Rank | Artist |
1 = |
Leonardo
da Vinci was an artist whose studies of natural philosophy
anticipated modern science. His paintings include such features
as classically beautiful model subjects beautified still further
by exquisitely soft shadows and river-like flowing hair. The
landscapes in the background of his paintings also feature a
dreamy quality. Here are some of his definitive work (in order of
decreasing merit):
- The Mona
Lisa (1503 - 1507)
is probably the most famous and greatest
painting/artwork of all time.
-
The Last Supper (1495-1498)
is a famous painting of
Christ’s last meal.
- The
Virgin of the Rocks (1483-1486 for the Louvre version and
1495-1508 for the London version)
is a pair of nearly identical
paintings by da Vinci.
-
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist
(ca. 1499-1500)
is a full-size cartoon drawing.
- The
Vitruvian Man (ca. 1490)
is a famous drawing of the proportions
of an ideal man.
- The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (ca. 1508)
is a painting
that inspired his contemporary
Michelangelo
Buonarroti ’s Doni Tondo (see the next entry).
In terms of the realistic depiction of classically beautiful
human forms da Vinci is rivalled by Michelangelo whose
definitive works include (in order of decreasing merit):
-
David
(1501-1504)
, is probably the most famous and greatest sculpture
of all time.
- The Sistine Chapel (1508-1512)
is an astonishing
collection of paintings depicting scenes from The Bible located
on the ceiling and rear wall of the Sistine Chapel.
-
Pietà (1498-1499)
is the most exquisitely beautiful
sculpture of the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of her son
Jesus Christ.
- The Doni
Tondo (1503-1504)
is also known as the The Holy Family.
Michelangelo was primarily a sculptor. Although he also painted,
his paintings have a sculptural quality to them, as if he had
created the sculpture in his mind and then painted that.
|
3 |
Ludwig Van
Beethoven for writing what is probably the greatest musical
work of all time, his epic
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Opus 125, 1822-1824) , written
while he was deaf. This symphony consists of a
thunderstorm-like
dissonant first movement, a dance-like second movement, a
lyrical meandering
third movement and a fourth movement that reprises the first
three and adds singers to the mix, which was a first for a
symphony. Like Jimi Hendrix’s best work (see later) this
artwork preaches the doctrine of
Universal
Emancipation . His Symphonies No.s
3
and
5
also approach Symphony No.9 in terms of greatness.
Beethoven’s music expanded vastly on the classical style of
the time established by Mozart (see the next entry) and Haydn
(see later) to create a new genre known as
Romanticism ,
which anticipated further developments by such visionaries as
(in order of increasing year of birth):
Wagner (see later), Tchaikovsky (see later), Schoenberg (see
later) and Webern (see later).
|
4 |
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart for his late symphonies and other works, listed below
roughly in order of decreasing merit:
- Symphony No. 41 (K551, Jupiter)
- Symphony No. 40 (K550)
- Symphony No. 39 (K543)
- The Four Horn Concertos (K386b, K495, K447 and K417).
Mozart’s chief gifts were for
melody and a deep
appreciation and understanding of the classical style of the time.
Mozart was like a rock star before rock stars were invented. It would be
interesting to find out if female concert-goers would throw their
panties at Mozart as he presented a concert much like the
twentieth century crooner
Tom Jones !
|
5 = |
Richard Wagner for
writing the four epic operas that comprise
The
Ring Cycle (1848-1874) . An ideal introduction to Wagner for
novices is the single opera
Tannhäuser (1845) . If you liked
Star Wars (see
later) or The Lord of the Rings (see later) then Wagner’s Ring
Cycle is like these on steroids. Wagner’s differentiation
between the Gods and the Men in his operas mirrors the
differentiation of workers and their employers in real life: The
Gods all have different motives and thoughts whereas the men
always talk in unison and therefore all have the same motives and
thoughts. His music especially
Das
Rheingold (the first opera of the Ring Cycle) opens up a new
sound world of dissonance, which takes some getting used to. As a
play-writer I prefer Wagner over
William
Shakespeare because my brain prefers words and music to
merely spoken text and because the language of Shakespeare’s
plays is written in a kind of old English that makes it hard for
modern ears to interpret what is being said. In the same vein
Wagner’s operas benefit from translation from his native old
German tongue into modern English (although to perform them in
English would lose all the German
rhyme and
alliteration ).
I have talked to a German person and apparently the same is true
for Wagner and the Germans that is true for Shakespeare and the
English. About Shakespeare, I must say that I gain some enjoyment
from the modern takes on the bard such as
Baz
Lurhmann ’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) Although I do not like Shakespeare that
much, I realize that to omit him from a list of the greatest
artists of all time would be something of a travesty so I include
him here as an equal to Wagner. In particular Wagner’s
concept of the
Gesamtkunstwerk
(or ‘‘total artwork’’) anticipated modern cinema.
|
7 | Johann Sebastian
Bach for writing
The
Mass in B Minor (BWV 232, 1724-1749) . If this piece can’t
convert you from being a
rock /
pop aficionado to a
broader appreciator of beautiful voices integrated with beautiful
music (such as bel
canto opera and Lieder ) then nothing will! Some of the best examples of
beautiful voices that are available as recordings include (in
alphabetical order of last name):
Dame Julie Andrews (see later),
Agnes Baltsa (see later)
Maria Callas (see later),
Plácido Domingo (see later),
Dame Emma Kirkby (see later),
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (see later),
Cheryl Studer (see later),
Bryn Terfel (see later),
Dawn Upshaw (see later)
and New
Zealand ’s own (in order of decreasing merit):
Dame Kiri Te
Kanawa and Dame
Malvina Major .
|
8 |
Jane Austen
for writing
Pride
and Prejudice (1813) and is the best novelist of all time.
I recommend the version of Pride and Prejudice that is annotated
and edited by David M. Sheppard. Here is why:
‘‘Of course one can enjoy the novel without knowing the
precise definition of a gentleman, or what it signifies if a
character drives a coach rather than a hack chaise, or the rules
governing social interaction at a ball, but readers of Pride and
Prejudice will find that these kinds of details add immeasurably
to understanding and enjoying the intricate psychological
interplay of Austen’s immortal characters.’’
The gossipy nature of Austen’s portrayal of the interplay between
the sisters of the Bennett family makes it easy to tell that this
book was written by a woman! I recommend Austen with the
following caveat: Austen’s writing is often too clever for my
tastes. Most of the jokes go over my head and the sentence
structures are often unnecessarily complex. Here is what Sheppard
wrote of the book:
‘‘... it is hard to imagine that the type of people who
populate this novel would ever be so quick with so many
ingenious and pithily phrased rejoinders to one another.’’
The same is true of Shakespeare and Wagner. In particular, there
are an excessive number of double negations, for example: and
it shall not be my fault if we are not always good friends.
Austen’s writing stretches the limits of what would be
believably spoken by characters of that era or any other era.
Again, excessive ‘‘cleverness’’ makes its presence known to the
reader. Her other books,
Emma (1815)
and Sense and Sensibility (1811) are great too.
|
9 |
Franz Schubert whose
use of melody was a rival to Mozart (see earlier) and through his
Lieder he invented the concept of the
Art song .
|
10 |
Joseph Haydn , born as
Franz Joseph Haydn, who was a major influence on Mozart (see
earlier) and Beethoven (see earlier). He is also known as
‘‘The Father of the
Symphony ’’ and ‘‘The
Father of the
String
Quartet ’’.
|
11 |
Herman
Melville for writing
Moby Dick
(1851) , also known as The Whale. It tells the story of a
man called Ahab who is obsessed with capturing a great white
whale called Moby Dick.
|
12 |
Charles
Dickens for writing a novella : A Christmas Carol (1843) which tells a tale of a person who
learns that a life devoted to selfishness is ultimately
unfulfilling. Luckily this person changes their ways before the
end of the story so that they are able to enjoy the rewards of
loving thy neighbour. His other book
Great
Expectations (1860-1861) , about the growth and personal
development of an orphan named Pip, is great too.
|
13 |
F. Scott
Fitzgerald , short for Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, for writing
The Great
Gatsby (1925) which is a story of life in
America during
the 1920’s. His other book
Tender
is the Night (1934) which is a tale about life in the French
Riviera during the 1920’s is worth a read too.
|
14 |
James Joyce for
writing
A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) . This book is
heavy reading but deserves its place as one of the greatest
books of the twentieth century. And this is not because this
book contains a character called (like my own first name) Davin!
|
15 |
Mark Twain , born
as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, for writing
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and
The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) . As he famously said:
‘‘The reports of my death have been grossly exaggerated!’’
