If you had to choose, what would be your Top 5 bands and the reasons why?

I’ve thought about this many times and it always seems that I come back to the same 5 bands that mean the most to me, even though I sometimes think ‘well that band I absolutely love’ it’s still always the same 5. So, here’s mine and the reasons why I’ve chosen them, I couldn’t ever not have their back catalogues in my collection, here goes…(this could be long)

The Beatles

The first time I heard this extraordinary band was when I was about 7 or 8, around 1989/90. When I say heard, I mean listened to them and thought ‘who the hell is this?’ Yes even at that age I loved music though it was the usual radio crap that was being churned out. My mum had the blue album (1967-70) on cassette and I remember putting it on my Dad’s stereo and the first track was Strawberry Fields Forever – to say it had an impression on me at such a young age is something of an understatement. It was the single weirdest song I had ever heard, it just seemed to really stun me even at that age, from then on I had to know more about this band. I played this album (and the red album) constantly in our house, I used to ask my mum ‘what are their names?’ or ‘who’s singing this one?’ – I was hooked basically. Then a gap until I was about 12/13, by then I had read more about them but not heard the studio albums, however we had (and still have) a family friend who was a Beatles fan when they were around, he had bought all the records when they first came out (in fact two copies so one would remain un-played) and had the albums on CD – so every time my Mum used to go round I would ask her to ask our friend if he could tape the albums for me to listen to, so every so often I would get a new cassette with Please Please Me/With The Beatles on one week and a few weeks later A Hard Day’s Night/Beatles For Sale…you get the picture. That was it, I was hooked again and from then on they would always be one of my (if not my favourite ever) groups. Eventually I bought all the albums on CD when I could afford to and was always devouring any literature about them, books, special editions of magazines, newspaper supplements, you name it I went all out to get it. When in 2009 the albums were remastered, I bought them all again (a close friend said to me ‘why are you buying them all again, you’ve got them already?’ I said ‘why not?’ – he couldn’t say anything to that, he agreed with me in the end). I bought the Mono box too, didn’t think twice about spending £200 on it, I had to have it (I will never part with it no matter how desperate I ever get for money, I’d never forgive myself). Even now I am still buying their albums (this time on vinyl and in mono – I can’t be bothered waiting for the box set and e-bay is too addictive). The songs, the way they looked, the humour, they had it all for me. I can never pick a favourite album by The Beatles because they are all so brilliant to me, they perfected the art of writing ‘hit singles’ and ‘album tracks’ so much that people are still trying and failing to catch up. I will always love this band; even if I’m down in the dumps etc. they will always be there to make me feel joyous again. So if people ever tell you they were overrated, don’t believe them or in fact don’t trust them, in fact I wouldn’t ever talk to them again, they are talking bollocks! The Beatles > The Stones – too ****ing right!!


Oasis

If anything it was only natural from loving The Beatles that when Oasis first arrived on the scene I knew I would connect with them instantly. However it actually took me about a year to really get onto what they were doing in the music scene. It was around the time of the Morning Glory album being released that I finally cottoned on to them, thanks to a few mates at school who played Definitely Maybe all the time when I went round after school. I had heard some of the earlier singles, mainly Whatever and Some Might Say and really liked the ‘singer’ as I called him then – in fact at first I used to get Noel and Liam mixed up! It wasn’t until Morning Glory came out though around October 1995 that I became an instant fan and was spellbound. I would devour every word Noel and Liam spoke, and I have to thank Noel for getting me to listen to bands like The Jam, The Smiths, heck even the Bee Gees, that’s’ much I took notice of him as a kind of musical guru! I got the Morning Glory album around a week after it was released and played it to death, not really realising just how big Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back in Anger would make them, me and my mates just loved the album as a whole. From then over time I would eventually get all the earlier singles and of course Definitely Maybe and couldn’t believe all the songs that I hadn’t heard (the days of 3 extra tracks on a CD single folks). I missed out on the Maine Road gig but I was determined I would see them live one day. I remember when D’You Know What I Mean? came out as single and all the hype was massive around them, probably at its height when Be Here Now came out, I remember the critics lauding over it in the reviews I read, and I couldn’t wait to hear it. When I did I loved it instantly though even then I thought it was quite a long album and seemed to go on forever. I eventually got to see them on the Be Here Now tour in Manchester at the G-Mex, December 97 – it was manic, the crowd went mental when they came on, and for me that’s when Liam was at his best vocally, I was lucky as some of the songs of that album were played then and haven’t been played since, they tore the roof off the place. Without a doubt this was their most vital and inspiring period (from 93-98) and for me they could do no wrong. After 98 though they were never the same band (even if I did see them live another 4 times), there were some inspired moments on their following albums (usually the songs written by Noel) but nothing to match those mid-late 90’s years. I still love them though and no matter what people say about them they are one of the best British bands of all time, especially in regards to their singles and without doubt they gave music a kick up the **** in the 90’s and it certainly needed it. They were my band for my generation and boy was I thankful for that!

