I don't think this generation has a clue what classic Aerosmith was all about. I had a strange dream a few years back. They were playing a weeklong engagement, and each night I'd hear another great original song from them and knew I'd found the band I was searching for. It had such presence, terrific tone, and was so identifiable. p.s.s: big thanks to Fyre and Yuii-for edit help. Ronnie's kid brother Johnny took over, and you had to rub your eyes to make sure it wasn't Ronnie. In a way, that upheaval may be part of the reason they recorded so many immortal songs over such a long period. But I believe that his guitar playing changed radically in the early Seventies because singing and songwriting became more important to him, and Robert Johnson had a lot to do with that. Ronnie Van Zant was Lynyrd Skynyrd. He took my hand I guess I led him to her and he said, "Joni, I'd like you to meet Jewel." They played like no other band. I'd later become friends with David Ruffin when our bands would play in Detroit, Ruffin would come to every show and we'd sing "(I Know) I'm Losing You," a Temptations cover off my album Every Picture Tells a Story. This is the way Wolf treated you. He was wearing all black and standing in front of a giant video wall. Freddie's songs are just so much fun to sing, and he had such stamina. Sting already had a career and a degree when the Police made it; he wasn't afraid of sounding like a grown-up. The Eagles were a real band. "Knee Deep" was their coming-out music. I loved them because they reminded me of cartoons, but they were crazy and psychedelic, and the superheroes were black men. Tina Turner has become more than just a musical superstar and sex symbol, though she is definitely both of those things. I was like, "Man, we don't go there." Somewhere between LOL and FML there was "TRL." But I was also totally into Brad Whitford's guitar solos, and he had a more direct influence on the way I play than anybody realizes. You're in the resistance now, son. Most guitar players like to go crazy, but Steve picked his spots, and when he spoke, it was profound. Matlock was cool, but Sid was everything that's cool about punk rock: a skinny rocker who had a ton of attitude, sort of an Elvis, James Dean kind of guy. So far, no one has. Trent Reznor remixed this version of Metal Machine Music as a present.". The Dead still believe in that message. There's no point where Jonny Greenwood or Ed O'Brien will suddenly look up and say, "Where the fuck are we?" It's what you listen to when you're all hanging out: Drinking some beers, listening to "Oye Como Va" and cooking some barbecue is the best thing in the world. I love the way Freddie performed. Greg Allman Perhaps Stevie Wonder, or John Paul Jones, or Benny Andersson or even Goldy McJohn might sneak in. If Talking Heads were around a cool idea, they would make it their own. Oscar Wilde said that an artist has succeeded if people don't understand his work but they still like it. I had to suffer the philistines stealing my band silently. With players from each era in the mix, this was a tough one. This week's traditional Wednesday Question saw the people of UG community discussing the matter of the best keyboard players of all time. They may have had three guitar players, but they understood restraint. So whenever I had to do a solo, I would just play that. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, As we all know now, the unsung heroes were the Motown house band, the Funk Brothers. It's one of the greatest rites of passage for any artist, and it's something that touches us most deeply. But it was always Booker T. and the MGs playing. When I'm producing a rock band, I try to create albums that sound as powerful as Highway to Hell. Genius, maybe? All of his music tells you: You could come along for the ride but I'm not stopping. She's transformed herself into an international sensation an elegant powerhouse. He remained in that state for eight years, as the people around him fought over his estate, before he died in 1984. They were always great singers and great guys. I really related to that, because I never had a big, boisterous, American Idol showstopping voice. They performed some of the most dramatic records ever written: "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "Bernadette," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself" and "Baby I Need Your Loving." Fogerty plays what I would if I was 22, more talented and into the blues. I had never seen or heard anything like it before. You can grasp the chord progressions and melodies the first time you hear them. It's amazing. My uncle Jerry was a DJ and introduced me to all the P-Funk records when I was a little kid: The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, Mothership Connection. All of us on the East Coast loved Tupac. Everything about her her mannerisms, her look, her aura exuded stardom. Eminem does for his audience what Dylan did for his: He