William Faulkner (see later) called Twain ‘‘The Father of
American Literature’’.
|
16 |
The Beatles
whose music is like the sun: hating The Beatles is akin to hating
the sun, no person in their right mind can do this. They sung and
played like Schubert (see earlier). They also pioneered the use
of studio trickery to create new musical sounds that never existed
before technology made them possible. Their best three works are
all from the same time period (the mid sixties) and were released
in succession to one another. Here they are (in order of
decreasing merit):
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) . Very
clever use of melody and pushing the boundaries of what is
technically possible in a studio, even with the measly four
tracks that were available to them. Albums from other artists
that take the studio trickery of Sgt. Pepper to its logical
conclusion include Pink Floyd’s stoner album The Dark
Side of the Moon (see later), The Soft Machine’s Third
(see later) and The
Orb ’s ambient house music album
U.F.Orb (1992) .
Revolver (1966) anticipated the sophistication of
Sgt. Pepper. Although Sgt. Pepper is a greater work, most us
have fonder memories of Revolver as it does not tend to annoy
us as much as Sgt. Pepper can.
Rubber Soul (1965) set the scene for lyrics influenced by
Bob Dylan (see the next entry).
The output of the group exceeded the sum of its parts, the truth of
which can be seen by the comparing the high standard of recordings
they made as a group with the lower standard of recordings they
made as solo artists. The legacy of The Beatles stretches long (in
time) and wide (in influence) including such bands as
New Zealand’s own
Split Enz and
Crowded House .
|
17 |
Bob Dylan ,
born as Robert Allen Zimmerman, who brought intelligent lyrics
into popular music and although nobody would say he had a
beautiful voice his genius like Billie Holiday (see later) lay
in the many different artful ways that he deployed it.
The reason he gets such a high ranking in this list (apart for his
ground breaking lyrics) is because his albums have showed us that
he has a deep understanding of many different musical styles,
including folk ,
blues ,
rock and
country .
At his best his style could be characterized as stream of
consciousness language plus absurdest humour. Whatever the musical
style, he promises to never let you fall asleep while listening to
him. The following Dylan lyric is relevant:
‘‘The country music station plays soft but there’s
nothing really nothing to turn off.’’
Like The Beatles, his best three works are all from the mid sixties
and were released in succession to one another. For this reason
the canon of The Beatles and Bob Dylan in the mid sixties is
considered by many of us to be the pinnacle of all art in the
twentieth century. Here they are (in order of decreasing merit):
Highway 61 Revisited (1965) . This album, like some of
Wagner’s operas sounds too harsh for novices, but after
repeated listening the listener is rewarded by the opening up
of a whole new sound world, a sound world populated by those
of us with a bad case of (teenage) angst. Every song on this
album is a classic and the harsh angry young man language and
the dissonant music feed off of each other to create a
synthesis not seen since trumpeter Louis Armstrong played
against singer Bessie Smith on the track: ‘‘The St. Louis
Blues’’ (see later).
Blonde
on Blonde (1966) . Although containing some weaker
material (e.g. ‘‘Rainy Day Women ...’’) it is sung with
such subtle and ingenious phrasing reminiscent of Billie
Holiday that it is something of a rarity in music. The
variety of singing employed on the album coupled with
psychedelic language and flowery ornamental music create a
beautiful and memorable package.
Bringing It All Back Home also known as Subterranean
Homesick Blues (1965) , which spends half of the album saying
goodbye to folk music, half saying hello to a new kind of
Beatles-inspired rock music.
Like Shakespeare versus Wagner, I prefer Dylan’s work to
Shakespeare because my brain prefers music and voice to mere text
alone and because Dylan’s language is closer to the language
of today, making it more relevant. Dylan’s voice harks back
to a earlier singers (in order of decreasing year of birth):
Elvis Presley (see later),
Johnny Cash (see later),
Chuck Berry (see later),
John Lee Hooker (see later),
Frank Sinatra (see later),
Muddy Waters (see later),
Woody Guthrie (folk)
and Robert Johnson (see later).
Dylan's recent album
Modern Times (2006) is a classic too. Dylan’s legacy
extended to practically all singers that followed him including
(in order of increasing year of birth): Paul Simon (see later) Lou
Reed (The Velvet Underground (see later)), Neil Young (see later),
Dolly Parton (see later), Patti Smith (see later), Bruce
Springsteen (see later), Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits (see later)),
Micheal Stipe (R.E.M. (see later)), Tracy Chapman (see
later), Kurt Cobain (Nirvana (see later)), P.J. Harvey (see later)
and New Zealand’s own (in order of decreasing merit):
Bic Runga and
Emma Paki and
others.
|
18 |
Anne Frank for
writing
The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) which is the true story of
the life of the Frank family and a collection of other Jews in
hiding during the NAZI occupation of the Netherlands in the Second
World War.
|
19 |
Joseph
Heller for
writing Catch-22
(1961) , a novel about the insanity of war.
|
20 |
Vladimir
Nabokov for writing
Lolita (1955)
about a man who is infatuated by a 14 year old girl. His other
book Pale Fire
(1962) is not too bad either.
|
21 |
Aldous Huxley
for writing (in order of decreasing merit):
Brave New
World (1932) ,
Point
Counter Point (1928) and
The
Doors of Perception (1954) is not too bad either, about
Huxley’s experimentation with the drug
Mescaline and
which served as the inspiration for
Jim Morrison ’s
band name The
Doors .
|
22 |
D.H. Lawrence ,
short for David Herbert Lawrence, for writing (in order of
decreasing merit):
Sons and
Lovers (1913) ,
The Rainbow
(1915) ,
Women in
Love (1920) and
Lady
Chatterley’s Lover (1928) .
|
23 = |
Arnold
Schoenberg , Anton
Webern and others comprise the
Second
Viennese School of music. The First Viennese School was (in
order of increasing year of birth) Haydn (see earlier), Mozart
(see earlier) and Beethoven (see earlier). Their music can be
accurately described as being atonal which means that their
music lacked a home key. In particular,
melody is replaced
with
dissonance . Webern’s definitive output can be found in Sony
Classical’s 1978 recital of Webern’s work conducted by
Pierre Boulez
with his usual attention to rhythmic detail. Boulez also
conducts Schoenberg well too.
|
25 |
Pytor Ilyich
Tchaikovsky is a famous classical composer, best known for his
ballets and
symphonies . His
greatest ballets include
Swan Lake
(1876) ,
The Sleeping
Beauty (1889) and
The
Nutcracker (1892)
|
26 |
Eric Dolphy for
producing the jazz album:
Out to
Lunch! (1964) , once voted
The
Wire magazine's reader's top jazz album of all time.
|
27 |
Louis
Armstrong as part of
the Hot Fives (1925-1927,1928) and
Hot Sevens (1927) transformed jazz into a modern art
form from something much less than that. Like Bessie Smith (see
later) and Robert Johnson (see later), a student of Armstrong needs
to have a strong constitution to listen to his music because of the
antique studio technology (that predates microphones) used to
produce it. Listen my child and you will be rewarded!
|
28 = |
The following jazz artists are all roughly equal to each other
(in order of increasing year of birth):
Louis Armstrong and the above three artists anticipated today’s
multi-talented rock musician Prince (see later).
|
31 |
Jimi
Hendrix whose album Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
laid the foundations for all
rock /
punk /
metal /
grunge bands that followed
him such as (in alphabetical order):
Def Leppard (see later), Guns N’ Roses (see later),
Hüsker Dü (see later), Led Zeppelin (see later),
Metallica (see later), Nirvana (see later), The Sex Pistols (see
later) and New Zealand’s own
Shihad . Here is what
Laura Connelly of The Wire
had to say about Axis:
‘‘... it has the most focused and compositionally mature
material ... It’s rock’s most complete statement - it
has tenderness, aggression, beauty and dirt. No-one before or
since has touched that plane.’’
|
32 |
Jack Kerouac , born
as Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac, for writing
On the Road
(1957) which is based on the spontaneous cross-country adventures
of Kerouac and his friends during the middle of the Twentieth
Century.
