R
Robert
Guest
Yeah I know is not one of the youtube videos that have over-populated this sub-forum but I was thinking about this tonight and wondering.
So I will wonder out loud and allow you to chime in.
By icon I mean a person or a band responsible for shaping your views on music or they directly moved you in a musical direction that you have remained true too for many years. Oh and by the way Barry Manilow is NOT a valid response so don't even try it!
So to start out with my main genre of music I like to listen to is rock. The two bands that were influential in my picking up the guitar as an instrument and listening to this style of music for pretty much my entire life was Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin.
The first album I ever owned was ELO - Eldorado. A very strange album that no 4 year old should have in his possession but I saved up the $1.00 it cost me because I thought it had something to do with the movie The Wizard of Oz because the album cover had a picture of the ruby red shoes and the witches hands. I was bummed to find out it had nothing to do with the movie and there was no mention of the flying monkeys, which I absolutely loved. Instead I was introduced to rock and roll from across the pond, British rock.
My father had a bunch of Chicago albums and I noticed the ELO was a lot like them but they had an edgy kind of sound made possible by what I now know was a Marshall amp and a Gibson Les Paul. This ELO album was one of those surreal fantasy gigs much like The Who with Tommy and Pink Floyd with The Wall. If you listen to the album you will notice it is a complete story of a lunatic, my kind of story.
ELO was from a region in the UK which had a lot of famous bands so I started looking into them. The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Traffic, Pink Floyd, The Move, The Who, The Kinks and so on. These people knew how to make rock and roll! I idolized everything each one of these bands did and up until I was 12 I listened to every album I could get my hand on that was released from the UK and specifically out of a certain region of the UK.
Yeah sure I didn't mention the Beatles... so kill me. They were my parents music and much too pop for my style. I appreciate them now but back then it was all about other artists.
Two artist came right to the surface for me... Eric Clapton and Jimmie Page. Both of these men heavily influenced the way and style of guitar I play and even encouraged me to even pick up a guitar in the first place. Oddly these two individuals had their musical roots in the Blues come from one man, his name was Alexis Korner. In 1961 he had formed the Blues Incorporated which was a loose group of musicians whom had a thing for blues music. This group included people like Clapton, Page, Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker, Cyril Davies. Well this group split and fractured into two distinctive groups... those who like the Chicago style blues of Muddy Waters (Jimmie Page, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) and those who liked the Delta Blues style of Robert Johnson and Son House. (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker) You can clearly see where this is going and how those bands were formed.
The funny thing about it was the Chicago blues was a direct result of the Delta blues, just a more modern version but they all traced back to two individuals... Son House and Robert Johnson.
This is my musical pedigree and I can trace all of the music I enjoy listening too and playing back to these two individuals whose influence not only captured me but captured a whole generation of people years after their collective deaths. If you listen to Rock and Roll of any type I can guarantee it goes back to these two men.
So for me here is my "Family Tree" of music, Although not a complete list and is not in any order. I am listing the bands that formed my musical standards, not the new bands of today that I also listen too.
Procol Harum
Robin Trower - Solo work
The Yardbirds
Cream
Eric Clapton - Solo work
The Rolling Stones
Led Zeppelin
Fleetwood Mac
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Molly Hatchet
Traffic
Steve Winwood - Solo Work
Dave Mason - Solo work
Blind Faith
Allman Brothers
ELO
The Who
The Guess Who
The Alan Parsons Project
Manfred Mann
Canned Heat
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin
Marshall Tucker
And dedicated to the men whom I trace it all back...
Tommy Johnson
Robert johnson
Blind Lemon Johnson
Son House
Ishman Bracey
Robert Wilkins
Reverand Gary Davis
Missippippi John Hurt
Muddy Waters
David Honeyboy Edwards
Bo Diddley
James Cotton
John Lee Hooker
Howlin Wolf
Albert Collins
Robert Cray
Ottis Redding
Smokey Robinson
The Funk Brothers (Motown Session band)
So I will wonder out loud and allow you to chime in.
