Piss Me Off

Music Banter Hall Of Fame

An idea put forward by JayJamJah, the Hall of Fame is an ongoing project that with time should honour the music artists that are loved by the collective members of MB.

Here are the artists that have been inducted along with the cases for nomination written by members here.

To nominate an artist to be here go to the following thread:
http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...ns-thread.html

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by 15Steps

Joy Division



I think Joy Division would be a great band to nominate for the hall of fame, and there are many reasons why. My first reason being that the band has released two of the greatest albums of all times, and are basically pioneers of the post punk genre. Ian Curtis wrote some of the greatest lyrics in history and sung said lyrics with what could be the most recognizable voices in music history. Although short lived, Joy Division are known as one of the best bands of all time and have had a huge impact on modern music.

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by Double X

The Beatles



Clockwise, from top left: Paul McCartney, bass, lead vocals, Ringo Starr, drums, few lead vocals, John Lennon, rhythm guitar, lead vocals, George Harrison, lead guitar, some lead vocals.

Nay-Sayers,

STOP! Before you vote against the Beatles please consider – this is a hall of FAME. As in: a hall of famous groups. Even if you despise them for their technical skill, songwriting, vocals, hairdos or whatever, they are still the most famous band on this planet. Go to anywhere in this world today and ask “do you know of the Beatles” and as long as they are over 10 they most likely have at least heard of them. That alone should put them in this group. They sold a boat load of music too, most in the world for any band.

…Well, this shouldn’t all be about fame – I mean Britney Spears is pretty famous, but it would be kind of hard to convince me to be in a Hall of Fame because her music sucked. So how are the Beatles so great musically?

My closest friend has a younger 14 year old brother who is one of the biggest backlashers of ‘em all. Let’s call him Timmy for now. Timmy said the Beatles never really created anything new, they just stole brilliant new ideas and converted it to a pop formula (he mostly listens to progressive metal and hardcore metal). A ton of haters claim the Beatles don’t deserve all the revolutions they supposedly started. Mostly true. The Beatles didn’t create rock and roll, they copied it from the 1950s heroes like Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, etc. The Beatles also copied psychedelia from the West Coast. Bob Dylan created the ‘intelligent pop' music first as well.

(They were the first to use Eastern influences in their music though)

People look at it in the wrong light. They didn’t steal this work, they refined it with catchy melodies and great lyrics and dispersed it. They were ones to spearhead the British Invasion and to explode psychedelic music across the globe. The greatest thing about them though was the way they introduced new ideals to music by copying them made them similar to uh…a virus maybe?

Well, calling anything a virus never sounds good, but hear me out. The Beatles, with their amazing work ethic, constantly developed themselves using new ideas (or ‘copied’ ones) while retaining the best of their previous skills.

Don’t believe me?

Look at one of their earlier albums, like ‘Hard Day’s Night’ where they showed off their amazing voices and harmonizing skills. They retain this as they go on to work with new ideas in a later album, such as ‘Rubber Soul’. In this groundbreaking album they kept their vocal talents but their instrumental skills were catching up (i.e. Norweigan Wood, In My Life). Rubber Soul had more lyrical development throughout the album as well.

‘Revolver’ developed further their lyrical and instrumental skills, while maintaining their beautiful vocals. Songs like ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ and ‘She Said She Said’ shows the ever increasing musical skill, coupled with their vocals and songwriting.

Finally, they take a huge step forward with ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, where they retain all their previous skills but take their musical production to an unheard of level.

Wrap Up of the members (in case you haven’t been convinced)

Ringo Starr

In terms of singing and songwriting, he was never much. His voice is rather soothing though and Lennon and McCartney often wrote some songs for him to sing. His biggest songwriting contributions were ‘Octopus’ Garden’ and ‘Don’t Pass Me By’. His most famous song is a Lennon/McCartney (mostly Paul) children song ‘Yellow Submarine’.

Ringo gets slammed way too much for his drumming. A friend who drums from my art class (who loves Tool) said to me: “I can’t agree with the Beatles being the best band ever because I can play the drums better than Ringo.” Well I doubt he could play as good as Ringo, but Ringo was actually pretty innovative. He never filled like Keith Moon, it was usually a quick cymbal hit. His drumming on ‘She Loves You’ is quite essential to the mood of the song, and his drumming on ‘A Day In The Life’ is complex. Lennon/McCartney could take most of the attention of the listener and Ringo didn't need to show off.

