Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Radio & Music >

All-time rock'n'roll heroes

Brigade du jour

20:19 / 04.01.03

Okay, someone's done one before I'm sure, but give me a break, I'm still new at this game.

Basically, give us your, well ... rock'n'roll heroes of all time, and I'm not confining this in any way - you can define 'rock'n'roll' and 'hero' pretty much as broadly as you like, so we can accept anyone from Bach to the singer out of Skid Row.

Give a brief justification if you like, I suppose it would provoke more discussion if you did, but don't feel you have to.

21:24 / 04.01.03

Lemmy Kilmiester, from Motorhead, is my rock'n'roll hero, not for any personal reasons, but I do hear that he is an extremely charming man, but because he does what rock'n'roll should do, he rocks and he rolls. So many people concentrate on the first part so much that they all but forget about the second part of the equation, but not Lemmy, he's got it down to an art. Plus, he's god to boot.

Brigade du jour

21:34 / 04.01.03

That, my fine friend, is an excellent first choice. In fact, I wouldn't be disappointed if nobody else replied to this thread, because Lemmy basically IS rock'n'roll.

But what a dope I am, I didn't put any of my own rock'n'roll heroes to kick us off. Duh! Well, here we are -

Frank Zappa - if only because he just did whatever he wanted, the closest thing he had to a hit single was Valley Girl, but he still made a career out of his music, and just did what he enjoyed. I have to respect that.

Rossini - Because I reckon he was totally taking the piss. Just listen to that droopy cello at the start of William Tell Overture. You just can't take that seriously, and suddenly BANG! the world explodes with that big orchestral bastard thing.

Bjork - for trying to articulate all the weird noises in her head, and definitely for punching that reporter who pestered her little boy. Parental protection is one of the few circumstances where violence is acceptable, in my opinion.

Little Richard - if Boy George is one of the Great Britons, then this guy has got to be one of the Great Americans. Logic being that for a man to be wearing all that make-up and going on telly and stuff in the eighties is one thing. But this guy did it in the fifties. In the Deep South. And he was Black. You could say the man risked his life for rock'n'roll.

Freddie Mercury - so much decadence and imagination in the same person.

I'll come back with some more later.

00:09 / 05.01.03

Jello Biafra, for writing the funniest protest songs since Phil Ochs, for knowing when the Dead Kennedys had had their run, and for inspiring another generation of hell-raisers.

Brigade du jour

00:23 / 05.01.03

Joe Strummer - because having read about fourteen obituaries in the past week, it seems he was one of the few rock'n'roll people to actually say what he meant and then live by it.

Not completely of course, I just mean compared to the vast majority.

Brigade du jour

01:33 / 05.01.03

James Brown - for making some of the best dance music ever ... and being as mad as a jack russell.

Prince - see James Brown. But shorter.

01:35 / 05.01.03

Johnny Rotten, Johnny Thunders, Elvis, Sid Vicious(for style points not talent), Joey Ramone.

01:45 / 05.01.03

Sid Vicious - He lived and died punk. Whether it was pathetic or heroic, I dunno, but I admire that.

Genesis P-Orridge - His art, and his life were not separated for a while there. And then he started a religion. For better or worse.

Richard D. James - Cos he's a total nutter and a visionary.

Peter Garrett - Go listen to Diesel and Dust, and then tell me he doesn't believe passionately in what he's singing about.

01:50 / 05.01.03

John Cage - For having the sheer fucking audacity to show us that silence can be music.

DJ Q-Bert - For being so fucking good at what he does, that he is no longer allowed to compete (so everyone else has a chance!).

Jim Morrison - Leather pants.

05:42 / 05.01.03

Zappa, again, for combining experimental composition, rock and jazz.

Johnny Cash, for never losing that bad-mutha rep even in his old age.

Sonic Youth, for never doing the same thing twice, and publicly admitting that not all their work is gold (even though it's damn close).

A

11:14 / 05.01.03

Okay, in roughly chronological order-

Little Richard- if the sound of a Little Richard record doesn't make you want to shake your arse until it falls off, then you are not a person, you are a pod. end of story.

the Beatles- in my opinion, they influenced human civilisation in the 20th century more than anyone else did. and they had better tunes than anyone .(except maybe my next selection.) . and they did all manner of crazy things to rock'n'roll, and most of it sounded fantastic. (continue in this manner for 500 pages).

the Ramones- somehow, rock'n'roll had turned almost entirely into a sad, pathetic joke, yet, not only did the Ramones save rock'n'roll from a fate worse than death, they played it better than anyone ever did (except maybe my previous selection), and, in the process, spawned punk rock (as we know it today, rather than "60's punk", ie- the Kinks minus the popularity.)

