Amazing Journey

[aiki14]

The Story of The Who. Watching it now. If you're a Who fan you are too. :p
Or you will be.

[netwrangler]

The Story of The Who. Watching it now. If you're a Who fan you are too. :p
Or you will be.Repeats at 9 PDT. The DVR will capture it.

Thanks for the heads-up

[aiki14]

It's really quite good

2075

[TonyM]

Which channel is airing this? And where can I get a lava lamp and some herb?;) It's VH-1 right? I think I just broke my tv though, I accidentally selected some religious channel instead of VH-1 and now the channel wont play, must be a blasphemy karma gimmick, goddamnit.

[aiki14]

While watching this last evening my wife and I we're remarking about how good each member of the band was at their respective instrument, and tried to make a "Top Five" in each category. Guitar, Bass, Drums, Voice, and we added Keyboards and "others". We ended up with about 50 in each category, but here are the highlights. Also we just picked them for the top five and I am not listing them in any particular order.
Guitar
Frank Zappa, Pete Townsend, John McLaughlin, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Howe

Bass
Stanley Clarke, Chris Squire , Victor Wooten, John Entwistle, John Paul Jones

Drums
Carl Palmer, Keith Moon, Neil Pert, Billy Cobham, Bill Bruford

Voice (Rock and Roll Type)
John Lennon, Roger Daltrey, Bond Scott, Janis Joplin, Robert Plant

Voice
Greg Lake, Grace Slick, Roy Orbison, Justin Hayward, Annie Haslam

Keyboards
Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Jan Hammer

Other
Ian Anderson, Jean Luc Ponty, Bela Fleck, Charlie Daniels, Papa John Creach


I've seen everyone on the list live except Lennon, Hendrix, Bond Scott, and Joplin.
I'll bet some of the youger folks have very different lists.

[TonyM]

I hate my cable company lately, finally got the channel to display but then started pixelating (only that particular channel of course), I'll try and catch it when it airs again.

I'd have to add Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan to your guitar list as well as John Bonham to the drums though.

[netwrangler]

While watching this last evening my wife and I we're remarking about how good each member of the band was at their respective instrument, and tried to make a "Top Five" in each category. Guitar, Bass, Drums, Voice, and we added Keyboards and "others". We ended up with about 50 in each category, but here are the highlights. Also we just picked them for the top five and I am not listing them in any particular order.
Guitar
Frank Zappa, Pete Townsend, John McLaughlin, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Howe

Bass
Stanley Clarke, Chris Squire , Victor Wooten, John Entwistle, John Paul Jones

Drums
Carl Palmer, Keith Moon, Neil Pert, Billy Cobham, Bill Bruford

Voice (Rock and Roll Type)
John Lennon, Roger Daltrey, Bond Scott, Janis Joplin, Robert Plant

Voice
Greg Lake, Grace Slick, Roy Orbison, Justin Hayward, Annie Haslam

Keyboards
Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Jan Hammer

Other
Ian Anderson, Jean Luc Ponty, Bela Fleck, Charlie Daniels, Papa John Creach


I've seen everyone on the list live except Lennon, Hendrix, Bond Scott, and Joplin.
I'll bet some of the youger folks have very different lists.This thread is like a small serving of sorbet — serves to cleanse the palette between courses.

As to the list, I offer for your consideration [in random order]:
Shelly Manne – drums
Willie "The Lion" Smith – keyboard
James P. Johnson – keyboard
Ella Fitzgerald – voice
Johnny Mercer – lyricist
Joni Mitchell – lyricist
Duke Ellington – composer, band leader
Ray Brown – bass
Al McKibbon – bass
Mongo SantaMaria - congero
Tito Puente – timbales, band leader
Billy Strayhorn - composer, lyricist, arranger

I'm sure the younger folks will mention the younger musicians. Figure my role is to bring up the older ones.

I left out most of the big-band musicians. Also didn't touch folk or blues or early R&B. Well, maybe that's all too specialized or too remote.

Your list entries have given me quite an iTunes project, running down the names I don't know [or can't remember]. :)

[aiki14]

Your list entries have given me quite an iTunes project, running down the names I don't know [or can't remember]. :)

That's why I asked the younger folks to post, for stuff I don't know. My daughter says Les Claypool should be in the Bass section and I am checking out some stuff now. Remake of Tomorrow Never Knows is pretty good

[TonyM]

Forgot to mention Jean Michel Jarre for keyboard, his album 'Oxygen' was revolutionary at the time.

[freakscene]

My daughter says Les Claypool should be in the Bass section


I never cared for his music, but I will agree that he is a fantastic player. 6 string to boot.

