I saw the thread Why do some Jews rock back and forth during prayer? and was going to write a reply along the lines of Well the only Jew who really rocks is… and then I realised that I couldn’t name one.
Surely there are plenty??
Gene Simmons of Kiss.
Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman)
Gene Simmons (Chaim Witz)
The Beastie Boys
Billy Joel
David Lee Roth
Slash (Saul Hudson)
Joey Ramone (Jeff Hyman)
Paul Simon
Art Garfunkel
Lou Reed
Adam Duritz (from Counting Crows)
Perry Farrell
Max Weinberg (from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Conan O’Brien’s bandleader)
Howie Epstein, The Heartbreakers
Mike Bloomfield
Leslie West
Mark Knopfler
Lenny Kravitz (at least, he’s officially Jewish according to the Chapelle Show).
And Paul Stanley from KISS
and Lenny Kravitz
And Carole King
And can we include producers Rick Rubin and Phil Spector?
Madonna [snerk]
IIRC, a Jewish Rock Hall of Fame just opened recently. Among the first members were Lou Reed, Billy Joel and The Knack.
Bruce Springstein!
Seriously, um, Marc Bolan. Donald Fagen. Leonard Cohen! Norman Greenbaum. Laura Nyro. Members of Sleater-Kinney. Randy Newman.
Danny Elfman, film score composer and Oingo Boingo leader.
So I was right there isn’t one who actually rocks. Except for Lou Reed.
What about Joey Ramone?
Warren Zevon was half-Jewish but I believe he actually was a practicing Christian.
Phil Ochs, Paul Simon.
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (ne Kaplan) of the Turtles, Mothers, and Flo & Eddie
Derek, Ray, and Phil Shulman of Gentle Giant
Robbie Krieger of the Doors
Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles
Al Kooper, along with most if not all of the original Blood Sweat & Tears lineup
Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser of Blue Oyster Cult
Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead
IIRC, David Draiman of Disturbed is Jewish.
Relevant link: http://www.jewsrock.org/
Iggy Pop, Carly Simon, Manfred Man (Manfred Lubowitz), Janis Ian (Janis Fink), Elliot Easton of The Cars (Elliot Steinberg), Arlo Guthrie.
I had no idea that he was Jewish. I guess we’ve got the folk side of music covered with both Bob and Arlo.
Me. Ha ha, I wish.
Rami Jaffee, keyboard player of the Wallflowers.
And lead singer Jakob Dylan!
Also Jonathan Richman, a recent favorite of mine. Cool!
What’s the last name of the lead singer in the Wallflowers- itn’t it Dylan, as in Son’o’Bob?
(So help me I can’t think of his first name.)