"If you have ever been in a band where you had to recreate Beatle songs, you would have realized Ringo Starr was no slouch. Those drum parts were very tricky and subtle. He did have a special ability to create interesting rhythmic structures within the music. This gave the Beatles a unique sound without loosing distinctive drive in rock and roll. ..." – Mike Finkelstein

Ringo ultimately was the one of the 4 kooky characters in the group and was probably the least talented member. Still was a pretty darn good member though.

--------

George Harrison

An essential part in the band, I can’t think of a better musician who fit in with John and Paul’s sound. His backing vocals were astounding and voice is quite distinct. He introduced the Beatles to Indian music and it became a key part of their sound. He never broke into mindless solo’s like other lead guitarists, but when he did do solos they were very compact and nice.

His songs in the Beatles catalog are considered among their best work. ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’ are all favorites by the vast majority of Beatles fans. ‘Within In Without You’ is my favorite of his work. I loved how while Lennon/McCartney just seemed to be able to pump out songs (in their early years especially) that didn’t always mean a lot to them, Harrison wrote directly about what he was feeling and his songs often contained a ton of introspective lyrics that are great messages of peace. He is my favorite Beatle (barely beats Lennon out) and definitely important to the band.



Paul McCartney

When I was younger, whenever I listening to the Beatles I always though of Paul as one of those musicians who has a really nice voice and just played bass to ‘get in’ the band without being instrumentally skilled and had a great voice.

Then I started playing bass. I looked up some of their tabs and watched some videos of the Beatles and he played bass so differently. He had so many different styles, from the relaxed, peaceful style on ‘Pepper’, to the bouncy early stuff, and then to an independent melody style on the white album. He also played piano, guitar, and drums frequently.

What more is there to say about his vocals? He had incredible range and its schlocky-ness was perfect to counteract Lennon’s biting sarcasm. Personal favorites are ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ and ‘Get Back’.



(watch the whole rooftop concert on youtube, it’s great)

--------

John Lennon

A lot of people say his guitar is very poor, and I can agree with that. However, his guitar playing held the Beatles together in their early years before George could get off his feet. His main role in the band was the lead singer and innovator.

From ’65-’67 he was drastically changing the Beatles sound. He started using backwards tapes and crazy sounds. Eventually Paul caught up a little at the end, but for the most part it was John making the crazy noises like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘A Day In The Life’

And of course his voice is one of the most emotional, honest, and beautiful voices I have ever heard. I think he has the greatest voice in music. Almost any sincere rock song I have listened to, I always think, ‘John Lennon could have sang this better’. My favorite song by him is ‘Dear Prudence’.



Even when they broke up, they all went on to release great solo albums. Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, Band On the Run, Ram, All Things Must Pass (the best of ‘em), are all classics.

They were elected in their first year eligible to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Let’s do the same here and elect the greatest band ever to the Music Banter Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by Proggyman

King Crimson



While Pink Floyd is certainly the most popular Prog band, King Crimson is just as certainly the most popular band with Progheads. They're also arguably the most innovative band of the modern rock era, consistently reinventing themselves with just one constant member, but never settling for the current trend, never sacrificing artistic integrity for a more popular LP. Not to mention they've had more incredibly talented musicians than any other Rock band I know of. Robert Fripp is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Bruford one of the greatest drummers. They're very popular here and certainly deserve a shot at the hall of fame.

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by Sweet Nothing

The Velvet Underground



"We're musical primitives."
-John Cale

Undoubtedly one of the most influential bands ever , second only to maybe the Beatles. The Velvet Underground eschewed conventional melodies and pop style lyrics in favor of dour, rigidly constructed songs about sadomasochism, sexual deviance, drugs, despair and the harsh reality of urban life on the fringes. Offbeat, daring, challenging, provocative, sometimes outrageous, always different, during wildly experimental and progressive second half of the 60’s The Velvet Underground was the avant-rock outfit of excellence. Although never commercially successful, there is that famous line from Brian Eno that only a few thousand people bought their first album and almost every single one of them would start a band. The Velvets influence on music can be traced everywhere from David Bowie to Sonic Youth.