|
33 |
Robert
Penn Warren for
writing All
the King’s Men (1946) portrays the dramatic political ascent
and governorship of Willie Stark, a driven cynical populist in the
American South during the 1930’s.
|
34 |
Jules Verne is
The Father Of Science Fiction who wrote:
From
the Earth to the Moon (1865) ,
Around the
Moon (1870) , and
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and
Around the World in Eighty Days (1872) . Curiously enough
his book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea the phrase
‘‘twenty thousand leagues’’ measures in horizontal distance
travelled rather than vertical distance that you might naturally
assume.
|
35 |
Harper Lee for
writing the Pulitzer Prize winning book
To
Kill a Mockingbird (1960) . Here is a precis of the book:
‘‘Shoot all the blue-jays you want if you can hit ’em but
remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch
gives this piece of advice to his children as a defends the real
Mockingbird of this classic novel --- a black man charged with
attacking a white girl. Through the eyes of Scout and Jem
Finch, Lee explores the issues or race and class in the Deep
South of the 1930’s with compassion and humour. She also
creates one of the great heroes of literature in their father,
whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town
steeped in prejudice and hypocrisy.’’
|
36 |
John Coltrane
who did some exquisite work with Miles Davis in Kind of Blue
(1959) (see earlier) and spent the rest of his career elaborating
on this style. His best albums include (in order of decreasing
merit): A
Love Supreme (1965) ,
Giant
Steps. 1960 and
Ascension (1965) . Here is what Philip Watson of
The Wire had to say about
his greatest album, A Love Supreme:
‘‘Flawed, even considered by some to be the most over-estimated
record in jazz, A Love Supreme remains one of the music’s
most personal experiences. It is Coltrane opening his soul and
laying it bare. It is the hymnic expression of a musician’s
profound devotion - both to his craft and his God. It is the great
sound of an anguished, soaring legato. It is a quartet at the
height of its considerable individual and collective
power. Beguiling and transporting, A Love Supreme reaffirms
music’s ability to embrace the spiritual.’’
|
37 |
John Steinbeck
for writing (in order of increasing year of creation):
Of Mice and
Men (1937) ,
The
Grapes of Wrath (1939) (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) and
Cannery
Row (1945) and
East of
Eden (1952) .
|
38 |
James
T. Farrell , short for James Thomas Farrell, for writing
Studs
Lonigan (trilogy) (1935) which is a masterwork of the Depression
years.
|
39 |
George Orwell
for writing
Nineteen
Eighty-Four (1945) , a
dystopian novel
about life under an all powerful authority figure known as Big
Brother and
Animal Farm
(1949) an allegorical novella where the pigs stand for the political
figures of the Russian revolution.
|
40 |
Robert Graves
for writing I, Claudius (1934) the twentieth century’s
classic historical novel.
|
41 |
Ernest
Hemingway (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature) for writing
For
Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) which is a story about an American
Robert Jordan who is assigned the task of blowing up a bridge in
World War I Spain. His other books
The Sun
Also Rises (1926) and
The
Old Man and the Sea (1954) are great too.
|
42 |
Virginia Woolf
for writing To the Lighthouse (1927) which centers on the Ramsays and
their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and
1920.
|
43 |
Theodore
Dreiser for writing
An
American Tragedy (1925) which is about a murder that takes place
in America in 1906. He was a major influence on William Faulkner
(see later), F. Scott Fitzgerald (see earlier), Saul Bellow (see
later) and Joyce Carol Oates. His other book
Sister Carrie
(1900) is worth a read too.
|
44 |
Carson
McCullers for writing
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) about the moral isolation
in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.
|
45 |
Kurt Vonnegut
short for Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., for writing
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) about the World War II experiences
of a soldier named Billy Pilgrim.
|
46 |
Ralph Ellison
for writing Invisible Man (1952) which is a story about an unnamed
African American man who considers himself to be socially
invisible.
|
47 |
Richard Wright , short for Richard Nathaniel Wright, for writing
Native Son
(1940) which is among the first American works of fiction to
portray an existential hero in the process of self-transcendence
and is one of the last novels of the politically conscious,
post-Depression years. Here is what the
New York
Times said about it: ‘‘Native Son declares Richard
Wright’s importance, not merely as the best Negro writer, but
as an American author as distinctive as any ...’’
|
48 |
Saul Bellow for
writing
Henderson the Rain King (1959) which is about a millionaire
who explores Africa. This book won the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
|
49 |
John O’Hara
for writing
Appointment in Samarra (1934) which is about the self
destruction of a man named Julian English, once a member of the
social elite of Gibbsville, a fictionalised version of Pottsville,
Pennsylvania.
|
50 |
John Dos
Passos for writing
U.S.A
trilogy (1938) , an unforgettable collective portrait of America
in the first half of the twentieth century.
|
51 |
Sherwood
Anderson for writing
Winesburg, Ohio (1919) . Here is what Malcom Cowley
said about this book:
‘‘The only storyteller of a generation who left his mark on the
style and vision of the generation that followed ... Hemingway,
Faulkner, Wolfe, Steinbeck, Caldwell, Saroyan, Henry Miller ...
each of these owes an unmistakable debt to Anderson.’’
|
52 |
E. M. Forster ,
short for Edward Morgan Forster, for writing
A Passage
to India (1924) . which is inspired by the true story of events
taking place at the height of the Indian independence movement in
1924.
|
53 |
Henry James for
writing
The
Wings of the Dove (1902) ,
The
Ambassadors (1903) and
The Golden
Bowl (1904) .
|
54 |
Joseph Conrad ,
born as Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, for writing
Nostromo: A Tale of
the Seaboard (1904) which is set in the fictitious South
American republic of ‘‘Costaguana’’. His other book
Heart of
Darkness (1902) is good too.
|
55 |
Graham
Greene for
writing the
Heart of the Matter (1948) . Here is a precis of the book:
‘‘Scobie, a senior police officer serving in the war-time West
African state, is distrusted, being scrupulously honest and immune
to bribery. But then he falls in love, and in doing so he is
forced to betray everything he believes in and stands for, with
drastic and tragic consequences for both himself and for those
around him.’’
|
56 |
William
Golding for
writing The
Lord of the Flies (1954) which is a story about a plane full
of children crashing on a remote island.
|
57 |
James Dickey for
writing Deliverance (1970) , a novel about four men who embark on a on a
canoe trip down a wild section of river in the heartland of
America’s South.
|
58 |
Nevil Shute for
writing A
Town Like Alice (1950) which is a page-turner of a novel about
Jean Paget and her experiences in the Second World War in Malaysia
which is inspired by a true story.
|
59 |
Jack
Schaefer for
writing Shane
(1949) which was named in 1985 by the Western Writers of
America to be the best Western novel ever written.
|
60 |
Arthur
Koestler for
writing Darkness
at Noon (1940) is a story about a man Rubashov who is
imprisoned and trialled for treason by a government whose rise he
helped to create.
|
61 = |
Isaac Asimov ,
Arthur
C. Clarke , and
Robert A.
Heinlein , are the magic three when it comes to merit in Science
Fiction.
|
64 |
Orson Scott
Card for writing
Ender’s
Game (1985) and its
subsequent sequels: Speaker for the Dead,
Xenocide, Children of the Mind and Ender in
Exile . Card’s writing has an ease of reading that makes
you want to turn the pages without a rest. The dialogue is
realistic including the use of humorous exchanges between
characters but without too much of the excessive ‘‘cleverness’’ of
Jane Austen (see earlier).
|
65 |
Malcolm
Lowry for
writing Under
the Volcano (1947) which is
a Faustian
masterpiece.
|
66 |
Bessie Smith is
also known as ‘‘The Empress of the Blues’’. Preserved for
posterity in 160 scratchy 3-minute recordings (1923-1933), her
voice was a Force of Nature: strong, draggy and rough and even
the antique studio technology of her time cannot hide her raw
talent. Some of her singing (the songs marked *) grabs you by
the private parts until it hurts which takes some getting used to,
but when you do it is like Bob Dylan’s Highway 61
Revisited (see earlier) and Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle
(see earlier) in how it opens up a whole new sound world. Bessie
also possessed other talents such as a jazz singer’s ability
reshape notes and lyrics to stamp her own interpretations on the
songs she sung. Here are her ten best works (in order of
decreasing merit):
‘‘The St. Louis Blues*’’ (1925) with Louis Armstrong
(see earlier) shows two stars at the peak of their powers,
playing note for note against each other and challenging each
other like geniuses need to be challenged to reach henceforth
unattained heights of musical genius.
