This list includes compositional, performance, instrumental, and vocal techniques.

Lake Baikal is the world’s biggest lake by volume of water; it’s so big, in fact, that it contains 1/5th of the world’s unfrozen surface freshwater. It’s also the world’s deepest lake (just over a mile in depth), and is perhaps the world’s oldest as well. Baikal is home to a number of fascinating animals, including one of the only freshwater seal species, as well as an extremely fatty, scaleless, translucent fish called a golomyanka.

But what’s this got to do with music? Well, a Russian percussion group known as “ETHNOBEAT“—from Irkutsk Technical University—sojourned to Lake Baikal in March of 2012 to drum on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal. Watch as the group’s members brave the -20ºC weather to produce a beautiful array of percussive sounds using only their hands and the different types of ice at their disposal. The group owes the project to a piece of clumsiness—Tatiana, the wife of one of the drummers, had previously fallen on her bottom, producing an intriguing musical sound when she hit the surface. From there, a singular concert arose, turning frozen water into a symphony.

Eephing (sometimes spelled eefing) can probably best be understood as a type of “hillbilly beatboxing”—although it predates beatboxing by nearly 100 years. It’s a fast-paced Appalachian singing technique that can be crudlely broken down as 1/3 saying “eef” (or another vowel + f), 1/3 mouth-farting, and 1/3 gasping. Jennifer Sharpe, who profiled legendary eepher Jimmie Riddle on NPR, described it as “a kind of hiccupping, rhythmic wheeze.” It originated in rural farming communities in Tennessee where eephers would imitate the sounds of their pigs and turkeys.

Eephing has never seen much in the way of mainstream success, but got its 15 minutes of fame in 1963 when Riddle was featured on Joe Perkins’s single “Little Eefin’ Annie.” Little Eefin’ Annie reached #76 on the Billboard charts and exposed a generation of listeners to the unique sounds of eephing.

Check out this video for a short eephing lesson from Riddle.

Konnakol—sometimes colorfully referred to as “Indian scat singing” or “Indian beatboxing”—is the South Indian art of vocal percussion. It is a component of “solkattu,” the language of drum syllables, along with “tala” (or “taal”), the percussive part done with the hand on a “mridangam” drum. With tala, the meter is kept with waves, claps, and finger counts, while the musician simultaneously vocalizes the konnakol.

Performers of konnakol learn very complex, systematic, almost grammatical rules and techniques to produce rapid-fire vocal percussion. As with any advanced musical system, it must be seen and heard to be fully appreciated. John McLaughlin, a British musician and guitar virtuoso who studied konnakol and other Indian techniques and styles, said of konnakol: “if you can understand Konnakol—the most superior system of learning rhythm in the world—you can understand any rhythm from any country on the planet.”

Through-composed music refers to a piece of music that does not repeat any part of itself, or does so rarely. Nearly all compositions have musical elements that occur again and again, especially pop music, which has a fairly rigidly set structure that sees relatively few deviations.

Truly through-composed music is fairly rare, but there are a few well-known examples. Schubert wrote a number of “lieds” (romantic German poems set to music), where he wrote different music for every line. Haydn’s “Farewell Symphony” is also through-composed. In popular music, most so-called through-composed pieces do, in fact, have some amount of repeating elements, but are still largely considered to be a part of the genre. Perhaps the best-known example in rock is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody;” the 1975 classic doesn’t have a chorus, and is divided into distinct sections that include elements of folk, rock, hard rocks, opera, and ballad. The Beatles have a number of tunes (including “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” “A Day in the Life”) which are hybrid-like songs that comprise two very distinct parts.

Hollerin’ is an ancient singing tradition whose origins can be traced back as far as the early days of language. It served a practical purpose—to communicate information over long distances. In the 1700s, in North Carolina, loggers hollered to communicated important instructions to one another; it survived for many years in various forms. There are many different purposes to a holler, including distress (danger), communicative (usually a basic greeting), functional (day-to-day farming calls), and expressive (the pure pleasure of hollerin’). Though hollerin’ has been functionally dead for some time, a revival has been under way since 1969 in the form of The National Hollerin’ Contest in Spivey’s Corner, NC. Held on the 3rd Saturday every June, the contest seeks to revive the extinct art and keep its legacy alive.

Field hollering, an African-American cousin to hollerin’, is a type of singing that can be considered a close relative of the “work song.” Believed to be a potential forerunner to the blues, field hollering doesn’t show up on any recordings until the mid-1930s but is known to have much older roots. It involves falsetto, portamento (sliding from one pitch to another), and sudden pitch changes.

Tuvan throat singers accomplish something pretty amazing: they are able to sing multiples pitches simultaneously. These singers—from the Siberian region of Tuva—are using a vocal technique that’s a type of “overtone singing,” a style of singing that exists all over the world. Overtone singing likely originated in Mongolia, in the regions now known as Khovd and Govi-Altai. Traditionally, these “xöömei” have been men, but more and more women are beginning to learn the practice.

When you listen to a piece of throat singing music for the first time, it’s fairly breathtaking, and probably unlike anything you’ve ever heard. The singer begins with a deep, low, guttural droning sound, and then over time he breaks it up into its component tones, amplifying each one separately so it can be heard as a distinct note. It’s a tremendously difficult technique to master, as it involves several different components—throat singers must breathe circularly (see item 2), to allow the voice to be continuous and unbroken, then control various parts of their throat and mouth (lips, tongue, jaw, velum, and larynx) to create echo chambers in their vocal folds. From there they manipulate the sound to create distinct, multi-faceted, and truly unique music.

That wailing, unsettling sound that a banshee makes? That’s called “keening“—a type of musical, vocal lamentation usually associated with Ireland, though it exists in various forms in many other cultures. To keen is “to make a loud and long cry of sorrow; to lament with a keen.” Though it’s not commonly heard in Ireland nowadays (most keening ceased in the early 1900s), it used to be standard practice at funerals, either by a single woman or a group of women. Once upon a time, keeners (“mná caointe”) performed these “caoineadh” at wakes and funerals as a way of joining the community together in a display or grief and mourning. Keeners would praise the dead, but would also wail curses at those who had done the deceased wrong. More than simple mourners, mná caointe helped communities manage death, holdin spiritual duties as well—including assisting the deceased in their journey to the afterlife.

The practice may date all the way back to the Israelites (and perhaps even further), who passed the custom along through Eastern civilizations, then through the Greeks and Romans. In the Irish language, the word was written “cine,” very similar to the Hebrew word “cina”—”lamentation or weeping with clapping of hands.”

Hannes Coetzee lives in the small South African town of Herbertsdale, where he makes a living extracting aloe from succulents in the desert. He’s known around the world, however, for his unique style of playing guitar—he bills himself as a “teaspoon slide guitarist.” With a spoon in his mouth serving as a type of slide, Coetzee coaxes a distinct, twangy music from his steelstring guitar. The technique is called “optel an knyp,” which means “pick up and pinch,” and it’s a style of playing that, as far as anyone knows, was invented by Coetzee himself.

Coetzee’s story received some broader recognition in a 2003 Documentary called “Karoo Kitaar Blues.” The film chronicles South African musician David Kramer’s 2001 efforts to put on a concert featuring some of the country’s best unknown musicians.

Circular breathing is a fairly tricky breathing technique that effectively allows a person to sustain a musical note (or succession of notes) indefinitely. On the surface, it isn’t overly complicated—when you perform this technique, you’re essentially breathing normally, while storing a small amount of extra air in your cheeks so that when you run out of breath in your lungs, you can breathe quickly through your nose while you use that cheek reserve to keep playing. The mechanics are not complex to grasp, but actually doing it takes a lot of practice. Certain instruments, perhaps most famously the didgeridoo, require this type of breathing to properly play; while the originals of circular breathing are not known, it is possible that Australian Aborigines developed the technique specifically for the didgeridoo.

While many musicians have made a name for themselves (at least in part) through their use of circular breathing—including Mexican trumpeter Rafael Mendéz, British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and American bandleader Irvin Mayfield—it’s none other than Kenny G who set a world record. In 1997, the adult contemporary-smooth-jazzist played an E-Flat on his soprano saxophone for 45 minutes and 47 seconds, managing to hold the note by using the circular breathing technique.

The most well-known talking-guitar musician is likely Peter Frampton, who famously sang into his “Talk Box” on the hit singles “Do You Feel Like We Do” and “Show Me The Way.” The Talk Box is an effects unit that allows the user to connect their voice to an instrument; Frampton has his own line of talk boxes and owes at least some of his success to the distinctive sound of his voice spoken through his electric guitar.

Frampton, however, was hardly the first musician to experiment with talking guitars. Alvino Rey, an American swing era musician often credited with inventing the pedal steel guitar, pioneered a carbon throat microphone that was wired to affect the tone of his electric guitar. Rey placed the microphone on the throat of his sister, who mouthed words, producing what Rey called the “Singing Guitar.” Many of Rey’s tunes featured a small guitar puppet named “Stringy,” who acted as a sort of singing, guitar-voiced ventriloquist dummy.

In 1964, music pioneer Pete Drake released “Forever,” an album whose single of the same name was a huge hit. The “singing guitar” style was resurrected, and the song reached #22 on the Billboard charts. Drake’s mastery of the guitar, both “talking” and otherwise, led to him being featured on dozens of hits in the 1960s, including “Lay Lady Lay” and (most likely) “Stand By Your Man.”

“Chanking” is a guitar technique, found (among other styles) in punk, reggae, and rhythm and blues, where you squeeze (and hold) the strings against the neck of the guitar and strum at the same time. The word is a portmanteau (the result of two words blended together to form a new one) of “choke” and “yank.” The result is a scratchy, repetitive percussive sound that was made famous by James Brown and his guitarist Jimmy Nolen, and can be heard clearly on their 1965 hit “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”

Chanking is very closely related to “chicken scratching,” a similar technique that differs by the slight and quick release of the fretting hand. To make the chicken scratch sound, guitarists press lightly against the strings and quickly release, while very rapidly strumming with the other hand near the guitar’s bridge.

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The New Orleans Preservation Hall has been defending the legacy of Big Easy jazz for over 50 years. Their house band is held in high regard, and for a benefit recording in 2010 they enlisted Tom Waits to sit in on two tracks. The songs, Tootie Ma Was A Big Fine Thing and Corrine Died On The Battlefield were made available in one format only: 78 RPM vinyl. An interesting decision to use such an archaic format, but I suppose that was the point—it is called the Preservation Hall after all.

These were a pretty limited edition, so even getting your hands on one won’t be easy. At the time, a small number of custom-made 78 RPM turntables could be bought along with the record. Today it would be hard enough finding the record, let alone the turntable.

A band that apparently consists of sentient eyeballs, the Residents recently released the Ultimate Box Set of their work. It was a $100,000 monstrosity that contains over a hundred records, CDs, and DVDs. Why so costly? It comes in a refrigerator and is collectible art. Specifically, it includes 563 songs, 40 vinyl LPs, 50 CDs, and dozens of singles, EPs, DVDs, and CD-ROMs.

In addition to the downright unwieldy amount of material, you’d have a tough time thinking of less convenient packaging. Was it all they had? Does the music need to be refrigerated for some reason? Should we expect something less weird from the guys in the picture above?

Dallas, Texas, band RTB2 released their grammatically challenged album We Are A Strange Man exclusively on a format that’s been dead for about 30 years. Why? For the hell of it, apparently. The band has released plenty of music the “normal” way, but for this release went as retro as they could go and released it on eight-track tapes only.

Of course, eight-track decks haven’t been manufactured by anyone for decades. Your best bet for checking out We Are A Strange Man involves spending lots of time at questionable garage sales.

In 1998, English electronic dance band Gescom released an 88 track album called Minidisc. You may remember that Minidisc was once a format for recorded music, a defining feature of which was its seamless shuffle mode. True to its name, this album was released only in the Minidisc format, and was meant to be played on shuffle.

While it got a CD pressing in 2006, to listen to it as intended you’ll need to hunt down a Minidisc player. They can get expensive, as they are no longer made.

Sweet Insanity was to have been Brian Wilson’s second solo album, planned for release in 1991. It went unreleased, and exists only on a handful of promotional cassette tapes. While a bootleg or two have shown up, none seem to be complete, and some are even re-recorded versions of the original songs.

The album is a sort of rare recording holy grail, but this may not be a bad thing as it has been described as “unlistenable.” With Brian Wilson attempting to rap at one point and Weird Al Yankovic on accordion, I’m not surprised.

A Welsh mathematician and composer of electronic music, Enlli only released 33 copies of a track called Ygam on . . . wax cylinder. Presumably because he has the names and numbers of all 33 people in the world that own a wax cylinder player in his Rolodex.

Listening to this track would involve tracking down one of the 33 people that own one of the recordings, because they’re sold out. Then, somehow get your hands on a wax cylinder player. You may need to build it yourself, because they haven’t been commercially mass-produced since 1929. You’ll then need to connect it to your stereo using magic.

This truly strange 1997 release is a portmanteau of Zaire and eureka, a “mess with a purpose,” as described in the album booklet. Zaireeka was released in four discs and intended to be played on four stereos simultaneously. Most listeners, not having four stereos lying around, listened to them separately. Listening to it in its intended form would take three friends, perfect timing, and a great deal of dedication. The Flaming Lips are also prepping a 2013 vinyl reissue of Zaireeka—try syncing four record players at the same time.

To prove there is no end to their weirdness, the Flaming Lips revisited the idea in 2011, releasing a digital track in 12 parts through Youtube entitled
Two Blobs F——king. It is intended to be played simultaneously on 12 mobile phones. Absolutely nobody is going to do that.

Most people with an interest in music know that The Artist Previously Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (or TAPKATAFKAP) has a lot of unreleased material. What they may not know is just how much. By some accounts, he has written and recorded roughly a song a day for over 30 years. Even a conservative estimate gives dozens of albums worth of material, and TAPKATAFKAP has let it be known that he has no plans to release any of it.

So if you ever want to hear this amazing stash of incredible unreleased music, you’ll need to break into Prince’s vault, which I would advise against. It’s guarded by purple-laser shooting robots and exotic attack tigers and you really don’t stand a chance.

Californian hardcore powerviolence band Spazz released a record in a format that ensures only the most determined Spazz fans will ever hear it—a one-inch record entitled Funky Ass Li’l Platter. Only 14 copies are known to exist, with side A played at 78 RPM and side B played at 33 RPM. Of course, you may want to dig deep for this one—you know you’re dying to hear Spazz’s Hemorrhoidal Dance of Death (side A).

Assuming you can find someone who owns this record, you’re still not going to get them to give it to you. Play it for you, perhaps. But tracking them down, befriending them and buying them a beer seems like a lot of trouble to go to for what is less than a minute of powerviolence.

Indie band the Shout Out Louds released their ice-themed tune Blue Ice on an ice record. Literally, a record made of ice—sold as a mold and a bottle of water capable of producing a seven-inch playable record.

So to listen to the song, first you must secure one of the only ten sets that were made. Next, pour water into the mold and put it in the freezer. While you’re waiting, find a turntable you really don’t care about. Place the ice record on the turntable, drop the needle, stand back and wait for it to… melt and ruin your player? Electrocute you? Who knows what will happen. I never thought I’d have a use for the phrase “irresponsible music format,” but here we are.

Mike Floorwalker’s blog is freakin’ sweet.

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Sung first in the movie “The Singing Hill” (1941), the song was covered numerous times by popular artists before Fats Domino recorded the version we are all familiar with. Perhaps the surprising thing is that none of those covers were remembered.

A Motown-style B-side on a record that flopped, it barely survived in Britain’s Northern soul clubs during the ’70s. Jones tried to revive it in 1976 by re-releasing it with a mediocre funk guitar line and a little harsher singing style but that effort failed too, probably because it was worst than the first version. It was saved by obscurity when Soft Cell did their cover which musically fit the early ’80s scene perfectly.

Apparently in the early ’70s, Joe Flaherty of SCTV fame grew some long hair and sideburns and decided to dress all in plaid. He teamed up with a guitar-playing Sparklettes truck and a bass player that looks normal next to those two despite wearing clothes from the 1970s. Despite the fact that they completely don’t look it, they actually rock.

Slade-inspired band Arrows (not The Arrows) had a TV show that ran for two series (seasons in the US) in the 1970s. Besides Joan Jett’s famous cover, the song was also done by Britney Spears and Kristen Wiig. I dare you to listen to those covers all the way through.

Close your eyes and imagine listening to this song. You hear Kim Carnes’ raspy voice and the question is: is she angry or on a three pack a day cigarette habit (or both). What you probably didn’t hear was something straight off of Broadway. Jackie DeShannon was actually a major player in the ’60s rock and roll scene and she barely missed hitting it big with “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” and “What the World Needs Now Is Love.”

Apparently, up to about 30 years ago, everyone knew Hoagy Carmichael did the original song and now everyone thinks it was Ray Charles. Set up as a orchestral piece, the original was done by all-star musicians like Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey and Bix Beiderbecke with Carmichael singing. Two pieces of trivia: Georgia On My Mind is the state song of Georgia (you probably knew that) and in Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, he is often said to look like Hoagy Carmichael.

WTF? I’ve never even heard of this song! Exactly. But I guarantee that you’ve heard of the more famous cover “Mickey” by Toni Basil. This song comes from their first (actually only) album Smash and Grab. They broke up and now there are two groups named Racey that you’ve never heard of.

Did you know Bobby McGee was a woman? It’s true. In fact when Fred Foster proposed the song idea to Kristofferson, the idea that Bobby McKee (the original last name) was female was the hook. The song has a certain association with death. The inspiration for the line “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” was inspired by a death in the movie “La Strada” and Janis Joplin recorded her version just before her death. You may be familiar with Kristofferson’s version of the song but that wasn’t the original (surprise!). It was originally recorded by Roger Miller and covered three times before Kris recorded his version.

It’s our friends from the first list, songwriter Bertholt Brecht and music writer Kurt Weill. This song was written for the movie “The Threepenny Opera.” The lyrics were significantly changed and downplayed the murders and rape when translated for an American audience. In the film, the song is sung by Kurt Gerron but Lili… errr, Lotte Lenya had a part in the song development. She was performing “The Threepenny Opera” on Broadway when Louis Armstrong did his cover. She sat in the studio and Armstrong ad-libbed her name in the list of women admirers.

Any banjo players out there need to know that no banjo player can actually sing. I saw a documentary on it (my son is learning to be a bluegrass fiddler) and not one banjo player could carry a tune. The version by The Byrds was so melodic that this one will be hard to listen to. The notes Pete Seeger sings don’t seem to match the notes he is playing at all. The lyrics themselves are taken from the Bible’s Book of Ecclesiastes but I don’t think King Solomon got songwriting credits.

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Although early jazz artists created short music-film performances of their songs, and Elvis filmed unique settings of his songs that were parts of movies, the Beatles were the pioneers of marrying the two ideas into the concept we now know as the music video – a short, stand-alone film of a musical act presenting a current song that may or not be a live performance. The idea came to the Beatles as a way to ease their ridiculously tight schedule – instead of the band having to make tons of public appearances on TV shows around the world, they could send a video of themselves instead. The first dedicated music video was for the single “Paperback Writer/Rain” in 1966.

Prior to 1966, popular musical acts went into the recording studio in order to create a stack of singles. These singles were first released individually by the record company, and then again in a few months as part of a long-playing album. Typically, the band had no input as to which songs went on the album, which order they were presented, or what was used as the cover art – these were all decisions made independent of the band by the record company. However, with the invaluable guidance of their producer, George Martin, the Beatles released the industry’s first concept album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The idea behind “Sgt. Pepper” was that the Beatles were playing the part of another band giving a concert in the park, and all of the songs on the album were part of that outdoor affair. None of the songs on that album were initially released as singles – the first time the public heard any part of “Sgt. Pepper” was when the entire album was released in June, 1967.

Although the Beatles were highly successful in selling out their early concerts in 1963, 1964, and 1965, they were only playing shows booked in auditoriums, theaters, and amphitheaters that seated anywhere between 1000 and 10,000 ticket-holders. When manager Brian Epstein initially booked the Beatles to play a concert in New York’s Shea Stadium in August, 1965, the idea was considered almost too absurd to consider. However, the tickets sold out within hours (priced between $4.50 and $5.75), and over 55,000 berserk, screaming fans (mostly teenage girls) packed Shea Stadium for the first-ever stadium rock concert. The Beatles only played 30 minutes, the fans were not allowed onto the infield where the stage was located, and the stadium’s sound system was atrocious for a musical concert, but the night’s gross was over $300,000, which stood as an industry record for many years.

