

Bowie getting mentioned a hell of lot here. I'm not going to crap on that unduly - massively influential artist, so many memorable hits, stayed relevant for so long, obviously very clued in and intelligent - but, for me, Bowie is just a little overrated these days. I think he knew the importance of collaborating with brilliant people, examples like Robert Fripp, Tony Visconti and in particular Brian Eno who, arguably, shaped his best music as much as he did. I'm not disputing his position as a musical great, but, if you're asking me, Brian Eno is a big a genius as Bowie was.

When Bruce is gawking on in sheer admiration you must be half daycent.

Genius.

Bobblehats

Arghus wrote: »

Bowie is just a little overrated these days. I think he knew the importance of collaborating with brilliant people, examples like Robert Fripp, Tony Visconti and in particular Brian Eno who, arguably, shaped his best music as much as he did. I'm not disputing his position as a musical great, but, if you're asking me, Brian Eno is a big a genius as Bowie was.

Thin white duke or gtfo. Could he even shred?

Here, we hold our musical entertainers accountable to the highest standard and as a prerequisite one must be an all singing / all dancing musical virtuoso of a mastercraftsman to even gain entry to these hallowed halls. Whilst all the while willing to jump through hoops

Hector Savage

chandlerbing2 wrote: »

For me it would have to be Eminem, lyrical genius and unbelievable songs.

Eminem !

That white trash itinerant piece of **** ?

Comparing him to the likes of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi ... not to mention the true modern greats we have.

jon43

not

dubstarr

Hector Savage wrote: »

Eminem !

That white trash itinerant piece of **** ?

Comparing him to the likes of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi ... not to mention the true modern greats we have.

I agree MGK is much more superior to Eminem.He plays guitar,sings rock n roll.Is a great actor.Much more rounded

Raconteuse

Rebecca Black, Crazy Frog, Banana Phone.

Arghus

Bobblehats wrote: »

Thin white duke or gtfo. Could he even shred?

Here, we hold our musical entertainers accountable to the highest standard and as a prerequisite one must be an all singing / all dancing musical virtuoso of a mastercraftsman to even gain entry to these hallowed halls. Whilst all the while willing to jump through hoops

Cool story bro.

Bobblehats

It’s basically performing monkeys i’m after

Deebles McBeebles

Bobblehats wrote: »

Thin white duke or gtfo. Could he even shred?

First question when applying to be a musical great...

Do you even shred, bro?

Greyfox

Hector Savage wrote: »

Eminem !

That white trash itinerant piece of **** ?

Comparing him to the likes of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi ... not to mention the true modern greats we have.

Eminem was amazing when he was angry with the world. It's no surprise to see him mentioned considering this thread is full of people mentioning people that where only very good.

Greyfox

Greyfox wrote: »

Eminem was amazing when he was angry with the world. It's no surprise to see him mentioned considering this thread is full of people mentioning people that where only very good.

Eminem at his peak was indeed a genius. His use of the English language is right up there with any other artist.

Bobblehats

He a poet and he know it

- alright how about this for a barometer what act has inspired the most musical joy in all of us. Who set the template that would inspire many an ensemble in giving us the most satisfaction, any guesses yet? I’ll give you a clue it wasn’t the stones

PGE1970

Morrissey/Marr

Sonics2k

I've long held the opinion that Chester Bennington of Linkin Park was this generations Freddie Mercury. A vocal range well beyond most performers of the last 30 years.

While the music taste may not to be everyones liking, Chester was undoubtedly up there with the very best in history.

Three separate live performances.

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF0OnaVA46o

That scream at the two minute mark and onwards.

Tell me how

Sonics2k wrote: »

I've long held the opinion that Chester Bennington of Linkin Park was this generations Freddie Mercury. A vocal range well beyond most performers of the last 30 years.

While the music taste may not to be everyones liking, Chester was undoubtedly up there with the very best in history.

He was a good lyricist and singer, but does that mean one of the best in history?

Yes if comparing him to the likes of Paul McCartney in my view but I think some of the classical music composers still have to be considered as more musically talented.

Sonics2k

Tell me how wrote: »

He was a good lyricist and singer, but does that mean one of the best in history?

Yes if comparing him to the likes of Paul McCartney in my view but I think some of the classical music composers still have to be considered as more musically talented.

Absolutely. He himself wrote the lyrics to most of their songs, composed a lot of the music over the course of the bands career.

Largely I'd put him up with the best because of his massive range of vocal ability and talent, well beyond that of most singers.

ArchXStanton

Just listening to megadeth there tonight, Holy **** Mustaine can play guitar, always made me think of him in some guitar dual with the devil

trashcan

Tell me how wrote: »

I never got the whole Beatles thing. Don't think they are bad as such but more that they have achieved a success and notoriety which is greater than their talents deserved. I kinda view them more as being in the right place at the right time but I recognize that many would say they made that time and place be right with their music.

Listening to Paul singing on the tracks above, I find them underwhelming, are they particularly difficult tracks to sing? They seem to be of a particular tempo and range which a lot of the Beatles music was, from a completely uneducated perspective, fairly narrow. Would Freddie Mercury not have been a more talented singer than Paul in this respect?
Would Jeff Buckley, Chester Bennington, Chris Kornell all not have had a greater range and delivery than Paul?

Nope, wrong wrong wrong. The Beatles are regarded the way that they are for a reason. They did it all, and they mostly did it first. They set the template for more or less everything that followed. In just seven years to produce that body of recorded work is just staggering. Sure there may have been individually better musicians, but they had the whole package. And the songs, it's mainly about the songs.