SubZero

As far as musicians go in the bassist and drummer categories. My vote would go to Pino Palladino, Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro, Carlos Vega and Jimmy Johnson.

hip hop bunny hop

Paul McCartney is ****. GG Allin is superior to him in every measure. GG was proficient with all rock instruments, and he refused to be restricted by musical genres. He played power pop, punk, hardcore, country and everything in between. His live performances often held more in common with performance art than your typical bull**** rock & roll posturing. For him music wasn't a job, but a way of life.

GG Allin is, without a doubt, the 20th century's best rock musician.

beatleszeppelin

McCartney isn't exactly limited to one genre either:

Rock-I Saw Her Standing There
Metal-Helter Skelter
Dance Hall/20s and 30s music-Your Mother Should Know
Classical-Ecce Cor Meum album
Reggae? (Ob la di, ob la da)?
Country:Rocky Racoon

mr dave

you're trying to hard.

GG Allin was what Alice Cooper 'would' have been if he couldn't keep a clear distinction between performance and personal lives and abused every substance he got his hands on.

there are PLENTY of artists for whom music is far more than a job and very much their lives, the vast majority of those don't resort to acting like a caged monkey and flinging their feces at the crowd to cover up the very real fact that they had virtually nothing of note to say.



as for McCartney 'playing' every style under the sun, gimme a freaking break. a slightly homogenized twist on another style does not make it a reproduction of that style. 'helter skelter' is about as metal as 'i wanna be your man' is punk. if he actually put out full albums of varying styles then yeah i'd cut him slack, but tossing in an extra track with a twist of another style does not make for legit variety in my book. Beck is a more varied artist.

now for those playing the ability to play multiple instruments card = greatest all around ever then please top this blind guy - Rashaan Roland Kirk



there are plenty of clips of him on youtube playing all of those horns at once and not just resulting in a cacophony of sound.

on the other hand, when it comes to the output card Zappa trumps all other modern contemporaries with Aphex Twin being the possible future exception to my ears though he seems to have slowed down significantly over the last few years.

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Raust

I'd have to say at the moment Robert Fripp. He's a great guitarist his style is very unique.

TockTockTock

This is thread is asking an almost impossible question. "Greatest" could mean everything from mastery of one's instrument to his or her influence on music. Really, each musician is good in his or her own way. Sometimes I don't really understand the point of ranking musicians. Of course, then there are pseudo musicians like that Gaga woman and Justin Bieber... but that's another story.

Bloozcrooz

Yeah I think it was more or less put out there for you to state your favorite artist or artists. There's really no one way to rank them. But for some their worldwide influence on music and pioneering of some things. Puts them on another level.

NEWGUY562

I guess i'll have to go with prince since he can play 27 instruments.

RLLC

My choice is Willie Dixon; vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer; proficient on both the upright bass and the guitar. He was an important link between the blues and rock and roll and his songs were covered by some of the biggest artist of recent times.

Neapolitan

He played bass on Chuck Berry's early hits - they both recorded for Chess Records. His songs were covered by Cream, Led Zeppelin, & the Rolling Stones.

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