Here’s the first in my “Historical Perspective” series. This was originally posted on September 26th, 2003.
Kenny came at me the other day with a list of his Top 105 Favorite Rock bands/musicians. Neither my personal experience, nor my CD collection, can even attempt to rival Kenny’s — a man who has a twenty year head start and a 4000+ CD collection to show for it. Humbly, I put together my list basing it on my (significantly smaller) CD collection.
The main thing about this list is that I tried not to choose an artist or group based upon the opinions of “everyone else” — this list is a reflection of my personal musical tastes and purchasing habits. Once I’d assembled the list, the main criteria I used for ranking was not based solely on personal preference but also on the number of albums I own for each artist or band. Based solely on the number of CDs, for example, Phish would automatically come out on top but I have a tendency to reach for a Pink Floyd album more often than a Phish album — although Phish wins out when I’m wanting to listen to single songs and not full albums. Of course, the position of a band or musician on this list is subject change based upon how I’m feeling at the moment. The rankings of my Top 5 are fairly static but they are currently in a slow transition as the RHCP have been slowly slipping downward, falling from #1 to #5 since “Blood Sugar Sex Magic”. On the other hand, Robert Randolph has been making a steady climb upwards and Ben Harper is poised to move into the Top 5 if the Chili Peppers maintain their current trend towards Aerosmith-ism.
- Pink Floyd
- Phish
- Jimmy Smith
- Morcheeba
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Ben Harper
- Syd Barret
- Grateful Dead
- Dixie Chicks
- Stereolab
- Marilyn Manson
- Guns ‘n Roses
- Led Zeppelin
- Rammstein
- Miles Davis
- John Coltrane
- Lenny Kravitz
- Robert Randolph
- Super Furry Animals
- Beatles
- Bob Dylan
- Jane’s Addiction
- Allman Brothers
- U2
- James Brown
- Jamiroquai
- Maxwell
- Beastie Boys
- Tom Petty
- Old 97’s
- Frank Zappa
- George Harrison
- The Who
- Pearl Jam/Nirvana*
- Bruce Springsteen
- Cypress Hill
- Garth Brooks
- Simon & Garfunkel
- Brooks & Dunn
- Tangerine Dream
- Ween
- The Doors
- The Rolling Stones
- James Taylor
- The Clash
- Sex Pistols
- Nerve Circus**
- School of Fish
- Rusted Root
- Stan Ridgeway
Putting this list together got me thinking about my favorite songs and I may put together that list sometime in the near future. I didn’t include any (personal) one-hit wonders in this list and, if I put together a Favorite Song List, there would be some overlap but there would also be numerous differences. It’s a little difficult to have a “favorite” Tangerine Dream song, for example, just as it’s tough for me to say that the Eagles are a favorite band even though I own their Greatest Hits album.
* Pearl Jam/Nirvana: lump them both together because I never really got caught up in the whole Seattle grunge thing. While everyone else was wearing flannel and idolizing Kurt, I was listening to RHCP, Clash, Sex Pistols, Stan Ridgeway, and Nine Inch Nails.
** Nerve Circus: a local Rochester band that is now “defunct”. During High School, there was a group of us who were die-hard Nerve Circus fans, going to see every concert we could. The fact that they’re gone doesn’t mean I love their music any less, though.
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