writes how he feels. I have experienced the thrill of collaborating with him numerous times as we have invited each other into our respective albums. The resulting list of 100 artists, published in two issues of Rolling Stone in 2004 and 2005, and updated in 2011, is a broad survey of rock history, spanning Sixties heroes (the Beatles) and modern insurgents (Eminem), and touching on early pioneers (Chuck Berry) and the bluesmen who made it all possible (Howlin Wolf). Intellectually, Clapton was a purist, although there was little evidence of it in the beginning. What the Yardbirds did is something you don't hear in today's blue-plate-special, cookie-cutter music. TOP PICK: Casio CT-S1 61-Key. I was told that. At an early age I looked to music to take me out of my reality, and Sabbath does that better than any hard-rock act I know. Steve Winwood 8. He reinforced that I was still Stevie Nicks. I could never in my wildest dreams find something as beautiful as they find for a single song let alone album after album. Ray Manzarek (The Doors) 5. I also remember being on a long cross-country family road trip as a kid, driving across the Texas desert at night. You try to play this stuff and you'll see they had chops. His dancing was spellbinding twists and splits that left me in total disbelief. Carl was that good. The band fell into place, and people in the audience just fell over. The ballads especially connected with me: "Loser," "Wharf Rat," "Stella Blue." As I waited backstage to present my speech, I was approached by three women arguing with one another as to who should be the one to go onstage and claim the award that was to be given to Jackie. They had an amazing ability to change between records. And every time, they raise their finger to the press and the critics and say, "Nothing we do is for you!" I understood what he meant. It was a tribute to how great they were. In 2004 50 years after Elvis Presley walked into Sun Studios and cut Thats All Right Rolling Stone celebrated rock & rolls first half-century in grand style, assembling a panel of 55 top musicians, writers and industry executives (everyone from Keith Richards to ?uestlove of the Roots) and asking them to pick the most influential artists of the rock & roll era. Not them. Carl himself was a very bright guy, and very funny. Al Kooper 10. They've put out genius records for decades. When I was 11 or so, my first group was an early version of what would become the Miracles. Anyone who plays lead guitar owes him a debt of gratitude. I remember when the surviving members of Queen were looking for a singer a few years ago, I was like, "I would love to try it." I think he's enthralled with what he's doing; he's intimately involved with his art. Many of us first heard him as backing vocalist in the Impressions behind Jerry Butler, singing "For Your Precious Love." When I got home from holiday, I immediately bought Wish It Would Rain. The only radio station we could get was a scratchy AM station from who knows where. While performing at the Latin Casino, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, he had a massive coronary and hit his head hard as he fell. I first heard R.E.M. Let me say first off, I am a huge Nirvana fan and believe he was a very talented guitar player. The sanctions and the embargo were on. But Clapton's guitar playing is still terrific. There's not a fake bone in his body. Al, he was a crooner. At that time I was very much into folk music and turning the corner into R&B, and I'll never forget seeing that cover, with all the Tempts dressed as Foreign Legionnaires, sitting in the desert. He hit the drums harder than anyone I've ever seen, with the possible exception of Keith Moon. Back in the '70s, Jon Lord's full-on rock style was a refreshing antidote to the prog peddled by the likes of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman, with his overdriven Hammond organ sound becoming a true sonic signature during his Deep Purple days. Even the way he casually held his hands while singing was hypnotic. But he really came into focus in Butler's next big hit, "He Will Break Your Heart," which was written by Mayfield and features his strumming electric guitar to a saucy tango beat that you can hear echoing in Ben E. King's "Spanish Harlem.". At one point, after the lyric "She danced around and round to a guitar melody," he fired off an accent on his guitar that resonated for years for many of us who tried to emulate him she cast her spell and he followed, with the rest of us close behind. Mike D is the examiner: He looks around, he takes in all the information, he's a little laid-back. Jackie Wilson was key in helping bridge the gap between an old-style R&B and a new incarnation of soul. He told me about picking cotton when he was a kid and learning the blues from an older black field hand he knew. Vote up the top pianists below based on their compositions and worldly influence. Just write some great songs that's