Greatest All-Around Musician of All Time

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srsly
 
A lot of people, including myself, would argue that Tupac was indeed the greatest musician that we have seen so far. Now, there are other musicians out there that have come pretty close, but Tupac straight up dominated every aspect of his genre: the lyrics and the music.

I know that most of you on here would disagree with me, but Tupac really doesn't get the appreciation he deserves from the majority of people today. Even if you're not into rap/hiphop, I guarantee you there's at least ONE song of Tupac's that you'd like. All it takes is a little open-mindedness. Tupac's music is what got me into rap in the first place.
 
Not even a chuckle at my little joke, eh? Oh well...

My problem with Sufjan Steven is that the end result is usually not that interesting. He does have some good songs though, I'll give you that.
 
Oh, right. I must confess, I've used another username for the last eight years, and having just joined yesterday, haven't adjusted to this one. I'd have laughed if I wasn't so slow.

I'm actually not a big fan of Illinois, which is probably his most grandiose album. I can absolutely see how Michigan or Seven Swans could be dull, but I'm a fan of both.
 
Paul McCartney would never get my vote for this. Sure, he's a great musician, but definitely not the greatest. In my opinion he writes songs (even if they aren't my type) and sings better than he plays any instrument.

I'm going to say Edgar Winter is the best musician all around. He was a great keyboardist and sax player, plus he could pull off other instruments well. However, I always thought that all three merabers of ELP were amazing, though they were kind of limited to one or two main instruments. If I was more familiar with Zappa I'd probably throw him in too.
 
I'll go with Mr. Freddie Mercury on this one.

Mercury was an interesting and unorthodox pianist, in addition to being a mastermind at creating interesting structural compositions in his songs. Lyrically, he could also shine and vocally he was (is) damn near unparalleled.
 
I think there's too many dimensions to name. I mean, composition skill is a different arena than production skill is a different arena than performance skill.

I'll just try to judge on composition/influence since I feel it's infinitely more important than just being a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist, and pick one of the many I think would be eligible:

How about... Miles Davis. Extremely prolific, extremely cutting edge at points, and an amazing jazz innovator. Not sure if it'd be a good choice but I'm trying to think outside the box a tad.
 
you telling me this guy didn't dominate every aspect of his genre?

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just this one album alone trumps absolutely everything Tupac ever did.
 
Yeah, but my probably with McCartney is his post-Beatles stuff seems like it was a little bit of a let down. For someone who was such a driving force behind that group, holding them together and demanding perfection, his solo material kind of failed to fill his own shoes. Just my opinion anyway.
 
My vote goes to Stevie Wonder, with Paul McCartney a close second. Stevie is a master keyboardist, a superb pop-soul vocalist, a very good harpist and drummer/percussionist, plays bass well, and is a fantastic record producer. Paul is an extremely talented, innovative melodic bassist, a great pop-rock vocalist, very good piano player, very good acoustic guitar player, good electric guitarist, adequate drummer, and a gifted arranger.

And they both belong in the pantheon of greatest songwriters/melodists in music history.
 
you know i may have to agree with you on some level he is quite versitile when it comes to incorporating different styles of music

but i have to say Justin Vernon

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Yeah, I've indulged in a few Dolphy pieces.

Personally, Interstellar Space is the worst of Coltrane I've heard, and I could see a lot of things being better than it. Out to Lunch (Dolphy) is great, but I only manage to feel it on a technical level. Maybe that's because I'm unfamiliar with it, but most of Coltrane's music is immediately technical and spiritual to some extent.

Perhaps I'm just too familiar with Coltrane at the point. Dolphy is definitely worth investigating further though.
 
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