The Who

Compared to the two bands already mentioned I came to The Who a bit later, round about in my early 20’s. Of course I had heard of them already when I was in my teens but never really took much notice of them. I bought My Generation – The Very Best of The Who when I was 17/18 but even then I used to skip over tracks such as Baba O’Reilly, 5:15, Who Are You – I must have been bloody daft (this was when if within a few seconds of a track a loud guitar didn’t appear I used to think ‘meh turn it off’ – how naïve I was then!). It wasn’t until I saw the Classic Albums documentary on Who’s Next that I thought ‘mmm maybe I need to check out more of this band’. So, I went out and bought Who’s Next – I couldn’t believe what I had been missing, suddenly Baba O’Reilly was the most epic song I’d ever heard, Bargain was immense, Behind Blue Eyes and This Song Is Over were beautiful but powerful, I was astounded at how great the music sounded and how ‘rock god like’ Roger Daltrey sounded. That was it; I had to hear more, more of that cacophonous sound that sounded so loud and so god damn great. I went out and bought A Quick One, Sell Out and Tommy, also Live at Leeds. At first some of the tracks were a bit underwhelming, especially on A Quick One and Tommy – however in time I learnt to appreciate the albums more and more as time went on. In the case of Tommy this was especially true as I remember listening to it one day, without skipping tracks or interruptions and suddenly something clicked, it felt like such a ‘group performance’ by that I mean you could just tell everyone was working hard together to make it sound so bloody brilliant (only later did I read that it might have been the last straw for them had it flopped so they put everything into it) and you can tell just from listening to it. Even now when I listen to it, I have to listen to it on my own and all the way through, heck some of it makes me feel quite emotional, the fact that things could have been different had it not sold well. Eventually I stopped listening to Tommy all the time and got round to the other albums I had bought, especially Live At Leeds which literally blew my ears off, this made Led Zeppelin sound like ****ing amateurs – I still now because of this album refuse to see them live without Moon and Entwistle, it’s either the four of them or nothing for me, which obviously now isn’t going to happen. The power, the intensity and ferocity of that album just floored me, I couldn’t believe this was the same band that made Tommy, yet though both albums were different (not just because one was live) I loved them both as much as each other. I was quickly coming to the realisation that this was my new favourite band and they were all that mattered. I wasn’t so keen on A Quick One (My Generation had come out on CD by then so this kind of took its place, it’s such an epic debut) Sell Out made more sense when I realised the concept behind the album, though now I know that songs on their own without that concept would have been great anyway, especially Sunrise, I Can’t Reach You and Tattoo. I’d still not got to Quadrophenia, but eventually I did and it soon became my favourite of their studio albums – I really don’t think the playing got any better than this, especially not in Moon’s case, the story, the song writing, the playing all came together on this one for me – I wanted to become a mod, but didn’t have the hair for it! I eventually bought all the albums, not all of them great but I had to have it all, I even bought the deluxe editions just to have them. In regards to The Who it’s sometimes hard to want listen to them because once I start you wouldn’t find me playing anything else for the next 6 months to a year probably, they mean that much. To say they kept my musical sanity intact is an understatement – they stopped me from having listen to the ****e that is Keane and Franz Ferdinand, and for that I thank the ‘Orrible Oo’ and thank god I didn’t keep skipping those tracks!