- ‘‘You’ve Been A Good Ole Wagon*’’ (1925)
- ‘‘Work House Blues*’’ (1924)
- ‘‘House Rent Blues*’’ (1924)
- ‘‘Down Hearted Blues’’ (1923)
- ‘‘Frankie Blues*’’ (1924)
- ‘‘Moonshine Blues*’’ (1924)
- ‘‘Aggravatin’ Papa’’ (1923)
- ‘‘Beale Street Mama’’ (1923)
- ‘‘Weeping Willow Blues*’’ (1924)
Because of her talents, she was hugely influential on later
women singers such as Billie Holiday (see the next entry),
Janis Joplin ,
Edith Piaf and
Aretha Franklin (see later). Read this true story about
Bessie’s antics:
‘‘... we were in the kitchen in this house and she beat up
this man who was trying to get fresh with us. Well, he waited
for us outside, and suddenly jumped out of the dark and stabbed
Bessie with a great big knife right in her side. Bessie just
groaned a little bit, then she chased that man for about three
blocks, holding her side to keep the blood in --- and that knife
was still in her when she finally collapsed on the ground.’’
Bessie survived this attack but died later in a car accident.
|
67 |
Billie
Holiday whose achievement as a jazz singer in its way rivals
that of Bessie Smith. Her greatest period was the 1930’s,
repackaged as the Quintessential Billie Holiday series on
Columbia Records. As microphones had only been invented
recently after Bessie stopped recording and recently before
Billie started recording, the quality of sound is one notch
higher than what was available during Bessie’s era,
accommodating a wider range of musical frequencies and making a
band of players for the first time in a recording sound somewhat
realistic. While Bessie anticipated jazz singers in her
sometimes jazz-like style of singing, it was Billie who first
took these ideas minus the Force of Nature voice of Bessie and
plus more jazz idioms to define jazz singing for all artists who
would follow in the genre including Ella Fitzgerald (see later)
and others.
|
68 |
Robert
Johnson was a famous
Delta blues
singer whose 41 scratchy 3-minute recordings (1935-1936) all
sound as faint as the traces of steam on a window. He also
excelled in making a single musician (himself with guitar and
vocals) sound like a whole band of players. Read this lyric of
Johnson:
‘‘You can squeeze my lemon ’till the juice runs down my
leg.’’
|
69 = |
Philip Glass for
his works like
Music
in Twelve Parts (1971-1974) which show how repetition can be the
basis for a great work of art. Most people I know consider this
repetition to be boring and even maddeningly annoying but inside
the repetition lies patterns which can be interesting to listen
to. For example of the transitions from one track to the next,
Andrew Porter wrote in 1978 for
The New
Yorker :
‘‘A new sound and a new chord suddenly break in, with an
effect as if one wall of a room has suddenly disappeared, to
reveal a completely new view.’’
Repetition in music is not new. Consider for example the
repetition in George
Frideric Handel ’s
Messiah
(1741) . Glass’ opera
Einstein on the Beach (1976) is great too. Music in Twelve
Parts is rivalled only
by Steve Reich ’s
treatise on rhythm,
Drumming (1970) .
|
72 |
James Brown , also
known as ‘‘The Godfather of Soul’’, was very innovative in
creating a sound that would come to define
pop ,
soul ,
rap and
hip-hop music
for succeeding generations. Here is what
The Rolling Stone Album Guide had to say about him:
‘‘James Brown may never have captured the
zeitgeist as
Elvis Presley [see the next entry] or The Beatles [See
earlier] did, nor can he be said to have dominated the charts
like Stevie Wonder [see later] or the Rolling Stones [see
later], but by any real measure of musical greatness ---
endurance, originality, versatility, breadth of influence --- he
rivals or even betters them all ... And even though none of the
44 singles he put into the Billboard Top 40 ever made it to #1
... in retrospect, that reflects worse on the pop audience that
it does on his music.’’
Like blues singer Bessie Smith (see earlier) James’ singing
has a crotch grabbing property but when you get used to it, like
(see earlier) Richard Wagner, Bob Dylan and Bessie Smith, it opens
up a new sound world. His definitive output can be found in
Star Time
(Recorded 1956-1984, Released 1991) a compilation of four
C.D.’s.
|
73 |
Elvis Presley is
also known as ‘‘The King of Rock ’n’ Roll’’ or simply
‘‘The King’’. He captured the zeitgeist for teenagers of the
1950’s just like The Beatles (see earlier) did in the
1960’s and Nirvana (see later) did in the 1990’s. He also
started a tradition of white men singing black music that would
later include such artists as
The Rolling Stones (see later) and
Eminem .
He is also one of rock music’s strongest, deepest sources,
influencing such luminaries as The Beatles (see earlier) and Bob
Dylan (see earlier).
|
74 |
Frank Sinatra ,
born as Francis Albert Sinatra, (jazz/swing singer) for producing
Songs for Swingin’ Lovers (1956) . Here is what Richard
Cook of The Wire had to say
about it:
‘‘Sinatra’s albums for Capitol introduced the singer’s
album, the concept album and the grown-up album all at once.
In the
Wee Small Hours (1955) was the first lonely LP, and Sinatra made
arguably greater albums in the later [in order of decreasing year
of composition] No One Cares (1959) and
Where Are You? (1957) , but Swinging Lovers is the
best-remembered, and the most sheerly enjoyable. The voice has
matured into a lustrous tenor-baritone, every word carefully sung,
and meaning and resonance was imparted with urbane, wordly
wisdom. Capitol’s engineers did the occasion proud.’’
|
75 |
Chuck Berry (rock
singer). Elvis Presley (see earlier) owes a great debt to this
artist. Here is what Mike Atherton of
The Wire had to say about him:
‘‘Berry could rock with the best of them, but his singing was
never frantic: the cool, detached and humorous observer, he let his
songs (like ‘Maybelline’ and ‘School Day’) speak for
themselves. That they had the musical and lyrical strength to do so
it proven by the myriad of artists who have since recorded the songs
which he spawned in the golden decade 1955-65.’’
|
76 |
Charles
Mingus whose work
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963) is one of the
most ambitious jazz compositions of all time and is a rival to Duke
Ellington (see earlier).
|
77 |
Cecil Taylor for
producing the free
jazz albums (in order of increasing year of composition)
Unit
Structures (May 1966) ,
Conquistador!
(October 1966) and
In Florescence
(1989) .
|
78 |
Marilyn Monroe ,
born as Norma Jeane Mortenson, who acted with perfection the role of
the dumb blonde and whose frank sexuality set the stage for female
artists to explore female sexuality like Patti Smith (see later),
Madonna (see later), The Spice Girls and today’s
Pink .
|
79 |
Samuel
Butler for writing
The Way
of All Flesh (1903) . This book is about ‘‘the awkward but
likeable son of a tyrannical clergyman and a priggish mother,
destined to follow his father into the church,... [he] gleefully
rejects has parents’ respectability and chooses instead to find
his own way in the world.’’
|
80 |
William
Faulkner , short for William Cuthbert Faulkner, winner of the
Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, for writing (in
order of increasing year of publication):
The
Sound and the Fury (1929) ,
As I
Lay Dying (1930) ,
Light in
August (1932) ,
Intruder
in the Dust (1948) , A Fable (1955) , winner of the Pulitzer Prize,
The
Town (1957) ,
The
Mansion (1959) and The Reivers (1962) , winner of the 1963
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction .
|
81 |
Jung Chang
for writing
Wild Swans
: Three Daughters of China (1991) which is a story about
the lives of three generations of Chinese women living under the
despotic rule of Chairman Mao Zedong. Not surprisingly, this
book was banned in China but it also won
the NCR
Book Award .
|
82 |
Anthony Powell ,
born as Anthony Dymoke Powell, for writing
A
Dance to the Music of Time which is a series of 12 novels
published in four ‘‘movements’’, Movement 1 in 1951, Movement 2 in
1957 and Movement 3 in 1964. The
Canterbury Public
Library does not have Movement 4 so I am unable to read it.
|
83 |
Henry Miller for
writing Tropic of Cancer (1934) . According to
Wikipedia : ‘‘It is widely regarded as an important masterpiece of
20th-century literature.’’
|
84 |
Evelyn Waugh ,
born as Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh, for writing
Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain
Charles Ryder (1945) . His other book
A Handful
of Dust (1934) is not bad either.
|
85 |
E.L. Doctorow
short for Edgar Lawrence Doctorow, for writing
Ragtime
(1975) . The
New York Times said of it: ‘‘Excellent ... One devours it in a
single sitting’’, although I devoured it in two sittings.
|
86 |
Arnold Bennett
for writing The Old Wive’s Tale (1908) . Here is a quote from the back
of the book: ‘‘An immediate success on its publication in 1908,
The Old Wive’s Tale is a fascinating, beautifully created
exploration of the impact of environment on the lives and emotions
of two women.’’
|
87 |
Thornton Wilder
for writing
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) .
|
88 |
Philip Roth for
writing Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) .
