My taste in music is always growing and changing, but a few years ago, I gave a lot of thought as to who my top 5 favorite music artists were. I came up with a strange, but telling list. They are all hugely iconic, they all have great lyrics that are often politically motivated, and they are all a little bit narcissistic, but we forgive it because their stuff is so good, it is only natural that they might know that too.
Here we go…. These are in no order… they basically all tie in the top 5.
Bob Dylan
My dad got me into Bob Dylan. I actually hated him as a kid. My dad and his brothers would get drunk and sing along to what has to be Dylan’s most irritating song, “All I Really Wanna Do”. I can just hear them singing it now… but in 1992, the summer before high school, I watched the movie “Dog Fight” with my parents. It was River Phoenix’s last movie before he died and the amazing Lili Taylor was in it as his love interest. It took place in the 60’s during the Vietnam war. She was a hippie and he was a soldier, and she played him “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” by Bob Dylan on a record player and something about it really moved me and triggered me to go down to my basement and bring all my parents’ old records and record player up to my room and I have never been the same since. They had The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Donovan, Simon and Garfunkel, Moody Blues, Bob Dyan, and more. I fell deeply in love with classic rock around that time as well… Classic rock, classic 70’s folk, and the newly forming grunge genre of the 90’s were what I was all about from then on.
Bob Dylan became a favorite because I love poetry and his is among the best out there. His sound grew on me as well and I love it. Folk music is one of my biggest influences. He wasn’t very impressive at the live concert I saw, but no one is perfect. He’s brilliant though. Here are a few favorites…
Ani DiFranco
Another folk singer, a little more modern. She got her start around 1990 when she was still a teenager, starting her own record label and she is one of the biggest players in the music world to this day. She never sold out to corporate radio, which is why you may not know any of her songs even though she still sells out shows to this day. She is also a political activist and a big player in that too, but what I love most about her is her lyrics and guitar playing. I think she will go down in history as one of the best guitarists of all time, especially on the acoustic. What she does is mind blowing and her lyrics have always spoken to me for emotional and political reasons. I got into her around 1995 and first saw her in concert in 1996. I’ve seen her at least fifteen times now and she always puts on an amazing show and going to see her and hear her talk between songs is like visiting an old friend. Here are a few favorites…
Kanye West
If Bob Dylan and Ani DiFranco aren’t controversial enough, yes, I have Kanye on my list. Let me be clear that the last few years since he married Kim Kardashian and became a MAGA guy, I have become a little less enthusiastic about defending him, although I still do and I won’t get into it all right now, but most people who hate Kanye have never listened to his albums and whether they remember it or not, the reason they started hating him was because he was too vocal about thinking black people were mistreated in America. The very first thing that everyone hated on him for was back when George W Bush was president and Kanye took the mic to say “George W Bush doesn’t care about black people.” and people hated him starting then. They hated him even more when he took the mic from Taylor Swift saying Beyonce deserved the award because her song was better and a much bigger hit. It was true, but no one wanted to hear it. Now that “Black Lives Matter” is trendy people say they hate Kanye cuz of the crazy racist stuff he’s been saying lately, but they’ve always hated him for being a powerful black man who was able to reach people with his music that educated a lot of people about systematic racism. He is bipolar and after his mother died of an “accident” during a routine plastic surgery that he payed for, he hasn’t been the same. He married Kim and now Caitlyn Jenner is like his mother figure and I think she fucked with his head bad. Here are a few songs worth trying… He is a hip hop artist and producer.
Patti Smith
Patti Smith is the Godmother of Punk. She’s different and has her own style of music and poetry. She took awhile to grow on me and I just fall more and more in love with her music every time I hear it. I don’t know what genre to call it,,, a mix between classic rock and punk, kind of…
Roger Waters
Roger Waters was one of the original and long time members of Pink Floyd. He was a bassist, lyricist, vocalist, and maybe guitar and other things too. I’m not even sure. The Wall by Pink Floyd is my favorite album of all time even though I don’t listen as much anymore because it can sometimes be very triggering since my life ended up looking a lot like the story of the wall and I always knew it would. The best concert I ever went to was Roger Waters performing The Wall at Fenway Park. I love his stuff with Pink Floyd as well as some of his solo stuff especially “The Pro’s and Cons on Hitchhiking” and “Amused to Death”.
Here are a few favorites… He is considered a psychedelic rock/classic rock artist and is known for concept albums.
And there you have it, the top 5 favorite musicians of Jymi Cliche’