The Velvet Underground:
Lou Reed- lead vocals/songwriter/guitarist
John Cale- Multiple instruments/vocals
Sterling Morrison- Guitar/bass
Maureen Tucker- Drums

Also:
Nico- Vocals on The Velvet Underground & Nico
Doug Yule- Multiple instruments on The Velvet Underground and Loaded

Albums:
The Velvet Underground & Nico
White Light/White Heat
The Velvet Underground
Loaded

Recommended Songs:
Sister Ray
Heroin
Venus in Furs
Sunday Morning
Sweet Jane
I'm Waiting for the Man

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by sleepy jack

Radiohead



Okay yes they're overrated, yes their fans don't shut up about them, yes every time they so much as shit (on EMI inrainbows<33) we hear about it but that's for a reason. They're probably the most talented band out today and sure they're not releasing OK Computer or Kid A like creative albums anymore but how can you listen to Reckoner or All I Need and say they're past their prime? You really can't. The only thing that would make them better is if Thom came out and apologized for Coldplay.

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by Waspstar and The Monkey

The Kinks



1967 was a dramatic year in music. Jimi Hendrix, through the Monterey Pop Festival, became the biggest superstar in America since Elvis, thus putting a definite end to the first British Invasion. Mick Jagger was forced to sing “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” on Ed Sullivan. The Who countered their wild stage behaviour with increasingly complex studio albums, and released The Who Sell Out. The Beatles released their most acclaimed album to date, Sgt. Peppers. A Scott McKenzie became the anthem for the Summer of Love, the biggest event in the hippie movement second only to Woodstock.

The world was had never seemed so bright, and the youth were more optimistic and idealistic than ever before. Through music, art and a big amount of pot, they would change the world by bringing forward uncomplicated messages of peace and love. The old had to go, a new era had arrived.

That year, the last steam-powered trains in England was about to be replaced by electric locomotives. This, quite naturally, went ignored by nearly everyone on the music scene. Who, after all, cared about some olds trains when a world revolution of love was taking place? One band did: The Kinks. They recorded a song about it the following year.

The Kinks’ genius and driving force lay with singer-songwriter Ray Davies, who wrote the vast majority of the band’s songs. His brother Dave was guitarist and wrote a few songs for the band. Drummer Mick Avory and bassist Pete Quaife completed the early line-up.

The Kinks formed in 1963 and soon reached success with a series of singles, notably “You Really Got Me”, “All Day And All Of The Night” and “Tired of Waiting for You”, the first hit songs ever to be build around power chords. The band continued to release songs in the same protopunk vein for the next couple of years, although they were constantly in the shadow of contemporary British bands such as the Beatles, the Stones or the Who.

In 1965 something of great importance to the bands musical directions occurred: they were banned from performing in the Unites States for reasons to this day undisclosed. This had two major effects. One, their commercial success in the US over the next years was obviously dampened. Two, the musical direction of the band changed dramatically as a result of being cut off from influences from the American R&B and soul. Ray’s songwriting here attained a uniquely English, often nostalgic, flavour, drawing heavy influences from English music hall traditions. The band’s stylistic change was first evident with the singles “A Well Respected Man” and “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”. The character study and social commentary theme in these singles would continue throughout the band’s career.

The following four years, the band was at their artistic peak. The albums “Face to Face”, “Something Else by The Kinks”, “The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society” and “Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)” all showcase the very best of Ray’s writing, with Something Else being my personal favourite. The four most famous singles from this time are probably “Sunny Afternoon”, “Dead End Street”, “Waterloo Sunset” and “Days”. Their last big hit came in 1970 with the single “Lola”.

At a time when focus of the music scene was on Hindu traditions, Marxist writings and world revolutions, The Kinks was writing about the poverty and misery found in England’s lower classes. In many cases the living standard hadn’t improved much since WWII, a fact often forgotten when looking back at the 60’s. But Ray Davies did not forget those people in his songs, and The Kinks’ music is in my opinion the very best examples how brilliant and meaningful lyrics can be combined with beautiful and touching melodies.

