THIS IS NOT A SHORT AND SNAPPY TITLE (Top 10 Artists)

Member Name: shanecreevy

Product:	Top 10 Artists
Date:	05/09/01 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: this is my selection, they have to be good.........?

Disadvantages: couldn't put in everything I wanted to

Although there are many other artists I would have liked to include, some of them have not released enough material to go on or I don’t have enough of their CDs. Besides there’s only 10 spots. So sorry to: Coldplay, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, REM, The Rolling Stones, Joe Satriani, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Redneck Manifesto, John Lee Hooker and David Gray. These are arranged in no particular order.



Frank Sinatra
Where would we be without Ol’ Blue Eyes? The earliest of the other nine that I’ve listed here, Sinatra has possibly the best falsetto to grace the microphone. There’s something about his voice that grabs you at the 1st lyric and only lets you go at the last. He had it all – charisma, power, scandal, women, humour – everything. Although he never wrote any of the songs he sang, his interpretation of them is second to none. He sings so majestically, so powerfully, you’re sure that he’s written the lyrics himself. When he died, he was still performing which shows his dedication towards music after about 50 years.


Gary Moore
For those of you that have never heard of Moore – he was born in Belfast. 1st picked up the guitar at age 11. Realized he was quite good. Heard John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton and decided he wanted to play professionally. He started out playing blues, but after a while got caught up in the world of rock for a long time. He has done all sorts of musical styles since the mid 70s from classical to blues, jazz to rock. Unlike most guitar/ singer/ songwriters, Moore’s falsetto is always exceptional. It got better as he got older (on 1997s Dark Days In Paradise it’s just as good as the guitar). He is one, if not the, fastest guitarist of all time. He is certainly the best guitarist to come from Ireland. In 1990, he made a triumphant return with the LP Still Got The Blues. A rediscovery of his blues roots. Th
is was followed with After Hours, another blues collection. He capped it all off with the Blues Alive CD released in 1993. It all proved (to Moore more than to anyone else) that you don’t have to be fast to be a major player in the guitar world. P.S I’m going to see him in about a week!


Eric Clapton
Another guitar virtuoso, Clapton’s impact on music has been outstanding. For me, the Cream years were the best (I Feel Free, White Room, Sunshine Of Your Love etc). Derek & The Dominoes had a few good hits as well (the Clapton anthem Layla is their most famous). His solo career flourished at first but seemed to die down after the mid 70s as he went further and further down the blues scene. The comeback came in 1989 (Journeyman) and four years later came the Unplugged album. This CD has a perfect contrast between old and new and gained Clapton millions more young fans.


U2 The best Irish rock band of all time, U2 transcend the heart and mind of the listener to a point were you HAVE to get one more of their albums. Your first impressions of U2 are very important. After you’ve made your initial decision of where you stand with them, you can never be converted. A lot of people are put off by their earnest, self – righteous era (80s) while the same people are put off by their ironic, taking the piss era (90s). Either way, no one can deny the brilliance of Desire, With Or Without You and One, but with U2, there’s more than that. Their best patch was from ‘87 to ’93. In those six years they mastered the genre that they themselves created (Joshua Tree), explored the blues and rock’s history (Rattle & Hum), reinvented rock (Achtung Baby) and did electronica (Zooropa). I saw them at Slane about two weeks – it was more than a gig – it was an experience.


Jimi Hendrix
Quite simply THE MAN. J
imi Hendrix probably had the biggest impact on the guitar world. Nobody before Hendrix sounded like him. One of the most original artists of the sixties, Hendrix’s best years were with the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which had Jimi on vocals and guitar, Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass). In about three years this band wrote songs such as ‘Purple Haze’, ‘Crosstown Traffic’, ‘Voodoo Chile’, ‘Foxy Lady’, and ‘Red House’ and covered songs such as Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’ (not as good as the original though) and Billy Roberts’ Hey Joe. It’s true that after the Experience broke up Hendrix went through a bad patch. But just as he was starting to get out of it and began to enjoy music again, he tragically died. Who knows what scales of superstardom he would have reached if he had lived? Who knows where he would have brought the guitar? I’m sure he was bringing it to heights that the rest of us can only dream of. Even still, he remains the most the influential guitar player ever.



Led Zeppelin
Jimmy Page and Robert Plants collaboration in music is matched only by the partnership of Lennon and McCartney (which broke down around the time of Sgt. Peppers, Page and Plant kept it going). After releasing the hugely successful II, III and IV Symbols LPs, it seemed their modjo had disappeared into thin air. For a few years there was no Stairway To Heaven, no Since I’ve Been Loving You, no Whole Lotta Love, no Dazed And Confused. But they had never lost it. In 1975, Zeppelin released what is (and what should always be, if you excuse the pun) their best album: Physical Graffiti. It’s a double LP filled to the brim with some of the best tracks ever written such as: In My Time Of Dying, In The Light, Ten Years Gone, The Rover, Kashmir to name but a few. Their legacy lives on.


Steve Vai
Although not as in
fluential as Hendrix, Vai is my favourite guitarist of all time. If you haven’t heard of Vai buy his EP from 1995: Alien Love Secrets, it’s extraordinary. Most of his pieces are instrumental, with his dazzling guitar playing at the forefront. Steve does a strenuous 10 hour a day practice session to make himself a more complete player every day. Is that commitment or what? P.s. I'm going to see him in December!

The Beatles
John, Paul, George and Ringo had the biggest impact on music in the past century. Albums like Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, White Album and Abbey Road prove this fact. We’re talking about the band that wrote Hey Jude – they have to be good. They can be simple (‘I Will’), they can be confusing (‘Glass Onion’) and they can certainly be under the influence of narcotics (‘Because’, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’). I much prefer the later tracks than the earlier stuff like ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ but that’s just a matter of opinion.


Bob Dylan
He is the best solo artist of all time. He is the author of such works as Blonde On Blonde, Oh Mercy, Highway 61 Revisited and It’s Allright Ma I’m Only Bleeding (that’s so good it’s practically an album). He is the man who introduced The Beatles to the wonders of drugs. He is the man that started rock ‘n’ roll. He is the man I saw a few months back in Kilkenny. He is by far the best lyricist to ever walk our planet. It could only be Bob Dylan. I could go on and on about him but time is moving on and I’d better finish up.


Radiohead
Finally, the best artists I’ve ever heard has to be Radiohead. Their knowledge, musically, has never been seen or heard before. Every album they release is a masterpiece, except for the debut LP Pablo Honey
, which is just terrible; everything else is out of this world. I think you get my point: LISTEN TO RADIOHEAD!

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