# Favourite Old Rockers...



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Choose 5 of your favourite old rockers on this poll.

You can also choose "other" but it has to be someone born between about 1940 and 1970.

The memories are flooding back, memories we may want to suppress!!!...Sorry guys...Or maybe many of you don't know these at all or that well, you're too young, these are like dinosaurs to you?...Feel free to discuss.

It's a public poll...


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Does Freddie Mercury count?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Most of mine would probably be others - I like a few on the original list very much but they've all managed to blot their copybooks over the years with output that ranges from the bland to the execrable. However, here we go (in no order):

David Bowie - of his voluminous studio output only his trio of 80s albums (Let's Dance/Tonight/Never Let Me Down - or The Yuppie Trilogy as I refer to it) and the second and final album from his Tin Machine project have disappointed - not bad from the late 60s through to just a few years ago. 

Neil Young - like Bowie, his 70s output was a fantastic body of work so I can forgive him his orneriness and dodgy 80s output.

Jimi Hendrix - his influence and legacy still tower over so much rock music.

Van Morrison - see Neil Young.

Jim Morrison - could have been Grumpy Van's black sheep cousin (when they first met in 1966 they actually wondered if they were distantly related). Whatever his foibles (and there were many) he was probably rock's most dangerous and magnetic frontman - when he was sober.

Rod Stewart has disappointed me the most - starting from 1968 and his work with the Jeff Beck Group and with the Faces up until the Smiler album in 1974 he never really put a foot wrong. Since then I'm struggling to think of anything he's done that I would consider to be worthy of his earlier work - his credibility and quality control evaporated once he decided to live the Beverly Hills dream with Britt and he hasn't regained it since (not that he seems to have made much of an effort).


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

I had to vote 'other' as I retain my long-term admiration for the prog rock band Yes (still performing after 43 years in existence). For me, no-one has yet surpassed their compositional skill and musicianship or their staggering technical abilities.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

mamascarlatti said:


> Does Freddie Mercury count?


Although one of my favorite rock singers, I think Sid meant rockers who are still rocking out. First thing that stood out for me from the choices was that they're all still playing and many of them recently. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. James.

I chose 'other' also and this is because my favorite rockers still doing it every year are:

Bob Weir
Phil Lesh
Micky Hart
Bill Kreutzman
Tom Petty


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

None are worthy. Damo Suzuki needs a mention.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

kv466 said:


> ...Although one of my favorite rock singers, I think Sid meant rockers who are still rocking out...


Yeah, I meant those rockers who are still physically with us. Otherwise guys like Mr. Mercury, or Jimi would have been there, probably Michael Jackson as well. These are not strictly "rockers," eg. in rock, but they also cover pop, etc...


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I chose *Madonna*, as she kind of defines the 1980's & '90's for me in many ways.

Also *Meatloaf* and *David Bowie*, for not only their music, but the fact that they did some acting, which I like that kind of flexibility and going into other areas of the arts.

Then *Bob Dylan*, who also defined an earlier generation/era.

Mick Jagger was a runner-up, his songs also had social relevance, which I like.

But choosing *other* for *Elton John* and also *Neil Diamond* who did some very good stuff imo.

A big "no" to Tom Jones whose song _Sex Bomb_ I give the award for most poor taste to, and the worst earworm of whatever year it was in. I think it's a joke, the Russian Red Army choir did a cover that's way better than the original, & funny, talking to how Mr. Jones is like rehash. Also a "no" to Paul McCartney, whose songs I find earworms, but it's a matter of overexposure, not music that's not good, etc.

You guys have wider tastes, eg. non-mainstream, which I'm not up on, but I do listen to some less mainstream stuff that's coming out from younger "rockers" today, on radio here. It's great, I think music of this type is in good hands with the younger musicians, as far as I can tell, not all of it is plastic rubbish like _Sex Bomb_...


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

There are many that I like, and I would probably vote for different people on different days, but these three would nearly always make the cut....

*Bob Dylan*, definitely. He's also one of the few old rockers who isn't exclusively a nostalgia act these days. Much of his output of the last dozen years or so is in my opinion close to being as great as his classic stuff from the 60's and 70's. Not quite as great as, say, "Blonde on Blonde" or "Blood on the Tracks" perhaps, but close enough.

*Keith Richards*. I like Jagger as well, but Keith is sorta the poster child for much of the excess and decadence associated with the rock and roll lifestyle. Ok, one could say that it's all become a big and rather tiresome cliché by now, but the fact remains that to a large degree he's the blueprint while others are just copycats and wannabes. If I had to illustrate rock and roll with just one picture I would choose a picture of Richards.

*Joni Mitchell*. Stricktly speaking not a rocker perhaps, but there haven't been many artists associated with pop and/or rock who have come up with eight great studio albums in a row that were as diverse as Joni's output between 1967 and 1976. Her later work has been by and large less impressive, but there have been times when she came close, and she's never done anything that's in poor taste.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

mamascarlatti said:


> Does Freddie Mercury count?


Hey! That's pretty cool.

Having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea of Courtney Love as an 'Old Rocker,' but I understand that's completely the fault of my coming up on the back-end of "middle-aged."

Regardless, I'll play along and try to have some fun with it...

1) *Paul McCartney*- arguably the most melodically gifted artist in Rock & Roll's c. 60 year history.

2) *Robert Plant-Led Zeppelin*- whom I believe to be the most inventive and enduring of the Hard Rockers.

3) *Sting-The Police*- very musically creative and capable of integrating a lot of different influences.

4) *Bono-U2*- at least, pre-self-parody days (i.e.: up to 'Joshua Tree')..

5) Other, *Robert Smith-The Cure*- who might wind up in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year 
(they're on the 'nominees' list)!*

*edit/update- breaking news this week- they didn't quite make it... but the Beastie Boys (for one example) did [BOO!]


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'll amend my choices seeing Hendrix and Morrison are otherwise detained and thus out of the running:

David Bowie, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Van Morrison and Ray Davies.

Honorary mentions: Lou Reed and Roger Daltrey.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Madonna? She's not a rocker. Just a filthy rich poser. 

I'll go with the Doors, The Who, Zeppelin, and Zappa.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Courtney Love??!? think you spelt Patti Smith badly wrong there.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

starthrower said:


> Madonna? She's not a rocker. Just a filthy rich poser...


Well maybe, but I think you can forgive me for a bit of nostalgia? I grew up with her music in the background a lot of the times. She doesn't mean anything to me now (her latest work), it's more a matter of what's lodged in my memory of her from the past...


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