Johnny vs. Stevie

J. R. Cash
Total votes: 31 (49%)
Steveland Hardaway Judkins
Total votes: 32 (51%)
Total votes: 63

Thunderdome: Johnny Cash vs Stevie Wonder

86
that damned fly wrote:
Marsupialized wrote:You know he's not really blind, it's all a schtick
He's also a convicted child murderer, you know that right?
He killed a 4 year old neighbor of his when he was in his early teens over a stolen harmonica, beat him in the head with a rock, did 6 years in prison.


and how is this not awesome?


well, they say he did things to the body....unspeakable things
Rick Reuben wrote:Marsupialized reminds me of freedom

Thunderdome: Johnny Cash vs Stevie Wonder

89
The trick here is to decide how important iconoclasm is as it relates to the choice.

If iconoclasm is not a high value then the choice is Stevie.

Deductive reasoning says that if you deduct Stevie Wonder from music, you still have a Curtis Mayfield and a Shuggie Otis and a James Brown -- but if you deduct Johnny Cash from music, you aren't left with nearly as many parallel and complementary bodies of work. Hank? Meh.

So Johnny - if iconoclasm is the real question. If expressive genius is the question, then Stevie.

-r

Thunderdome: Johnny Cash vs Stevie Wonder

90
tmidgett wrote:
vockins wrote:
tmidgett wrote:In the case of JB, he had a much more businesslike relationship to what he did than anyone else we're talking about, so that affects things. But he also invented funk, which also affects things

James Brown is in another universe from anyone mentioned in this thread, or any other thread.


Yeah, I was speaking only to the emotional breadth of his songs.

My point being that emotional breadth is irrelevant when you actually invent funk and transform popular music in the process. He had well done his work by that point.
And Soul! James Brown invented Soul! Quite literally Soul Brother Number One. Some might say Ray Charles on that. I say James Brown.
You could make entire records of just the basslines or just the drum breaks....Ah, people do this already, don't they?
Fuck, my friend, you could make entire genres from that shit! Entire gigantic sections in record stores that owe their existence to James Brown. I can think of two! And I'm probably not thinking of one!

I don't know, I'm probably giving him short shrift even on that point. It's a Man's Man's Man's World, Try Me, etc.
Please, Please, Don't Go! That is some grim shit!
I guess what I'm getting at is that he was a showman much more than anyone else we're discussing, except Prince maybe. And as a showman, he tended to work with a pretty wide brush on the emotional front.

Prince is good.

Prince has a lot of work to do.

James Brown is the most influential musician of the 20th century. It's not even close. Dude is everywhere.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests