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WHOA, IF THE GOOD LORD BE GOOD TO ME…. we’d have more musicians like Lightnin’ Hopkins (and Blind Lemon Jefferson and Big Bill Broonzy and Mississippi John Hurt and Leadbelly, even early Bob Dylan would do) than the plastic crap that goes platinum today. Emo-rock and Mylie Ray Cyrus get pretty old real quick.
Lightning was one of the very best.
Great Guitar player. Don’t care for the music. Am I too young?
>>Am I too young?
Maybe you just don’t have good taste? 😉
Thank you for making my morning bright with that post. He is so powerful… one man, acoustic guitar, no overdubs… real music!!!
Absolutely classic. This is the real deal kids. Music doesn’t get any better than this.
Lightning Hopkins was often called “King of the Blues,” back when he performed in the 60s and 70s.
Does this make me a geezer?
#1, MM,
You forgot the other greats that could only grab the fringes. Performers like Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Leroy Carr along with Josh White, Champion Jack Dupree, Memphis Minnie, geeze, the list is too long.
Unfortunately these greats never reached the commercial success of Willie Dixon, B.B. King, or Muddy Waters, but were just as fantastic. Hopkins remains one of those greats who reached too limited an audience.
I’m inspired to put some Champion Jack Dupree on.
there is only one reason that everyone thinks old music is better
because the crap gets forgotten over time and only the greats remain
in 40 years from now, only the truly great artists of today will be remembered
and they are are out there, and you aren’t listening to them because you have closed your mind to the fact that every generation creates great music, you just have keep listening to find it.
QUIT BEING SUCH A STUPID OLD FART
Music is real all the time. Most of it is always crap and everybody never likes any one style. I prefer more the “boogie woogie” style blues or even cajun. Mississippi low land muddy blues is a bit limited in range and repetitious. My last two cents would be I miss having good rock bands==last good one was Guns and Roses. Too much manufactured pop these days with the consolidation of content providers.
>>You forgot the other greats…
Lawdy lawdy, Gawd Almighty, I didn’t forget a one of them. I’m just so tired from reading Bobbo’s posts that I didn’t have the energy to list them all. And there’s nothing better than Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.
>>only the truly great artists of today
>>will be remembered
There are “truly great artists of today”, Grog? Could you name a few? My mouse cursor is poised over the iTunes and amazon.com icons. Please don’t say Billy Ray Cyrus. I really didn’t like “Achy Braky Heart”. And don’t list any emo-rock bands either.
I saw buckethead last night so, whatever.
@ #9: RIGHT ON.
Lightnin’ Hopkins… man that brings back memories.
My dad was a stereophile proto-hacker back in the day when guys were building their own with tubes.
One of the albums he had was Lightnin’ Hopkins and even as a small boy I’d listen to it alone with the lights off.
It was one album that I lifted from the collection and took to college with me. For many of my friends, Lightnin’ was also their first exposure to the blues.
Mister Mustard said,
>>There are “truly great artists of today”, Grog? Could you name a few?
You never know who will be “truly great” until they are around for a decade or two. I have no doubt that U2 will go down as truly great in the pop genre (my favorite). Springsteen, of course. Madonna, too.
In alternative, Radiohead will probably make the cut. Green Day, too.
All those are twenty years of music.
In the last ten years, it’s been rappers who have led the musical culture and, no doubt, some are great. I hate rap & hip/hop, so I’m not the one can say which will be regarded as truly great.
As for right now, we seem to be in a new golden era of the singer0songwriter. It is WAY too early to tell who will go down as great but maybe Jack Johnson. I’m particularly fond of Neko Case and John Doe. IMHO, Doe’s last three albums were truly great.
#11 – There are “truly great artists of today”, Grog? Could you name a few?
If this were 1970 would you name Lou Reed? David Bowie? Pink Floyd?
We don’t know with certainty who is gonna be remembered as “great” in 25 years… But I’m ready to bet that Jack White will be on the list… just like Bob Dylan was on the short list then.
And don’t list any emo-rock bands either.
Then your personal prejudices will deny you the chance to hear some of the best music available. Death Cab for Cutie and The Decemberists are both in that camp.
It is sad that as humans age, they tend to get into states of musical arrested development. That’s probably why I know so many forty-somethings still playing Journey and Styx on their car stereo. It’s sad now… and it was sad in the late 70s and early 80s when those sucktastic corporate rock giants were ruining the musical tastes of acne ridden boys everywhere.
But if you can loosen the grip on whatever music you are nostalgic for, let me offer just 6:
Well, Jack White, again…
Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)
Omar Rodriguez (Mars Volta)
Radiohead (obviously)
Modest Mouse
Ben Gibbard (Death Cab / Postal Service)
#7, Rabble,
Does this make me a geezer?
Not really.
Look for some older stuff, such as Leroy Carr. That is Blues the old style. He died in 1935 (approx) from all the booze.
