musical godlike geniuses

[Dubversion]

which cannot be applied to the stages of someone's career when they more or less copied an existing artist

which was perhaps a 3-4 year period in a career spanning 5 decades.

 

[ohmyliver]

Holland-Dozier-Holland (I know its 3 people, but)
Mark E Smith
Beethoven (well, he completly changed music, thats quite hard to beat)
Arthur Lee
erm, and no doubt I'll think of others,

but

god-like genius though, how is it measured, quality of songs, amount of influence, innovation, what?

 

[longdog]

I think maybe you could call Bowie as genius as a pop star. Not really as a musician though. He was all about the image as far as I can tell (which isn't a criticism.)

He did play the sax on Steeleye Span's version of To Know Him Is To Love Him.

And that's bloody awful the same as everything else he's ever done apart from Sound and Vision.

One of the most over-rated acts since the Beatles.

 

[stavros]

I rate muggs(cypress hill, soul assasins) higher then i do rza.

I will concede that if I had to find someone who sounded anything like the RZA, it would be Muggs. Muggs also has done a wider range, working with the likes of Greg Dulli outside of hip-hop. However, just purely for "Enter The Wu-Tang...." I thought RZA merited a mention, holding and moulding all the styles of the MCs together into something quite remarkable. Yes, Ghostface, GZA, ODB, Raekwon and Meth all undoubtedly helped make it as great as it is, but without RZA it would've been a mess.

How about Kevin Shields? "Loveless" is certainly a work of genius.

 

[D'wards]

Bill Callahan of Smog for me - been quietly making outstanding albums for years and years. Much better than anyone else about in the last 20 years certainly.

 

[lunatrick]

lyrics - dylan no question
Sheer depth of musical experimentation - 70's Bowie - how many other artists have produced 12 albums in around 5 years? Eno being in there with him too..the B side of low must be one of the earliest ambient works?

Straight up balls out rock and roll....Jimmy Page....

and a I could go on and on.......Pink Floyd etc etc.....

 

[Spion]

which was perhaps a 3-4 year period in a career spanning 5 decades.

Are you changing your opinion of tribute acts now?

 

[Termite Man]

I think the only band that come close to god like genius is Spinal Tap , mainly due the made up nature of them* they are most god-like of all the bands mentioned so far !




* and some people think they are real which makes the god likeness even more astounding !

 

[Spion]

/\ hehe, good post

 

[goldenecitrone]

Leonard Cohen is God. Bob Dylan is Jesus. And Arthur Lee is the Holy Spirit.

 

[Flashman]

Dylan, James Brown are up there at the top in the talent dept.

 

[Rammpants]

Phew I'm glad that someone mentioned Laughing Len Cohen. He's the best.

What about Lonnie Donegan? He's the man who inspired, well, everyone who was big in r'n'b in the 60s, beatles, stones. So in a way he's one of the ultimate godlike geniusi.

and yet he sang 'My old man's a dustman'.

but it's inspiration, leading the way, etc. does he count? hmm.

 

[Buds and Spawn]

Tim Smith of Cardiacs. Clearly a musical genius of the highest order.

 

[rekil]

 

[stavros]

What is the plural of genius? Is it geniuses or geniii? Or something?

 

[kained&able]

genii


dave

 

[fieryjack]

geniuses
it's only genii if you're referring to a group of mythical Roman/Greek spirits

I believe that the collective noun is "an exaggeration of geniuses"

 

[rekil]

Nicko McBrain.

 

[Fez909]

I don't believe anyone is Godlike, nor a genius for producing music. BUT, if I play along, I'd choose people such as the following (who've all already been menioned, I think):

Fela Kuti
Miles Davis
Lee Perry
Kraftwerk
Derrick May/Juan Atkins/Carl Craig/Kevin Saunderson (couldn't really pick one, as they all infleunced each other in the creation of techno)

I can't believe someone said the Chemical Brothers earlier

 

[no-no]

Can
Kinski
Electrelane
Tinariwen
Espers
Velvet Underground
Max Romeo

maybe more later...

 

[Dubversion]

christ, you lot have VERY low expectations of a genius.

 

[billy_bob]

Electrelane
........
Velvet Underground

Are you on crack?

Electrelane are ok, like, but this is a bit like saying your favourite actors are Robert De Niro and Geoff from your amateur dramatics society.

 

[no-no]

I like em a lot,they're damn good,they make me dance.

 

[Spion]

christ, you lot have VERY low expectations of a genius.

Have you stated yours yet?

 

[stavros]

I think there's various ways to critique genius in musical terms; do we look at it composition (eg. Brian Wilson), lyricism (Dylan), instrument playing (Slash), performance (Prince), production (Timbaland), or innovation (Spector)? Or a combination of these attributes which may or may not be mutually exclusive? For example, Timbaland and Dr Dre have few peers in hip-hop production, but their mic skills are a bit patchy. Furthermore, Brian Higgins would seem pretty silly actually performing Girls Aloud's songs. Slash played while Axel sang. Etc.

 

[no-no]

you're making it all complicated, all that counts is that it should sound beautiful