Favorite band or artist of all time?

Damn, I shoulda waited ’til I was more awake. Can’t be without Hank Williams (writing, singing), Buddy Miller (singing, guitar playing, producing, arranging), Ry Cooder (guitar, musicology), The Swampers (Fame Studios house band in Muscle Shoals), The Everly Brothers (everything), Felice & Boudleaux Bryant (songwriting), Rockpile (a super group that actually WAS super), and NRBQ and it’s fantastic bassist Joey Spaminato. I could go on for quite a while, much to the chagrin of some.

One more comment on Saint Jimi: He had perhaps the worst guitar tone (aside from Erik Brann of Iron Butterfly; talk about corny!) I’ve ever heard. It sounded like barbed wire being played with a metal pick, and what it feels like to chew aluminum foil.

Fans of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, in particular, are very protective of them, moreso than any other artists I can think of. There was a period (the dreaded late-60’s/early-70’s hippie era) when I couldn’t get any musicians I knew to take The Beach Boys seriously, even after playing them the amazing Smiley Smile album. Until, that is, The Grateful Dead toured with them. Suddenly, instant and uncritical acceptance. It wasn’t them I liked so much, but rather of course Brian Wilson. He was still perceived as the Surf, Cars, and Girls guy. As if "Don’t Worry Baby" and "God Only Knows" weren’t masterpieces!

"Foxy Lady" was intended as a joke. Of course a single song does not define one, but even "The Wind Cries Mary" rings hollow to me, just as does Jimi's music. Perhaps I'm just too shallow.