Some other greats from a little later are Leadbelly (known for playing a 12 string guitar), Bessie Smith (later jazz great), Robert Johnson (made famous in the movie Crossroads), or Big Joe Turner (a true influence on early Rock & Roll).
That stuff makes you a geezer.
Old people do run this site…
True it’s nearly impossible to predict what the future will make of music from the past but history leaves clues. Authenticity usually gets an artist in the running but they must also be at least somewhat adept at playing the game lest their works be lost for lack of any audience at all.
From the 40s: Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw come to mind as masters of their craft and commercial appeal but you really must give it up for Louis Armstrong because he damn near invested the Big Band genre which later gave voice to Sinatra.
The 50s are epitomized as the Elvis era however the influence of the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly is a straight line to the Beatles. Doo Wop and ‘race records’ are the clear antecedents of Motown – simultaneously Hank Williams is the father of nearly everything from Nashville.
And of the Beatles… it’s likely they will live on if the last 40 years are any indication, So will the Rolling Stones because they, along with Eric Clapton, reminded everyone that the Blues is the basis of all modern pop music. The Grateful Dead showed the light in eschewing labels in favor of performance which may be an artists sole survival strategy in the digital future.
Going beyond the 60s gets into a gray area of too soon to tell but Springsteen is a very real contender. By the 80s, IMHO, we are definitely in a too close to call perspective as that decade needs legs before it can stand. REM possibly but I would not want to say with certainty for at least another 10-20 years.
Anything newer gets a pass because it’s all the personal taste of the poster.
RIP BO DIDDLEY.
How can you forget about Blind Melon Chitlin?
You people offering up Springsteen make me want to puke!
He’s my favourite – even more than Gatemouth Brown. The best music for hot, steamy, sexy summer nights – and that never grows old.
Led Zep
Yeah, yeah. Ok, so Radiohead, Springsteen, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and some of the others, maybe. I’m ruling out Madonna though (she was more of a pop icon than a great musician or singer), The White Stripes (that means both of the kids) are out too). Death Cab For Cutie’s not bad.
Most of those artists have been around for more than 20 years though (more than 40, in some cases).
I was thinking more about music that’s being produced today by today’s artists. I knew Radiohead, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, etc. were on the fast track the first time I heard them.
What do we have now? Pink? Miley Ray? Plain White T’s? I kind of like the Pink tune about not being here for my entertainment, but she’s no Robert Johnson. More like a Ringo Starr.
Craig said:
RIP BO DIDDLEY.
If a single riff* is your only criteria, the list will be very long. Props to Bo for being colorful, of course, but placing him in the same league with likes of Lightning Hopkins and Charlie Patton requires a really eclectic scale.
* not that original either as it was recycled from ‘shave and a haircut, 2 bits’.
>>RIP BO DIDDLEY.
Oh, man. Bummer! Who’s next? Chuck Berry?
some of the great music of today?
i clearly said, only time would tell, and i wouldn’t pretend to know what will stand the test of time, out of today’s crop, however…
key things to look for:
— how many people are being influenced by a given artist?
— is the artist breaking new ground?
one band that has shown enormous staying power since the early 90’s is nirvana, they changed the face of heavy metal and alternative music forever.
n.w.a. changed the face of rap music forever, and you can hear their influence on almost every rap album made since
radiohead is breaking all the rules and i think every new band has a copy of their tunes, they will leave and indelible mark on music
weirdly enough, i think the white stripes are going to leave behind a long-lasting legacy on rock music.
the key is that you have to keep your ears and your mind open — bottom line: the second you write off entire genres or age groups, you have ceased being young and have grown old.
now get off of my lawn.
My apologies to all, especially Craig. When I made the comment re RIP Bo Diddley, I was not aware he’d passed away today.
>>key things to look for:
>>– how many people are being influenced by a
>> given artist?
>>– is the artist breaking new ground?
Eh. Based on those criteria, Miley Ray Cyrus is Queen of the World, Mistress of the Universe. She’s influencing an entire generation of young girls (apparently), and is breaking new ground with her teenaged sexually provocative internet and Vanity Fair photography.
#28 – She isn’t influencing anything but 12 year old girls… and the tiny fraction of those who might be among the musicians of the future, if they have talent, will be influenced by real musicians.
I have seen over the years that the artists who matter are often outside the public eye early on. Sometimes they never break the mainstream in their time, but the remain far more influential over the long haul. From the 80s, for example, I think The Smiths (who were great) leaves a far greater mark on music than Journey (who sucked) despite what a beancounter looking only at record sales would surmise.
Nothing withstands the test of time. Time conquers all. “The Greats” hardly last a generation. What artist today has a reputation as a great musician and is still listened to? The oldest one I can think of is Elvis==and I don’t listen to him at all except in rip-off advertising jingles.
All is vanity.