AC/DC

The thing about this band is, well they’ve always been around in my life for as long as I can remember. I guess the first time I ever knew of them though was when I saw that my Dad had a cassette of the Who Made Who album, if anything I was more startled by the AC/DC logo at first, for a young 5/6 year old it was quite exciting. This album (as well as Blow Up Your Video) used to get played in my Dad’s car quite a lot around the late 80’s, so for a while the only music by the band I ever heard was a 1988 studio album and a soundtrack compilation – not the best start BUT the Who Made Who album alone made me want to hear more. Then one day I found another cassette of AC/DC, it was an album called ‘Flick of the Switch’, I was more taken aback by the cover, it looked like I could have drawn it, it was **** lol, but I remember as soon as I put it on my Walkman and Rising Power came blasting out of my headphones that it didn’t matter, I just loved the music and played it all the time, to the point of air guitaring in my bedroom to songs like Nervous Shakedown and Guns For Hire – to this day it’s still one of my top 3 albums by them and very underrated by a lot of people. I didn’t really hear them then again until one day at school – I was in year 6, so basically it was my last year in junior school before I was to go to grammar school and we had an end of year party in our assembly, where you were allowed to bring your own music. All of a sudden one song finished and then ‘DONG…DONG….’ – I remember thinking ‘I know this song, I’m sure this is Hells Bells by AC/DC?’ And then suddenly the guitar kicked in and low and behold it was, I couldn’t believe it, of all the **** music played that day, someone had brought something in that I knew and I hadn’t heard for ages, I remember asking around all the other kids, ‘Did you bring this music in?’, ‘Whose tape is this?’. I eventually found out it was a lad from one of the other classes, and we became instant friends from then on and still friends today although I don’t see him that often now, but he re-introduced me to AC/DC and for that I’m thankful. He taped Let There Be Rock and Powerage for me, one album per cassette side and I played it constantly, which is then how I got to hear more of Bon Scott, and just fell in love with his voice and those two albums in particular. When I was 16 and started earning proper money, one of the first things I did was go and buy all the albums I didn’t have on CD. If I played them in my room then I had to play them loud, it was just a given or otherwise what was the point in playing them, it drove my Mum mad. Although there was quite a gap between albums from The Razor’s Edge onwards I didn’t care, I’d wait patiently until the day came that a new album came out and devoured it as I had the previous ones. In the last few years I’ve managed to get all the Bon Scott albums (bar the Australian High Voltage) on vinyl, heck I even paid £40 just for a version of Let There Be Rock with the different album cover (the Australian version), and finally I got a copy on vinyl of the Powerage I heard from my mate’s tape all them years back, the European mix and the one with Cold Hearted Man, as that’s how I remember it. For me it’s simple, they play no frills, meat and potatoes rock ‘n’ roll, not hard rock or heavy metal, it’s rock ‘n’ roll and in its purest form it just can’t be beaten. People might scoff and say it’s boring, there’s no variety in their music – so what! - If you want to listen to an electronic doodle then **** off and listen to Brian Eno - me I’d rather end up on the highway to hell with Bon, Brian and the boys any day of the week!

R.E.M.

The first time this band came on my radar was around 1992 where it seemed every American band from Arkansas to West Virginia was featured on MTV in some form or other. I was around 9 years old at the time and my Dad has just got us Sky TV. I had heard of R.E.M. before this but had only heard snippets of The One I Love previously on radio and not really took much notice of it. I remember seeing constantly the video for a song called Losing My Religion on MTV around that time and just remember it being some funny bloke dancing round like a loon, without really registering who it was singing it as I used to flick it over halfway through after it had already shown who the artist was, I liked the song in small parts but the video annoyed me so never fully listened to it. Then later on in that year or maybe around early ’93 I kept seeing the video for Everybody Hurts on MTV constantly, the same with Man on the Moon, and really started to like both songs, they got stuck in my head and I would always be singing them round the house. I kept seeing Automatic for the People in the shops and never had the money to buy it but knew one day I would get it. It wasn’t until 1994 that I purchased my first R.E.M. item and that was the Monster album. I really liked the lead single from it (What’s The Frequency Kenneth) and like the harder, rockier edge it had to what I had previously heard. Little did I realise just how far their career went back though. Again, when I was old enough to earn a proper wage, I started buying all the earlier albums from Automatic For The People backwards. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on and just how many albums they had already made before AFTP and Monster. I’d read previously how Murmur had beaten Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ to be awarded album of the year in Rolling Stone in 1983 and remember thinking it must be pretty damn good to have beaten that to the top spot, and so when I played it something about it seemed very familiar to me, like I was born to just love this album from the off. It seemed so different to anything I’d ever heard before and yet it didn’t sound out of place in 1998 at all, and I still think now 30 years later it sounds as fresh as ever, it’s the only album of theirs that I wanted to get on vinyl and gladly did around this summer, sounding even better than on CD. In terms of debut albums, I really do think it’s up there with some of the greatest; it just doesn’t get the praise it should do for me, definitely one of my desert island discs. The next album I really connected with was Green, and I’d read a lot about the fact that it was their major label debut on Warner Bros and it had been awarded 5 stars in Q magazine, and for me I seemed to warm to it more than Out of Time and Document, which it came in the middle of. For me it’s a perfect distillation of their poppier side and more experimental folky side and I really do think the album as a whole is special (for me it ****’s all over Out of Time), I wish it would get more praise but sadly I don’t think it will. I gradually worked my way through the rest of the albums, and couldn’t get enough of all these songs that I had been missing out on. For me they remain probably the only band whose back catalogue is still severely underrated in terms of the amount of songs that probably a lot of people have never even heard, especially from their I.R.S. period, sometimes I think the only music you need from this band is the 82-87 era material, the fact that I’m missing out some of the more famous albums makes it even more extraordinary, just the wealth of material still amazes me. I know to some fans or critics they may have ‘lost it’ after Bill Berry left but even though some of their later albums are patchy, they still had the experience to craft out some really great songs, again some that are severely underrated for me. I never got to see them live, but it didn’t matter to me, the albums were all I ever wanted to hear, and I’m so grateful to MTV for introducing me to them and allowing me to explore such a wonderful band. They might possibly me the best band to come out the U.S. – some will argue with that of course but think of how boring and overblown the 80’s and 90’s might have carried on being if R.E.M. hadn’t come along when they did, just think about that for a minute…..

