He’s not a band, but Art Tatum. He’s regarded by many jazz lovers as the greatest pianist of all time. While I agree that he was technically proficient, it always sounds to me like he was just showing off. “See how clever I am? What wonderful arpeggios! My fingering is superb! Don’t you admire how fast I can play?”
Thelonious Monk was not a great technical pianist, but I love his music because it’s so, well, musical. Tatum just annoys me.
I came here to write just that, but more in a despise than not like mood. U2 is just awful.
I liked Prince since I read on a German magazine (Der Spiegel, in case you care, in the `80s, when they were still readable) that he was the black answer to Michael Jackson. So Michael Jackson is my second entry. Santana is my third.
I get this as a critique of Blues music in general, but not BB King. The Thrill Is Gone is absolutely the greatest blues song ever. You want to criticize Bo Diddley for only playing good time music with that Bo Diddley beat? Go for it. You want to criticize Muddy Waters for doing a bunch of songs that sound like Manish Boy? I agree. B. B. King has played a lot of different styles; I find very little that is repetitive.
My biggest beef with songs is vocals. They don’t have to be perfect voices, they have to love what they’re singing. Joe Cocker has a raspy voice, but he puts his heart and soul into every song he does. Mick Jagger, on the other hand, knows how people expect him to sound, and sings that way. Love the music behind him, hate his singing and thus most Stones songs. I could say the same thing about Plant and Zeplin.
The Who, on the other hand, are absolutely the greatest band ever, and anyone who says different is just wrong.
I never said average so you are arguing against something I never said. He was good but not great. If that song is the best you can offer I don’t know what to tell you. The guitar work was good but not particularly special. It sounds great to people who like a genre that doesn’t usually have good guitar parts.
As for Rush I won’t try to convince you but I think much of their best work came later in albums like Hold Your Fire and Presto. Most of the people who complain about the group talk about how Geddy sang (sometimes) in the first ten years and don’t know about the next thirty.
Although BB always had great tone there were always better players. I do think he had one of the best blues voices.
I’m a heavy rock fan. With the exception of a very few songs, I really detest both Slayer and Pantera. For reference, I love early Metallica and Megadeth, and almost everything Anthrax has ever done. If I had to hazard a guess for the reason why, I would guess that both Slayer and and Pantera songs are mostly devoid of melodic vocal hooks and inventive riffs.
Led Zeppelin. Practically heresy for a white teen in the late 1970s. They just seemed like unimaginative latecomers to the British Blues field already thoroughly plowed by the Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds, and Cream.
Rush. I’m all-in on the Classic Rock canon - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, the Eagles, Steve Miller Band, etc. etc. - but Rush has never given me anything at all. I’d chalk it up to a general distaste for Prog Rock – I get nothing from ELO or Yes either – but I dig some Kansas here and there and I love Styx.
For my dad’s celebration of life, which I emcee’d, I gave all attendees over 18 a lighter* and, at a certain point during the ceremony, we played The Weight (Dad loved him some Classic Rock, as do I, and this was one of his favorite songs (and is still one of mine)). At each chorus (“Take a load off, Fannie, take a load for free…”) I had the attendees hold up the lighters, like at a concert. It was a big hit.
I don’t say this to change your mind, @BlankSlate , but rather because your post reminded me of a good memory.
*My father was the Central Illinois champion of bogarting lighters. He’d bum a lighter to light his J or his smoke or his bowl or whatever, and then it would go into his pocket and you’d never see it again. So I metaphorically returned all of those lighters at his CoL and then put them to use in a rather beautiful moment.