The Guardian called
it: ‘‘The most outrageously funny book about sex yet written.’’
|
89 |
Dashiel
Hammett , short for Samuel Dashiell Hammett, for writing
The Maltese Falcon (1930) . Here is a quote from the book:
‘‘André Gide once said: ‘Dashiel Hammett's dialogue, in
which every character is trying to deceive all the others and in
which the truth slowly becomes visibile through the haze of
deception, can be compared only with the best in Hemingway.’’’
|
90 |
Edith Wharton ,
born as Edith Newbold Jones, for writing
The Age
of Innocence (1920) , winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for
Literature, which the The
New York Times
said: ‘‘Eidth Wharton is a writer who brings glory on the name of
America, and this is her best book. It is one of the best novels of
the twentieth century ... a permanent addition to literature.’’
|
91 |
Max Beerbohm , born
as Maximilian Beerbohm, for writing
Zuleika
Dobson, or, an Oxford love story (1911) .
|
92 |
Walker Percy for
writing The
Moviegoer (1961) . winner of the
U.S.
National
Book Award .
|
93 |
Willa Cather ,
born as Willa Sibert Cather, for writing
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) .
The Sunday
Times said about it: ‘‘A powerful piece of writing, rich with the
essence of a poor but beautiful country with a simple yet dignified
people.’’
|
94 |
James Jones
for writing
From
Here to Eternity (1951) , winner of the 1952 U.S,
National
Book Award . The New York Times said about it: ‘‘A blockbuster of a book ... raw
and brutal and angry.’’
|
95 |
John Cheever for
writing The Wapshot Chronicle (1957) . His other books,
The
Wapshot Scandal (1965) ,
Bullet Park
(1969) , Falconer (1977) and
Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1982) are not too bad either.
|
96 |
J.D. Salinger ,
short for Jerome David Salinger, for writing
A Catcher
in the Rye (1951) which is the story of about a certain Holden
Caulfield. It deals with complex issues of identity, belonging,
connection and alienation.
|
97 |
Anthony
Burgess , born as John Anthony Burgess Wilson, for writing
A
Clockwork Orange (1962) a story of a punk who enjoys
ultra-violence and Beethoven. Burgess invented a new street
language borrowed from Cockney rhyming slang: in out in out
means sex and cigarettes are called cancers!
|
98 |
W. Somerset
Maugham for writing
Of Human
Bondage (1915) . The is what
The Daily Mail
said about it: ‘‘A superb storyteller --- one of the very best in
our language.’’
|
99 |
Sinclair Lewis
for writing Main Street (1920) .
The London
News called him ‘‘The Dickens of America’’.
|
100 |
Edith Wharton for
writing The House of Mirth (1905) . Here is a quote from the book:
‘‘Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality
and missed entertainment.’’
|
101 |
Lawrence
Durell , for writing
The
Alexander Quartet (1957) .
The New York Times Book Review said of it: ‘‘One of the most
important works of our time.’’
|
102 |
Richard
Hughes , born as Richard Arthur Warren Hughes, for writing
A High Wind in Jamaica (1929) . According to the back cover,
‘‘... this classic and bestselling tale did away with sentimental
Victorian visions of childhood and paved the way for later works such
as Golding’s Lord of the flies [see earlier].’’
|
103 |
Sly Stone , born as
Sylvester Stewart, for founding the group
Sly and
the Family Stone and producing his
Greatest Hits album (1970) . Although Sly Stone is great in
himself he still owes a considerable debt to James Brown (see
earlier).
|
104 |
Aretha Franklin
is also known as ‘‘The Queen of Soul’’. Her music is like a
rock and roll version (and therefore more accessible to today’s
audience) of blues singer Bessie Smith (see earlier). As well as
having a voice that is less rough than Bessie’s, her music is
sweetened with a chorus of smoother backing singers. The net result
of this is that it wins her additional converts for those many
people who only listen to ‘‘pleasant’’ music and therefore only use
music as a background to something more important, instead of what I
use music for: to soothe my (teenage) angst (which is why so many of
us like Nirvana’s (see later) ‘‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’’). It
would be interesting to speculate how much of an influence Bessie
was to Franklin given that their styles of singing share so much in
common. The superiority of Franklin over Otis Redding (see the next
entry) can be witnessed by the song
Respect ,
which was first written and sung by Redding but reshaped and taken
over so completely by Franklin that most people today identify the
song with Franklin rather than Redding. Her definitive output can
be sound in the
Queen
of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings (Recorded 1967-1976, Released
1992) , a compilation of four C.D.’s.
|
105 = |
Otis Redding , born
as Otis Ray Redding, Jr,
Marvin Gaye , born as
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., and
Stevie Wonder ,
born as Stevland Hardaway Judkins. This entry is like a battle
between rival record companies
Tamla-Motown and
Stax -Volt -Atlantic , Redding (along with Aretha Franklin, see the previous
entry) heralding from the rawer sounding Stax/Volt/Atlantic label
and the other two from the more commercial Motown label. All of
these singers anticipated black singers like Michael Jackson (see
later) and revolutionary rappers Public Enemy (see later) and today
white rappers like
Eminem .
Marvin Gaye’s best albums include (in order of decreasing
merit):
Let’s
Get It On (1973) and
What’s Going On (1971) . Here is what Nick Coleman of
The Wire had to say about Let’s
Get It On:
‘‘You’re not supposed to like this one best, but then neither are you
supposed to think sex is more interesting than politics. Gaye had
already kick-started the concept of the black concept album with
What’s Going On two years previously. Yet that album, magnificent
rhetorical statement that it is, is only a statement; it is emblematic
of a state of mind. Let’s Get It On is the thing itself, a musical
fucking session that dares to include all the worry stuff - from
seduction doubtle-talk to post-coital ash-raking, via the existential
value of cuddling and the certainty of death, Gloomy? You got it. Not
to mention dark, lush, tremulous, churchy and too short. Soul has
never been so concentrated. Gaye packs all its big themes (plus
several of the smaller ones) into barely half an hour’s-worth of
densely figured narratives, in which the central protagonist writhes
like the moral lover of medieval Romance and the ensemble lifts up his
voice like a chalice. The title-track, incidentally, includes the
best-sited hand-claps in recorded history.’’
Stevie Wonder’s best classic albums include (in order of
decreasing merit): Innervisions (1973)
Songs in the Key of Life (1976) and
Talking Book
(1972) .
Here is what Laura Connelly of The Wire had to say about Innervisions:
‘‘Despite Wonder’s plethora of deeply funky soul recordings
there’s no dispute that Innervisions is his classic. Inherently
tuneful tracks not only groove like crazy but are steeped with
not-quite-naive social statements - ‘Living In The City’ the
prime example - that make it all the more moving. Introspective,
melancholy, sassy and uplifting, it transcends all notions of soul
as schmaltz. It may have come out of the fashions of the 70s but it
still sounds fresh and relevant in the 90s. Timeless music (the
imitations are too numerous to count).’’
Otis Redding’s best albums are (in order of decreasing merit):
Otis Blue: Otis
Redding Sings Soul (1965) and
Otis Redding:
The Soul Album (1966) .