Minor Threat/Fugazi- so, basically, Ian Mackaye managed to pretty much singlehandedly spawn hardcore, emo, punk bands doing interesting things with their guitars and the entire idea of independent music AND inadvertantly spawned a pseudo-religious puritan youth movement. (note- of course I exaggerate slightly for effect, and of course I realise that, these days, it's just not okay for bands to not let corporations own their arses, because that's just elitism, or something). Both these bands are just fucking inspirational, as well as sounding fantastic, and most bands playing similar styles today still sound years behind them.

I have more, but I'm a little liquored up, and my mind is drifting, so I might post a few more later.

11:53 / 05.01.03

My selections for this thread would surely be so obvious as to.. well, completely predictable and boring..

Matthew Fluxington

13:16 / 05.01.03

It's no secret that my favorite musician is Stephen Malkmus, a man whose genius apparently is endless, a man whose songwriting talent is without peer as far as I'm concerned. He's a brilliant guitar player, a unique singer, my favorite lyricist, and has a real gift for improvisation. So far in his career, the man can do no wrong by me; and he's not showing even the slightest signs of being decline.

14:12 / 05.01.03

Morrissey - England's very own (even more) Queer Elvis...

Brigade du jour

20:12 / 05.01.03

Brian Wilson - for God Only Knows if nothing else. That man can drown you in a melody. I think that would be a good way to die.

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:02 / 05.01.03

Ganesh: YES! A big yes to the Moz.

Also: Tom Waits for not only the innovation/cross-pollination/transformations he's started and spearheaded, but also because he's handling so much of his stuff himself now, and sticks up for musicians' rights. And because he's the man, basically.

Warren Ellis of The Dirty Three because he was the first person to give me some kind of national fucking pride about the sort of music that can be created in my own backyard. And because he's not afraid to rock like a depressed bastard and give it everything. See also Nick Cave for much the same reasons.

Arvo Part because he makes the closest thing to the music of god that you'll ever hear. And is a humble, humble man - just amazing.

03:08 / 06.01.03

Bruce Springsteen cuz he's the Boss, dammit.

hanabius yamamura

23:06 / 10.01.03

as mentioned before - lemmy 'cause he's just a bloody good bloke and a DEFINITE r'n'r hero ... nicknamed lemmy apparently 'cause he'd say 'lemmy have a fiver ' ... mr kilmeister , i salute you

also , gotta say alice ...

08:54 / 11.01.03

Les Jobson - Dreamkillers (Brisbane, Aust)
for the stage presence, the tatts, superb lyrics, and the "good bloke" factor

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:39 / 11.01.03

Chuck D - In some ways it feels wrong to single Chuck out from the rest of Public Enemy, but he's never really disgraced himself in the way that Professor Griff and Flavor Flav have (the "Tupac is alive" theory doesn't count), and Terminator X, talented is he is, has alays been a bit of a cypher. So: Public Enemy - encountering them for the first time was like meeting with someone who'd travelled from the future to tell you how to save the world... It was simultaneously like reading the best comic ever, watching the best film ever and absorbing 300 pages of radical politics and neglected history direct into yr brainstem. 'Bring The Noise' - few songs, heard for the first time, have ever had the kind of impact that had on me. Few bands have in themselves had a substantial effect on my political outlook; few bands have almost single-handedly changed my musical outlook and opened me up to whole new genres... I don't think any band has done both. And Chuck was the centre of the group. Radio stations, he questioned their blackness, etc. He spoke the TRUTH, except for when he didn't; but even when he didn't, he made it sound like the TRUTH. Militainment of the highest order.

More to come; the Y chromosomes in this thread need serious tempering, but I have to thing about this...

14:22 / 12.01.03

Out of interest, what's Flavor Flav done to 'disgrace himself'?

And what the hell, why shouldn't I answer this thread?

You know the reasons:

Joey Ramone
all of Sonic Youth
Patti Smith
all of the Velvet Underground
all of Bikini Kill
Jello Biafra
Iggy
Beefheart

and so on..

A

03:17 / 13.01.03

I can't be bothered explaining my reasoning this time, but, to add to my earlier list- Donovan, the Kinks, Screeching Weasel, Propagandhi, Dillinger Four, Ratcat, the Melniks, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Chuck Berry, the Ronettes and Herman's Hermits.

Frownland- welcome aboard. Are you a Brisbane-ite? I thought I was the only one around these parts.

The Natural Way

10:44 / 13.01.03

EVERYTHING, everything Fly said about PM. Everything. Public Enemy were a fucking doorway in my life. Sooo important. I like it WHEN!

08:54 / 15.01.03

yes indeedy count adam