Band that just missed the cut - Black Sabbath, Manic Street Preachers, Kings of Leon, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones

 

Duke Ellington Orchestra, late '30s. Just a great combination of soloists, writers and arrangers, vocalist and performances. Unmatched in some ways.

Miles Davis Quintet (with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams). A great incorporation of old and new, full of energy and exploratory courage.

Thelonious Monk Quartet (with Charlie Rouse, and especially with Frankie Dunlop on drums, Columbia period). A swinging working group that had great familiarity with a great repertoire and played their collective eight cheeks off.

John Coltrane Quartet (with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, and the expanded group with sometimes added bassists and percussionists and Pharoah Sanders, and Alice in place of McCoy and Rashied in place of Elvin ). Just an amazing assembly of talents reaching for the stars and digging into the foundation of jazz.

Band of Gypsys (Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox, Buddy Miles). My favorite trio of my favorite guitarist and non-jazz musical figure. Short-lived but such a rich legacy.

 

Genesis: prog rock at its very best
Beatles: the songs, their use of studio tricks, the way they paved the way for all other bands writing their own songs
Beach Boys: the harmonies, the beautiful melodies, the wonderful arrangements and classic Beach Boys sound
Grateful Dead: the way they combined everything from folk, blues, jazz, soul, country, rock and turned it into the best live music ever played
XTC: because of the way they did what Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello were doing in a band setting

 

Beatles
Stones
Hendrix
The Who
Springsteen/Kinks/Doors

(Can't decide for no. 5)

 

The Beatles

One of few bands whose massive success is totally justified. No decent record collection is complete in my book without all of their oeuvre from Please Please Me to Let it Be.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

What Graham said above plus Springsteen was the first artist that made me think about rock'n'roll as a truly adult art form.

The Rolling Stones

Every record up to Exile is essential for me and Some Girls, especially "Miss You" comes close. Keith's guitar, Jagger's singing. Bill's booming bass, Charlie's powerful drumming, Brian's eclecticism, Taylor's virtuosity and Ron Wood's fitting in are what rock'n'roll's all about.

The Kinks

Not as consistent as the artists above but the records from Kink Kontroversy to Muswell Hillbillies are fantastic, with a lot of singles and tracks with and without those parameters up to that level. Plus I spent the first few months of my existence in Highgate, just south of Muswell Hill, so I have to like them.

The Who

From proto-punk (My Generation), brilliant pop-art (Sell Out), rock opera majesty (Tommy), spiritual quests with gut-wrenching power (Who's Next), great singles ("I Can See For Miles", "Pictures of Lily") to an almost frighteningly real portrayal of adolescence/young adulthood (Quadrophenia) the Who are indisputably great.

#6 would be The Clash but sadly no room for them here.

 

Top 5? All right, off the top of my head:
1. The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
2. The Dan
3. Return to Forever
4. Passport
5. Yes

 

The Eilen Jewell Band

See her/them live once and you'll know why.


John Mellencamp

The only veteran rock artist i can think of whose songwriting continues to evolve and move me in the process, at this stage of his career only Dylan and Paul Simon are better ''or maybe not'', this is the same guy one famous rock critic once described as ''Springsteen for the hearing impaired'', so much for rock critics and those who take them seriously.

