Nostro's Top 10 Music Artists of the Last 100 years

[Nostromo87]

When putting this together, i envisioned a mirror universe where MovieForums is MusicForums. And we all have avatars and Top 10's of our favorite bands, favorite songs, favorite albums, etc. Feel like there's so much territory to discuss in this sub-forum. Knowing how ambitious and crazy it is to name a Top 10 of all the music artists out there over the last century, chasing after it anyways. As this has been LOADS of fun to prepare. I hope to capture that magical experience of, perhaps when you first got a car and drove with your friends or by yourself to the record store, cassette store, or CD store, and looked at the walls and walls of music... and finally chose an album. Drove home opened it up, sat back, relaxed, and let yourself be wrapped up in the vibrations and atmosphere.

One thing I am striving for is to not get lost in trying so hard to see the BIG FOREST, that i miss the trees. The songs. That's where the magic comes from. So i will be including a Top 5 favorite songs for each entry. That means I'll be leaving out lots of songs i like as well, sure, yet i like the idea of giving a brief sample of favorites from each. Praise the cosmos for music !

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[Nostromo87]

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#10. RAY CHARLES

Nicknamed 'the Genius,' this singer, pianist, & songwriter from Albany, Georgia transformed and revolutionized soul music in the 1950s. He was sent to Florida at the age of 7 to attend the Florida School for the Death and the Blind in St. Augustine, FL. Where he learned to read, write, and arrange music in Braille and learned to play piano, organ, sax, clarinet and trumpet. Transcended his blindness to become a legendary musical artist.

Top 5 Favorite songs:
5. Shake Your Tail Feathers
4. Seven Spanish Angels
3. America the Beautiful
2. Georgia on My Mind
1. Hallelujah I Love Her So
(just missed: Unchain My Heart, Hit the Road Jack, Mess Around, I Got a Woman, among others)

[Nostromo87]

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#9. THE BEACH BOYS

Formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961, the Beach Boys were helmed by Brian Wilson (vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, primary songwriter) along with his two brothers Dennis and Carl, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. That was the original lineup. Over the years, several other artists joined the Boys as well. Their California sound rapidly became an international sensation in the 1960s. They are a part of my life memories, i drove around freshman year of college listening to these guys in 2005 with a girl who was special to me. I love their harmonic sound and rhythm

Top 5 Songs:
#5. Fun Fun Fun
#4. California Girls
#3. Good Vibrations
#2. Don't Worry Baby
#1. Surfer Girl

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[Swan]

Off to an excellent start. I feel like The Beach Boys have become rather underrated. I feel like they are similar to The Beatles in that they started doing good pop tunes but then transcended in the artform and started doing really complex things with sound production. Pet Sounds is incredible, from a technical (and musical) standpoint.

[Nostromo87]

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#8. THE DOORS

Made a meteoric rise in the 60s driven primarily by the presence & persona of lead vocalist and poet,
Jim Morrison 'the Lizard King'. Went through a definite The Doors phase several years ago, where i searched Jim Morrison quotes and found lots of interesting snapshots of wisdom. Along with enjoying his music. Morrison studied film at UCLA where he met keyboardist Ray Manzarak on Venice Beach in 1965. Quickly thereafter they started a band and constantly challenged censorship, conventional wisdom, and delved into primal forces of sex, violence, and unchaining freedom of spirit. Morrison braved arrest and intimidation from authority figures who hated him, chasing the road of extravagance towards the castle of wisdom. Jim Morrison died in Paris in 1971 at the age of 27, yet not before leaving his mark on music history

Top 5 Songs
#5. L.A. Woman
#4. Waiting For the Sun
#3. The End
#2. The Crystal Ship
#1. Spanish Caravan

Carry me, Caravan, take me away
Take me to Portugal, take me to Spain
Andalusia with fields full of grain
I have to see you again and again

Take me, Spanish Caravan
Yes, I know you can

Trade winds find Galleons lost in the sea
I know where treasure is waiting for me
Silver and gold in the mountains of Spain
I have to see you again and again
Take me, Spanish Caravan
Yes, I know you can

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[jiraffejustin]

The Doors self-titled album might be my favorite album of all-time and a contender for the album I've listened to the most times in my life.

