Who's a genius?

Seeing the bit about Chris Whitley's death and someone on this board calling him a genius made me wonder again what exactly constitutes genius in the musical realm. I don't know much about Whitley, but what I've heard wouldn't qualify as genius in my book.

But who is/was a genius? John Lennon? John Fahey? John Lydon? Jilted John?

Surely the opinionated bastards here will have something to say about the matter.

Bob Dylan is a genius ....um, after that I dunno. Rock & Roll of course being an "anti-art" we elevate to Art seems at odds with such titles, and of course it's also a "product" so the whole thing is ambiguous.....Example : I have often called Big Star's "Radio City" and the Only Ones "Even Serpents Shine" "works of genius" even though I probably don't consider the principals mostly responsible for them (Alex Chilton, Peter Perrett) to be "geniuses'....... so as you can see this makes no sense at all.



Post Edited (11-26-05 07:33)

karl marx
ziggy freud
james brown
bob dylan
ron asheton
bob feller

Paul Winchell - any ventriloquist who also managed to invent the artificial heart is automatically a genius in my book

Ditto for Hedy Lamarr - an unbelievably hot actress who was doing nude scenes in movies in the 1930s and THEN invented a torpedo guidance system? Screw Albert Einstein!!!!!

Not to be confused with Hedley Lamarr, who was of course an evil genius.

yeah, i would say prince, in response to paganize.
there are moments of genius and there is genius.
ray charles-



Post Edited (11-26-05 22:44)

Les Paul. We listen to his multi-track advancements in all music.

Prince. Don't like the music but acknowledge the geniusness.

Al DiMeola. Structural and technical genius.

Greg Graffin. Probably literally.

Jerry Garcia. Technical genius but he also desgined the electronics of his hand-built guitars and the loop-back effects-break system.

Tom Scholz. Muisc-wise? Feh. But, again.....

John Lennon. Listen closely to Sgt. Peppers to see how Lennon tempered McCartney in the studio. The space that's there, and the manipulation of the sound; Lennon did the inventing, the engineering, electronic construction and tape manipulation. Digital does it today but based on this.

Phil Spector
Ira Robbins

kiss-ass

Are there any intrinsic benefits to kissing Ira's ass on this site? If so, please explain. I don't want to be excluded from certain threads because I overlooked something.

1. he'll dedicate a wreckless eric song to you at brooklyn's magnetic fields

2. he won't have your family murdered in their petit bourgeois sleep by trotskyite chums

Hold on there pal...I have only one Trotskyite pal, and I have chosen to overlook that shortcoming because he is an otherwise perfect human being.

> 1. he'll dedicate a wreckless eric song to you at brooklyn's
> magnetic fields
>



"you're gonna screw my head off"?