Who said it always has to be about politics?
Thoughts? James Brown at 7?
Mozart.
Ah, throwing it to the waaay back. Fair point, good argument
I wish I understood classical moreso.
This thread is going to date some people.
I think we’re all old, though. Mildly
Very 60s/70s focused. I don’t have a problem with a lot of them being in the top 50. I’m honestly not sure Nirvana belongs up there in the ranks of Prince, and I’m a Nirvana fan.
Beach Boys at 12 is a big question mark.
Hendrix and Dylan in the top 10 for sure.
I used to work with the guy who invented the Wah Wah Pedal. 
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I’m surprised Prince isn’t higher. Also, Buddy Holly and Muddy Waters at that level, even Bob Marley there…doesn’t get my vote.
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I think Prince was usually pretty high.
He’s top 10 of the best musicians ever in my mind, assuming we’re going through modern music only. Dude was remarkable
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Prince was excellent…
I just skimmed over list…Does it seem that they have bumped black musicians up across the board? Seems like it compared to their other lists? Although I’m just going by memory, and I don’t have every past list memorized.
Mozart has never had a peer as a musician. Not my opinion but that of Albert Einstein who was a lifetime lover and player of Mozart’s music.
Beethoven was great and labored rigorously creating his compositions… All the original works of Beethaven were covered with emendations and revisions while Mozart simply sat down and brilliant music flowed from his pen as if he were a natural font of genius. Mozart’s works never needed emendations. The mathematics of music flowed effortlessly through his mind. Mozart IQ was estimated to be the highest in history, over 200. In one instance, he perfectly transcribed note by note four hours of music after hearing it once. If you had name the smartest human ever, Mozart would be among the finalists together with Newton, Archimedes, Einstein, et al.
Beethoven left us the greatest symphony ever written, Eroica. The greatest violin concerto in DMajor.as well as arguably the greatest piano concerto The Emperor. The grand orchestra was first assembled under Beethoven, and Beethoven ushered in a revolution in music with publication of his Third Symphony that was so different from that of his predecessors. Beethoven’s symphonies are the grandest ever conceived. They are thunder and lightening, sweetness contrasted with harsh dissonance found in the very beginning of his Third Symphony. They are novel in their music approach, especially Eroica and of course the unexpected last movement of his ninth symphony which featured a choral element.
My ratings are based both on my opinion and that of experts. Some think Beethoven’s 5th or 9th Symphonies were his best, but I don’t anything has ever exceeded Eroica. To me, it’s the greatest piece of music ever written, and I listen to it almost every day of my life.
Yes. Yes they did
I should have qualified it - it appears the list of from the Rock and Roll era and on
Rock and roll is primitive music compared with the greatness of Beethoven and Mozart as far apart on the intelligence continuum as bikki228 and Kung Fu Warden. who now must come to grips with being a racist and not knowing it.
Herbert von Karajan is probably the least modest conductor in history, but for years he had arguably the best orchestra ever assembled on earth, the Berlin Philharmoniker. Von Karajan too was a jet set playboy and a superior musician as well as a conductor. Far and away the best renditons of Beethoven were produced over and over again by von Karajan. He definitely deserves to be in the Top Five of all time, but Carlos Kleiber is atop the list. I’d rank Loren Maezel next for making the Cleveland Orchestra a worthy competiter with orchestras in Berlin, Vienna, London, and New York. Then I’d give the golden baton to Leonard Bernstein who was a splendid fellow, a talented musician, and composer. Fritz Reiner would be next on my list followed by Van Karajan and Toscanini. Here’s the renditon of Eroica I listen to every day of my life
