If you could only listen to one artist for the rest of your life...

Okay, let's say, through some ridiculous hypothetical happenstance, that you could only listen to the oeuvre of one artist for the rest of your life or you'll be shot in the head by the Music Police or something. You can interpret this as you like -- if it's one guy with a zillion different projects, that counts as one artist, but I wouldn't really count solo projects from members of a group (unless they're part of the official discography, like KISS, although I have no idea why you would want to listen to the KISS solo albums). There are bunch of different factors to consider here: amount of music, variety of styles, the ability to listen to extensive amounts of one musician/musical group without going insane.

For me, it would probably have to be Rush. Not only do I love their music, but they have a pretty extensive catalog that covers a variety of different styles -- rock, prog, metal, new wave, even rap (albeit unsuccessfully in the last case). Who would it be for you?

Parliament-Funkadelic

Yo La Tengo

I haven't gotten bored of their supposedly "boring" music in the 10 years I've been listening to it, I doubt I ever will. Probably my favorite band... makes me almost wish I lived in Hoboken.

stones

J.S. Bach

The Fall. A band from the North of England named after a book written by an Algerian Goalkeeper.

bach xp

I don't think I could choose. I would probably choose silence & just remember all the artists I listen to now as I spent my days in quiet. If I could only listen to one artist, I just know I'd get sick of them within two or three years at most.

You could never get fed up with Brick.

WHo is this mysterious stranger??????

you are right, i could never get fed up with "Brick" by Ben Folds Five

SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION

YOU MUST CHOOOOOOOOOOOSE

Milf.

^Real band, serious answer.

Buddy Holly. I realize this would present me with a problem in terms of breadth and variety of catalog, but I don't care.

waka flocka flame

They're not my favorite band, but The Fall. Longevity counts...

weird al yankovic will one day upload his consciousness into a computer, thereby blessing us with food-parody versions of all music in existence,
99% of which will be superior to the original.

can you say you have heard Permanent Waves until you've heard it done as an accordion medley?

Yo La Tengo

I haven't gotten bored of their supposedly "boring" music in the 10 years I've been listening to it, I doubt I ever will. Probably my favorite band... makes me almost wish I lived in Hoboken.

― The Porcupine Captain With A Crew of White Rabbits (Viceroy)

I live in Hoboken! I manage at the local record store. See Ira occasionally there and Maxwells! Most recently at the Clean show, which was a great show. Both drummers of Sonic Youth are way more frequent customers at the store though.

Neil Young or Yo La Tengo. Probably Yo La Tengo, who have lots of instrumental stuff and could better dodge the "I can't stand to listen to this person for another solitary second" problem.

Is "the local record store" still Tunes? I haven't been there in a while.

Anything Greg Dulli.

i think bob dylan said this about gordon lightfoot -- not a bad answer tbh

Peter Hammill. Fifty-odd albums, each of them different in their own way.

my answer to this is probably mozart though. dont think you would ever really get bored, & most of it is nice-sounding yet varied, so its not like you'd have to listen to the same asshole's voice, or some jerks playing dissonant guitar which would get tired fast, plus there's tonnes of it, more than you could ever listen to. and eventually you'd be a mozart specialist, & get babes

oh in this hypothetical world there are no women either :(

what kind of babe puts out to mozart

xp

mozart's hot but much abused wife?

*doesnt post tapes n tapes album cover*

Mahler.

or Dennis Brown

arthur russell for many reasons, beginning perhaps with liquid variety

Um. Probably Madonna. Enough stylistic changes and different musical periods that there's likely to be something to suit my every mood. Also, well, her music is earwormy enough that if I'm not sick of it in, like, 30 years or whatever of supersaturation, I'm unlikely to get completely sick of it, ever.

Can't argue with Bach or Mozart, but I'm going with Ellington.

i think i'd rather listen to nothing at all, cause i'll tired by anyone i'd have to only listen to him for the rest of my life.

from the outrageous cherry thread:

i could listen to this band and nobody else for the rest of my life

― acieeed reflux (electricsound), Sunday, 10 October 2010 09:39 (3 weeks ago)

mind you i was seriously lit up at the time

Is "the local record store" still Tunes? I haven't been there in a while.