This was one of those magnificent ideas where everybody learned more from Beatle mistakes than Beatle successes. In 1966, the Beatles’ recording contract with EMI Records expired, and they re-entered into a 9-year contract with EMI in 1967. The next year, the Beatles decided to form their own record company, Apple Records, and discovered that EMI was not willing to release them. In a complicated series of confusing maneuvers, the Beatles remained with EMI, but signed a separate agreement between EMI’s American subsidiary, Capitol Records, and Apple. The result was that American releases contained the Apple label while British releases did not (at first). In addition to this mess, the Beatles legally hired two different business managers (American Allen Klein and Paul’s new father-in-law Lee Eastman) at Apple, and all contracts between Apple, EMI, and Capitol were revised. Hilarity and lawsuits soon followed, and the Beatles painfully set the standard for what NOT to do when forming your own record company.

Although the Beatles did not invent satellite television, they were the highlighted subject of the first ever live global satellite television broadcast in June, 1967. The TV program was called “Our World,” and it featured the contributions of artists and citizens of 19 different nations. Using four different orbiting satellites, the program was able to be broadcast live to anyone interested in receiving the signal anywhere in the world, and the Beatles performed an in-studio live version of “All You Need Is Love,” which was specially written by John for the broadcast, to close out the program.

Although many different musical acts hold variously scattered chart-topping marketing successes, no specific artist has ever come close to the nearly inexplicable global phenomenon the Beatles enjoyed in the Spring of 1964. On March 21, the Beatles held #1, #2, and #3 in Billboard’s Hot 100 (for a total of seven songs in that week’s poll). On March 28, they held #1, #2, #3, and #4 (ten songs in all) in that week’s Billboard Hot 100. On April 4, they staggeringly held #1, #2, #3, #4, AND #5 (for a total of twelve songs) in the Billboard Hot 100. On April 11, the Beatles added two more songs to the Billboard Hot 100 (fourteen in all). During this same time frame, they were also snagging most of the album and singles Top Ten lists in the UK, Canada, and Australia.

This item could almost be a separate list in and of itself. The Beatles (and their recording engineers) either pioneered or popularized Artificial Double Tracking (ADT), back masking, tuned feedback, spliced audio loops, distortion, equalization, stereo effects, multi-tracking (overdubbing), compression, phase shifting, and innovative “microphoning.” Although the Beatles are not credited with the invention of most of these studio tricks, they were responsible for directly inspiring countless musical acts that were desperate to copy their unique sounds.

The first pop album to feature actual printed lyrics on the album was the Beatles’ 1967 epic release “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Soon, it would be considered non-standard to not do so.

The typical music industry standard recording contract of the 1960s required a band to record and release enough singles for a company to release at least one album per year, and the Beatles went way above and beyond the call of duty (they released two albums per year in every year with EMI Records except 1966). Another aspect of the standard recording contract required a band to give a prescribed number of public concerts as a highly effective means to promote and sell the band’s singles and albums. However, in August, 1966, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the Beatles played their last public concert after over six years of extended touring. The decision for the Beatles (or any band, for that matter) to end touring was a breathtakingly landmark decision, and theirs was based on multiple factors, such as exhaustion, inability to perform newest songs in a live format, inability to hear themselves onstage, wandering musical focus, safety concerns following death threats and boycotts, and boredom. The Beatles would only make one more public musical appearance, and it would come in January, 1969 in the form of an impromptu semi-private concert on the rooftop of their London studios.

By 1968, the American radio dial preferred to have music on AM and talk radio on FM, and most AM stations played music in a three-minute single format. This meant that any singles significantly longer or shorter than three minutes were ignored by AM stations, because it would wreck their repetitive hourly format to play it. When the Beatles released “Hey Jude” as a single in August, 1968, it was nearly 7 1/2 minutes long, and AM stations simply chopped off the song at the 3:00 mark, which denied listeners the chance to hear their favorite part – “Na na na nanananaaa.” At KSAN-FM in San Francisco, radio pioneer Tom Donahue used the promise of a whole “Hey Jude” single coupled with other innovative ideas (commercial-free blocks of music, playing whole album sides at a time, etc.) as a means to lure listeners away from local AM stations to his uniquely programmed FM station, and the idea eventually snowballed across the country. Within ten years, American radio stations had almost completely switched places, and put music on FM and talk radio on AM.

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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has a list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” and some of the artists that are not in the hall have recordings on that list which makes their exclusion from the hall even more inexplicable. I have listed the most glaring omissions first. There are many artists who could have been included, so if your favorite isn’t here (and they’re not in the H.O.F.) be sure and leave a note in the comments section along with why you think they belong.

Chubby Checker’s recording of Hank Ballard’s “The Twist” is the number one record on Billboard magazine’s “All-time Hot 100 top songs” list. (Ballard is in the hall.) It went to #1 on the charts twice, once in 1960, and later in 1962. “The Twist” came along at a time when many of the early pioneers of rock and roll (Chuck Berry and Little Richard) had faded from the charts, or, like Elvis Presley, were singing formula ballads. Make no mistake, early rock and roll was all about dancing, and Checker’s recording had both teenagers and their parents taking to the dance floor in numbers that wouldn’t be seen again until the disco days of the seventies. The recording is included in the H.O.F. “500 songs” but Checker is not in the hall. The record spawned many other “Twist” records, the most popular being “Twist and Shout” (a hit for the Isley brothers and The Beatles) and “Twistin’ the Night Away” by Sam Cooke. Checker had other hit records such as “The Pony Time,” “Limbo Rock,” “Slow Twisting,” and the 1961 Grammy Award winner for Best Rock and Roll Solo Vocal Performance and number one record of 1961, “Let’s Twist Again.” Chubby Checker’s exclusion from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an injustice. More importantly, Checker (real name Ernest Evans) still performs to this day and people all over the world still dance “The Twist.” When rock and roll’s flame was diminishing, Checker turned up the heat.

In 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker had begun using the term “rock and roll” in descriptions of recordings such as “Rock Me” and “This Train” by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Her recording of ”This Train” is in the HOF “500 songs” but Sister Rosetta is not a member of the hall. While not all of her gospel recordings would be considered rock and roll, when she performed up-tempo, blues-based gospel music with her electric guitar it was music that Little Richard has acknowledged was one of his main influences and Bob Dylan has acknowledged her as well. Why she isn’t in the hall is a total mystery. Tharpe passed away in 1973. You can find film of Sister Rosetta’s performances on YouTube as well as a couple of excellent documentaries.

She started as a country-folk singer but eventually mastered many other genres of music and became the best-selling female artist of the 1970s. She brought the music of Buddy Holly to a generation that had either forgotten or never heard of him. She helped popularize country-rock in the 1970s along with H.O.F. members The Eagles, who met while backing Ronstadt on her self-titled third album. She has too many Grammy awards for me to list here, and has more true rock and roll hit records than many of the artists already in the hall. Her recordings also influenced many of the current hard-rocking country artists you hear today. As a vocalist, she has few equals and her voice is instantly recognizable no matter what she is singing. She helped popularize many songwriters such as Warren Zevon and Wendy Waldman and brought attention to overlooked genres of music. She still performs occasionally and her exclusion is one of the most serious oversights of the hall of fame.

“Born To Be Wild” is one of the 500 most influential songs, but the John Kay led Steppenwolf is nowhere to be found. Written by Mars Bonfire (aka Dennis Edmonton) who was the brother of Steppenwolf’s original drummer, it was the first use of the phrase “heavy metal,” as in “heavy metal thunder” and these guys were heavy when the Beatles were still being cute. They had other big hits as well such as “Magic Carpet Ride” and the late night F.M. favorite, “The Pusher.” There were many membership changes over the years, but John Kay has been a constant, and he’s still performing today, though the original members have passed on or retired. Let’s give the German-born Kay and his band credit and induct them into the hall.

Just when it seemed like the British had totally taken over the music charts, along comes New York City-born Johnny Rivers and his hit record “Secret Agent Man.” Many of Rivers’ other big hits were remakes of other artists’ hits such as Chuck Berry’s “Memphis,” but he put his own personal style into them and many sold more copies than the originals. He sang the title song to the late night music program “The Midnight Special” and had million-selling records into the 1970s with “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” and “Swayin’ to the Music (Slow Dancing).” A true rocker, Johnny Rivers is still performing today and he has earned a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Originally named The Chicago Transit Authority their early recordings contained rock, jazz and classical music. When they rocked, they really rocked – such as their massive hit, “25 or 6 to 4.” (The song is about how it was written at 25 or 26 to four in the morning and what the writer, Robert Lamm, was going through while he wrote it.) They later produced less rocking, more ballad driven records, but that shouldn’t take away the fact that the band could, and in concert still does, rock as hard as the best of them. Their early albums were staples of the more serious, no top-forty F.M. rock stations. According to Billboard magazine, the only artists with more charting recordings (singles plus albums) than Chicago are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys. This is as grievous an omission as Ms. Ronstadt.

They modeled themselves on the other brothers with two drummers, The Allman Brothers Band. As commercial as a band can get, these guys produced songs that almost demanded they be played on your car stereo while you were “Rocking Down The Highway.” Look up “seventies rock” in the dictionary and there’s a picture of the Doobie Brothers. They produced a stream of radio ready, play air guitar, sing along and dance with ‘em hits. From the classic rocker “Long Train Runnin” to the Michael McDonald/Kenny Loggins penned “What a Fool Believes” they were just plain fun…and that’s what rock and roll is all about. They had great vocals, harmonies, pristine guitar work and great drumming. Why aren’t these guys in the hall?

I’ve put these two together as the H.O.F should induct Canadians Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings for their body of work. Bachman played in both bands and Cummings was only in The Guess Who but co-wrote and sang lead on their hits. Here are some of The Guess Who’s hits; “American Woman,” “No Sugar Tonight,” “Undone,” “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” Share The Land,” “No Time” and “Hand Me Down World” and “Clap For The Wolfman.” You couldn’t turn on top forty rock radio in the early seventies without hearing them, and the F.M. hipster stations played them alongside The Grateful Dead. When Randy Bachman left The Guess Who he formed Bachman Turner Overdrive and the hits kept on coming with “Takin’ Care Of Business” “Let It Ride” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.” Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman both deserve to be in the hall. They’re the Canadian version of Lennon and McCartney. They still perform together occasionally as “The Bachman-Cummings Band” and perform hits from both The Guess Who and B.T.O.

Billboard magazine ranks Hall and Oates at number 15 on their 100 greatest artists of all time. They’ve had six #1 records and dozens of others that charted but didn’t go to the top. Their up-tempo tunes are dance classics and their ballads are original and timeless. Their monster hit “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” has been sampled dozens of times and songs they’ve written have been covered by other artists who have had hits with them as well. They have been snubbed by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammy Awards) as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. These two may be the best purveyors of blue-eyed soul that rock and roll has witnessed and yet they are not in the hall.

