Is there anybody around we could truly call a musical genius?

Frank Zappa, unquestionably

 

Short life, bad choices, self-destructive, had great potential initially but burned out fast. Had a tendency to repeat himself.

 

Gee this post started out with a real Genius Monk , after 4 pages of "everybodies " now it means a lot less than it should !

 

Add Schubert. And probably Wagner, although I am not nearly as much a fan.

 

Sadly, the same could be said of so many modern talents. As noted previously, I can think of several that fitfully achieved moments of genius but precious few that could sustain it.

 

I'll see you and raise you Stravinsky, haha

 

jelly roll morton, dont know how i could have forgotten him. and spider john koerner, my bad forgetting to mention him.

 

John Martyn.

Neil Young.

 

Nice post. I think some people are just listing their favourites. Either that or there are a hell of a lot of geniuses around

 

Curtis Mayfield should be regarded as one IMO.

 

It's the lake wobegon effect

 

Much of this was related to Charlie Parker's substance misuse issues. Does that make him an idiot?

 

I love John Martyn (see my avatar) but he was far from being a genius.

 

Sorry, you'll have to explain.

 

It's all a matter of opinion, I guess.

I'll stick with mine, all the same.

 

If you mean ALIVE there are not many.

 

wait are you including dead people among people "around?"

sort of seems like this should be restricted to the living

 

The Lake Wobegon effect is the human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others. It is named for the fictional town of Lake Wobegon from the radio series A Prairie Home Companion, where, according to Garrison Keillor, "all the children are above average".

 

In an earlier post I removed the "around".

 

O.k;
Then i say Glenn Gould.

 

Lennon & McCartney
…among so many others...

 

Okay. Justification for the genius tag?

 

I'm going to throw the name James Blake out there, though a larger sample size is necessary.

The word genius, as I've stated around these parts, is used very loosely by most people; it should be rarified air.

Stevie Wonder is up there

 

Plenty, but you need to look for some of them which is hard to do when you keep buying the same albums over and over again.

 

There should be a thread for "Were Lennon and McCartney geniuses?" Discuss.