The superiority of Redding over The Rolling Stones (see the next
entry) can be witnessed by Redding’s song Satisfaction
(1965-1966), which was first written and sung by The Stones under
the longer name
‘‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’’ (1965) but was renamed and
so completely reshaped by Redding that it blows even The
Stones’ version out of the water!
|
108 | The Rolling
Stones who are probably the world’s most successful rock band
due to their longevity. The Stones are successful at emulating the
success of black singers such as Muddy Waters (see later) whose song
‘‘Rollin’ Stone’’
forms the name of the group. Their best albums are, in order of
decreasing merit:
- Let It Bleed (1969)
- Exile on Main St. (1972)
- Beggars Banquet (1968)
- Aftermath (1966)
|
109 |
William
S. Burroughs short for William Seward Burroughs, for writing
Naked Lunch
(1959) which is a story about an intravenous drug user.
|
110 |
Jack London , born
as John Griffith Chaney for writing
The Call
of the Wild (1903) .
|
111 |
Ford Madox Ford ,
born as Ford Hermann Hueffer, for writing
The Good
Soldier: A Tale of Passion (1915) which tells the tale of two
wealthy couples, one English, one American, as they travel,
socialize and take the waters in the spa towns of Europe. His other
book Parade’s End (1924-8) is not too bad either. According to
Wikipedia ,
‘‘Mary
Gordon labelled it as ‘quite simply’,the best fictional
treatment of war in the history of the novel’’
|
112 = |
Emily
Brontë for writing
Wuthering
Heights (1847) .
|
115 = |
Public
Enemy borrows heavily from James Brown (see earlier) but they are
good enough to deserve a place on this list. Their three best
albums are all classics of the genre (rap), here they are in order
of decreasing merit:
- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (1988)
- Fear of a Black Planet (1990)
- Apocalypse 91 ... The Enemy Strikes Black (1991)
This decade 1985-1995 marks the
golden age
of hip-hop . Other groups that made groundbreaking perfomances in
this decade include (in order of increasing year of composition):
N.W.A. (short for Niggers With Attitude)’s
Straight Outta Compton (1988) , Run D.M.C.’s
Raising
Hell (1986) .
Arrested Development ’s
3 Years, 5 months & 2 days in the Life of ... (1992)
According to
The Rolling Stone Album Guide , Run D.M.C were the:
‘‘... first hip-hop act to break
M.T.V’s forgiven but
never forgotten colour barrier; the first hardcore hip-hop act to
make canonical heavy metal; first and last hip hop act to
collaborate with Aerosmith ; first hip hop act to pull a major corporate endorsement
and be on the cover of
Rolling
Stone ’’
|
118 |
The
Velvet Underground for releasing (in order of decreasing merit):
The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967) ,
White
Light / White Heat (1969) . Here is what the
Wikipedia had to say about them:
‘‘The Velvet Underground was an American rock band, active between
1964 and 1973, formed in New York City by
Lou Reed and
John Cale . Although
experiencing little commerical success while together, the band is
often cited by critics as one of the most important and influential
groups of all time.
In a 1982 interview Brian Eno made the oft-repeated statement that while the first
Velvet Underground album may have sold only 30,000 copies in its
early years, ‘everyone who brought one of those 30,000 copies
started a band.’’’
|
119 |
Salman Rushdie
for writing Mignight’s Children (1980) .
|
120 |
Ursula K. Le
Guin short for as Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, for writing
The
Left Hand of Darkness (1965) which is a science fiction story set
in the fictional Hainish universe which she inaugurated in 1966.
|
121 |
Ken Kesey born as
Kenneth Elton Kesey, for writing
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) which is a story of
life in a psychiatric hospital.
|
122 |
Michael Jackson
is also known as ‘‘The King of Pop’’ and created the best-selling
album of all time,
Thriller (1982) . What’s more impressive is that his album
is still pleasurable to listen to, despite having been thrashed to
death on popular music radio stations and the M.T.V. channel. The
album had a budget of $750,000 and according to various sources,
Thriller had sold over 65 million copies. His earlier album
Off the
Wall (1979) is great too.
|
123 |
Madonna ,
short for Madonna Louise Ciccone, for creating her Greatest Hits
Compilation
The
Immaculate Collection (1990) , a
pun on the term:
The
Immaculate Conception . Here is what Hopey Glass of
The Wire had to say about her:
‘‘Trailing baffled jealousy and rage, the Material Girl - a narcissist
so pure she manifests as a holy little blasphemer - has transcended
all previously possible woman-as-star roles in the entertainment
industry. Not humble giver, but proud taker; not a prize but a
threat. Within the plump plastic disco-throb of her hits (the chart
12 inch her mastered medium), mocking dance music’s supposed artistic
passivity, she expertly deploys the producers who mould her "voice":
apparently the manipulated object of the technology, she’s made
herself - as CEO of her own huge operation - the ultimate speaking
subject. Here, in her first number one, a blatant dance-sex double
entendre shifts focus from her as loveslave-trader too you as
perfect consumer. She has absolute control.’’
|
124 |
Patti Smith , born
as Patricia Lee Smith, who was a key figure of the U.S. punk rock
scene. Here is what Louise Gray of The Wire had about her debut album
Horses
(1975) :
‘‘The album that saved rock, spawned punk and declaimed a pure, pearly
white defiance of a subversion unseen (or heard) since Elvis first
sang black. It took another three years before Smith, the waif-like
poetess, named herself a ‘rock ’n’ roll nigger’, but the
intention was always there, her dream-beat poetics articulate far
beyond the shouts of anarchy! soon to echo through the otherwise
empty UK. Van Morrison’s ‘Gloria’ opened Horses, transformed into
a thing both blasphemous and instinctual; the title track itself was
an eight minute stream-of-consciousness ending in sonic
orgasm. Interviewed, Smith said she prepared for shows by
masturbating before going on stage - and no-one was
surprised. Sexual freedom, the motor behind 60s rock, had never been
like this before. Robert Mapplethorpe took the sleeve photo, which
showed Smith a creature beyond gender, the music’s perfect
pictorial analogue.’’
|
125 |
Led Zeppelin , a
heavy metal band, for producing their fourth untitled studio album
Led Zeppelin
IV (1971) containing their famous masterwork
Stairway to
Heaven . Here is what Simon Reynolds of The Wire had to say about it:
‘‘Contrary to received wisdom, Led Zep didn’t bastardize the
blues: they aggrandised them, inflated them from porch-side intimacy
to awe-inspiring monumentalism. Detached from their contemporary
context (in which they could only seem a fascistic, brutalised
perversion of rock) we can now only gasp and gape at the sheer scale
and mass of Zep’s sound, never more momentous than on this LP - the
megalithic priapism of ‘Black Dog’, the slow-mo boogie avalanche
of ‘When The Levee Breaks’. But Zep were more than just heavy:
both ‘Misty Mountain Hop’ (slanted and enchanted acid-metal) and
‘Four Sticks’ (a locked groove of voodoo-boogie) sound unlike
anything recorded before or since.’’
|
126 |
The Soft Machine
for producing the album
Third (1970) . Here is what Steve Lake of
The Wire had to say about
them:
‘‘Psychedelic London hatched just two bands of note: Syd
Barrett’s Pink Floyd [see later] and the Soft Machine, and
only the Soft Machine had any musical intelligence. To lock into
their world was to receive an education: following them diligently
led a young listener directly to Terry Riley, Messaien, Cecil Taylor
[see earlier], Coltrane [see earlier], electronic music, and
British jazz (at one point Keith Tippett’s entire front line was in
the group). By turns austere, charming and hot, hot, hot, Third,
recorded 1970 and featuring an augmented Ratledge-Hopper-Wyatt-Dean
line-up, was their finest hour. Wyatt’s conversationally intimate
‘Moon In June’ balanced the labyrinthine complexities of
Ratledge’s writing and the jazzier thrust of Hopper’s
‘Facelift’. Saxophonist Elton Dean and Ratledge, a one-of-a-kind
organist, delivered the knockout solos.’’
|
127 |
Frank Zappa , short
for Frank Vincent Zappa, for producing
We’re Only In It For The Money (1967) . Here’s what
David Ilic of The Wire had
to say about it:
‘‘The most deeply wounding of Zappa’s satirical thrusts, right
down to the cover art (with its barbed parody of the Sgt. Pepper
[see earlier] sleeve). All the same, while the lyrical jokes never
fall short of their intended targets (both 60s hippy culture and the
needling confrontation of the Generation Gap), it’s the musical
comedy which gives the album worth; the affectionate parodies of
fledgling 50s pop styles, and the curiosity of displacement,
throwing Varese-style peculiars and other avantist classical asides
into what was supposedly only a rock album. Zappa’s best works
crammed in his many musical passions and preoccupations; this one
combined them with unique precision.’’
|
128 |
Hüsker
Dü , a heavy metal band, for creating their best known classic
album Zen Arcade
(1984) . Here is what
Wikipedia had so say
about it:
Zen Arcade is the second studio album by the American punk rock band
Hüsker Dü released in July 1984 on
SST Records .