The song that to me best symbolizes what The Kinks is all about is probably Dead End Street from 1966:



----------------------------------------------------------------------

Apart from releasing some of the great albums of the 1960's (Village Green & Something Else), they were a killer singles band (You Really Got Me, Set Me Free, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Dead End Street). They weren't limited to one basic style as most of their contemporaries were and managed to create some of the most abrasive, raw, rocking songs ever recorded as well as some of the most beautiful.

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by British Pharoah

Public Enemy



Their politically charged lyrics criticising the US government and the media make them the number 1 Rap/Hip Hop outfit of all time in my eyes, no other Hip Hop artists can enter any music HOF (even one for the purpose of fun on an internet forum) before these icons.
Hip Hop has unfortunately now become an outlet for young black men to spout off about how much money they have, how big their rims are and how violent they can be against other black men.

PE got it right and now the genre and image of Hip Hop has been tainted by these Hip Hop posers and phoneys.

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by Zarko

Frank Zappa



Frank Zappa Appreciation Thread (Admittedly average for a while)

There are few better rock artists who are as proficient in composing music across a variety of genres as Zappa was. And his ‘flair’ and his seeming ‘need’ to branch out and not remain stagnant is a quality that should not be ignored and should be applauded.

His career and output, along with ‘The Mothers of Invention’ spans nearly 40 years, his first official release being in 1966 (Freak Out!) and was certainly a sign of his determined nature to always look for a new avenue, constantly experimenting…

From the Appreciation thread, possible one of the best ways to describe his nature was ‘The mad scientist of rock and roll’ and it certainly is reflective of his music. Throughout his career, he had various albums which constantly pushed new boundaries, which included albums (which I would call masterpieces) such as the emphatic ‘Hot Rats’, ‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’, ‘You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore (Vol. 1-6)’ and ‘Frank Zappa and the London Symphony Orchestra (Vol. 1-2)’, which was an exploration into classical composing, and an awesome one at that.

Oftentimes creating brand new albums from his live shows and performances, Zappa was as technically proficient outside of the studio as he was inside. Previously metion ‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’, one of his highly regarded albums, was primarily built up out of various live performances by Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. It may not make much sense, but overall the album is amazing for its lack of aim and control rather than poor for it.

Unfortunately, Zappa passed on in 1993, 17 days short of his 53rd birthday. It was seemingly the end of his illustrious musical output. However, since then there has been much more Zappa music discovered, leading to many posthumous CD’s being released in his name. With these additions, Zappa released more than 60 albums, which contained both solo work of MoI work. There are other ‘unofficial’ releases available, primarily through download.

In 1995 he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 1997 he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ever the ‘zany’ character, Zappa named his four children Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. This of course nowadays seems horrible and cruel to many outside the family
He often criticised many views of mainstream society through his music, including the lack of freedom of speech, censorship and religion. He was also very vocal concerning the Parents Music Resource Center’s attempts to censor music, and made a statement to the PMRC board. The statement (Originally 5 pages long, though condensed) was as follows:

The full statement and questioning can be found here Frank Zappa Statement, PMRC Senate Hearing

It is virtually impossible to peg down Zappa as an artist to any specific sound or genre… Rather he was simply a musician who did what he wanted to do (Especially when he was under his own label), no matter what others thought, or whether they couldn’t understand his sense of humour.

Some youtube videos…


Why does it hurt when I pee?


Strictly Genteel


Peaches En Regalia


He’s So ***

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape

Piss Me Off

Nominated by Alfred

The Clash



The Clash have been one of the most influential and inspiring bands in the history of punk rock, if not rock period. For a punk rock band, The Clash's music was complex. They were dubbed the "Thinking Man's Yobs" because of their political views that expanded beyond anarchy, unlike many of their peers. Along with punk rock, the Clash mixed a wide variety of genres into their sound, making them extremely diverse. This became more noticeable as their career went on. There's something in their sound for everyone.

You may hate U2, but I think The Edge put it best when he said "The Clash were the shit".

__________________


Last FM
Rate Yr Music
Muxtape