Baddest of the bad ass.

dad got me cheap thrills when i was in my early 20s. she blew me out of my shoes.

Just compare the sound of rock before Hendrix, and after.

That was the thing about Jimi, he made the impossible look easy.

He was humble, almost "shy" when interviewed. and that same guy could douse his guitar in lighter fluid and set it on fire.

There are badasses who make it look like an effort, like it's manufactured and carefully assembled and premeditated. Jimi was the guy way down by the Methane Sea with a hummingbird who hummed so loud, you'd think you were losing your mind. And that all seemed very natural and normal to him, he made it look effortless. He was a genius among geniuses who could let it out without breaking a sweat.

Dark streets, dangerous dames and it never ends well.

...when the idea for this thread struck me, the first artist who came to mind was Miles.

I've been going through another Miles phase, particularly the Wayne/Herbie/Ron/Tony stuff as well as everything with John McLaughlin.

...Miles himself never played better than on this record. I learned many years after its release that Gil Evans had a behind-the-scenes role in its creation, and wasn't surprised...

When I think "rock star" -- that's who comes to mind.

...I didn't care for the "Bridges To Babylon" live DVD at all. Didn't care for that particular album either, don't know why. I watched "Bridges" lately and felt a little disappointed, then watched "Shine A Light," and yeah...the rock star thing is there for all to see.

Just for fun

It's impossible to beat the one, the only Bruce Cockburn. Also, he plays a motherfuckin' MEAN guitar.

Can you recommend (or post from YouTube) an especially tasty guitar track of his?

I know about a thimbleful about playing guitar, but even with that rudimentary knowledge it's amazing what is accomplished:

Windham Hill VERY quickly slid into "elevator music," but some of the early Michael Hedges and Will Ackerman stuff was priceless. Not sure how familiar you are with them, but based on the clip you posted, I think you'd like them both.

A lot like Leo Kottke. Excellent stuff.


As far as bad assed composers, I'll go for a 4 way tie: Mozart, Schubert, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff. I've been absolutely cracked on classical music since I was five years old and started piano lessons. Then when I was ten, a violin dropped into my lap via a wondrous series of events, and I was obsessed with that for fifteen years, while keeping up my piano lessons until I finished high school. Eventually I got into singing in and directing church choirs, and taking voice lessons.


I played a lot of Bach and Mozart on the violin. The problem is that Bach is so spare that eventually you feel like your brain has been dipped in alcohol to clean it. Yeah, it's genius, but it's mathematically perfect, and the emotional component is severely limited. You could say that about classical music until the early Romantic era (Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann) when they loosened up somewhat on the emotional expressiveness. Still, classical is far more limited in the amount of emotional expression allowed because there is really only one way to play the notes, and you have to throw in more vibrato at certain points, or whatever.

There is a middle spot between dryly played Baroque music and nearly anarchic jazz. However, classical and jazz are both genres that require improvisation. In classical, it's organists playing Bach and improvising. In jazz, it's there nearly all the time. And a lot of people have brains that can groove on both of those. People who get bored with playing classical go into jazz to learn more interesting chords to stretch their minds, and occasionally they go into rock and roll (Sting, Andy Summers, Joe Jackson, Jean-Luc Ponty).

And there is a middle spot of complexity, between a Bach fugue (that means it has two, three or four different melodies going at once, and can easily turn into a train wreck if not written properly) and one-chord to three-chord THUD THUD THUD THUD that is what rock eventually turned into, where chord changes and complexity were replaced by volume and screaming.

As far as bad assed performers, classical or pop, I can't limit it to one. That is another question.

...how many pop stars were warned away from the goddam President of the US by J Edgar Hoover, anyway? How many were almost knocked off by the Chicago Mob? How many--ahem--can tell stories of horses heads? And even then, I'm still not sure that he beats Miles...

I think ounce for ounce and pound for pound, their "battle tales" would be more than most mortals could endure, and even though their styles were dissimilar, I'd say the intensity of their lives and their art were at least equal.

He had a undoubtedly unique style at the time with a classical edge. Everyone talks about his lead playing skills but I always thought his strength was rhythm. Very aggressive player but passionate about each note.

We saw Van Halen a couple weeks ago and he has lost none of it.

and he didn't take sh*t from anyone.

BBKing was badass in his own quiet, gentle way, too.

Willie Nelson. Walking legend.

Ultimately, though, the most badass was possibly Bach or Beethoven, if you're going to look at sheer, unadulterated genius. Probably Bach, who intertwined mathematics and physics with his music. An unbelievable mind.

Tweet... tweet, tweet... tweet, tweeeeet..."

That sounded pretty "badass" to me

No one could destroy instruments on stage the way they could

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-who-spark-an-explosion-on-national-television

First, and most obvious, being that it is the final performance of Keith Moon with the band. End of the song, that's it.

But for my money, Townshend is the one to watch here. So much of the Who's underpinnings relies on that Mods & Rockers "F You" attitude, and in this performance, he's shot out of a cannon, he's on fire, pick whatever metaphor / superlative you'd like.

3:44 - The infamous and legendary "DO YA?" shout at the end of "The hypnotized never lie,'

4:10 - The blissful "guitar-gasm" face during his solo, face raised toward the heavens, and

8:40 - Guitar raised triumphantly over his head, SO REMINISCENT of the end of "White Heat" and Jimmy Cagney's "TOP OF THE WORLD, MA" moment...all hell is breaking loose, everything is exploding, but "F YOU, I DID IT!"

I've been a fan of the band for all of it except the Kenney Jones years, which I thought were utter crap. He was the right drummer for Rod Stewart & Faces, the wrong drummer for the Who, and...reportedly...Daltrey hated his ass, too.

