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Coolest musicians


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Which musicians are the coolest?

here's my list:

1. Miles Davis

2. Jimi Hendrix

3. George Clinton

4. Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath era)

5. Emerson, Lake & Palmer (the coolest thing I've seen on video, besides Hendrix burning his guitar, is ELP during the Isle of Wight shooting cannons over the audience)

6. Jim Morrison

7. Bootsy Collins

8. Peter Gabriel (in a really uncool sort of way)

9. Kurt Cobain

10. Freddie Mercury

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Yep....the old blues musicians were the ones who paved the way for many great musicians....Clapton definitely, Mr. Slowhand himself, he's just amazing on that guitar, he makes it look so effortless...and of course Hendrix....some great guitar players, all with their own style....and Neil with his unique way of playing also...he can play the hell out of one note and make it cool!...Oh I could go on and on....lol

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What are you basing this on?

Yeah ... cool is a very subjective term.

There is: mellow cool - aloof cool - hip cool - stylishly cool - creatively cool - intellect cool - uniquely cool - unflappable cool - peer cool - sensually cool - self-aware cool

... and I am sure many, many more categories.

On an allround scale, in popular music, no one thinks of themselves as being cool moreso than Prince and Courtney Love. But in reality the two coolest are Van Morrison and Lena Horne

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Then, how could you leave Keith Richards off your list? :doh:

Didn't Kurt Cobain eat a shotgun?! To borrow a line from Mick Dundee..."That's what you call cool, is it?"

I'm with Sammy on the Kurt issue.

Three or four years ago the Melody Maker ran a poll of "Coolest People in Rock" and the top two , Kurt Cobain and Richey Edwards (of the Manic Street Preachers) were both tormented individuals who'd struggled with various combinations of mental illness, self-mutilation, drug-addiction, eating disorders,etc, before offing themselves in grisly fashion.

I'll take some convincing that these guys were cool, whichever definition of "cool" you adopt.

Steel2Velvet reasonably pointed out that there are many subjective bases for judging "cool". Surely one of these must be that one is confident and comfortable within one's own body and mind? And ,arguably, that if one does have torments to overcome, that one emerges the other side with dignity and self-respect reasonably intact?

Around the same time as the MM poll, Ian Dury (of Ian Dury and The Blockheads) died of cancer. He had overcome childhood polio (which left him with deformed limbs) to become a great vocalist / lyricist / performer / icon (& lady magnet) on the strength of his talent and great charisma. Later in life he developed terminal cancer but continued to record and perform at the highest level throughout treatment. I heard and read interviews with him around this time. It struck me that here was a far more worthy recipient of the "Cool" award...

By what stretch of the imagination can blowing one's own head off with a shotgun, jumping off the Severn Bridge with weights tied to your ankles, etc, be regarded as "indicators of cool". Come to think of it, choking to death on your own vomit doesn't sound that dignified either, tho' I suppose it could happen to anyone...

Even though I'm not a big fan of his, the "cool list" should include Keith Richards, as he is like a "yardstick of cool" against whom all other claimants to cool are measured...

I can't be arsed to put them in any particular order, but my list of people I regard as "pretty cool" would include...

Nick Cave, Ian Dury, Jarvis Cocker, Kim Gordon, Julian Cope, Paul Simenon, Joe Strummer, Jah Wobble and ...yeah, well how can you leave out David Bowie?

No Debbie Harry: terrible dancer.... :P

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The reason I think Kurt Cobain is cool is because he was so anti-mainstream and anti-popularity. It's cool how he did whatever he felt like. I think it's especially cool how he wore a cinderella dress to MTV's "Headbanger's Ball." I think it's cool how he hated fame, even though I think the way he handled it was uncool.

And as far as Keith Richards, there's no doubt that he was cool back in the 70's, but recently, he's been so incredibly uncool, that his uncoolness basically cancels out his original coolness. I was watching the Stones on the super bowl, and they are still able to play well, but I laughed out loud watching them play. They are basically a parody of themselves these days. They just play the same tired songs over and over again, and their popular songs are no longer cool. And their new album is OK, but it's not OK enough to be cool. This isn't part of my recent crusade against old people either, they really are uncool. To prove I'm not biased against old people being cool, here's my list of cool old people (and cool people who are dead, but were cool when they were old)

1. Regis Philbin (easily)

2. That guy who works at the Giant Burger who has the handlebar mustache

3. Mark Twain

4. The old guy Dave Chappelle used in a lot of his sketches

5. Steve Martin is still pretty cool I guess, but I'm not sure how old he is

6. This one guy at my grandma's retirement home who tells really weird jokes that don't make any sense

7. This other guy at my grandma's retirement home who tells good stories

that's enough for now. In conclusion, Keith Richards is not cool. Or at least, not cool enough to make my top 11 list.

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The reason I think Kurt Cobain is cool is because he was so anti-mainstream and anti-popularity. It's cool how he did whatever he felt like. I think it's especially cool how he wore a cinderella dress to MTV's "Headbanger's Ball." I think it's cool how he hated fame, even though I think the way he handled it was uncool.

And as far as Keith Richards, there's no doubt that he was cool back in the 70's, but recently, he's been so incredibly uncool, that his uncoolness basically cancels out his original coolness.

I think I understand your point, but your logic is inconsistent.There was a time when Kurt used to be pretty cool, for some of the reasons you suggest. But if Keith used to be cool, but has now "blotted his 'cool' copybook", so can no longer be considered "cool", then surely the same could be said for Kurt....

Plus: in what parallel universe can Ian Anderson be considered cool?????!

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