[cricket]

The Doors are easy top 5 for me and the other 2 aren't no slouches either.

[Nostromo87]

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#7. PINK FLOYD

A more meditative and perhaps thought-provoking brand of sound than even The Doors. And probably a whole other dimension of music more distant and riveting than anything we've perceived yet up til now. These guys were an English band formed in London by students Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, & Richard Wright. These masterminds forged a provocative union of science fiction and social commentary which retains grande power, certainly now, and likely far into the future. Dazzling talent and vision

Top 5 Songs
#5. The Great Gig in the Sky
#4. Welcome to the Machine
#3. Time
#2. Echoes
#1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond
(and so many more, yow)

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[Swan]

Best band ever. :up:

[Nostromo87]

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#6. THE ANIMALS

Personally i feel these guys are wickedly underrated when it comes to their sound. They may have exploded better with a better marketing agent and better graphic artists to drive their character forward. They weren't the best showmen/showtimers, what remains though, is their sound. The Animals grew in the 60s from a budding, homegrown UK blues scene of the British scrolls of music history. The Animals assembled in Newcastle-on-Tyne a coal-mining hub and port city in northeastern England, & delivered the best interpretation of one of my favorite folk songs, House of the Rising Sun. Reflected their upbringing with brawling, blues-based rock & roll

Top 5 Songs
#5. Road Runner
#4. San Francisco Nights
#3. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
#2. Bring It On Home To Me
#1. House of the Rising Sun

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[Nostromo87]

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#5. JOHN LEE HOOKER

Straight outta Mississippi, son of a sharecropper, John Lee Hooker claimed his rise to salience rocking his electric-guitar adaption of Delta blues. Developed his driving-rhythm piano-modified boogie style melody in Motown in the 1930s and 1940s.

Top 5 Songs
#5. Big Legs, Tight Skirt
#4. I'm Bad Like Jesse James
#3. Blues Before Sunrise
#2. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
#1. Boom Boom

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[The Gunslinger45]

Excellent start bro!

[christine]

Good thread Nostro. I like the inclusion of the Animals :)

[TylerDurden99]

The Doors would be in my top ten as well, and I love Pink Floyd and The Beach Boys.

[the samoan lawyer]

Great thread Nos, The Doors are my favourite band of all time and like you I would probably have LA Woman as my favourite trach, either that or 5 TO 1. Love PInk Floyd also.

[Nostromo87]

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#4. JIMI HENDRIX

Guitarist, singer & songwriter of the 60s. Enraptured audiences with his outrageous style and vibrations. Born in Seattle, Washington, he took up the guitar as a teenager and grew up to become a legend of music. One of his biggest landmark performances was at Woodstock in 1969 when he performed the
'Star Spangled Banner'. Hendrix died in Notting Hill, London in 1970 at the age of 27.
Guess how. How many people can pull off this guy's fashion without looking like a complete moron? Probably no one, yet that was Jimi Hendrix, truly one of a kind. Imagine Hendrix's relationship and love for his guitar. Anywhere people try to describe the meaning of a guitar, there should just be a picture of Jimi Hendrix

Top 5 Songs
#5. Foxy Lady
#4. Spanish Castle Magic
#3. Voodoo Child
#2. All Along the Watchtower
#1. Purple Haze
(Just missed: Little Wing, Hey Joe, 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Bold As Love, Castles Made of Sand)

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[Camo]

Love everyone so far :up: . Well except John Lee Hooker who i'm not familiar with, i guess i'll have to check him out. Hendrix, The Doors and possibly The Beach Boys would make my top 10 too.