I couldn’t decide on a number ten… there were many to choose from including Deep Purple, Joe Cocker, KISS, The Electric Light Orchestra, The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Rush, Heart, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Zombies, The B-52’s, Cheap Trick, Peter Frampton, Bon Jovi, Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Bad Company, Yes, The Cars, Heart, Kool and the Gang, John Mayall, Procol Harum, K.C. and The Sunshine Band, and many others I’m sure will get mentioned in the comments!

The post 10 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame appeared first on Listverse.

It can be difficult to sort out fact from fiction when dealing with the turbulent history of famous rock stars as the stories are often falsified. This article will discuss ten of the most famous true rock stories. All of the entries are based around events that actually occurred. However, some have still been embellished by certain people.

In late August of 1964, The Beatles started their first official U.S. tour. The group began at Cow Palace in San Francisco and finished at the Paramount Theatre in New York. On August 28-29 The Beatles played at Forest Hills Stadium in New York and were befriended by Bob Dylan. The two parties were introduced by the writer Al Aronowitz at New York’s Delmonico Hotel.

After a brief chat with The Beatles, Bob Dylan asked John, Paul, Ringo, George, and Brian Epstein if they wanted to smoke a joint. Epstein looked apprehensive and said that the band hadn’t tried marijuana for years. Dylan was immediately surprised because he had been under the impression that they smoked weed because of the song I Want to Hold Your Hand. He mistook the lyrics “I can’t hide” with “I get high.”

The Beatles were never one to back down from a new experience and agreed. Lennon took the joint and passed it to Ringo whom he called his “royal taster.” Ringo smoked the entire thing, not knowing the tradition of sharing the joint between people. In response, Dylan rolled a joint for each of The Beatles and they smoked. During the event it was reported that Epstein said “I’m so high I’m on the ceiling. I’m up on the ceiling.” McCartney got more philosophical and asked Mal Evans to write down everything he was saying.

Ozzy Osbourne is one of the most controversial figures in the history of music. He has sold over 100 million albums and helped popularize the genre of heavy metal. Ozzy has been addicted to drugs for most of his life and experimented with a wide variety of substances. During his career, Osbourne has been involved with two separate incidents in which he bit the head of an animal. In 1981, after signing his first solo record deal, Osbourne bit the head off a dove. In 1982, he bit the head off a bat that he thought was plastic while performing in Des Moines, Iowa. After decapitating the bat Ozzy had to be treated for rabies.

In 1982, Ozzy Osbourne got drunk and urinated on a cenotaph erected in honor of those who died at the Alamo in Texas. He was arrested for the act and banned from the city of San Antonio for a decade. In 1984, Ozzy joined Mötley Crüe on the road and the tour has been called one of the “craziest drug- and alcohol-fueled tours in the history of rock and roll.” During their time in hotel rooms, Ozzy and Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe underwent a competition to see who could be the most extreme. After Sixx set himself on fire, Osbourne responded by snorting a line of ants off the pavement. After he snorted them up, some of the ants came out his mouth. The event was highlighted in a book written by Sharon Osbourne. Many accounts say that the ants were fire ants, but this is not confirmed.

David Bowie is an innovative English musician that has sold over 140 million albums. He is an extremely popular singer and has done a lot of work to help fight important world issues. In 1972, Bowie became one of the first popular singers to reveal to the public that he was bisexual. Bowie gave an interview that was broadcast around the world. Since that time he has bounced back and forth on the issue and remains married to Somali-American model Iman.

In 1970, David Bowie was married to a woman named Angela and the couple divorced in 1980. In 1990, after a ten-year gag order ended, Angela Bowie appeared on The Joan Rivers Show and gave some controversial details about her time with David. She is quoted: “I caught him in bed with men several times. In fact the best time I caught him in bed was with Mick Jagger.” At this point, Howard Stern, who was involved with the interview, asked Angela if Jagger and Bowie had their clothes off. She said: “They certainly did.” The accusation became international news and Jagger released a statement that dismissed the claim.

A week after the interview, Angela Bowie went on television and said that although she had seen Mick Jagger and Bowie naked, it didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t sleeping. She clarified: “I certainly didn’t catch anyone in the act.” Some people have linked the event to the 1973 Rolling Stones hit song Angie. However, David Bowie said it best: “About 15 or 16 years ago, I really got pretty tired of fending off questions about what I used to do with my penis in the early ’70s. My suggestion for people with a prurient interest is to go through the 30 or 40 bios on me and pick out the rumor of their choice.”

Keith Richards is one of the most talented guitarists in history. In 1962, he helped form The Rolling Stones and since that time the band has sold over 200 million records. Interestingly, Keith Richards regards the acoustic guitar as the basis for his playing, once saying that he felt the electric guitar would cause him to “lose that touch.” Richards is also a talented lyricist. The songwriting partnership of Jagger/Richards has been responsible for the majority of the catalog of The Rolling Stones.

In the 1970s, music journalist Nick Kent described the personality of Keith Richards as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” In 1994, Keith said that his image was “like a long shadow,” implying that people don’t know much about the real man, but instead focus on the things written in articles. Richards has a long history of drug abuse and has been tried for drug-related charges five times.

In April of 2006, Keith Richards made headlines when he fell out of a tree in Fiji and suffered a bad head injury. The event caused a delay in The Rolling Stones tour, but Richards made a full recovery. The following year Keith made international headlines after he was asked by a journalist what the strangest thing he ever snorted was. Keith responded: “My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared. It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”

The comment shocked the journalist and the story instantly became a media sensation. Keith’s manager responded with the statement that the anecdote had been a joke, but many feel the story is true. In the same interview Keith was asked about his most life-threatening drug experience and mentioned an event in which “Someone put strychnine (pesticide) in my dope. It was in Switzerland. I was totally comatose, but I was totally awake. I could listen to everyone, and they were like, he’s dead, he’s dead, waving their fingers and pushing me about. I was thinking I’m not dead.” Richards remembers: “I was number one on the Who’s list of people who were likely to die for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.”

One of the most notorious party animals of the 1980s was Mötley Crüe’s bassist Nikki Sixx. In 1981, Sixx founded Mötley Crüe with drummer Tommy Lee. To date Mötley Crüe has sold over 80 million records. In the 1980s, the band gained a reputation for drugs, loud music, sex, and wild parties. The group was known for backstage antics, groupies, outrageous clothing, extreme high-heeled boots, and heavily applied make-up. All the members of Mötley Crüe suffered from alcoholism and long addictions to drugs, but Sixx was the only one that abused heroin. Nikki Sixx has estimated that he overdosed on heroin “about half a dozen times.”

In 1986, Nikki Sixx overdosed on heroin at a drug dealer’s house in London. The dealer reportedly tried to beat the life back into Sixx with a bat, but was unsuccessful so he dumped the body in a nearby dumpster. Sixx eventually woke up in the trash. The event was the inspiration behind the lyric “Valentine’s in London, found me in the trash” from the Mötley Crüe song Dancing on Glass.
In 1987, Mötley Crüe was part of the Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction Tour. During the tour, Guns N’ Roses was the opening act for a number of poplar bands including Mötley Crüe. On the night of December 23, 1987, Nikki Sixx was doing heroin in guitarist Slash’s hotel room when he suffered a drug overdose. Slash was not in the room at the time, but his girlfriend called the authorities. When the paramedics arrived Sixx was hardly breathing.

During the ride to the hospital Sixx stopped breathing and was declared dead for two minutes. The paramedics continued to apply care to Sixx until he was eventually revived. Nikki claims to have had an out of body experience during the event. When he woke up in the hospital, Sixx ripped the tubes out of his nose and escaped into the parking lot. He hitched a ride to his house wearing just a pair of leather pants. He then continued to shoot up heroin and was found sleeping with the syringe still in his arm. Soon after the story made international news Mötley Crüe entered rehab. In 1989, the band released the hit single Kickstart My Heart, which was inspired by the infamous overdose.

Frank Zappa was an American musician that had a large impact on musical freedom. His father was Francesco Vincente Zappa who was an extremely intelligent chemist and mathematician who worked with the United States defense program. Zappa grew up near the Aberdeen Proving Ground and was regularly sick as child. He suffered from extreme asthma, earaches, and sinus problems caused by mustard gas exposure. Zappa’s upbringing gave him a negative stance on the use of chemical weapons. He often wrote references of germs, germ warfare, and the U.S. defense industry in his lyrics.

Frank Zappa was a great performer and his musical message was important, but deemed bizarre and strange by the media. His band’s debut album featured a song that asked Who Are the Brain Police? and in 1968 Zappa satirized the hippie culture as a motivation for money and profit. He was a charismatic personality and Zappa’s music was extremely popular in some European countries. He was also highly monitored by the U.S. government.

On December 4, 1971, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention were performing a concert at the Montreux Casino when a member of the audience decided to fire a flare gun into the rattan covered ceiling. The casino quickly caught fire and burned to the ground. All of Zappa’s equipment was lost, but he survived the fire. The event was the inspiration for the song Smoke on the Water by English rock band Deep Purple.

A week after the casino fire, Frank Zappa and The Mothers played at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with rented gear. During the encore of the show, an audience member rushed the stage and pushed Zappa into the concrete-floored orchestra pit. It was a long fall and Zappa was nearly killed. He suffered serious fractures, head trauma, and injuries to his back, legs, and neck. He crushed his larynx, which caused his voice to drop a third after healing. Zappa was lucky to survive the event and was forced to use a wheelchair for an extended period. The assailant was a man named Trevor Howell who told reporters that he believed Zappa was eying his girlfriend.

The two events had an emotional impact on Frank Zappa and he was concerned that someone was trying to murder him. After making a recovery, Zappa went on to have a successful career, but was regularly bashed by the U.S. media for his edgy lyrics. Frank Zappa is quoted: “What do you make of a society that is so primitive that it clings to the belief that certain words in its language are so powerful that they could corrupt you the moment you hear them?”

In 1990, Frank Zappa was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and the disease killed him in 1993. For some reason he was buried in an unmarked grave in Los Angeles. Many people have wondered why Zappa was not given a gravestone for identification. Some theories suggest a family request or evidence of mustard gas exposure Zappa experienced as a child.

Iggy Pop is one of the most flamboyant performers in the history of music. He has an incredible stage presence and has given credit to Jim Morrison for introducing him to a free attitude and wild stage antics. Iggy Pop is credited with being the first performer to do a stage-dive. Some of his more descriptive exploits include rolling around in broken glass, exposing himself to the crowd, and vomiting on stage. He has been known to spark riots and has the ability to whip the crowd into frenzy.