Marvin Gaye

Not just the greatest soul singer that ever lived, but one of the greatest musical artists ever, if there's a better album with more moving songs and performances than ''What's Going On'' i haven't heard it, the rest of his music or what i've heard of it just as good.


The Beatles

The music and songs speak for themselves.


The Rolling Stones

They really are the world's greatest Rock & Roll band.

 

And how could I forget U.K.???

 

in no particular order

1. KISS
2. The Monkees
3. REO Speedwagon
4. Night Ranger
5. Sammy Hagar (sorry not a band, but I love the red rocker)

chad

 

James Brown and side projects
Funkadelic
Can
The Cure
The Stones

 

Count Basie Orchestra . . . Decca years.

This band with Young, Evans, et al just swung in its own universe and always delivered.

Fats Waller and His Rhythm

Thomas Waller had it going on in the best way, and this band was a cohesive machine to highlight his genius.

Duke Ellington Orchestra . . . 'Fifties

Though every period of this Orchestra is wonderfu imo, this one just portrayed such beauty and had a style of its own that cannot be duplicated.

Thelonious Monk Quartet with Frankie Dunlop

I LOVE Monk and his music. Dunlop was my favorite of his drummers and this quartet made amazing swinging jazz.

Miles Davis Quintet (w/Shorter, Hancock, Carter, Williams)

If I had to take the collection of one artist to a desert island it would be my Miles Davis collection. The work of this quintet is phenomenal.

 

The Grateful Dead, for introducing me to just about EVERY genre of music ever created as well as getting to see parts of the country I would never have been to otherwise

The Beatles You never forget your first

Led Zeppelin getting me started on the blues and in sequence with my sci fi/fantasy/Tolkien interest.

E Street Band As stated, their live shows re-invigorated my interest in concert going, just a great rock n roll band

Bob Dylan/The Band Yes I may be cheating here. Cant say enough about this combo. together and on their own!

 

And if I could have SIX

Band Of Gypsys

My favorite band/period of my favorite guitarist.

 

Stones - the songs, the sound, the image, the style, the controversy - they are simply the archetype and the ultimate.

R.E.M. - genuinely weird, melodic, and adventurous. Each member had a unique signature style

Monkees - Dolenz' voice, everything Nesmith, personality and creativity in spades, and unafraid to take chances.

Sex Pistols - righteously angry, wickedly funny, gloriously catchy, and they released the best and most exciting rock & roll album ever.

Doors - the best blues/jazz/flamenco/classical/theatrical rock band ever. And Jim could croon and scream like no other.

 

The Beatles - greatest band ever
The Olivia Tremor Control - greatest Beetles inspired band ever
Be Bop Deluxe - Bill Nelson's pride and joy
Sparks - 40+ years of twisted & brilliant pop music
Yo La Tengo - the little band from Hoboken that could​

 

The Velvet Underground
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
The Smiths
The Waterboys
The Beatles
(But Steely Dan, The Cure, XTC, The Clash, R.E.M., Crowded House, Pixies, The Jam, Rolling Stones, X, and Television could have been on that list if I wrote it some other day. Does Elvis Costello & The Attractions count as a band? If so, they'd be on there, too.)

 

Didn't get a chance to offer reasons earlier, so in order of each above:

1) Beatles, because they expanded the understood limitations of the form and were very creative, apart from being fine singers and performers. Also due to the extremely important contributions of George Martin.
2) Stones, due to a masterful update - really a reset - of the R&B sound and its extension into melodic, hard-edged rock and roll with the circa-1970 albums
3) Hendrix, due to the unique heavy sound he pioneered, blending hard rock and blues. Also, the psychedelic touches to his ballads and some medium-tempo songs (e.g. Are You Experienced).
4) The Who for many reasons: perfection of the power chord style which became the main vernacular of rock from 1970-1990's, the great writing of Pete Townshend, Tommy, and the virtuoso influences of Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Also, Townshend's widely copied stage performing style.
5) Springsteen. Turning human stories into elegiac rock and roll, blending Broadway influences and rock, powerful live shows in the 1970's.

Alternate for no. 5 The Kinks: early hard rock innovators, a creative switch to poetic storytelling and acute observation of English life, some overlooked rock opera classics in the 70's and with a second life after Sleepwalker.

Alternate for no. 5, The Doors: Created the swamp rock/lizard king mode or the best version of it, blended blues, psychedelia and pop to create top 40 masterpieces but also pre-FM extended album cuts like The End. Unique lead vocal style, equal parts Sinatra and Presley. Early art rockers, helped create the mode.