Originally released as a double album on two vinyl L.P.’s Zen
Arcade tells the story of a young boy who runs away from an
unfulfilling home life only to find the world outside evern worse.
The album incorporates elements of
jazz ,
psychedelia
acoustic folk
pop and
piano interludes ,
concepts rarely found in the world of
hardcore punk .
Zen Arcade and subsequent albums were instrumental in the creation
of the alternative rock genre. The band would later abandon the
hardcore punk style of melodic guitar-driven alternative rock.
While not commercially successful, the influence of Zen Arcade has
stretched beyond the underground music sphere. It is frequently
listed on lists of the all time best rock and roll albums and it
continues to have a cult following.
|
129 |
Maria Callas , for
bringing Bessie Smith’s (see earlier) style of singing into
opera.
|
130 |
Prince , short
for Prince Roger Nelson, who sang and played all his instruments
himself including guitar, keyboards, and saxophone. His greatest
work can be found in order of decreasing merit:
Sign
o’ the Times (1987) and
Purple
Rain (1984) . Prince owes a considerable debt to James Brown (see
earlier) and Prince was fundamental in introducing the
Minneapolis
Sound .
|
131 |
Ella
Fitzgerald . Here is what
Wikipedia said
of her:
‘‘Ella Jane Fitzgerald ... was an American jazz vocalist with a
vocal range spanning three octaves ... Often referred to as the
‘First Lady of Song’, the ‘Queen of Jazz’ and
‘Lady Ella’, she was noted for her purity of
tone ,
impeccable diction ,
phrasing and
intonation , and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly
in her scat
singing ’’.
Her definitive work can be found in volumes 1 and 2 of
The Rodgers & Hart Songbook . Her total worldwide album sales
exceeds 40 million copies.
|
132 |
The Sex Pistols for
producing their most famous classic debut album
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977)
an album which kick started the genre now known as
punk rock.
|
133 |
Metallica for creating
their classic self titled album
Metallica
(1991) also known as The Black Album owing to its colour being
almost all black. On its release, the album received widespead
critical acclaim and became the band’s best selling album. It
contains their best known songs:
‘‘Enter
Sandman ’’,
‘‘The
Unforgiven ’’,
‘‘Nothing
Else Matters ’’ and
‘‘Wherever
I May Roam ’’. As of November 2014 the album has spent 328 weeks on
the Billboard album charts, making it one of the top ten longest
running discs of all time. Metallica is one of the ‘‘big four’’
bands of thrash
metal , alongside Megadeth ,
Anthrax
and Slayer .
|
134 |
Kurt Cobain for
forming the group Nirvana for releasing their famous album
Nevermind (1991)
containing their best known song
‘‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’’ (1991) . Their next studio album
In Utero
(1993) is a classic. Here is a famous lyric from this album:
‘‘Teenage angst has paid up well, now I’m bored and old.’’
This lyric encapsulates the appeal of their most famous song to
angry young men, like what I used to be myself. Although The Sex
Pistols (see earlier) were the inventors of punk rock, Nirvana was
the first group to bring punk rock to a wide mainsteam U.S. audience
and to create a new genre known as grunge also known as the
‘‘Seattle Sound’’ owing to Nirvana heralding from Seattle.
|
135 |
Bruce
Springsteen . Here is what
Wikipedia had
to say about him:
‘‘Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen ... is an American singer
and songwriter. He is best known for his work with the E-Street
Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of poetic lyrics,
Americana
working class
sometimes politically centered on his native New Jersey and his
lengthy and energetic stage performances, with concerts from the
1970s to the present decade running over three hours in length.’’
His greatest albums include (In order of decreasing merit):
Born in
the U.S.A. (1984) and
Born to Run
(1975) , and Nebraska (1982) . He has sold more than 120 million albums
worldwide making him one of the best selling artists of all time.
|
136 |
Dawn Upshaw who
sings with a beautifully pure tone and for producing her best
classic albums in order of decreasing merit: I Wish it So,
Ayre, Sings Rogers and Hart, Sings Vernon Duke and
The Girl With Orange Lips. Most people including myself were
introduced to Dawn Upshaw when she beautifully sung the lead role in
Henryk Górecki ’s
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1992) which sold over a million
copies worldwide.
|
137 |
Dame Julie
Andrews who sings with impeccable diction, for producing the
classic albums in order of decreasing merit:
My Fair Lady
(1956) ,
The Mary Poppins soundtrack (1964)
The Sound of Music soundtrack (1965) and
The King and
I (1992) .
|
138 |
Dame
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf a singer who's tone is unmistakable and for
producing her greatest hits collection Diva.
|
139 |
Dame Emma Kirkby ,
who sings with a beautiful tone. Her best work can be found in the
album The Pure Voice of Emma Kirkby.
|
140 = |
Guiseppi
Sanopoli conducted the definitive version of Wagner's
Tannhäuser in 1989 for
Deutsche
Grammophon . Featured singers include
Plácido
Domingo as Tannhäuser,
Agnes Baltsa as
Venus and Cheryl
Studer as Elisabeth.
|
144 |
Neil Young for
producing (in order of decreasing merit):
After the
Gold Rush (1970) ,
Rust Never
Sleeps (1979) and
Everybody Knows this is Nowhere (1969) . Here is what
Wikipedia had to say
about him:
‘‘Neil Percival Young ... is a Canadian singer-songwriter and
musician. He began performing in a group covering
The Shadows
instrumentals in Canada in 1960 before moving to California in 1966,
where he co-founded the band
Buffalo
Springfield along with
Stephen Stills
and Richie Furay ,
later joining
Crosby,
Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He forged a successful
and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his
career has since spanned over 45 years and 35 studio albums with a
continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. ...
Young’s work is characterised by his distinctive guitar work,
deeply personal lyrics and signature
alto or high
tenor . Although he
accompanies himself on serveral different instruments, including
piano and harmonica has idiosyncratic
clawhammer acoustic
guitar playing are the defining characteristics of a varyingly
ragged and melodic sound.’’
|
145 |
Muddy Waters , born
as McKinley Morganfield, who was one of the first artists to
electrify the blues, that is to say used electric guitars instead of
the traditional acoustic guitars. His definitive output can be
found in The
Chess Box , a compilation of three C.D.’s.
|
146 |
P.J. Harvey , short for
Polly Jean Harvey, for producing her classic debut album
Dry (1992) .
This album contains themes of sexual liberation. The song
‘‘Sheela-Na-Gig ’’ rhymes ‘‘Gonna wash that man right outta my hair’’,
with ‘‘Gonna take my hips to a man who cares!’’. Here is another
lyric from the same song: ‘‘He said ‘Wash your breasts, I
don't want be unclean’. He said ‘please take your dirty pillows
away from me!’’’ Here is what the Rolling Stone Album Guide said
about her:
‘‘A guitar-toting succubus with a remarkably elastic voice, Harvey found common
ground in the blues and opera and made sexpot melodrama and
metaphysical yearning sound kind of fun. If you look for sunnyness
in your pop music, she may actually frighten you.’’
Her more recent classic album
Stories from the city , Stories from the Sea (2000) is
aimed at a wider audience than Dry is.
|
147 |
John Lee Hooker
whose achievement as an electric guitarist rivals that of Muddy
Waters (see earlier). His definitive output can be found in
The Ultimate Collection (Recorded 1948 - 1990, Released
1991) , a compilation of two C.D.’s.
|
148 |
Bryn Terfel for
producing the classic albums in order of decreasing merit: Bad
Boys and Simple Gifts.
|
149 |
Def Leppard for
producing their classic album
Vault: Greatest Hits (1980-1995) an album with not a gram of
filler or fat. This album compares favourably to Sly and the Family
Stone’s Greatest Hits Album (see earlier) and Madonna’s Greatest
Hits album (see earlier).
|
150 |
Guns N’ Roses
for producing their classic albums
Appetite for Destruction (1987) and
Use Your
Illusion I (1991) , which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992.
|
151 |
Michael Stipe for
forming the alternative rock group
R.E.M. . Their
best albums are all classics. Here they are (in order of decreasing
merit): Murmur ,
Life’s
Rich Pageant and
Automatic for the People , widely considered to be one of the best
albums of the 1990's.
|
152 |
Yann Martel for
writing the Man
Booker prize winning novel
The life of
Pi , which tells the story of the adventures of a boy named Pi,
short for Piscine Patel. Most of the story is spent with Pi
stranded on a life boat with a Bengalese Tiger who goes by the name
of Richard Parker.
|
153 |
Carl Orff for writing
Carmina
Burana (1937) which is a piece of
cantata music that
merges choral, symphonic and piano effects to create a unique and
instantly recognizable work of art. Here is what
Wikipedia
said of it:
‘‘... Carmina Burana represents one of the few box office
certainties in the 20th Century repertoire.’’
|
154 |
John Williams who
famously composed and conducted the theme music to the
Star Wars movies.