what you do." They weren't always complex, either there's some stuff where it's just bare-bones essentials. When I was going out in the Eighties, you could get your ass kicked if you put on Funkadelic's "(Not Just) Knee Deep" at a house party. As far as the bass player goes, I don't think it was necessarily a mistake to replace Glen Matlock with Sid Vicious. Phil would get the track ready, then call upon the artist and say, "OK, now sing." They followed their most critically acclaimed record, OK Computer, with their most radical change, Kid A. Considering how important he is to rock history, many people don't know about him. Every boundary that was possible on the guitar was examined by him. We said, "Oh, shit." Al Kooper 10. Prog warriors rubbed shoulders with synth-pop heroes and soul/funk legends, and lets not forget the musical magicians of the pop world, either. 1. Greg Allman Perhaps Stevie Wonder, or John Paul Jones, or Benny Andersson or even Goldy McJohn might sneak in. It was the cutest thing. We're missing out on something!". And that motherfucker could make chicks cry. For a while he was my only reference point; I've covered his songs for years. We were both fans of the Drifters even before we started writing, and later producing, for them. "Don't Stand" would be great to listen to no matter what the lyrics were it could have just been about some girl but the story makes it spooky and powerful. I was simply staggered by the amount of equipment they had: by Ginger Baker's double bass drum, by Jack Bruce's two 4-by-12 Marshall amps and by all of Eric Clapton's gear. My dad was a mechanic. And they weren't. When Eminem and I did "Stan" at the Grammys in 2001, we got together to rehearse out in the Valley. After that he was front and center, singing the lead about a "Gypsy Woman" in an exotic brew of castanets and dark minor chords. Join Now and SAVE!!! Itd be well into the hundreds. A great band like Metallica could play an AC/DC song note for note, and they still wouldn't capture the tension and release that drive the music. The Rolling Stones' Studio Keyboard Players. There are bands out there still trying to sound like the Sex Pistols and can't, because they were great players. Guns n' Roses revived our kind of rock. I'd been given the signal. Like I know the blues, Gram Parsons knew country music every nuance, every great country song that was ever written. Ian Stewart 7. Before I joined the Dead in 2004, I played with Phil Lesh for about five years. We all used to sing on the corners, at school functions and at house parties. In addition, they could rap, they could sing and they could play instruments. They were the shit to us, out of all the British bands in the Sixties. I was a kid, but I still thought, "I should have been involved in that record!" So he pulled back, like Dylan and Lennon did. I decided to make top100 players keyboard (or maybe more devices in future) list and I need your help to collect more information! Phish tried hard to do that too: to take our four little instruments and do as much as we could with them. If the solo in "Have You Heard" isn't the sound of a cock ripping through trousers on its way to the promised land, I don't know what is. I never would have thought of doing that if I hadn't seen Zappa do "Stairway to Heaven" in Burlington with the horns playing Jimmy Page's entire guitar solo, in harmony. There is a whole generation of musicians coming up who can't play their instruments. I am amazed at how great the Kinks' records sounded even though, when you listen closely, there is very little going on in them. We would linger by the stage after our set and listen to Duane and Dickey Betts play guitar together. Zappa gave me the faith that anything in music was possible. I remember listening to the high-hat rhythms on that record over and over with the guys in the Jeff Beck Group. List of famous female keyboard players, listed by their level of prominence with photos when available. People imitate Stevie Wonder or whomever, but how many people can do Elvis Costello? Basically, we hung around together, like musicians do. But who made Chess Records? Jon Lord (Deep Purple) 4. George Clinton showed me that anything goes: You do what you feel. The story of Tina's rise and fall with Ike Turner is well-known. Turning 14 years old is already a heavy combination of things. Aerosmith had an aggressive, psychotic, drugged-out vibe, but at the same time they had a Stones-y blues thing going on. They had an eclecticism the Gregorian chant-ness of the vocals, the melodic diversity, the way they used guitar feedback. When I first met him, he was very young, sleeping on the couch at the Atlantic Records offices and using the switchboard after hours. I sat there listening to it over and over, and totally blew off this girl. Add to that Ozzy's amazing voice and one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time, Tony Iommi, and it's an unstoppable force. Gram