[matt72582]

Pink Floyd
The Beatles
The Doors
Supertramp
Led Zeppelin
The Who
Steely Dan
Electric Light Orchestra
The Rolling Stones
Bob Marley

[Nostromo87]

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#3. FATS DOMINO

A son of Louisiana, Domino sang, played the piano, and took charge to define New Orleans sound in the 1950s, with his rhythm-and-blues star power. 'The Fat Man' rarely left New Orleans after 1970, at which point he generally shunned publicity and chose to live cozily with his wife Rosemary and their eight children. Fats was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and is alive and well today at the age of 86.

Top 5 Songs
#5. Jambalaya
#4. Ain't That a Shame
#3. The Fat Man
#2. When the Saints Go Marching In
#1. Blue Monday

O when the sun - refuse to shine
O when the sun refuse to shine
I still want - to be in that number
When the sun refuse to shine

Oh when the saints - go marching in
When the saints go marching in
I'm gonna sing as loud as thunder
Oh when the saints go marchin' in

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[Nostromo87]

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#2. THE ROLLING STONES

Okay, who wants a description here? Aite, straight out of London the Stones pulled a Muhammad Ali in the Sixties and announced themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band. ♥ confidence, ♥ Muhammad Ali, & ♥ The Rolling Stones. I agree with them. Almost. Their sound began as a gruff bad boy version of Chicago blues. Mick Jagger vocals, Keith Richards guitar, Charlie Watts drums, Bill Wyman & Ronnie Wood on the bass, with several others mixed in. These guys were cool enough to inspire a f*ing pirate movie. If not for that, i probably wouldn't be here right now

Top 5 Songs
#5. Tumbling Dice
#4. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
#3. Get Off My Cloud
#2. Satisfaction
#1. Start Me Up

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[mark f]

Out of all their songs, "Start Me Up"? :p Cool list regardless. :D

[Nostromo87]

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#1. MUDDY WATERS

Muddy came up outta Rolling Fork, Mississippi. A sharecropper cotton picker who transformed into a singer and guitar player. Played music in the bog pools of the Mississippi River as a young boy and hit it up big in Chicago clubs in the 1940s.

Top 5 Songs
#5. Rollin' & Tumblin'
#4. Got My Mojo Workin'
#3. Rollin' Stone
#2. Mannish Boy
#1. I Am the Blues

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Mississippi - New Orleans - Chicago - Motown, Detroit https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-a8G65XbFI3A/Uzm78HMTWOI/AAAAAAABdEo/axREdnZAYio/s30/king.gif

[Swan]

You're a pimp motherf*cker, nostro. Great list. :up:

[jiraffejustin]

:up:

Any list with Hendrix, The Doors, Beach Boys, and Fats Domino has my approval. And the other choices aren't slobs either. Good list.

[christine]

love your list :)
All Along The Watchtower would be my favourite Hendrix track. The only Dylan cover that's better than the oriinal imo

[the samoan lawyer]

Impressive list Nostro. One cool MoFo.

[Sexy Celebrity]

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#2. THE ROLLING STONES

Okay, who wants a description here? Aite, straight out of London the Stones pulled a Muhammad Ali in the Sixties and announced themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band. ♥ confidence, ♥ Muhammad Ali, & ♥ The Rolling Stones. I agree with them. Almost. Their sound began as a gruff bad boy version of Chicago blues. Mick Jagger vocals, Keith Richards guitar, Charlie Watts drums, Bill Wyman & Ronnie Wood on the bass, with several others mixed in. These guys were cool enough to inspire a f*ing pirate movie. If not for that, i probably wouldn't be here right now

Top 5 Songs
#5. Tumbling Dice
#4. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
#3. Get Off My Cloud
#2. Satisfaction
#1. Start Me Up


Out of all their songs, "Start Me Up"? :p Cool list regardless. :D

Those are my two favorite Rolling Stones songs, too -- "Start Me Up" and "Satisfaction." A third would probably be "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

[Swan]

Nostro, you a fan of the Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request? My fave album by them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOMOUj1BrRk

[cricket]

I'm not familiar with that specific Hooker, but I love the rest of them.

[Miss Vicky]

Best Stones song by far is "Gimme Shelter."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJDnJ0vXUgw

As for "Start Me Up," I prefer this cover version (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lwatig1WKWw). But I'm weird like that.

