Frank zappa
Grateful Dead
Meat Puppets
Sound Garden
Faith No more (mike patton in general)
Talking heads
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The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
A few people mentioned John Lennon. I think if you have him, you need to include Paul McCartney. Lennon/McCartney songs were gold mines!
Also, I know it's reggae, but he tends to fall more into the rocker crowd, but how about Bob Marley.
And although I'm not an Elvis man (I'm a Beatles man), Elvis probably should be considered as an influential rock star. And Buddy Holly, too (the Beatles at least were influenced by him)!
Shit, nobody mentioned Stevie Ray Vaughan!
However, Jimi Hendrix deserves to be at the top of the list in my opinion (and should be on top of everybody's list!!!!).
Now that's a legitimate answer to the question. Yes, you may like Randy Rhoads or Dave Grohl, but there's a big difference between "enjoyable" and "influential." Without Chuck Berry, there may not have been Elvis, The Beatles, or the Rolling Stones. Without Randy Rhoads, there may not have been... some admittedly killer guitar solos on a couple of Ozzy records.
I agree with most of the artists already mentioned. There's of course the usuals like Hendrix, Young, CBGB's 70's scene, etc... I'll also add Husker Du, given that they influenced many late 80's/early 90's bands...But they seem overlooked when compared to The Pixies, Sonic Youth, etc...
Comments
Grateful Dead
Meat Puppets
Sound Garden
Faith No more (mike patton in general)
Talking heads
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
-- Omar Khayyam
Mark Lanegan
Pixies
Thom Yorke
Mission of Burma
Also, I know it's reggae, but he tends to fall more into the rocker crowd, but how about Bob Marley.
And although I'm not an Elvis man (I'm a Beatles man), Elvis probably should be considered as an influential rock star. And Buddy Holly, too (the Beatles at least were influenced by him)!
Shit, nobody mentioned Stevie Ray Vaughan!
However, Jimi Hendrix deserves to be at the top of the list in my opinion (and should be on top of everybody's list!!!!).
~Edward
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I like this post - well written and true.