I completely love Pete Townsend’s guitar playing. This man is the best rythym player in the world. Absolutely brilliant player…dont’ think so? Check out the acoustic solo in “Who Are You” and tell me this guy’s not on fire. I also have the deepest respect for his songwriting skills. One of the BEST rock writers every…but man oh man do I think he’s a total gas bag once he takes off his guitar. I have NEVER heard anyone pontificate on and on like this guy. It’s almost as if he’s obsessed with his own thoughts. I LOVE his music but his personality leaves so much to be desired. He fancies himself a serious intellectual but comes off as a spoiled brat who has ONLY been given a platform due to his songs from DECADES ago. I have noticed this more over the years after 1980 or so. But now with the porn thing…eck. Please go away!
Miles Davis was one of the three or four most important musicians of the last century. He was also a junkie, wife-beater and by some reports he hated white people. Not someone I’d want to spend a weekend at the Hamptons with.
John Lennon, by near universal counts, had a vicious streak. Wish I’d met him once; glad I didn’t meet him twice.
Rivers Cuomo (from weezer). A brilliant, extremely prolific musician. (prolific–weezer’s only released four albums because he refuses to release the vast majority of the songs.) But he’s a jerk. I’m not sure just how many bass players he’s sent away. He’s dictator of the band, which forced two other members to do side projects (he doesn’t approve.) From listening to his songs, you can tell he’s the worst boyfriend. Kind of stalkerish in Living Without You. Rivers is not our friend. “He’s just the lead singer of a band we like”-- i’m quoting someone in the weezer message board.
Not to mention a homophobic, misogynist asshole. But yeah, he’s an amazingly talented rapper.
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I was going to say Jackson Browne, because I like a lot of his songs, but I heard he beat up Darryl Hannah. I have no respect for any man who beats up a woman, much less Darryl Hannah, who I’ve had a big crush on since she was in Blade Runner.
But I know better than to post anything at the SDMB just based on rumor, so I did some Googling to confirm it. It turns out it may not be true! Have I been wanting to kick this guy’s ass all these years for nothing?
Bob Dylan, John Lennon, everyone in Oasis, Kurt Cobain, Crosby, Stills (but not Nash or Young- they’re cool) are some names I can think of real quick. I’m sure with more time, I could come up with some more.
From what I have learned and read, Charlie Mingus was nearly impossible to be around becuase he was such an asshole, but he is near the top of the list for musicians that I respect.
Also, wasn’t Pete Townsend cleared of all the kiddie porn charges recently?
Can you elaborate on this a little bit? I have a friend who is so grotesquely obsessed with Kurt that I’m seriously afraid he’s going to start shooting heroin any day now. I’d love to have some dirt on the guy.
I met two of the three players in ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons and Dusty, and they were two very nice gentlemen. I worked in a five star hotel when I met them and one time I talked to Mr. Gibbons on the phone, and I was the one who had to get off the phone from him. Dusty is just a good old boy. I don’t much care for ZZ Top, but these guys deserve the wealth and the fun they are having. People who are cool and like their fans deserve what they have,
MICHAEL JACKSON comes to mind about the OP question. MJ is a phenomenal performer. Especially look at him when he was a 10-12 year old boy, he was a little James Brown. Through “Off the Wall” and “Thriller”. He was the man (really).
Now he is a pansy, prissy personality, scared of the sun and his own shadow, with three children who he denies a mother to, possibly a pedophile, fucked up his once friendly face (he’s got vitiligo, I do too, so he did not DYE HIS FACE WHITE).
I don’t want this to be an MJ board. We have tortured him enough.
Liam Gallagher from Oasis would be another good example. He’s just such an obnoxious jackass in every single interview I’ve seen.
Ritchie Blackmore is no walk in the park either from what I understand. I’ve heard him criticize Jimi Hendrix’s playing before which kind of took me back. I know he’s not everybody’s cup of tea but he was savage in his remarks. Seemed like it sprung from jealousy from the sound of it. Plus he’s such a pompous fellow that he’s an easy one to not like.
Judging by various hints, Cecil Adams would fit on this list.
[This post in no way reflects the ideas or opinions of this poster. This post is the result solely of a compilation of data from various Straight Dope books. I think you rock, Unca Cecil.]
Michael Gira, formerly of SWANS, now the mind behind the Angels of Light. Well-known for stopping in the middle of a song, tearing the band a new asshole for missing a cue, and then picking things up from that exact point.
Well, he works in a musical genre where range isn’t a prerequisite, but verbal adroitness is. And by those criteria, Eminem scores very well. I’ll admit to not changing the channel on the radio when one of his songs comes on, because he really is very very good at what he does. If the best of hip-hop is political/ social subversion cast in rhyme (as I believe it is), Eminem is among the best.
Now, if you don’t think hip-hop is music or that it requires musical talent, that’s a separate question and beyond the scope of the debate. As a hip-hop musician, Eminem is incredibly talented.
That being said, he is a fairly reprehensible human being. Talented, but reprehensible.
Well I’m certainly not a hip hop fan but I’m not so foolish as to believe it isn’t music. Yet when listening to Eminem as compared to say, Chuck D, I just think Eminem comes off lacking. I fail to see what he offers that other artists like Missy Elliot doesn’t. Music is, of course, very subjective to the taste of the listener. I was responding in part to the idea that one couldn’t deny Eminem’s talent. One can since it’s opinion. But in the case of Opera singers where there is some auditorial proficency that one can actually measure (how high a note, how perfect in pitch, etc.) there can be a bit more actual evidence of talent. Whether or not one thinks a singer’s voice sounds like a hippo being sodomized would still be an opinion though. (Proper response “Ah, but a procreating hippo that can hit the high notes in tune!”)