And how are you gonna mention Fats without listing "Blueberry Hill"? This countdown is all screwed up.

[cricket]

Stones-

1. Gimme Shelter
2. Sympathy for the Devil
3. Paint it Black
4. Under My Thumb
5. Let's Spend the Night Together

6. Can't You Hear Me Knockin'
7. Monkey Man
8. The Last Time
9. Play With Fire
10. Mother's Little Helper

[Captain Spaulding]

Awesome thread, Nostromo. You once again prove why you're one of the coolest cats around. Great list, great selections, great style. Keep the list going, I say. Give us 11-20. Then 21-50. Keep playing that funky music, white boy. The record's still spinning.

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Going through your list with the stereo blasting:

Ray Charles is someone I keep meaning to explore more deeply. I know some of his more familiar tunes, like "Hit the Road, Jack," "Georgia on My Mind" and "Seven Spanish Angels." Great voice, great talent. I think there's a good chance I'd become a fan if I listened to more of his music.

I've never been a big fan of The Beach Boys. Nothing against their music. If I hear one of their songs on the radio, I'll have it stuck on my mind for the rest of the day. Walking around humming, muttering the lyrics, getting weird looks in public. Their harmonies are second to none. But overall their music is a little too sunny for my cloudy disposition. It makes me think of bronze-tanned, bikini-wearing bimbos, whereas I prefer pale-skinned, self-loathing Gothic chicks. I'm speaking as an outsider, though, someone who only knows their hits and not their deeper cuts.

Listening to so much classic rock as a kid, it was only a matter of time before I sought out the guys behind "Light My Fire" and "Riders on the Storm." As soon as I broke on through to the other side, I immediately fell under the hypnosis of The Lizard King. I had a poster of Mr. Mojo Risin on my bedroom wall as a teenager and t-shirts of the band hanging in my closet. "The End" immediately became one of my all-time favorite songs even before I saw the great fusion of music and madness, cinema and song that is the marriage of napalm and choppers and killers awaking before dawn to put their boots on. Jim Morrison may not have had the widest vocal range, but he's one of the greatest, most charismatic, most can't-take-your-eyes-off-of-him lead singers to ever grace the stage. His songs are poems-- his lyrics the primeval campfire recitations of a genius, a madman, a shaman. And the band behind him was just as awesome. Their worldly influences, their tribal sound. Nobody ever played a meaner keyboard than Ray Manzarek. Nobody ever climbed through the tide or swam to the moon like those guys. The Doors, baby. It don't get no better.

Pink Floyd was my dad's favorite band, so I heard many of their songs as a youth riding in the passenger seat of his truck. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" was an anthem to me at that age. (I don't need no education or thought control! What's wrong with me eating my pudding without any meat!) The acoustic strum of "Wish You Were Here" was also an early favorite. As cliché as it is, though, I never truly fell in love with Pink Floyd until in college when Mary Jane entered my life. The sonic experimentation and the openness of their sound is perfectly suited to a little mind alteration. There's no sensation to compare with this . . . suspended animation, a state of bliss. Sit back with the lights down low and a distant ship's smoke on the horizon (or some other kind of smoke). Close your eyes and let the music envelope you. Mr. Floyd and I have shared a lot of good times. "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" still gives me a contact high.

"House of the Rising Sun" is one of the coolest songs I've ever heard, but I can't name any other song by The Animals. I've always assumed that they must be one-hit wonders. Seeing them pop up on your list makes me want to go out and buy one of their records, because if Nostromo says they're awesome, by gawd they must be awesome!

For me, the defining image of rock n' roll is Jimi Hendrix kneeling before the burning effigy of his guitar, fingers dancing with the flames -- a sacrifice to the Gods from the Messiah of the Electric Guitar. He discovered licks that no one knew were possible, creating sounds that will never be duplicated. Man and guitar, together as one, inseparable. Are you experienced? Ah, have you even been experienced? Well, I have, so 'scuse me while I kiss the sky. It's crazy for me to think that he and Jim Morrison were only 27 when they died. I will soon be on this planet longer than either of them, yet I haven't accomplished ***** in my lifetime, whereas those two legendary icons changed the landscape of music forever during such a short period of time.

