The answer is Elvis Presley. The criteria appear to have been written specifically to exclude him.
It’s like saying “Hey, let’s vote on the best hockey player of all time but you can’t vote for Gretzky,” or “Let’s have a vote on the most famous movie of all time about a killer shark, but you can’t vote for Jaws.”
I’m curious, though. The phrase “rock star” (not “rock n’ roll” or “rock music”)seems to post-date Elvis (as a non-jumpsuit-wearing-fat-man)
Based soley on the criteria of the OP and the list available, I went with Springsteen. Writes his own stuff. Plays a very good guitar (and harmonica.) Outside of Jagger, probably the best showman on the list. Lasting legacy, check. Chicks seem to dig him.
What he said. The poll needs to be retitled “The Greatest Non-Elvis Rock Star.”
I did not vote – and won’t.
I’m straight but can recognise that Elvis was an incredibly sexy and attractive man back in the day. Parts of the 68 Comeback Special are incredible.
Voted for Springsteen based on the criteria, but my favorite of the bunch is Mercury. My problem with voting for him based on the criteria is that he would not have been all that great without the rest of Queen, particularly Brian May, sharing the musical and songwriting load.
I don’t know why you would disqualify Elvis based on the songwriting criterion. He’s written the vast majority of his hits from “Alison” and “Watching the Detectives” onward. I’m not too sure about the sex appeal thing though.
Freddie Mercury had it all. He is the greatest.
Where’s James Brown?
My thoughts exactly.
Being cool is far more important than being sexy for a true rock star, and it’s even slightly more important than showmanship. Therefore, Keith Richards is the answer, followed closely by Slash.
If you are willing to accept someone with little actual talent, but so much cool he makes up for it, Jim Morrisson would win hands down.
I think Jimi Hendrix out-cools all of them. He’s my personal favorite muscian of all time, by the way, but I can’t quite put him above Elvis or Mick as a rock star.
Michael Jackson closely followed by Madonna would be my choice, but with the two of them being my all-time favourite artists that isn’t really much of a surprise. If I wasn’t choosing from the poll and you said to me “besides those two, who would you choose?” I’d say Elvis Presley, and from the poll I’d say Freddie Mercury.
Was that the main reason for adding it to the criteria?
When I saw the thread title, I had three immediate choices:
And, then a hazy image that turned out to be a combination of Jim Morrison, Robert Plant and Roger Daltrey.
I didn’t think of Elvis, mainly because of this:
So, even though I think that Elvis was the biggest musical star since Caruso, I gotta go with Jagger as the greatest rock star.
BTW, I don’t associate “writing music” with being a rock star. Freddie Mercury would still have been a great rock star even if all of Queen’s songs had been written by John Deacon and Brian May.
Wondering about something, though. In 1980, after Queen had released Bohemian Rhapsody, You’re My Best Friend, Somebody to Love, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Another One Bites the Dust, and Crazy Little Thing Called Love, how many people knew who Freddie Mercury was, compared to how many knew Elvis, Jagger, or McCartney? I could be wrong but it seems to me that he became really famous after 1990 when word got out that he had AIDS. Am I way off base here?
Hmmm … well, I can see that “famous” isn’t the same as “great”. Just thinking of Stoid’s comment: “By definition a rock star is a bigass star that most people are familiar with.” In any case, Freddie Mercury is famous, and he’s definitely in the running as greatest rock star.
Just now, glancing at the thread title made me think, “The greatest rock star of all time? Hmmm… what if he (or she) isn’t even born yet?”
What (if any) are the chances of a genuine Rock Star, coming along who will be a greater rock star, as such, than anyone so far mentioned in this thread?
There is only answer.
James Marshall Hendrix had more talent in his left hand than all the people you mentioned combined, Stoid.
To omit his name from your list and include a no-talent slut like Madonna and vastly overrated bozos like Jim Morrison and Steve Tyler is an insult to all guitarists, anyone who knows music, black America, and the '60’s.
I agree. Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler are ugly as hell, but they are both definitely rock stars.
I can’t choose, in part because I don’t know which of these guys has sex appeal. Springsteen? I think he comes closest because he writes all his stuff, plays guitar and is undoubtably a rock star.
Chrissy Hynde is a rock star, Madonna is a pop star.
Yet Roger Daltrey is on the list. (As for Ozzy, well, he’s credited with writing his songs, but one of his band members once remarked, “Ozzy can’t write his name, how could he write a song?”)
And while Madonna and Michael Jackson may fit all the criteria, they aren’t really rock stars, IMHO.
Depends on the definition of “rock”, I suppose, and whether you take it to mean the rock and roll era or the literal genre of rock music. While both Michael and Madonna have sung rock songs in their career despite it not being their main genre, if we’re going by the latter definition I agree with you that they are not rock stars.
I went with Springsteen because I can attest that he’s a great showman in concert, a fantastic writer, a musician certain to have a lasting legacy, and I don’t care if he’s sixty years old now, I would jump his bones in less time than it takes to strike the opening chord of Born to Run.
BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE! (Obligatory.)
He’s also a nice guy and down-to-earth, from all I’ve read. Not a perfect man, but he’s no classic rock star ego-trip asshat.
The discussion begins and ends with Jagger.
The real question is “who is the second-greatest rock star of all time?”
mmm