On February 9, 1974 The Stooges performed at Detroit’s Michigan Palace. It was the band’s last show together before they broke up for three decades. Before the 1974 concert, Pop gave a radio interview in which he challenged a Detroit motorbike gang (the Scorpions) to a fight. He called them all a bunch of cats. In response, the gang attended the show and pelted the band with broken glass, beer jugs, urine, eggs, ice, jelly beans, and shovels. Despite the hostility, Iggy continued to taunt the crowd and said: “You pricks can throw everything in the world… your girlfriend will still love me.”

The Stooges fed off the crowd’s anger and continued to perform. During the show Iggy finally told the bikers: “All right you assholes, want to hear Louie, Louie, we’ll give it to you.” The Stooges continued to play a forty-five-minute version of Louie Louie, which included improvised lyrics by Pop. During the song he continued to yell and verbally assault the gang.

The concert finally ended after Iggy Pop focused his attention on one particular heckler and said: “Listen, asshole, you heckle me one more time and I’m gonna come down there and kick your ass.” The biker told Pop to come over, so Iggy jumped off the stage and confronted him. The biker continued to beat the crap out of Iggy, which ended the event. Luckily, the concert was captured on a reel-to-reel tape machine and recorded live. In 1976, The Stooges released the recording in an album titled Metallic K.O. It is the only rock album where you can hear beer bottles breaking against guitar strings. The album remains a favorite among Iggy Pop fans.

Jim Morrison was one of the most charismatic singers in the history of rock music. He was a smart man and had a genius-level I.Q. of 149. Morrison was a great poet and was known for using spoken word poetry passages during his live performances. Jim would sing and then talk with the crowd. He was a social rebel that suffered from severe drug and alcohol abuse. Morrison had the ability to spark riots and shifted the behavior of a crowd with his intense emotional sound. For this reason, Jim became a target for music censorship and was closely monitored by the U.S. government. He was accompanied by police on stage during many venues.

Jim Morrison was known for making wild and outrageous remarks during shows. One of the most infamous cases occurred on December 9, 1967, while The Doors performed at the New Haven Arena in Connecticut. During the concert Morrison was arrested by local police and became the first rock star to be taken off stage during a live performance. On the day in question, Morrison was discovered kissing a fan in the shower before the concert. A police officer found the couple and told them to separate, so Morrison responded “Eat it.” The policeman warned Morrison with mace saying “Last chance” to which he replied, “Last chance to eat it.” In response, the officer sprayed Jim Morrison in the face with the mace.

The New Haven concert was delayed for an hour so Jim could recover, but the event made him extremely angry. During The Doors first set Morrison suddenly broke into an obscenity-laced tirade to the audience and explained what had happened backstage. He verbally abused the New Haven police, so they arrested him. After Morrison was taken off stage the crowd began to riot. The violence spilled from the gates of the New Haven Arena into the streets.

Over the next couple years the behavior of Jim Morrison became more erratic and unpredictable. On March 1, 1969, The Doors gave their most controversial performance at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami. During the show Morrison began to preach messages of peace and hate. He taunted the crowd by screaming “You’re all a bunch of idiots. What are you gonna do about it?” Then he said: “Let’s see a little skin, let’s get naked.” In response, people began to take off their clothing, including Morrison. Jim was later convicted of indecent exposure. He turned down a plea bargain from the Miami police who agreed to drop the charges if The Doors performed a free concert.

The Doors gave there last public performance with Jim Morrison at The Warehouse in New Orleans on December 12, 1970. During the show, Morrison experienced a breakdown on stage and slammed the microphone numerous times into the floor until the platform beneath was destroyed. He then sat down on the ground and refused to perform for the remainder of the show. The event caused The Doors to end their live acts, citing their mutual agreement that Morrison was ready to retire from performing.

When Keith Moon was 17 years-old he joined The Who and replaced drummer Doug Sandom. He immediately impacted the band’s sound and became known for his innovative drumming style. Along with Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and John Entwistle, Moon would help The Who become one of the most popular bands of the 1960s and 1970s. The group was known for explosive concerts and destructive behavior. The first such performance occurred in 1964 at the Railway Tavern in Harrow and Wealdstone, London, when Townshend accidentally broke the head of his guitar through the ceiling, so he continued to smash it on stage and the crowd loved it. More people came back the next night wanting the band to smash and break something.

Keith Moon had no problem fitting in with the lifestyle of a rock star. He had an erratic personality and gained the nickname “Moon the Loon.” In one famous performance Moon filled his clear acrylic drums with water and goldfish, and dressed like a cat. He was a jokester and Moon’s ability to make his bandmates laugh around the vocal microphone led to him being banished from the studio when albums were being recorded. In response, Moon would sneak into the studio and join in the singing. He can be heard on several tracks, including Bell Boy, Bucket T, and Barbara Ann. He is the high backing vocals on Pictures of Lily.

Keith Moon was known to demolish hotel rooms and was incredibly destructive. He would often throw furniture from high buildings and set objects on fire. However, his favorite hobby was blowing up toilets with explosives. The blasts would destroy the toilet and often times disrupt plumbing to the hotel. It has been estimated that Moon’s destruction of toilets and plumbing ran as high as UK£300,000 (US$500,000). Moon was banned from several hotel chains including all Holiday Inn, all Sheraton, all Hilton Hotels, and the Waldorf Astoria.

According to Tony Fletcher’s biography, Moon was quoted: “All that porcelain flying through the air was quite unforgettable.” Fletcher wrote: “no toilet in a hotel or changing room was safe,” until Moon had detonated his supply of explosives. In one case, hotel management asked Moon to turn down his cassette player. In response, he asked the manager up to his room and blew up the toilet right in front of him. Moon then turned the cassette player back up and said: “This is The Who.”

In 1967, Keith Moon allegedly drove a Cadillac or Lincoln Continental into a Holiday Inn pool. In 1973, The Who was performing at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and Moon passed out during the show. Townshend noticed that he was sleeping and asked the audience, “Can anyone play the drums? I mean somebody good.” An audience member named Scot Halpin stepped up and finished the concert for Moon.

Ringo Starr once told Keith Moon that his lifestyle would eventually kill him. Moon simply replied “Yeah, I know.” Keith Moon died on September 7, 1978 (age 32) after he ingested 32 tablets of clomethiazole (Heminevrin). The digestion of six pills was sufficient to cause his death. The other 26 were found undissolved in his stomach. This caused some to speculate that Moon’s death might have been on purpose. Officially it was ruled a drug overdose.

The Edgewater is a hotel in Seattle, Washington that is located on a pier over Elliott Bay. It is currently the only hotel in Seattle that sits over-water. In the 1960s the Edgewater became a popular destination for famous rock stars. Some of the bands to visit the hotel include the Beatles in 1964, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, and Led Zeppelin. The Edgewater is unique because in the past it allowed customers to fish from their rooms on the north elevation.

On July 27, 1969, Led Zeppelin performed at the Seattle Pop Festival and stayed at the Edgewater. The band was known to have wild parties and was often joined by groupies. According to Zeppelin’s road manager Richard Cole, during one incident, things between a fish and a sexy red head got a bit intimate. On the day in question, Cole was in his room fishing with drummer John Bonham when they were joined by some women. Cole and Bonham had caught a large collection of sharks, at least two dozen, stuck coat hangers through the gills and then left them in the closet. The hotel room was also scattered with various types of smaller fish.

As parties go, one thing led to another and people began to lose their clothing. One particular woman in the crowd with red hair found herself with Cole. She made a unique request, so he decided to reach for a fish and the shark episode was born. Cole was later quoted: “Let’s see how your red snapper likes this red snapper. It was the nose of the fish and the girl liked it. There was nothing malicious or harmful and Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge filmed the whole thing. After the story was published by the media a large collection of rumors began to circulate, but many were exaggerated. The band received bad press so they stopped talking about the event.

In 1973, Led Zeppelin returned to the Edgewater and the band was officially banned from the hotel after it was discovered that they had caught some 30 mudsharks and left them under beds, in closets, elevators, hallways, bathtubs, and all over their rooms. They threw stuff out the windows into Elliott Bay, including beds, TVs, mattresses, lamps, drapes, and glassware. Since that time Robert Plant has been welcomed back to the Edgewater. The mudshark incident remains one of the most popular rock stories from the 1960s.

I have a difficult time including Courtney Love in the presence of these rock stars, but I don’t have a problem calling her crazy. Courtney Love is a musician that gained notoriety in the late 1980s with her band Hole. She was married to Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain until he passed away in 1994. Love is known for extreme and erratic behavior. She has been implemented by a private investigator named Tom Grant in the possible murder of Cobain.

In the weeks prior to Kurt Cobain’s suicide Love hired Tom Grant to find her husband. After Kurt was discovered dead, Green said that he found strange activity on Cobain’s credit card. He believed that Kurt’s suicide note was actually a note written that was announcing his desire to end his marriage to Courtney Love. Green also cited Cobain’s unusual bloodstream heroin levels and the fact that no fingerprints were found on the trigger of the shotgun he used to kill himself as clues of foul play.

In 2009, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Frances Bean Cobain was granted a restraining order against her mother who was harassing her. Frances claimed that Courtney was a violent drug addict and compulsive hoarder. She was freighted for her safety and hoped to have her mother removed from her life.

In April of 2012, Courtney Love took to Twitter and provided a rant of crazy remarks. She attacked her daughter and Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana bandmate. Love implied that Grohl had intended to have a sexual relationship with Frances and called him “sexually obsessed” with Kurt Cobain. She even voiced her opinion about the upcoming U.S. presidential election and attacked Mitt Romney with some unprovoked and strange accusations.

Courtney threatened to shoot and kill Grohl on two separate occasions. The rant was unprovoked and completely false. Frances is currently engaged to a man named Isaiah Silva. After the comments, Frances responded and said that the social networking website should ban her mother. Grohl said: “Unfortunately Courtney is on another hateful Twitter rant. These new accusations are upsetting, offensive, and absolutely untrue.”

The post Top 10 True Rock Music Stories appeared first on Listverse.

This song is best (only?) known as being the first video on Mtv. An argument can be made that this and the version by The Buggles are the same exact song since Bruce wrote it with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes who would later form The Buggles. However, since this was released first and has Thomas Dolby on keyboards, I’m crediting it as the original.

A moderate hit for Hawkins and released just as what would eventually be Creedence Clearwater Revival was in its infacy, it became the first hit for CCR eleven years later as their first single of their first album. CCR reworked the song specifically for airplay on KMPX, an alternative radio station in San Francisco.