Ever since reading Keith Richards' excellent autobiography and hearing how fondly he spoke of the all great blues musicians who inspired him to pick up a guitar, I've wanted to travel back through time and discover those musicians myself. I've listened to quite a bit of the duck-walking, rock n' roll Godfather Mr. Chuck Berry, but I've just recently started diving into the true blues of Chicago, Mississippi and New Orleans --- acquainting myself with the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. I know the name of John Lee Hooker and his profound influence, but I've yet to meet the man through the soul of his music. Fats Domino and I have met in passing, but not enough for me to get a true introduction.

People call The Beatles the greatest band of all-time, to which I say, hey-hey, you-you, get off of my cloud. Perhaps The Beatles were more influential, but they were pop, at least in the beginning, content to just want to hold a girl's hand, whereas The Rolling Stones were a storm threatening our very lives today. White boys from London infused with the spirits of African-American blues musicians. It's only rock n' roll, but I like it, baby, and nobody has ever done it better than the band who makes a dead man cum. Yeah, that's right. You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you just might find that you get what you need, and what the world needed was for The Rolling Stones to give us some satisfaction. Mick Jagger, the greatest frontman of all-time, strutting around on stage like it's a gas, gas, gas. Keith Richards: the definition of cool, a pirate on land and one of the greatest guitarists of all-time, giving birth to many of the most iconic and recognizable licks in the history of music. Charlie Watts laying down the beat with a jazz man's style. Please to meet you, hope you guess my name. Every rock n' roll band that has ever been worth a damn owes a debt of gratitude to the kings, the gods, the celestial beings who will forever sit on the throne as the greatest band to ever walk the earth: The Rolling Stones.

[Daniel M]

I love the Rolling Stones. I like The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Animals and The Beach Boys. I think I would really love them if I listened to more of their songs.

No love for "Wild Horses" around here? I love that song, probably my favourite, that or "Sympathy for the Devil". I think "As Tears Go By", although quite simplistic, is an underrated one.

On my own list I would have The Beatles or David Bowie at the top.

[Citizen Rules]

Nostro you have great taste in music. But isn't this a bit like the Miss Universe pageant? I've yet to see Miss Proxima Centauri. Know what I mean;)

[the samoan lawyer]

I love the Rolling Stones. I like The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Animals and The Beach Boys. I think I would really love them if I listened to more of their songs.

No love for "Wild Horses" around here? I love that song, probably my favourite, that or "Sympathy for the Devil". I think "As Tears Go By", although quite simplistic, is an underrated one.

On my own list I would have The Beatles or David Bowie at the top.

I love 'Sympathy for the Devil', has some of my favourites lyrics from The Stones.I would also have 'Paint it Black', 'Sweet Black Angel' and another that i can't see anyone mention............'Gimme Shelter'.

[christine]

"House of the Rising Sun" is one of the coolest songs I've ever heard, but I can't name any other song by The Animals. I've always assumed that they must be one-hit wonders. Seeing them pop up on your list makes me want to go out and buy one of their records, because if Nostromo says they're awesome, by gawd they must be awesome!

They certainly weren't one hit wonders, well not here in the UK anyway. They were a band with roots in the same admiration for RnB that the Stones felt. Check out Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood and We Gotta Get Outta This Place

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TpNWSW49IBM

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mfwN0X8YnWo

[Nostromo87]

List's missing that Mötley Crüe!

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n617/frankog10/6032cf35dc1449cdac0677e509e8f577_zpscjrptjnb.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF6Vvq3f3UY

[Dexter007]

Darude










Sandstorm

[jiraffejustin]

Darude










Sandstorm

:bored:

Less jokes like this, more jokes like this:

I'm not familiar with that specific Hooker, but I love the rest of them.