was everything you wanted in a singer and a songwriter. Any . On songs like "Tired of Being Alone," the horns are tasteful and restrained but completely funky. That's sort of the impact that they always had on me and my music. He ain't got no hair!" Songs like "You Enjoy Myself" and "Split Open and Melt" were completely charted out because he had shown me it was possible. He is the finest of us Americans. As a lyricist, he's one of the best ever. And his music always has that rhythm. Admittedly, I was reading a lot about peak oil at the time, but c'mon, who else can inspire a crowd of 100,000 to throw their arms in the air while offering each individual brain in that crowd the opportunity to think critically about language and the state of the world today? Steven Wilson: "He's probably the biggest influence of all for me.I grew up in the 80s, and it was a pretty bad decade for music. Village Green is the best example: Unlike a lot of records of its time, it's not stuffed with a ton of instruments. It's a direct bite. And he was a great harmonica player. Maybe more. For almost 30 years my entire career, really all I've been doing is trying to discover another Diana Ross. But they were the template for what I do, as well as plenty of bands that came after Guns n' Roses: Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam all owed a serious debt to old-school Aerosmith. You feel a mothership connection. They rapped about shit they knew about: skateboarding, going to White Castle, angel dust and television. To me, it all sounded like music from heaven. It can build to where you think the whole thing will crumble beneath its own weight and then Thom Yorke will sing some melody that just cuts your heart out of your chest. "I dont think I could even hazard a guess. They were professionals who came up during the punk era and found their messages later on. As you read this book, remember: This is what we have to live up to. So he quit the Byrds, right there and then. It's all about attitude. But whatever you think of him, he definitely developed his own style: He didn't sound like anyone who came before him. I love singers whom you can identify the first second they open their mouth, and Levi Stubbs is one of those; he's one of the greatest of all time. And for it to do what it has done is truly mind-blowing. I don't mean to demean the roles the others played in the group's success, but it never would have happened without him. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. My favorite Tupac album is The Don Killuminati. It was aggressive and intense, and it had these really wild and bizarre rhythm changes. They did "Shapes of Things," "Beck's Boogie," among other songs. One night, at Madison Square Garden, Bruce Hornsby who was playing keyboards with them pulled us up onstage and sat us behind his piano. Everything on a song like "Black Magic Woman" works: the keyboards, the congos, the drums, the vocals. Clapton was so moved by Johnson's music that he wanted to write and sing with the same passion, clarity and truth. As a kid, I used to sit at home after school and just bang out those songs on the piano. His fists were as big as a car tire. MTV's Total Request Live debuted in September 1998. Studio Recording: Keyboardist: The Rolling Stones (1964) Ian Stewart, Gene Pitney: 12 x5 (1964 . The fact that Metallica connected with the world in the way that they have is phenomenal. In the early days of rap, the conventional wisdom was that only black people were supposed to like hip-hop and only white people were supposed to like rock. Paul Cook was an amazing drummer with a distinct sound, right up there with Keith Moon or Charlie Watts. He looked young and on fire. He said, "They may not know who I am." I think he was just getting into his stride when he died. He would get down on the floor, crawl like a wolf and sing in that voice: "I'm a tail dragger." I would definitely have to quit smoking to be able to do what he did. Whether playing sessions for David Bowie and Elton John, releasing a string of frankly ridiculous concept albums (he even performed one of them on ice) or playing in multiple iterations of prog titans Yes, Wakeman has always excelled, embracing all the new synth technology that's come his way. Mick's got ears. After that, Shirley, Beverly and Doris were having so much fun that they went into "Soldier Boy." Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). When a person gets rocking to their music, everything else disappears, and that person is just one with the rock. I grabbed their amps, they grabbed ours. The riff in "Walk This Way" is just us trying to explore the blues in the Yardbirds model. "They're jogging because they just went through a breakup."). They had a shack on the swamp in their native Jacksonville, Florida, where they rehearsed constantly, honing their original material into polished, shining steel. But he wasn't light-skinned at all. We had never met or really spoken, so I was a little intimidated. I don't know if massive stardom and selling a zillion records were on their minds when they were getting the ball rolling. I first met Dre in December of 2003. That was him telling the world, "This is who I am." When I was just starting to learn how to play guitar, Aerosmith gave me the shove I needed. I hope she can hear it. It was Jimi Hendrix, and that was the first night he played in England. We want to hear it. I met her at a Vanity Fair photo shoot. But if those guys were speaking to you, Al Green was speaking for you. in 1986, a song tacked on to the end of a demos collection of a Eugene, Oregon, band that my uncle, then in school at U of O, sent to me for Christmas. All of those great albums that we talk about now, like Face to Face, Something Else by the Kinks and Village Green nobody bought those records in the Sixties. Later, when Holland-Dozier-Holland left, I co-wrote "Still Water (Love)" with Frank Wilson for the Four Tops. She was captivating, romantic. She describes smells and sounds and uses fewer words to transmit more feeling. But Al Green is the show, and when you watch him perform, you see something honest and soulful and amazing. Sometimes you think, "How can you top anything by the Yardbirds, or Zeppelin, or the Stones?" You don't want to dwell in darkness. Their management changed the lineup in 1958, and that's when the great Ben E. King came into the picture. I was desperately searching for like-minded kids, but with every semester that went by, I felt like my isolation only grew. His music is impeccable. He'd crawl around, jump around. Wolf's conversation was the same as his singing. They defined the best of every music from the American South in that time. They didn't play funk, but everything they played was funky. It goes, "Sometimes he's my best friend, even when he's not around.". But the reality is that life never threw her anything that she couldn't handle. What Tears of the Kingdom offers is that same sense of freedom amplified and applied to every aspect of the . But it's "Xxplosive," off 2001, that I got my entire sound from if you listen to the track, it's got a soul beat, but it's done with those heavy Dre drums. When R.E.M. From the start, I have always admired Eminem's thinking. Motown took care of the North with their polished sound, but the MGs were gritty and raw, and they could really groove. He tells stories in such a powerful and distinctive way. When My Chemical Romance were making The Black Parade, we watched tons of documentary footage about A Night at the Opera, Queen's best album. Over the years, the Drifters were a couple of different great groups and a whole bunch of wonderful guys. Sometimes I put on Tupac's best songs, followed by Biggie's best songs. It was warm and round and full and dripping with chocolate. And both Tom and Jimmy said to me, in a brutally honest way, "You don't have a single on this record. Then there was his kid brother, Gregg. The customers turn and look, each more untrusting than the next. She didn't sing like Aretha Franklin she wasn't a gospel singer but she was a stylist, and you always believed her. Run-DMC gave "Slow and Low" to the Beastie Boys. This is not to say that Jay-Z never wore tank tops, but he was (and continues to be) an exceedingly rare combination of intelligence, weirdness, seriousness and pop appeal. No one ever had the guts to say what they said. He was an amazing guitar player: If you want to play Fifties rock & roll, you can either play like Chuck Berry, or you can play like Carl Perkins. For me and I imagine for millions of others Tina now stands as an enduring symbol of survival and of grace. The combination sounded so powerful. The next thing we knew we were on the road with these guys, opening up for them and Quicksilver Messenger Service, and witnessing music history. He even looks good wearing a keytar, and not many people can say that. They were obviously so psyched to be doing what they were doing. Queen fell in and out of being cool, maybe because they were so sincere. Stewart Copeland is a great drummer you have to be to give songs like "Roxanne" and "So Lonely" their drive and also throw that reggae in there. They opened up for us in 1988, and one of the things that impressed me was how much personality they put across, even when they weren't playing. The records have their own vibe performance-based, few overdubs, like if some Memphis/Booker T.