Rock's Top 50 Artists
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 30, 1999) -- I had been resisting the temptation to use the century's end as an occasion to begin tallying best and worst lists until I read the list of the century's 100 greatest athletes compiled by my Berkshire Eagle colleague and occasional concert-going partner, Derek Gentile. Derek's list was so much fun to read I figured, what the heck, the century's end only comes around once.

Given that rock has only been around for about half a century, however, I've only tallied the 50 greatest artists of the rock era. A few names on the list aren't properly rock artists, or predate rock 'n' roll, but in those cases they have proven to be of profound, lasting influence on American popular music in the rock era.

• 50. Emmylou Harris: Gave timeless voice to heartache and disappointment in songs that transcended genre. One of the pioneers of alt-country.
• 49. The Beastie Boys: One of the few hip-hop groups to make work of lyrical and melodic intelligence while remaining aloof from momentary trends.
• 48. Madonna: Provocatively challenged notions of femininity, religion and sexuality through intelligent songs that simultaneously worked as dance-floor fodder.
• 47. Muddy Waters: Plugged in the blues.
• 46. Ani DiFranco: Her David to the corporate Goliath proved that a girl with an acoustic guitar could be a sexy, rocking revolutionary.
• 45. The Police/Sting: Gave post-Beatles pop intellectual heft, a reggae beat and a jazzy sheen.
• 44. Captain Beefheart: Quietly exploded the form and potential of the rock recording.
• 43. Willie Nelson: Pure Americana, plain and simple.
• 42. Prince: He's got everything he needs, he's the Artist, he don't look back.
• 41. Carole King: The living embodiment of the transition from Tin Pan Alley to the age of the singer-songwriter. Thousands followed in her wake.
• 40. Richard Thompson: Quietly dark, quintessentially English, revealed traditional folk's limitless depths as a form and style.
• 39. Steely Dan: A seamless blend of soul, funk, jazz and pop, with brains.
• 38. Brian Eno: A visionary who directly steered some of the most influential ships (Talking Heads, Bowie, U2) and whose indirect influence is virtually unparalleled (ambient hip-hop, new-age, Daniel Lanois).
• 37. Gang of Four: Art, funk, politics and punk never sounded so stark.
• 36. James Brown: Hit me!
• 35. Roy Orbison: The soulful voice of the lonely.
• 34. Jimi Hendrix: Perhaps the most misunderstood musician and composer of all time.
• 33. The Byrds: Combined Beatles-like pop and Americana. The original folk-rock band.
• 32. Leonard Cohen: The Lord Byron of rock.
• 31. Randy Newman: A savage cynic for a savage age.
• 30. Talking Heads/David Byrne: Art-school-bred punk-funk minimalism.
• 29. Marvin Gaye: Pure soul.
• 28. Keith Richards: Patented rock 'n' roll guitar. If only he'd been the lead singer of his band.
• 27. Johnny Cash: The original country outlaw.
• 26. The Who/Pete Townshend: Too smart for his own good, and for Roger Daltrey, but a brilliant songwriter nonetheless.
• 25. The Kinks/Ray Davies: The shadow Beatles, with Ray Davies as John and Paul.
• 24. The Ramones: Kick-started the last great rock 'n' roll revolution. We remember rock 'n' roll radio.
• 23. Elvis Presley: If there hadn't been an Elvis, someone would have had to invented him. On second thought, maybe someone did.
• 22. Little Richard: Good golly! Super freak well before his time.
• 21. Chuck Berry: His signature licks and teen dramas powered a thousand imitations.
• 20. Los Lobos: Mined the corners of the deep, dark soul of Americana.
• 19. Bill Monroe: They call his music bluegrass, but it's really country soul.
• 18. The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde cast and then broke the mold of the female lead rocker. Beware a hundred cheap imitations.
• 17. The Replacements/Paul Westerberg: Set the stage for so-called grunge or alternative rock, and then watched it pass them by. The last great American rock band.
• 16. Bob Marley: Gave the world the Jamaican reggae beat and then died for its sins.
• 15. Elvis Costello: Only a man with his barbed wit and gift for melody could find the missing link between punk-rock and Burt Bacharach.
• 14. Neil Young: Someone's always yelling turn it down.
• 13. Ray Charles: For a few brief years in the '50s, he was rock 'n' roll incarnate, except they called it rhythm 'n' blues.
• 12. Hank Williams: Country music's Kurt Cobain.
• 11. Woody Guthrie: From Dylan to Springsteen to Ani DiFranco, his spirit infuses rock history.
• 10. Patti Smith: The romantic poetess as punk-rocker.
• 9. David Bowie: Perhaps the most underestimated artist of the rock era, they laugh at him while they stumble around wearing his castoff clothes and playing ersatz versions of his music from 20 or 30 years ago.
• 8. Joni Mitchell: Another misunderstood musical genius whose painterly work defies imitation while a thousand wannabes fail trying.
• 7. Stevie Wonder: Throughout the '60s and '70s, his pop-soul was untouchable, gorgeous, catchy and edgy all at once.
• 6. The Clash: The last band to make protest-rock that truly mattered.
• 5. Lou Reed/Velvet Underground: From proto-punk street raps in the '60s to cranky romanticism in the late-'90s, Reed has always been a visionary poet with a hipster drawl and electric guitar.
• 4. The Band: At their best and taken in sum, their brand of Americana transcended form and genre, making for an incisive portrait of the lost promise of the New World.
• 3. Bruce Springsteen: The greatest rock performer of all time. No one was more successful at creating the illusion of the ideal rock 'n' roll everyman.
• 2. The Beatles: Duh.
• 1. Bob Dylan: Double-duh. No, seriously, he has outlasted them all, and continues to mine the recesses of his own heart and American tradition to make the most poetic, startling, confounding music of the rock era.

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Sept. 30, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]