What's Everyone Listening to?

[Zip City]

Tweedy - Sukirae

[4sooner]

RWH-Co-Starring

Happy 77th Ray

[jr29]

Is Stills the greatest multi-purpose threat ever in rock and roll? He can sing like a bird or get his voice down in the gutter for a blues or straight ahead rocker. Everything he does is like that. He can span several genres with complete authority as a singer, player of many instruments, writer, producer, band leader, band member, etc.
I'm not saying he's the best at any of those things, but is he better at all of them combined than anyone else ?

Not arguing/disagreeing but just speculating about what the field of candidates might look like. Here are some possibilities INPO, most of whom are lacking in one category or another but all of whom qualify as multi talented and flexible, maybe even chameleon-like:

Todd Rundgren, Al Kooper (the Zelig of rock n' roll), Nicky Hopkins, Prince, Ry Cooder, Willie Dixon

I'm not sure any of them have approached the wide swath of songwriting landscape that Stills has covered. They all do certain things better, but add everything up and I think Stills would still come out on top.

[beantownbubba]

I'm not sure any of them have approached the wide swath of songwriting landscape that Stills has covered. They all do certain things better, but add everything up and I think Stills would still come out on top.

Yep, I agree that there are "holes" in the resumes of all suggestions. But as far as songwriting goes, Rundgren wrote "Hello, It's Me," so there's that. How to balance one overarching song (plus many others of course) against a career catalog is beyond me but I just didn't want that to be forgotten.

And Willie Dixon wrote over 500 songs, including "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Back Door Man," "Built for Comfort," "Spoonful," "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" and "I Ain't Superstitious" and has been covered innumerable times by pretty much everybody. He also has co-writing credit on Zep's "Whole Lotta Love." Wikipedia has a good list.

At the other end, I think Al Kooper only has a few co-writing credits and Nicky Hopkins wrote only a few songs, none of which made much of an impact as far as I know.

Again, I don't know how one balances the various pluses and minuses, and if you want to say that Dixon's songwriting is in only one genre (although covered in several), I won't argue, but it's an impressive body of work. I just love talking about this sort of thing; I hope others do as well.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[youtube][/youtube]

I'm not sure any of them have approached the wide swath of songwriting landscape that Stills has covered. They all do certain things better, but add everything up and I think Stills would still come out on top.

Yep, I agree that there are "holes" in the resumes of all suggestions. But as far as songwriting goes, Rundgren wrote "Hello, It's Me," so there's that. How to balance one overarching song (plus many others of course) against a career catalog is beyond me but I just didn't want that to be forgotten.

And Willie Dixon wrote over 500 songs, including "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Back Door Man," "Built for Comfort," "Spoonful," "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" and "I Ain't Superstitious" and has been covered innumerable times by pretty much everybody. He also has co-writing credit on Zep's "Whole Lotta Love." Wikipedia has a good list.

At the other end, I think Al Kooper only has a few co-writing credits and Nicky Hopkins wrote only a few songs, none of which made much of an impact as far as I know.

Again, I don't know how one balances the various pluses and minuses, and if you want to say that Dixon's songwriting is in only one genre (although covered in several), I won't argue, but it's an impressive body of work. I just love talking about this sort of thing; I hope others do as well.

I know where this will get me, but fuck it…Jerry Garcia

You’ve got the GD, which runs a gamut of musical styles and is arguably the most American of bands when it comes to all the influences/steams in whst they did. Then there is the JGB, with its forays into Motown and American standards and traditional rock & roll. Then there is Old & in the Way, the only band Jerry was in where he was the weakest link. Then there is his work with Merl Saunders/Legion of Mary, with tastes of fusion, Stevie Wonder, Dylan. All of his work with Grisman in the 90s, which extended from Django Reinhardt to sea shanties to Modern Jazz Quartet to Stanley Brothers. And while Robert Hunter was the primary lyricist the credits read Garcia/Hunter, not merely Hunter. And he was in demand as a producer & session man, though he pretty much phased that out by mid-70s. And you can’t forget that he played with, as a musical equal, Olatunji, Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, Ornette Coleman, Pharaoh Sanders, Branford Marsalis, Elvis Costello, each and every member of CSNY, Tony Rice, et al.

Don’t have time for a more detailed case at the moment but that’s plenty to chew on. And one last point- he was remarkably consistent musically, with very few really low periods, not something Stills can say. Hell, there have been periods where Stills virtually disappeared & fell off the map.

None of the candidates mentioned so far synthesized so many different musical elements into their work while maintaining their very own original sound/musical vision as did Jerry

I welcome the coming abuse

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

5 glorious discs & awesome book

This again. Methodically working my way through the sea of awesomeness

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[cortez the killer]

The guitar tone on this record is otherworldly.

[cortez the killer]

Don't tell the truth
We'll lie
Just lie...

[dime in the gutter]

spotify psychedelic rock playlist

[Clams]

[Sterling Bigmouth]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[cortez the killer]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Please tell me he’s covering this

[cortez the killer]

Please tell me he’s covering this

If you wanna be rich…

[Clams]

[beantownbubba]

Bob Dylan:

Planet Waves
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde

[tinnitus photography]

[jr29]

[youtube][/youtube]

I'm not sure any of them have approached the wide swath of songwriting landscape that Stills has covered. They all do certain things better, but add everything up and I think Stills would still come out on top.

Yep, I agree that there are "holes" in the resumes of all suggestions. But as far as songwriting goes, Rundgren wrote "Hello, It's Me," so there's that. How to balance one overarching song (plus many others of course) against a career catalog is beyond me but I just didn't want that to be forgotten.

