Greatest All-Around Musician of All Time
 

Who would you say is the all around greatest musician of all time?


My vote is for Paul McCartney. First off, he's a phenomenal bassist and guitarist (listen to the bass on I Want You (She's So Heavy) and the guitar solo on Taxman, as well as the acoustic guitar on Blackbird). I'm not sure how good of a drummer he is, but still, he can drum. He's got one of the most versatile voices in the history of music (He recorded Long Tall Sally, I'm Down, and Yesterday) on the same day, and he recorded Yesterday last!

Also, he's arguably as good as mozart with melodies

Hildegard von Bingen. Wrote some of the first Western Art Music, which lead to everything we know today.

Zappa. And if you don't know who this is and what he has done, I pity you.

Stevie Wonder.

I think he pretty much played all the instruments on albums like Innervisions. his drum solos are crazy, there's a few on youtube. I mean jaw droppingly insane drumming, and he's not even known for that!

BB King. He has been at it for all these years and he still is rocking it

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.

Agreed. IMO, none of The solo efforts by The Beatles stood up to what they made together. Not Imagine, not All Things Must Pass, not Band On The Run.

I would probably never go so far as to credit Paul McCartney as being the greatest all around musician of all time, But despite me not being a big Beatles fan, I honestly believe that he's one of the greatest songwriters ever. Although it's a pretty unpopular opinion, I love the stuff he did in the 70's with Wings a lot more than his own contributions to The Beatles' material.

All the above are worthy canidates, Im going to tip my hat to Mark Knopfler, while not only being one of the most original and technical lead rock players he has an unmatched voice and he is very much like Lennon/McCartey in that I dont understand how this guy has written so many timeless songs, I mean really his less popular stuff has more substance then any mainstream crap playing today, listen to Lions,Telegraph Road or Lady Writer and thats just the forgotten stuff

As far as musicians go in the bassist and drummer categories. My vote would go to Pino Palladino, Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro, Carlos Vega and Jimmy Johnson.