-type band moved West and got a youth-culture injection. However inscrutable Michael Stipe's lyrics were, they always gave language to this weird, agonizing metamorphosis taking place in my head. Keep rockin! Tupac was like a camera. The following year brought Document, and that landed them a video on MTV, even. We used to have these Blue Mondays in Chicago that would start at seven o'clock in the morning. The essays on these top 100 artists are by their peers: singers, producers and musicians. There was a humanity in Jerry's guitar work as well as his singing that drew you in. In the end, though, there could be only one winner - the person wholl take their place in our fantasy GOAT band thatll sell-out virtual venues across continents and time. That was her story. You have swamp-boogie numbers of varying length ("Green River," "Born on the Bayou"), catchy energy bursts ("Fortunate Son," "Sinister Purpose"), pop ("Have You Ever Seen the Rain," et al.) They have become a household name with music that is anything but mainstream. Freddie vowed they would return as the biggest band in the world. And to me, that's what the best music is made of. Some people found this to be in bad taste, but it doesn't feel too off the mark to me. With musicians, " motherfucker" was the love word. It wasn't the beginning of his career as a rapper, but it was the beginning of his career as a major force in pop music. With Frank, his musicians were pushed to the absolute brink. Top 10 Greatest Rock Keyboardists and Pianists Keyboardists were chosen for their skill, creativity, influence, impact, musical depth & expression, and lasting popularity in 'Rock' music. Ray Manzarek 3. Jimmy Page must have looked at Cream and thought, "Fuck me, I think I'll do that," and then put together Led Zeppelin. Duane Allman played what he wanted to hear. That's when we'd all get together after playing and just do a conversation, man. The way he would squeeze out a note can't be trained and can't be imitated. There are songs on all the Cream albums that amaze me still, like "Crossroads," "Sunshine of Your Love," "White Room" and "I Feel Free." There's a direct line you can draw back from today's metal, through Eighties bands like Iron Maiden, back to Sabbath. The first song of theirs that I vividly remember hearing was "Take It Easy." It's a beautiful piece of music played by an awesome rocker of a young man who was a masterpiece of a human being. Also, he loved to get stoned. But it never does. I warm up in my dressing room to "Handy Man," "Sarah Maria," "Song for You Far Away," "Sweet Baby James," "Copperline" and about 20 other favorites. But Zappa was incredibly vital to me, as a composer and guitarist. My children grew up loving the Temptations, and we tried to see them every time they came to town. 1. The curtain drew back and the three of them started playing "Crossroads." Then I went up to Chicago September 25th, 1957. We were always looking for the next heart-tugger, looking to pull that extra heartstring. Heres how it works. The list consists mostly of rock, blues and jazz . I sing to James Taylor before every show I do. Excitement would still not have peace. Learn how to play rock and blues piano from one of rock's greatest. The Police matured really quickly. I loved that weirdness. My favorite characters were Star Child and Sir Nose, even though Sir Nose was a sucker who didn't swim and didn't like the funk. A lot of the magic in the Dead's music came from Phil and Jerry learning how to play together, combining Phil's approach with Jerry's unique blend of influences. We used Brian May amps and wrote songs with different movements. His songs about women and girls are devastating, like arrows to the heart. Some DJs wouldn't play that song or "Flash Light," because a fight would start: The crazy motherfuckers at parties would become real crazy. He may no longer be with us, but he leaves an indelible legacy. The Rolling Stones are postponing tours due to the pandemic. That man was the natural stuff. these are the Absolute Greatest Keyboard Players who ever walked on this earth: Michael Omartian Chick Corea Michael Ruff Mike Lindup (Level 42) David Foster . I remember that if I would vouchsafe an opinion about something when we were together in the studio a snare drum on a bridge of a song, or whatever Phil would say, "Oh, man, I came here from California to make hits." After three or four albums, Lynyrd Skynyrd transcended the Southern-rock tag. upd: well finally decided to add tablets/mouse models as well ;w; . And it was loud, even outside. They taught me and many other people a lot about life, people and music. And when I played at Bonnaroo with my 10-piece band, we did two covers, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and "Sultans of Swing." Their music talks to you, in a real way. Billy Preston 6. When they came to Motown and teamed up with Holland-Dozier-Holland, there was no looking back. Joni is still unknown to lots of people. I'm a big fan of how they used reggae. As he said this, strands, splodges and blots from a Pollock early-Fifties "drip" painting materialized in front of our faces. The arrangements are always so unpredictable: high-pitched synthesizer sounds you never heard before, followed by straight-up beautiful music. But if they were aiming at becoming one of the most successful rock bands of all time, they sure were going about it in a kooky way.
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