 

Dylan - a story teller, poet, a composer, a genius
Rolling Stones - the greatest rock and roll band in the world
Beatles - ahead of their time
Elvis - he's the king!
The Ramones - gave rock music a reboot

 

Black Sabbath - Something has just resonated with me about this band since I heard them at the tender age of 13. Deep, heavy, mysterious, and a tad bit evil. What's not to like? An amazing band.

Killing Joke - Probably the band I listen to the most these days. Such a wide variety of music from their beginnings in 1980 to now. I absolutely love Brighter Than a Thousand Suns and their "metal" era spanning from the 2003 s/t album to the present. Geordie Walker has to be one of the most underrated guitarists I can think, but I said this many times.

Wovenhand - Great dark Americana rock from the former leader of 16 Horsepower. Though a bit hampered by his preoccupation with religion in terms of subject matter for songs, the music is still captivating and beautiful.

Rush - Again, a band with a wide array of styles they've delved into over the years. Though their 70's output is my favorite (A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres are favorites) I also love a lot of their 80's output as well. Their more recent stuff has been strong, too. A band with great musicianship and fairly involved and interesting lyrics.

Jethro Tull - Though I vastly prefer their earlier stuff (up to and including A Passion Play) I like almost every album they've released (some better than others, obviously). A band that was run the gamut from pure blues rock to progressive to pastoral leanings to world music, Tull has something for everyone (if you like flute & keyboards, that is)

Honorables: The Young Gods, New Model Army, Blue Oyster Cult, Echo & the Bunnymen, Morphine, and The Folk Implosion.

 

Have you heard much from the new one? Out next week. Only listened to samples of a couple songs so far, but the ones I heard sound kind of like a continuation of the last one musically and sonically. In other words ... loud Nothing wrong with that, but would love to hear it with more dynamics. Not sure if the vinyl will bring anything different on this one, I do have it for a couple of the earlier ones.

 

I wasn't aware he had a new one coming out.

I liked the material on The Laughing Stalk but the mastering was flat awful. Completely brickwalled. I, too, hope the vinyl sounds better for the new one if past records are any indication of what the new one sounds like.

 

Nice thread
1. The Beatles (& All Solo)
2. Yes
3. The Who
4. The Beach Boys
5. Genesis/Elton John/ELO

 

If I looked at it from a 1950's standpoint:

1) Elvis - he gave rockabilly an international voice. Also, created the modern look of rock and roll.
2) Bill Haley: Really he began the nationwide conquest with Rock Around The Clock - it's true he covered and followed predecessors but he added something indefinable, perhaps combining bouncy western swing with R&B
3) Little Richard - the greatest shouter in rock and a huge influence on McCartney
4) Eddie Cochran - very important for coming up with a later-generation, more deracinated sound especially on guitar, he forecast the heavy guitar crunch of the late 60's and 70's.
5) Buddy Holly - invented his own persona, fine balladeer and songwriter, another of the great hillbilly cats.

 

Disclaimer: I am not naming solo artists, which would result in a very different list:

The Beatles
Since seeing them on Ed Sullivan at the tender age of five and my parents buying me "She Loves You" on the Swan label (my first 45rpm), I have been hooked. The quality of their songwriting, the wonderful production of George Martin and the breadth of their catalog in such a short time span combine to make them THE band in my mind. What a treat it was to grow up with new releases from the Beatles greeting us on the radio!

The Rolling Stones
Their output from the mid sixties through the early 70's is the only group to rival the Beatles in my mind. Other than Some Girls, I have not been a fan of a lot of their stuff post the mid 70's, but the body of work they have produced is remarkable, and they remain fun to see in concert. Their run of Lp's from Beggars Banquet - Black and Blue, while not all of the same caliber, are all very entertaining. Sticky Fingers is a desert-island disc for me.

Crosby, Stills Nash and Young
A very personal choice, as the body of work they have produced together is not in the same league as the first two choices. If not for egos and drugs, think of what could have been. Still, I love their sound, and have seen them on various tours, and hope they tour again while they still can.

The Zombies
Saw them in 2008 and have been hooked since. Not a huge body of work, but one that I enjoy immensely; with Odyessey and Oracle being one of my all-time favorite LPs. If they come to your town, see them; you will not be disappointed.

The Who
My college roommate was a huge Who fan and introduced me to much of their work I otherwise might not be familiar with. Who's Next is an amazing LP, and Quadrophenia only gets better with age.