And Willie Dixon wrote over 500 songs, including "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Back Door Man," "Built for Comfort," "Spoonful," "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" and "I Ain't Superstitious" and has been covered innumerable times by pretty much everybody. He also has co-writing credit on Zep's "Whole Lotta Love." Wikipedia has a good list.

At the other end, I think Al Kooper only has a few co-writing credits and Nicky Hopkins wrote only a few songs, none of which made much of an impact as far as I know.

Again, I don't know how one balances the various pluses and minuses, and if you want to say that Dixon's songwriting is in only one genre (although covered in several), I won't argue, but it's an impressive body of work. I just love talking about this sort of thing; I hope others do as well.

I know where this will get me, but fuck it…Jerry Garcia

You’ve got the GD, which runs a gamut of musical styles and is arguably the most American of bands when it comes to all the influences/steams in whst they did. Then there is the JGB, with its forays into Motown and American standards and traditional rock & roll. Then there is Old & in the Way, the only band Jerry was in where he was the weakest link. Then there is his work with Merl Saunders/Legion of Mary, with tastes of fusion, Stevie Wonder, Dylan. All of his work with Grisman in the 90s, which extended from Django Reinhardt to sea shanties to Modern Jazz Quartet to Stanley Brothers. And while Robert Hunter was the primary lyricist the credits read Garcia/Hunter, not merely Hunter. And he was in demand as a producer & session man, though he pretty much phased that out by mid-70s. And you can’t forget that he played with, as a musical equal, Olatunji, Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, Ornette Coleman, Pharaoh Sanders, Branford Marsalis, Elvis Costello, each and every member of CSNY, Tony Rice, et al.

Don’t have time for a more detailed case at the moment but that’s plenty to chew on. And one last point- he was remarkably consistent musically, with very few really low periods, not something Stills can say. Hell, there have been periods where Stills virtually disappeared & fell off the map.

None of the candidates mentioned so far synthesized so many different musical elements into their work while maintaining their very own original sound/musical vision as did Jerry

I welcome the coming abuse

Can't argue. There are things I could quibble around about, but most of that would have to do with my own taste.

And how did I forget John Fogerty. There is a career of work on those Creedence albums and he did everything on them and they definitely span genres.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Bob Dylan:

Planet Waves
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde

These will always do you right

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Right now I am listening to the ringing in my ears from a spectacular Dave Alvin & the Guilty Ones show last night

[RolanK]

Deer Tick has been on my radar for a while but never really found the time to do a deep dive until recently. Good stuff. Emotional Contract from this year is great.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[youtube][/youtube]

Yep, I agree that there are "holes" in the resumes of all suggestions. But as far as songwriting goes, Rundgren wrote "Hello, It's Me," so there's that. How to balance one overarching song (plus many others of course) against a career catalog is beyond me but I just didn't want that to be forgotten.

And Willie Dixon wrote over 500 songs, including "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Back Door Man," "Built for Comfort," "Spoonful," "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" and "I Ain't Superstitious" and has been covered innumerable times by pretty much everybody. He also has co-writing credit on Zep's "Whole Lotta Love." Wikipedia has a good list.

At the other end, I think Al Kooper only has a few co-writing credits and Nicky Hopkins wrote only a few songs, none of which made much of an impact as far as I know.

Again, I don't know how one balances the various pluses and minuses, and if you want to say that Dixon's songwriting is in only one genre (although covered in several), I won't argue, but it's an impressive body of work. I just love talking about this sort of thing; I hope others do as well.

I know where this will get me, but fuck it…Jerry Garcia

You’ve got the GD, which runs a gamut of musical styles and is arguably the most American of bands when it comes to all the influences/steams in whst they did. Then there is the JGB, with its forays into Motown and American standards and traditional rock & roll. Then there is Old & in the Way, the only band Jerry was in where he was the weakest link. Then there is his work with Merl Saunders/Legion of Mary, with tastes of fusion, Stevie Wonder, Dylan. All of his work with Grisman in the 90s, which extended from Django Reinhardt to sea shanties to Modern Jazz Quartet to Stanley Brothers. And while Robert Hunter was the primary lyricist the credits read Garcia/Hunter, not merely Hunter. And he was in demand as a producer & session man, though he pretty much phased that out by mid-70s. And you can’t forget that he played with, as a musical equal, Olatunji, Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, Ornette Coleman, Pharaoh Sanders, Branford Marsalis, Elvis Costello, each and every member of CSNY, Tony Rice, et al.

Don’t have time for a more detailed case at the moment but that’s plenty to chew on. And one last point- he was remarkably consistent musically, with very few really low periods, not something Stills can say. Hell, there have been periods where Stills virtually disappeared & fell off the map.

None of the candidates mentioned so far synthesized so many different musical elements into their work while maintaining their very own original sound/musical vision as did Jerry

I welcome the coming abuse

Can't argue. There are things I could quibble around about, but most of that would have to do with my own taste.

And how did I forget John Fogerty. There is a career of work on those Creedence albums and he did everything on them and they definitely span genres.

Just hit me that I didn’t even mention Jerry’s work with NRPS, though I would argue its’s his weakest & least-realized project

[dime in the gutter]

[paulc]

Deer Tick has been on my radar for a while but never really found the time to do a deep dive until recently. Good stuff. Emotional Contract from this year is great.

Black Dirt Sessions is my fav
You should also check out McCauley's spin off bands; Middle Brother and Diamond Rugs