my 25 - though not ranked....

Robert Plant
John Martyn.... oops! Can't vote for him anymore.
Bruce Cockburn
Elvis Costello
David Bowie
Richard Thompson
John Hiatt
Lemmieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Lucinda Williams
Neil Young
Tom Verlaine (ex of Television, though did his comeback last?)
Springsteen
BB King
Tom Waits
Iggy Pop
Joan Baez
Joe Jackson
Piet Botha
Tom Petty (and his band)
Jackson Browne
Los Lobos
Robert Cray
Danny Thompson
David Gilmour
Mark Knopfler
Leonard Cohen

I think those are all not just still alive, but still showing signs of vitality. I was tempted to stick in Keith Richards for surviving, but really he should just go and do chat shows or something.

Roger Waters? Charlie Watts (would have put othe Rolling Stones in if I hadnt seen "Shine a Light")

Ray wrote: Roger Waters? Charlie Watts (would have put othe Rolling Stones in if I hadnt seen "Shine a Light")

There's a lot of guys who are still playing. There's rather less that are still interesting. I enjoy Charlie's drumming, but really The Stones are just groteque these days - and I can't see they're doing it for anything but the money (which you wouldn't think they need). I wouldn't be that keen to go see Led Zeppelin trot out all their old hits. I'd be considerably more interested in seeing Robert Plant doing his current thing (or even better Plant with Allison Krauss).

Waters to me is just a professional depressive with an impressive light show these days. Gilmour still has a bit of a spark to him, and in fact I find him more interesting solo than with the big Pink Floyd shows he's done the last while.

But I hummed and hahed over my list. Posted it. Had a shower and thought "but what about ....? And.... ?". The fun with these lists is that they make you examine the category being listed. There is no perfect, inarguable list, and you find many people coming up with the same list. Though personally I'm not prepared to rank the likes of Ozzy Osbourne or Status Quo just because they're still alive and still going through the motions. Or Madonna even though she does hours in the gym each day and has great dancers and lots of lights. Or Chuck Berry because he's still billing by the second and playing with bands he's never met. There are guys doing more than just trotting out their greatest hits for the baby-boom masses.

In my grumpy opinion, of course.

But that is what these sort of lists are really; personal opinions. It is what makes them interesting. And I dont see any representation from Little Feat? Lowell George? Tom Verlaine - was he the singer? If so, has he got past his monotone? Yissis, I'm getting uggli.

@ Bob

Can you tell me who is on the list, Our company IT Security dude has blocked that site

Ray wrote: But that is what these sort of lists are really; personal opinions. It is what makes them interesting. And I dont see any representation from Little Feat? Lowell George? Tom Verlaine - was he the singer? If so, has he got past his monotone? Yissis, I'm getting uggli.

I wouldnt' vote for Lowell George for the same reason I wouldn't vote for John Martyn. Current occupation: pushing up daisies. Little Feat are still going, and there are some fine players in that band (especially Bill Payne), but they're dead boring these days. If chops were all it took then Toto would rule the world.

Verlaine was singer and half of the dual guitar attack from Television. He's never going to be a great singer, but he has improved. He made a pretty interesting pair of comeback records a couple of years back. One all instrumental and one more like Television - though without the dual guitars. A player who always has interesting ideas. Richard Lloyd was the technical monster in Television, but Verlaine is no slouch, has more interesting ideas, and has this great "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" attitude to his playing.

Squonk wrote: @ Bob

Can you tell me who is on the list, Our company IT Security dude has blocked that site

I'm not going to post the whole article with it's comments, but the list is
25:Ozzy Osbourne
24: Lou Reed
23: Tom Waits
22: Lucinda Williams
21: Patti Smith
20: Richard Thompson
19: David Bowie
18: Graham Parker
17: Chuck Berry
16: The Killer (AKA Jerry Lee Lewis)
15: Iggy Pop
14: Madonna
13: Prince
12: The Who
11: Ray Davies
10: Van Morrison
9: Paul McCarteney
8: Wanda Jackson
7: Elvis Costello
6: Lemmie
5: AC/DC
4: The Rolling Stones
3: Dylan
2: Springsteen
1: Neil Young

So I take it you not an Eric Clapton fan  or Joe Satriani for that matter :sorry:

Renesongs wrote: So I take it you not an Eric Clapton fan or Joe Satriani for that matter :sorry:

It's not that simple ?

I loved Eric Clapton's work with Cream, indeed he's a large part of why I fell for rock 'n roll in the first place. As regards his post-Cream work I quite enjoy 461 Ocean Boulevard, but for at least a dozen years he's sounded lifeless, boring and bored. Would I have gone to see Clapton in the late 60s? You betcha. Would I go to see him now? Well maybe if somebody gifte me the tickets and the West Wing wasn't on.

It's the same situation with the Stones. They made some great music, but these days I couldn't be arsed. And I'm not going to clog up my list with acts that were once great but these days seem less than vital. Same reasoning by which I leave out Little Feat and Led Zeppelin, but do include Robert Plant.

It never occured to me that Satch might be over 50. And besides, you can only get so many in a list.