I’ve always thought that The Doors’ song Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar) didn’t sound like their regular work and I’ve found out why. The song was written in 1925 by Bertolt Brecht and set to music in 1927 by Kurt Weill who was probably not on drugs when it was written. The song was written in English for the German operetta Mahagonny and was sung by his wife Lotte Lenya (who sounds a lot like Lili von Schtupp). The song was later used in the full opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny being the only non-German song. That’s right, despite being written by a German for German musical theater, it is supposed to be sung in English and makes an almost perfect drinking song.

An absolutely perfect song for its circumstances. Named for the movie that it appeared in, it could not be sung by anyone else other than Boy George (If you haven’t seen the movie I won’t spoil it for you). The plaintive singing sets up perfectly the mood of the film as key plot points play out. At least this is what a lot of people think but the song was around for almost 30 years before the movie was named after the song and not the other way around. While emotional in its own way, I’m sure you’ll agree it has a very different feel that the more well-know 1992 version.

Let’s be perfectly honest here. In the 50’s and 60’s there were many little known R&B songs that were quickly redone in another style by a different singer that became more mainstream. You can attribute that to American society and racial views at that time or you can use it to show the influence R&B has had on American music development. Either way, here is a song that was fairly popular on the R&B charts but became a classic when Janis Joplin sang it a year later with her band Big Brother and the Holding Company.

With many of these songs, the unknown original and the famous cover sound very similar and are easily identifiable as the same song. The original Twist and Shout by Top Notes sounds nothing like the cover done by The Beatles. The interesting things is that many people think they have heard the original song by the Isley Brothers which sounds like the Beatles’ version but nope, that was a reworking of the Top Notes song as produced by Phil Spector in one of his first assignments as a record producer. The songwriter Burt Berns hated what Spector did with the song and gave it to the Isley Brothers to redo.

We all know that Elvis did not write his own music and that also in the 1950’s a lot of singers would sing the same songs so it should be no surprise that he was not the first to sing Hound Dog. The song was originally done by Big Mama Thornton and reached number one on the R&B charts with Elvis’ version coming out four years later. I would be natural to think that Elvis did a cover of Thornton’s song but that’s not exactly true. Notice how some of the lyrics are different between Thornton’s and Elvis’ and that some of the more famous lines seem to be missing from Thornton’s version? That’s because Elvis did a cover of the Freddie Bell version done in Las Vegas where Bell changed a few of the lyrics.

One argument about music that everyone can take a side on is whether or not Lauryn Hill’s cover of Killing Me Softly was better than the original version from Roberta Flack. Flack’s song reached number one on the charts and took home three Grammy Awards – two for Flack and one for the song itself and this version of the song was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Lauren Hill’s cover won a Grammy for her group The Fugees and helped the album The Score win a Grammy as well. It reached number two in the US and number one in the UK.

But this is not the only controversy associated with the song. Lori Lieberman claims to have inspired the song based on a poem she wrote about Don McLean but lyricist Norman Gimbel and music writer Charles Fox disagree and say that Lori talked about the song and Don McLean after they had written it.

Wait! Who?

Lori Lieberman, a Jennifer Aniston lookalike, sang the original version of the song a year before Roberta Flack catapulted it into the national consciousness. While Flack’s version is soul, Lieberman’s is pure early 70’s folk music.

Besides being a music polymath, Prince is probably best know for forming bands and making pancakes. Besides his more famous girl bands, Prince (well OK, really his bassist) formed the R&B boy-band Mazarati. If you’re one of the four people that have ever heard of them, then you are familiar with their one hit 100 MPH. That’s because there was another song that they wrote based on a short demo Prince gave them. They expanded the lyrics and wrote the music and it was such a great song that Prince decided he wanted to do the song so he took the song and songwriting credit and as a result, Mazarati did not release the number one and Grammy Award winning song “Kiss” on their album, although to be fair, the Grammy was for Prince’s performance and not the song itself.

OK, I’ll be honest with you. You are not going to hear the famous line “The lion sleeps tonight.” What you will hear is the song done under the original title “Mbube” with the famous style of singing that was actually named for this song that was recorded in 1939 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Starting with Pete Seeger, the song was repeatedly covered and redone. The value of the royalties alone were around $15 million. The song wasn’t copyrighted because back then (unlike today) you had to actively copyright your work – but it wasn’t public domain either and to make things worse, Gallo Records was not interested in protecting Linda’s interests. Pete Campbell – in reality an alias for a team of producers associated with Pete Seeger and the Weavers but not Seeger himself who always supported Linda’s rights – was in the business of claiming the copyright for older songs as his own. He did the same with the now renamed “Wimoweh” and the publishers made a mint while Linda made a pittance (even counting the 10 shillings he sold the song for to Gallo), dying broke in 1962. However under British law, all of the ownership rights went back to Linda’s estate in 1987 – in time to cash in (after a lawsuit of course) on its use in The Lion King.

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Pink Floyd Pig Disappears During Concert, Safely Returned.

Starting off the list rather light, this concert was surely messed up (at least for one man); during Coachella 2008, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd unveiled his floating, politically-charged, Obama-endorsing pig during a rendition of the Floyd song “Pigs,” from the anti-greed album Animals. Soon thereafter, the pig floated away into the night with waters telling the crowd “that’s my pig.” It obviously meant a lot to Waters as the owners of two driveways on which the pig found its way and ultimately landed were offered a $10,000 reward. The irony of the matter is, who else could afford to offer such a large sum of money but someone directly benefited by a capitalist society? To be fair, it is a pretty sweet-looking pig.

Kings of Leon Cancel Show Due to Inclement Bird Droppings.

On July 23rd at the Verizon Ampitheater in St. Louis Missouri, The Kings of Leon had to cancel their show due to an intolerable torrential downpour – not of rain – of bird poop. And try as they did to trudge on, bassist Jared Followill threw in the towel after he claims some droppings found their way into his mouth. He said, “I was hit by pigeons on each of the first three songs. We had 20 songs on the set list. By the end of the show, I would have been covered from head to toe.” While concert-goers were reimbursed, it seems this kind of unforeseeable circumstance was rather unprecedented. How many pigeons could there possible have been? Followill said, “The last thing I was going to do was look up … but if that was only a couple, we must have caught them right after a big Thanksgiving dinner.”

Big Valley Jamboree Stage Collapses.

August 2009 during a Canadian country music festival called Big Valley Jamboree, a gush of wind blew down the main stage, like the Big Bad Wolf were merely blowing down a house of sticks. The result, one death by a falling speaker and upwards of 60 injuries. Also, a handful of lawsuits against contractors who failed to ensure a proper level of safety. What’s most surprising is how few people were actually killed, given how dramatic and terrifying the whole scene was, at least according to the video footage. But you’ll also notice how fast concert-goers fled at the first signs of collapse, only to fall back in to assist any possible victims.

Hell’s Angels Do Security Detail for Rolling Stones, Goes Awry for Some Reason.

The date is December 6th, 1968. The place, Altamont Speedway Free Festival, which along with the Stones, featured some Woodstock notables. The show, less than about peace and free love, turned nasty however in the middle of the Stones’ performance of “Under My Thumb.” Hired as a form of rudimentary security and paid with $500 worth of beer, the Hells Angels got into a scuffle with one individual who attempted to rush the stage. The Angels saw to it, through the use of violence, that he didn’t get very far, and when he – while high on meth at the time – went to pull out a revolver, they stabbed and stomped him to death. Other incidental deaths and property damage took place, but nothing was quite as gruesome as this scene. Meanwhile on stage, the Stones finished up their set as if nothing had happened. The Grateful Dead however, scheduled to perform right after them, decided to pull out. (It seems they weren’t so interested in becoming grateful.)

“Dimebag” Darryl Murdered Onstage by Deranged Concert-Goer.

“Dimebag” Darryl Abbott, co-founding guitarist of the recently split up heavy metal band Pantera, was performing with his new band Damageplan on December 8, 2004 in Columbus, Ohio. While doing so, a member of the audience leapt onstage, gun in hand and shot Abbott three times in the head, the third immediately fatal. This individual, who from written accounts appeared to believe from their lyrics that the members of Pantera could read his mind and were laughing at him, continued firing, killing three more people (including the band’s head of security who had leapt upon him) and wounding seven more, as he had brought an ample supply of ammunition for the occasion. Ultimately, he was subdued by way of a shotgun blast to the face after cops rushed in.

Korn Concert Attendee Beaten Brain-Dead.

On the Atlanta, Georgia date of Korn’s 2006 Family Values Tour (irony), a man asked some excessively drunk moshers to be careful around his pregnant girlfriend (as a well as a mentally-impaired child who was with them), only to be slammed headfirst onto concrete and left unconscious and bloody. While declared dead (being effectively brain-dead and on life support to preserve organs for donation), police launched a full-on homicide investigation as they deemed the incident a proper murder.

Death, Destruction, and Sexual Assault at Woodstock ’99.

The return of Woodstock led countless baby boomers to believe their day had come once more; flashbacks deep in their spinal chords to the days of peace, love, and understanding …and being trampled to death? Out was the love-promoting sounds of Jefferson Airplane and the Mamas and the Papas, in was the fear and hatred of Nine Inch Nails, Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Bush. Especially during Limp Bizkit’s set, utter and primal chaos ensued; during the song “Break Stuff,” people did just that, and it was reported that a bodysurfing woman had been gang raped. Aside from myriad counts of sexual assault, rapists running free, bonfires and unrestrained carnage and humans being trampled to death ensued, as if the stage for the apocalypse had a distinct grunge and nu-metal tinge.

Pearl Jam Concert-Goers Crushed to Death.

June 30th, 2000, Roskilde rock and dance festival in Denark. Several fans slipped on the muddy earth only to be steamrolled by an overzealous mob. About 8 or 9 died, while 26 more where injured by the human avalanche. Upon hearing of this, Pearl Jam stopped their set abruptly and the Cure, scheduled to follow, canceled as well.

Who Fans Crushed, Unable to See Show.

In December of 1979, the Who played the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio to fans who were way to eager to get in the door. While general admission seating was on a first come, first serve basis, several fans rushed the doors (which were closed to prevent concert stowaways) as they mistook a soundcheck for the beginning of the show. As layers of humans compressed before the hermetically-sealed entrances, so did the lungs of those who were trampled beneath the impending wall-ward stampede. Eleven fans were literally dying to see the showing (many others injured).

Great White Pyrotechnics Misfire, Fans Suffer.