I also do not know what you mean by "younger", so as an early 30 something I'll give it some thought: sticking mostly with the Rock genre barring a couple exceptions and trying not to use those already named unless truly deserving:

Bass - Bootsy Collins, Entwistle, Mike Watt, Geezer Butler, Cliff Burton

Drums - John Bonham, Keith Moon, Vinnie Paul, not a fan but Phil Collins is a great drummer, Mitch Mitchell

Guitar - so many to name, but .... Jimi, Segovia, Tom Morello (amazing creativity), Pat Metheny, Thurston Moore, Neil Young

Voice - Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant, J Lennon, Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash, Neil Young

Keyboards - Lyle Mays, Brent Mydland, Ray Manzarek

Song writers - have I mentioned Neil Young? :), Art Alexakis (EverClear), Tom Petty, Jack White, Willie Nelson, Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth)

Hard to not name people like Doc Watson, Les Paul, Tony Rice, Bill Monroe, Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan......but....wait I just did :p

[aiki14]

It was suggested that a new catagory be added, the live performance. Here are the best shows I saw
ELP with 100pc orchestra conducted by Godfrey Salmon, 3 1/2 hrs long and lots of pyrotechnics, cannons etc. Best drum solo I've ever seen, Carls arms were a blur for the whole show. Only 6 shows before the tour went broke and they had to lose the orchestra.
The Kinks, great fun and they have so many songs you never know whats coming. I saw them at the Nassau Coliseum with Ian Hunter, great pharmacological event as well.
Roy Orbison, always a great show, once saw 4 shows in 2 nights in Atlantic City.
The Dead Kennedy's, 1981 at the American Indian Center in San Francisco, I was front row center, Jello Handed me a beer after I caught him in a stage dive and put him back on the stage, then he leaned in and let me sing a verse of Let's Lynch the Landlord. There's a DVD available from alternative tentacles where you can see it.
Frank Zappa, Any of the 5 times I saw him on Halloween at the Palladium in NYC.
Kraftwerk, The Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. I think I said WOW, more times in 3 hours than any other time in my life (and I once body guarded Nina Hartley for some live appearances at NYC strip clubs!!)

[bigzip]

Let's not forget:

Guitar: Van Halen, Santana

Bass: Geddy Lee, Flea

Drums: Carmine Appice, Buddy Rich

Voice: Ozzy!

[Goldman Slacks]

fav on guitar is Steve Stevens - played with Billy Idol and many others..
nice solo in this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4RSYVN15M

[netwrangler]

It was suggested that a new catagory be added, the live performance. I like the live performance category. Music is such a personal experience that coming with "all time" picks is virtually impossible to adjudicate. But if a live performance worked for you, well that's "all time" in your book, and that's enough.

I think our "all time" was in November of 1962. LA FM station KNOB, "the jazz knob," had advertised an event at the Breakfast Club in Glendale.

Lee Konitz and his quartet opened. Konitz was a fluid and fluent alto sax player. I had seen him earlier at Birdland in NY. He did not disappoint.

Next was the Cal Tjader quintet. The quintet I knew was Tjader on vibes, Vince Guaraldi [of 'Peanuts' fame] piano, Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria percussion, and Al McKibbon bass. This was why we had come that night. This group personified the newly fused genre of latin-jazz. Nobody did it better before or since. They were at the top of their game that night.

After a break the stage was set up for a big band. Someone I had never heard of. A rehearsal band from Pasadena led by Gerald Wilson.

Years later I learned that Wilson arranged for Lunceford, Ellington, Basie, and Dizzy Gellespie. At the time, I had already seen Ellington, Basie, Stan Kenton, and Maynard Ferguson in person. I had played bari-sax in some half-decent bands myself. But when Wilson started to play, I wasn't prepared for the power and the swing. I had to lean into the wind that the sound of his band produced. Yes, it was a "Wow."

After an incredible first set, the crowd was clearly excited about the set to come. The mostly black audience buzzed about the singer that would perform with Gerald Wilson's Orchestra.

Wilson introduced the singer — Lou Rawls. This was 1962. Rawls had just released his first album, with a straight-ahead jazz sound, Stormy Monday. Hardly anyone had heard of Lou Rawls then. When we heard him that night, we had no doubt we were seeing an exceptional talent at the start of his career.

The music was exceptional, but I admit that part of the glow was that this was my second date with Dana. Our first date was the SCCA sports car races at the Pomona Fair Grounds. Dana says she liked the second date much better.

Last year, the Gerald Wilson Orchestra played at the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center. Dana and I went to see the band perform once more. [The bari-sax player was awesome.] After the show we talked with Wilson. We told him we had seen him in 1962. We all agreed that it was great we all were still going strong. Dana and I agreed that we needed to catch Wilson's act more often.

For more information on Gerald Wilson, you can follow this link:

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=198-MD-CD

This night was a life-altering live musical performance!