I think "the magic" ended with this clip. Zak Starkey brought the mojo back to live performances but Pino Palladino on bass instead of John Entwistle is kind of like Kenney Jones in place of Moon. Palladino had undeniable chops. It takes more than chops to be a member of the Who.

Joe Strummer, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Merle Haggard, Hendrix...not a complete list, but these guys not only played it, they lived it-- in many cases to the very end.

...Finds out what my fingers have been doing
On my guitar since I been gone?
Don’t anybody tell her,
I been doing the Low Yo Yo Yo Yo
Like any other fella
Away from home, all alone..."

Lemmy is God.

This isn't Highlander. There indeed can be more than one.

That famous exchange at the end of the "Royal Albert Hall" concert from "The Bootleg Series"...Dylan, dealing with a heckler, turns to the band just before launching into a trul;y venomous "Like A Rolling Stone" and yells "play fucking LOUD."

That part is missing from this YouTube clip but you can see and hear how defiant he is. Lou Reed dubbed himself the Rock & Roll Animal, but Bob may have beat him to it:

Go, Bobby!!

...it was easily the kind of move that could have killed his career on the spot, and instead it turned Bob into a rock star.

Miles Davis did the same thing, and with almost the same reaction. He was a sideman for Charlie Parker at one point, playing traditional "bop" jazz. The style was running out of gas. Miles...at the time of his 1959 "Kind Of Blue" album...discovered / invented "modal" jazz, which changed everything. "Kind Of Blue" had the same effect as Dylan strapping on a Fender Strat at Newport, and it similarly angered a lot of purists. Miles would make similar waves several more times in his career. He was the first major jazz artist to "fuse" electric rock guitar with jazz, hence "fusion"...it's more than a rumor that he and Jimi Hendrix had expressed interest in working together, though Jimi's unfortunate passing put the brakes on that project.

To think that cretin paid admission (probably was pretty expensive) just so he could vent his spleen?
Dylan was SICK AND TIRED of folk and he wanted to move forward-- people were furious that he would
do that to them-- I mean, the nerve!! Never mind it was HIS music, hence HIS choice. And a smart one
at that.

That was a milestone in rock & roll, for sure.

He yells "JUDAS" and Dylan sneers "I don't BELIEVE you," then instructs The Band to "play fucking LOUD," and goes into the performance I posted above.

What annoys me is that the cretin who yelled at Dylan got so much publicity. I'm not a big fan of hecklers, and
what audacity this guy had to yell at Bob Dylan!! Outrageous!!



Here's some background to the Judas moment:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bob-dylan-how-i-found-the-man-who-shouted-judas-314340.html

About what anyone thought.

He played what he fucking wanted.

And Willie Nelson.

And Janis Joplin.

...he delivered "The Fabulous Johnny Cash." It was the album Columbia wanted:



...but built into his contract was the agreement that the second Columbia album would be the one Cash wanted to record:



This was not a "commercial" move by any means...a Gospel album most certainly was not going to be a million seller...but if they wanted him under contract, they had to do it by his rules, not theirs.

Something similar took place decades later when Eric Clapton went to his record label after delivering a string of largely pop hits. He wanted to do a hard, traditional blues album, and his payoff was the label allowing him to record "From The Cradle."

'You can never tell you can never tell 'bout a JLL he's Hell when he's well and I'm damn sure well tonight baby WOOOOOO!'

Live at the Star Club '64 is about as raw, raucous, up-tempo, shit-kicking, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, rock-n-roll music as ever put to wax. Rock stars worship at his boots to this day as John Lennon did 40 some years ago.

The Killer is the all-time badass. Just check the track record, it definitely speaks for itself- JLL

Bo Diddley

Link Wray

Gene Vincent

Frankie Lymon

Larry Williams

John Bonham

It was 35 years ago today we lost the greatest drummer ever.

And there has never been a drummer that can match his epic drumming style. He was so fricking talented that Led Zeppelin choose to quit as a band forever than to continue to make music without him. That's how fucking bad-ass John Bonham was!

...most name either John Bonham, Keith Moon or Neil Peart...often, all three...as their major influence.

That doesn't mean they weren't influenced by other drummers. I have one friend in Nevada who loved all three, as well as Buddy Rich. You also have to give prog gods like Bill Bruford, Carl Palmer and Phil Collins their props.

But when it comes to drummers that make OTHER drummers go silent for a moment out of respect and awe, it's pretty much limited to the three I named above.

And Adrian is still pretty insane!1

1). Boston Music Hall, when he had Flo & Eddie in the band, opening act was CHUCK BERRY

2). Circle Star Theater, San Carlos CA, when he had the "Roxy & Elsewhere" band (Napoleon Murphy Brock, George Duke, etc), opening act was a solo TOM WAITS (he had JUST released his first album...sat down at an electric piano for a solo set)

3). Berkeley CA, with the "Bongo Fury" band, CAPTAIN BEEFHEART was the opening act but Frank & Don did NOT appear on stage together, not even for a second. We were all hoping for a "Willie The Pimp" that never happened. At one point Frank pulled his hair back and tied it into a pony tail and told the audience "I have to do this because the next song is SERIOUS MUSIC." The song was "Black Napkins" and he wailed, just effing WAILED.



Here he is doing the song, once again with Belew, once again from the film "Baby Snakes."

David Gilmour.

Mark Knopfler.

And, dare I say it?

Jim Morrison.

I think these guys fit your criteria.

This is a performance I've never seen before. Great thread.

Most chick singers say 'if you hurt me, I'll die'... I say, 'if you hurt me, I'll kick your ass.' - Pat Benatar