Just a few days ago (May 18th), Great White released an album called Elation, which goes to show that the band can still find pleasure in the face of great tragedy. Great White are an prototypical eighties trash rock band, with the hair and stage theatrics to match. Unfortunately on one night back in 2003, their insistence upon flashy visuals ended in panic and horror at Station nightclub. A fire was caused by some unruly – not to mention indoor – pyrotechnics which ignited the highly flammable sound insulation which enveloped the place. With blocked exits, thick smoke, and a veritable hellfire, 100 people died, while 230 more were injured. In spite of one of Great White’s comeback venues becoming a literal deathtrap, the band presses on, releasing albums and touring as if it never happened. They still, as it turns out, have a capacity for elation, some might drown to self-loathing guilt and alcohol. Well, they might still do the latter, as that goes with the territory: rock and roll! (That is, after you “stop” and “drop” first.)

The post Top 10 Rock Concerts that Were Just Messed Up appeared first on Listverse.

Lennon was regularly battered by the press in the United States who fabricated stories to make him look bad. This trend has continued to the present day with hundreds of online articles giving material about isolated events in the life of Lennon and making false claims about his true personality. John Lennon was a musical pioneer and peaceful man. He helped introduce the world to rock & roll and free thought. For this, we will forever be grateful.

In a time of national struggle, mourning, and suffering we always turn to the music and message of John Lennon. On October 2, 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a television fundraiser titled Come Together: A Night for John Lennon’s Words and Music was broadcast in the U.S. The event was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and dedicated to the people of New York. Thousands of spectators gathered and celebrated the message of John Lennon’s music.

A large number of popular musicians came out to attend the concert and perform Lennon’s most famous songs. The lineup included Sean Lennon, Rufus Wainwright, Alanis Morissette, Nelly Furtado, Stone Temple Pilots, Marc Anthony, Moby, Natalie Merchant, Cyndi Lauper, Lou Reed, Dave Mathews, and Kevin Spacey.

Spacey performed Lennon’s song Mind Games, which features the famous line: “Make love, not war.” Before his performance, Spacey said: “John Lennon was many things to many people, a poet, a rocker, a leader, a troublemaker, a father, a husband, a man. Growing up, to me, he was a hero. The work of John Lennon was marked by its exquisite beauty and by its brutal honesty. So in that vein, let me say, that while I’m both deeply honored to be here — I’m also incredibly pissed-off. I’m outraged because this passionate prophet of peace and so many others are not with us here — because we live in an all-too-violent world. And so in the spirit of this occasion it is up to all of us, to do what we can, not only to keep John’s songs alive, but help rebuild New York.”

When Beatlemania exploded in the middle of the 1960s, John Lennon was the target of unwarranted attacks by the media. He was asked absurd questions about his lyrical motivation. The pressure eventually took a toll and The Beatles stopped giving interviews or live shows. Lennon became interested in expanding his musical output and moved away from writing pop hits. This was met with hostility by the band’s corporate partners, who were only interested in making money. This was also met with hostility by Paul McCartney.

After the group disbanded in April of 1970, John Lennon did not focus his attention on material goods and moved toward spiritualism. Lennon and Yoko Ono undertook primal therapy with the guidance of Arthur Janov. McCartney released his first solo album titled McCartney in April of 1970. On December 11, 1970, John Lennon released his first solo album titled John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. It was a major success and showed Lennon’s versatility. On December 31, 1970, Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit against the other three Beatles in London’s High Court for dissolution of a contractual partnership.

When asked how he would trace the breakup of The Beatles Lennon said: “After Brian (Epstein) died, we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us, but what is leading us, when we went round in circles? That was the disintegration.”

A large number of false claims have been written about the true personality of John Lennon. Despite his incredible contributions to the world of music, some authors have attacked his character and falsified stories in order to sell books. In regard to woman, Cynthia Lennon wrote in her biography that John had knocked her head against the wall, which is unacceptable, but some authors have taken this information and written detailed accounts that are simply not true. John Lennon loved woman and often wrote about his admiration.

In the 1981 hit single Woman, Lennon wrote “Woman I can hardly express, my mixed emotions and thoughtlessness. After all I’m forever in your debt and woman I will try to express my inner feelings and thankfulness for showing me the meaning of success. Woman please let me explain I never meant to cause you sorrow or pain, I love you.” I think this quote is representative of a good-hearted man.

With the expansion of the Internet, some people have taken it upon themselves to publish material that was found in some bizarre books, like one written by a man named Albert Goldman. Goldman made some crazy claims about Lennon. Albert Goldman said that John Lennon was schizophrenic and a cold-blooded killer. That is ridiculous. All of these lies have caused some uneducated people to look back at Lennon’s music legacy in a false light, which only darkens the situation. Lennon once said: “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”

As people reach new milestones in life, they learn from past experiences and change unhealthy habits. People grow, repent, and often times look for forgiveness. John Lennon had a rough childhood. He was born during the start of World War II and never really knew his father. When Alfred Lennon returned from battle in 1944, Julia Lennon was pregnant with another man’s child. John Lennon was forced to move in with his maternal aunt Mimi Smith, who was often dismissive of his musical ambitions and girlfriends. On July 15, 1958, when Lennon was 17-years-old, his mother was struck by a car and killed after visiting John’s home.

John Lennon’s first son Julian was born in 1963, during a decade when his father was one of the most popular musicians in the world. John was extremely busy writing music, performing live shows, and he was at the center of important world issues, including war and religion. Lennon tried to make time for his son, but it was a difficult. John even dedicated a collection of Beatles songs to Julian, including Good Night, which was originally written by Lennon as a lullaby.

Many people have highlighted a collection of quotes made by Julian after his father’s death. He said that Paul McCartney was more of a father than John, but this stance has since changed. In 2011, Julian wrote on his Facebook page about being snubbed by Paul McCartney. He is quoted: “What have I done to be ignored in such a way?” and even threatened “maybe now it’s time to tell the truth, me and my mother will not be eradicated from history.” Apparently, Julian was not invited to a collection of intimate gatherings. In 1975, when John Lennon was given the second chance of raising a boy, he put his musical career on hold and became a good father to Sean Lennon.

John Lennon demanded attention when he spoke. People wanted to know what he was feeling and his stance on certain issues. This is one of the reasons it was so sad when John Lennon was murdered. People will never again get the opportunity hear what this man was thinking. We are going to take a look at some of Lennon’s most important quotes.

“Everything is clearer when you’re in love.”
“For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands and the rest of you, if you’ll, just rattle your jewelry.”
“Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn’t been an Elvis, there wouldn’t have been the Beatles.”
“Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary.”
“We’re trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks. And it’s the only way to get people aware that peace is possible.”
“When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody’s noticed. Either I’m a genius or I’m mad, which is it? I can’t be mad because nobody’s put me away, therefore I’m a genius.”
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”
“I don’t mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore.”
“I’d like to say “thank you” on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition.”
“I hope I’m living off the coast of Ireland or something like that, looking at a scrapbook of madness.”

John Lennon loved musical technology and was extremely important in bringing certain techniques to the front. In the 1960s, the Beatles helped influence the way music was recorded. The band had a strong impact on the evolution of sound, including techniques such as audio feedback, sampling, Artificial Double Tracking, and the use of multitrack recording machines. John Lennon was a musical master and would spend countless hours in the studio experimenting with new ideas.

In the early 1960s, Lennon demanded to know why the bass on a certain Wilson Pickett record far exceeded the bass on any Beatles records. This caused the group to experiment with a loudspeaker and microphone. For Paperback Writer McCartney said: “we boosted the bass by using a loudspeaker as a microphone. We positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker.” This caused the moving diaphragm of the second speaker to make electric current. “It was the first time that the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement.”

Audio feedback is a musical technique which includes adding a sound loop between an audio input and output. In the early 1960s, Lennon experimented with audio feedback and the song I Feel Fine (1964) was the first single to use guitar feedback on a record. Specifically, Lennon put his acoustic electric guitar against an amplifier and the ‘A’ string on McCartney’s bass gave feedback causing distortion. Artists such as The Kinks and The Who had already used feedback live, but The Beatles were the first to put it on vinyl.

In the middle of the 1960s, John Lennon asked an engineer at Abbey Road Studio named Ken Townsend if there was a way for the Beatles to get the sound of double-tracked vocals without actually doing the work. Townsend devised Artificial Double Tracking or “ADT” and Lennon named the process “flanging.” ADT greatly influenced recording and Lennon was a master of it. Today, the process is widely used and known as automatic double tracking. John Lennon was also instrumental in popularizing the concept of backmasking. The first song to feature a backmasking message was Rain, which was released by The Beatles in June 1966.

Between the years of 1962 to 1970, The Beatles released 27 songs that went to #1 in the United Kingdom or the United States. 26 of these songs are attributed to the songwriting partnership of Lennon-McCartney. In fact, Lennon-McCartney is the most successful songwriting duo in history. When they were teenagers, John and Paul agreed that their songs would be credited to both parties.

In the early 1960s, Lennon and McCartney would often work “eyeball to eyeball” and bounce ideas off each other while writing songs. In a breakdown of these 27 #1 hit singles, 14 are thought to have been written primarily by McCartney, 7 by Lennon, 5 as collaboration, and 1 by George Harrison. It was rare that a song was published without some input from both Lennon and McCartney. During this time in history, the Lennon-McCartney writing style was unique and controversial. Their lyrical prowess was innovative and The Beatles helped spawn a new era of popular music.

In many of The Beatles songs, John Lennon writes about friendship, love, happiness, peace, and freedom. Some of his most famous lyrical masterpieces are Imagine, Come Together, All You Need is Love, I Feel Fine, Across the Universe, In My Life, Nowhere Man, and Strawberry Field Forever. John Lennon was a master of arrangement and understood how to develop of hit single. Later in his career, he wrote protest songs that examined world issues.

There is no question that John Lennon’s overall message remains 32 years after his death. “When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

In the 1960s, the spread of rock music had a powerful impact on society. Unlike anything government officials had seen before, music began to influence life activities, goals, fashion, attitudes, and even language. The Beatles became social giants and whatever they said or did was acceptable, especially for young people. The band taught people how to celebrate freedom and changed social norms. Their expression helped pave the way for modern individuality in music.

It was important for John Lennon to get his message of peace across to children. In 1969, Lennon was at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto when he came across a 14-year-old boy named Jerry Levitan who was attempting to meet his idol. Levitan said to Lennon: “John, can I come back later and bring a tape recorder and do an interview on peace, so I can let kids listen to it?” Lennon replied: “Yeah, great! Yoko, Derek, this kid has a good idea, he’s going to do an interview and take it to his school. That’s why we’re doing this! It’s great, great, great! Set it up!”