His thematic approach borrows from the notion of
Leitmotifs which
were a major feature in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle (see
earlier). Leitmotifs also feature heavily in
The Lord of the Rings movies , composed and conducted by
Howard Shore .
|
155 |
Paul Simon for
producing his African inspired classic album,
Graceland
(1986)
|
156 |
Johnny Cash for
producing his best album
At Folsom
Prison (1968) . According to the
Recording Industry Association of America , the album has sold more
than 3 million copies worldwide. Here is what
Wikipedia had to
say about him:
‘‘John R. ‘Johnny’ Cash ... was a singer songwriter, actor,
and author, widely considered as one of the most influential
American
musicians of the twentieth century. Although primarily remembered
as a country
music icon, his genre-spanning songs and sound embrached
rock and roll ,
rockabilly ,
blues ,
folk and
gospel . ... Cash
was known for his deep
bass-baritone the
distinctive sound of his
Tennessee
Three backing band, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly
somber and humble demeanor, free prison concerts and trademark look,
which earned him the nickname ‘The Man in Black’. He
traditionally began his concerts with the simple ‘Hello,
I’m Johnny Cash’ followed by his signature ‘Folsom Prison
Blues’.’’
|
157 |
Dolly Parton , for
producing her Greatest Hits album:
I Will Always Love You : The Essential Dolly Parton (1995) ,
certified as platinum by the Recording Industry Association of
America. Here is what
Wikipedia said
about her:
‘‘Dolly Rebecca Parton ... is an American singer-songwriter,
instrumentalist, author and philanthropist known primarily for her
work in country music. ... She has composed over 3,000 songs,
the best-known of which include ‘I will always love you’,
two-time U.S. country chart topper for Parton as well as an
international pop hit for
Whitney
Houston , ‘Jolene’, ‘Coat of many colours’, ‘9 to 5’ and
‘My Tennessee Mountain Home’.’’
|
158 |
Pink Floyd , a
musically influential and commerically successful
franchise : by 2013
the band had sold more than 250 million records worldwide. The
franchise has had three different owner/operators: 1960’s
Floyd, 1970’s Floyd and 1980’s Floyd. 1960’s Floyd,
headed by Syd
Barrett produced the classic album
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) . 1970’s Floyd, after
the departure of Syd Barrett and headed by
Roger Waters
produced the classic albums
The
Dark Side of the Moon (1972-1973) (an album which remained in the
best seller charts for nearly 15 years) and
Wish You Were Here (1975) . 1980’s Floyd (after the
departure of Roger Waters in the mid 1980’s) and headed by
David Gilmour
produced nothing worth mentioning. Pink Floyd are often criticised
for the prosaic and
facile nature of their
lyrics. Here is what Wikipedia had to say about them:
‘‘Pink Floyd were an English rock band formed in London. They
achieved international acclaim with their
progressive
and psychedelic music. Distinguished by their use of philosophical
lyrics, sonic experimentation, extended compositions and elaborate
live shows , they are one of the most commercially successful and
musically influential groups in the history of popular music.’’
|
159 |
Mark Knopfler for
founding the group
Dire Straits for
producing the classic album
Brothers in Arms (1985) . Here's what
Wikipedia had to say about the album:
Brothers in Arms charted at number one worldwide, spending ten
weeks at number one on the
UK Album
Chart (between 18 January and 22 March 1986), nine weeks at
number one on the
Billboard
200 in the United States, and thirty-four weeks at number one
on the Australian Album Chart . The album is the
eighth-best-selling album in UK chart history, is certified
nine-times platinum in the United States, and is one of the
world's best-selling albums, having sold over 30 million copies
worldwide.
The album won two Grammy Awards in 1986, and also won Best
British Album at the
1987 Brit
Awards . Q magazine placed the album at number 51 in its list of
the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Brothers in Arms would
become Dire Straits' final album until they reunited and
recorded 1991's
On Every
Street .
|
160 |
Tracy Chapman for
producing her classic self-titled debut album
Tracy
Chapman (1988) .
|
161 |
Eloisa James born
as Mary Bly for writing An Affair Before Christmas (2007) which
is part of the Desperate Duchess Series.
|
162 |
Tom Clancy for
writing The Hunt for Red October (1984) which is the story of a soviet
submarine pilot defecting to the United States and taking a 1
billion dollar submarine with him.
|
163 |
Henry Green is the
pen-name of Henry Vincent Yorke who wrote the novels, in order of
increasing year of composition: Blindness (1926), Nothing
(1950) and Doting (1952).
|
164 |
Carl Sagan for
writing Contact (1985) , a novel about communication with an
extra-terrestrial intelligence.
|
165 |
George
R. R. Martin short for George Raymond Richard Martin, for writing
The
Song of Ice and Fire Pentalogy (1988) . According to
Wikipedia ,
‘‘in 2005, Lev Grossman of Time called Martin ‘the American
Tolkien ’’’.
|
166 |
James Baldwin ,
short for James Arthur Baldwin, for writing
Go Tell it on the Mountain (1954) .
|
167 |
Cory Doctorow for
writing
Little Brother (2008) which tells the story of a bunch of
computer hackers who attempt to bring down the
U.S. Department of Home Security following the
D.H.S.’s bugging of everyone under the pretext of searching for
a few terrorists.
|
168 |
Ben Elton , short for
Benjamin Charles Elton, for writing
Gridlock
(1991) , an amusing story from the writer of award-winning TV
programs
Blackadder and
The Young Ones . Here is an amusing quote from the book:
‘‘The more talkative killer began again, employing the accepted
method of communication employed by the British whenever they
encounter someone who does not appear to understand English. He
raised his voice ... the curious theory that a strange language
can be rendered understandable by increasing the volume at which
it is spoken is one of the great mysteries of the British
abroad.’’
His other books
Stark (1989) and
Popcorn (1996)
are worth a read too.
|
169 |
Joe Klein for writing
Primary
Colors (1996) which is a story about the candidacy of a certain
Jack Stanton for the Presidency of the United States. The novel was
originally published under the name
Anonymous .
|
170 |
Dan Brown for writing
The Da
Vinci Code (2003) which is page turner of a novel about a Harvard
University Professor who stumbles upon the location of the Holy
Grail. His other books (in order of increasing year of publishing):
Angels &
Demons (2000) , Deception Point (2001) ,
Digital
Fortress (2004) and
The Lost
Symbol (2009) are not too bad either.
|
171 |
Stephen King is
arguably the most popular novelist in the history of American
fiction. He wrote The Stand (1978) which is about a super-flu that annihilates
most of the world’s population and about a evil dark man who
appears in people’s dreams. His other book
The Bachman
Books (1985) in which King writes under the
pseudonym
Richard Bachman
is not too bad either. Here is what
The
Sunday Telegraph said about it: ‘‘You can’t help admiring
King’s narrative skills and his versatility as a storyteller’’.
|
172 |
Bill Bryson
is a humorous travel writer who wrote (among other books)
Notes from a Small Island (1993) which is the true story of
Bryson’s visit to England
and Down
Under (2000) about Bryson’s visit to Australia.
|
173 |
Markus Zusak , short
for Markus Frank Zusak, for writing
The Book Thief
(2005) .
|
174 |
Gary Larson , a
surrealist
cartoonist for writing
The
Far Side Gallery 2 (1980) a humorous book about nerd animals that
can talk and nerd people and what they talk about. Stephen King
(see earlier) said of it: ‘‘You could die laughing’’. According to
Wikipedia , ‘‘his
twenty-three books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more
than forty-five million copies’’
|