By icon I mean a person or a band responsible for shaping your views on music or they directly moved you in a musical direction that you have remained true too for many years. Oh and by the way Barry Manilow is NOT a valid response so don't even try it!
So to start out with my main genre of music I like to listen to is rock. The two bands that were influential in my picking up the guitar as an instrument and listening to this style of music for pretty much my entire life was Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin.
The first album I ever owned was ELO - Eldorado. A very strange album that no 4 year old should have in his possession but I saved up the $1.00 it cost me because I thought it had something to do with the movie The Wizard of Oz because the album cover had a picture of the ruby red shoes and the witches hands. I was bummed to find out it had nothing to do with the movie and there was no mention of the flying monkeys, which I absolutely loved. Instead I was introduced to rock and roll from across the pond, British rock.
My father had a bunch of Chicago albums and I noticed the ELO was a lot like them but they had an edgy kind of sound made possible by what I now know was a Marshall amp and a Gibson Les Paul. This ELO album was one of those surreal fantasy gigs much like The Who with Tommy and Pink Floyd with The Wall. If you listen to the album you will notice it is a complete story of a lunatic, my kind of story.
ELO was from a region in the UK which had a lot of famous bands so I started looking into them. The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Traffic, Pink Floyd, The Move, The Who, The Kinks and so on. These people knew how to make rock and roll! I idolized everything each one of these bands did and up until I was 12 I listened to every album I could get my hand on that was released from the UK and specifically out of a certain region of the UK.
Yeah sure I didn't mention the Beatles... so kill me. They were my parents music and much too pop for my style. I appreciate them now but back then it was all about other artists.
Two artist came right to the surface for me... Eric Clapton and Jimmie Page. Both of these men heavily influenced the way and style of guitar I play and even encouraged me to even pick up a guitar in the first place. Oddly these two individuals had their musical roots in the Blues come from one man, his name was Alexis Korner. In 1961 he had formed the Blues Incorporated which was a loose group of musicians whom had a thing for blues music. This group included people like Clapton, Page, Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker, Cyril Davies. Well this group split and fractured into two distinctive groups... those who like the Chicago style blues of Muddy Waters (Jimmie Page, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) and those who liked the Delta Blues style of Robert Johnson and Son House. (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker) You can clearly see where this is going and how those bands were formed.
The funny thing about it was the Chicago blues was a direct result of the Delta blues, just a more modern version but they all traced back to two individuals... Son House and Robert Johnson.
This is my musical pedigree and I can trace all of the music I enjoy listening too and playing back to these two individuals whose influence not only captured me but captured a whole generation of people years after their collective deaths. If you listen to Rock and Roll of any type I can guarantee it goes back to these two men.
So for me here is my "Family Tree" of music, Although not a complete list and is not in any order. I am listing the bands that formed my musical standards, not the new bands of today that I also listen too.
Procol Harum
Robin Trower - Solo work
The Yardbirds
Cream
Eric Clapton - Solo work
The Rolling Stones
Led Zeppelin
Fleetwood Mac
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Molly Hatchet
Traffic
Steve Winwood - Solo Work
Dave Mason - Solo work
Blind Faith
Allman Brothers
ELO
The Who
The Guess Who
The Alan Parsons Project
Manfred Mann
Canned Heat
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin
Marshall Tucker
And dedicated to the men whom I trace it all back...
Tommy Johnson
Robert johnson
Blind Lemon Johnson
Son House
Ishman Bracey
Robert Wilkins
Reverand Gary Davis
Missippippi John Hurt
Muddy Waters
David Honeyboy Edwards
Bo Diddley
James Cotton
John Lee Hooker
Howlin Wolf
Albert Collins
Robert Cray
Ottis Redding
Smokey Robinson
The Funk Brothers (Motown Session band)