The next day Levitan returned and interviewed John Lennon for 30 minutes. Lennon was very nice and discussed his mission of peace and views on war. He is quoted: “Ask them to show you one revolution that turned out to be what they promised. Protest, but protest nonviolently because violence begets violence.” In 2007, Jerry Levitan produced a short 5 minute animated film with excerpts from the conversation. It won a collection of awards and is a must watch.

John Lennon has one of the most unique voices in the history of music. His instinctive sound is immediately identifiable, similar to Jagger, Dylan, and Mercury. Lennon performed the lead vocals on a number of Beatles songs without McCartney, including All You Need is Love, Help, Come Together, Baby, You’re a Rich Man, I Feel Fine, Rain, Revolution, Ticket to Ride, Twist and Shout, You Can’t Do That, Real Love, and I Should Have Known Better. Lennon and McCartney also shared the lead vocals on a large collection of #1 singles.

John Lennon is not known for having a finely tuned vocal range and didn’t use a coach. He had a soothing tone and used raspy interpretations in his lyrics. Lennon had more edge to his sound than McCartney and helped make The Beatles unique. John was known for his strong emotional singing and performances. Paul McCartney is also a great singer. The pair used their strengths to produce an amazing collaboration. John Lennon was also interested in altering his recorded voice to produce new sounds.

Lennon was a musical master and capable of playing a wide range of instruments. He wasn’t as good a guitar player as George Harrison, but who is. Lennon strongly contributed to the band’s sound. Lennon was once asked if he was a great guitarist and replied: “It depends on what kind of guitarist. I’m okay, I’m not technically good, but I can make it howl and move. I was rhythm guitarist. It’s an important job. I can make a band drive.” He later said: “I’m really very embarrassed about my guitar playing, in one way, because it’s very poor. I wish I could do it like B.B. King. If you would put me with B.B. King, I would feel real silly. I’m an artist, and if you give me a tuba, I’ll bring you something out of it.”

In the summer of 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War protest movement, John Lennon wrote and recorded a song simply titled “Give Peace a Chance.” The song became an international hit and fueled a large collection of anti-war protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At this time in history, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were important peace activists. They organized famous rallies and developed protest concepts such as bagism (wearing a bag) and bed peace.

The protests even caught the attention of the U.S. government and John Lennon experienced harassment from the CIA. In 1973, he was sent a deportation notice, informing Lennon that “his temporary stay in the USA was now over.” This ruling was later overturned after Richard Nixon left office. In 1976, Lennon received his “green card” certifying his permanent residency in the U.S.

On October 15, 1969, the song Give Peace a Chance was sung by 500,000 demonstrators in Washington, DC at the Vietnam Moratorium Day. The protest was led by singer Pete Seeger, who shouted phrases between the chorus such as, “Are you listening, Nixon?” and “Are you listening, Agnew?” In 1971, Lennon released the popular protest song Happy Xmas (War Is Over). In 1972, he participated in the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, which was in support of John Sinclair who was given a ten year jail sentence for the possession of two marijuana cigarettes. When you examine a list of influential protest singers, John Lennon is one of the most important.

The post Top 10 Reasons to Admire John Lennon appeared first on Listverse.

There’s simply no way of disputing this: the revered icon of peace and love had a serious problem with violence against women. This has been documented all the way back to his Liverpool days, and he eventually admitted it himself later in life. His first wife Cynthia and his second, Yoko Ono, were both victims of Lennon’s brutality at one point or another, and given that most men who beat their spouses or girlfriends regularly are not particularly discriminating about the object of their violence, it’s frankly impossible that they were the only ones. It seems clear in hindsight that the gentle icon the hippies worship was actually a man with very serious psychological problems who often flew into uncontrollable fits of rage which he took out on the women in his life.

Without question, the greatest victim of Lennon’s character failings was his oldest son, Julian. Lennon clearly resented the young boy whose conception had forced him into a marriage he didn’t want and trapped him in a domestic routine he was too immature and narcissistic to sustain. Both Julian and his mother Cynthia have publicly stated that Lennon was alternately absent, indifferent, drug-addled, and generally unpleasant to be around during Julian’s early childhood. After he divorced Cynthia, Lennon took off with Yoko Ono and dropped out of his son’s life for years. After they reconnected, Lennon severely emotionally abused his son on several occasions, berating and screaming at him until the boy was reduced to tears. Once, Julian giggled and Lennon shouted back, “I hate the way you fucking laugh!” Julian was not yet a teenager at the time. In perhaps the saddest statement ever made about Lennon, Julian later stated that Paul McCartney was more of a father to him than his real father was.

Put simply, John Lennon made up his own life – exaggerating, embellishing, and outright lying when it suited him to do so. Usually, he did so out of pure egomania – a desire to make himself appear better than he actually was. Everyone does this to some extent, but in Lennon’s case, he rewrote almost every major event in his life to suit his tastes. He claimed he had been a working class lad from Liverpool before the Beatles; he was actually raised in a comfortable middle-class home. He denied being married during his early years of stardom. He claimed to have met Yoko Ono at an art show and their love blossomed spontaneously; in fact, Ono had stalked him for months before he gave in to her advances. He claimed to have lost interest in the Beatles due to Paul McCartney’s tendencies toward pop music and dominant role in the group, as well as his desire to do his more avant-garde work outside the band; in fact, he had all but left the band in its last two years as the result of a serious addiction to heroin. When he emerged back into the public eye shortly before his death, he claimed that he had been spending time baking bread and being a stay-at-home dad; in fact, he had been living in a drug-induced haze most of the time. The truth in all of these cases was embarrassing, but no more than the kind of behavior many rock stars acknowledged engaging in during the ‘60s and ‘70s; Lennon compulsively lied about it anyway.

Contrary to later tales of a spontaneous break and/or the decision by Paul McCartney to leave the band, it was John Lennon who destroyed the Beatles. Certainly, all was not well with the band during the final years of the ‘60s, but it was Lennon and Lennon alone who brought down the axe, announcing at an otherwise routine meeting that he was leaving the group. It was kept under wraps for some time, but no one was under any illusions about the ability of the group to go on without him. Essentially, Lennon’s departure made the death of the Beatles inevitable; it just took a year or so for the obituary to be written.

People tend to see Lennon as some sort of divine guru of peace and love because of his political activities in the early 1970s. The truth is that most of Lennon’s reputation as a political activist is based on photos of him with various ‘60s radicals and his own press statements. He never actually did anything whatsoever of note in the political realm, and most of the radicals he cultivated thought he was an ignorant poseur. The few things he did actually do, like giving money and publicity to violent groups like the Black Panthers, are nothing to be proud of.

This is probably the most controversial item on this list, and it must be admitted that it is an inherently subjective issue to some extent, but a very good case can be made that even as a musician and a songwriter, Lennon was remarkably under-talented. First, he was at best an average guitar player, mostly confined to basic rhythm parts, and his piano playing wasn’t much better. As for his songwriting, yes he did write a handful of truly inspired songs, but as time passes and the nostalgic hype surrounding the Beatles begins to fade, a lot of his works comes off as silly and dated. Try reading the lyrics to “Strawberry Fields Forever” or “Come Together” sometime. They’re pure hippie psychedelic babbling, the kind of thing that passed for profundity in the drug-induced haze of the late 1960s. The only thing that makes them work is the terrific production, for which credit easily goes to producer George Martin and the other Beatles as much as to Lennon himself.

In fact, looking back on the Beatles legacy, one can make a pretty good case that both Paul McCartney and George Harrison (on the later albums, at least) were superior talents to Lennon in the songwriting department. The truth is, after about 1965, Lennon more or less drops out of the Beatles. He had almost nothing to do with the Sgt. Pepper album, and most of what came after was – by everyone’s admission – largely at the behest of Paul McCartney. By the end, as you can see in the film Let It Be, McCartney was desperately trying to motivate a Lennon who simply didn’t want to be there. As for Lennon’s solo career, there are five or six memorable songs and the rest… Well, can you name a single track from “Sometime in New York City”?

This is true of pretty much all the Beatles, but with Lennon it’s particularly obvious. In the beginning he was following the American rhythm and blues tradition with a smattering of Roy Orbison-style pop ballads. Later he’s obviously trying to channel Bob Dylan. Then he’s aping the psychedelic stylings of the California drug bands. After that, he gloms on to avant-garde, John Cage-influenced (above) modern art music. Truth be told, there wasn’t much Lennon did that hadn’t been done before by more original and talented artists.

Despite his reputation as a freethinker following his own path, Lennon was an obvious case of someone desperate to fit in. Yes, he was trying to fit in with groups that were considered non-conformist, but conformism is conformism. Right from the beginning, Lennon was posing. Back in the day, the teddy-boy look was the in thing, so he shows up in leather jackets and a pompadour. Then its the cute pop look. Then the psychedelic hippie thing. Then the angry avant-garde hipster. It never ends. Everything about Lennon, from his music and politics to the way he dressed, was an attempt to fit in with sub- or counter-cultures that already existed.

As much he liked to pretend to be a misunderstood artist following his own uncompromising vision, the truth is that Lennon pursued fame and fortune from the beginning. Even in the early days when the Beatles were a struggling bar band, he used to extol them by saying they would go “to the topper most of the popper most.” He happily went along with the Beatles’ haircuts, suits, and calculated image; as well as the band’s innumerable media appearances; only denouncing it all as shallow and empty later in life, when he was cultivating an avant-garde reputation. His relentless antics with Yoko Ono in the early ‘70s now seem to be such a blatant plea for attention that one wonders how anyone took them seriously back then. And of course, he never turned down any of the fat paychecks that came his way as a result of his fame and success.

This is the toughest one and the hardest to say in public, mainly because Lennon’s murderer (above) cited it as his primary motive, but that doesn’t make it any less true: Lennon was a perfect example of someone who lived by the hypocritical dictum of “do as I say, not as I do.” As his critics sometimes point out, all you have to do is go straight to his songs. The man who sang “imagine no possessions” lived a millionaire’s life in a posh New York hotel. The man who sang “imagine no religion” was obsessed with every spiritual and New Age fad that came his way, including Hindu meditation, the I-Ching, and astrology of all kinds. The man who sang “all you need is love” was a bitter, violent, and angry man who abused his family and friends. The man who praised having “nothing to kill or die for” helped finance and publicize radical groups who extolled the use of violence. Quite literally everything his fans see personified in the icon of John Lennon are ideals the man himself either couldn’t or wouldn’t live up to.

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