― Kinect: The Body Is Good Business™ (Hurting 2)

Yes it is!

xpost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cABZfkRcQ6A

maybe miles.

i walked into that one :(

:-)

UK SUBS UK SUBS UK SUBS

Thelonious Monk

Dick Powell

tough question, but Miles and The Fall stand out as good choices.

how many of you guyses choices actually correspond to the frequency of that artist's play in your current listening habits?
it turns out i sadly have zero weird al mp3s.

i listen to a lot of miles davis, mostly electric/fusion period.

For the sake of having something to dance salsa to, it would have to be El Gran Combo. (Otherwise it would be Sun Ra.)

maybe ella. there's lots of her i still haven't heard, and if i have to kept company by just one voice, hers is hard to beat.

otoh, maybe satchmo, because you get his playing and his singing both. (if i get all of satchmo, does that include his duets with ella? because maybe i just beat this thing...)

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. In that order.

solid choice.

Am I really the first one to say James Brown?

does that includes all music with james brown samples?

chumbawumba.

This question is sort of like "if you had to die by burning or freezing..."

i would probably say red house painters for me...or beach boys

Roots Radics

really? i love roots reggae. that's an interesting choice.

I probably would get sick of it, but there were so many singers they played for it'd keep it interesting for awhile. I would say Mozart or Ellington or Miles, but I need beats and bass.

The shouts for Mozart and Miles are spot on. As much as I love My Bloody Valentine you would need more than two great albums to sustain you on a musical desert island. It would be a very tough decision choosing between MD + WAM and would probably send my brain into meltdown. You would be sleeping with On The Corner and faking it by pretending she is Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23 or vice versa. That would be mental torture for me.

A lot of people have opted for a jazz artist. I briefly thought of Coltrane, but jazz just wouldn't be enough for me at a certain point--I'd need words, I'd need guitars, I'd need jangle.

John Cale or Fela

beethoven, nick drake, or toumani diabate

If you honestly have to ask me, you just haven't been paying attention.

scout niblett?

J.S. Bach

pop/rock: the Beach Boys

Salvador Dalí

A second vote for Arthur Russell - not just for making some of my favourite music ever, also for having tunes to suit every mood.

steely dan

closely followed by

can

nile rodgers, production artiste

^ cheating

miles, but since everyone else will probably have all his discogs on THEIR personal desert islands i'll have to go with the replacements.

maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe bowie but really only because he tried his hand at everything.

the main thing ive gotten out of this thread is that im glad i wont have to listen to one artist for the rest of my life because i dont want to live in a world without a ton of varied, great music

bach is a solid answer

― 51 tyson (crüt), Friday, 5 November 2010 09:10 (Yesterday)

seems like the ony answer, kinda (despite being ~rockist~)

dude, animal collective have recorded great music in varied styles xp

http://i51.tinypic.com/21ca7ua.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cC6pc.jpg

lol

<3

<3 markers really

in terms of great artists with diverse oeuvres

beethoven
schoenberg
stravinsky
ligeti
miles davis
scott walker
eno
aphex twin

VU

Roots Radics

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger)

great choice. hundreds of albums, all the great vocalists + producers

Pink

"yo la tengo is a good answer"

it's a good answer if the question is: what do you think you will have to hear for eternity after you die and go to hell.

You might as well practice for hell now.

hey, pucho is coming to town, rockist. i might actually go.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/95118.jpg

just got a super-clean original pressing of the la clave album. love that thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIB63UMbC9E

Sad to say I'm not too familiar with him beyond the name.

It's either The Fall or Robyn Hitchcock, probably The Fall due to the broader diversity of sound.

Fortunately, I'll never have to really pick.

We have this 'desert island' sort of thread every year over here and it never gets particulary interesting.

never heard pucho and his latin soul brothers? i love that stuff. pucho being henry "pucho" brown. made a string of groovy records in the late 60's.

jandek

scary. a world with no music other than jandek. how would you ever relax?

glasgow monday is pretty chill man

Easy. The Stones.

Fleetwood Mac or Led Zeppelin

scott, I'm not that into the whole Latin soul/funk/boogaloo thing.

(Or most stuff that gets labeled Latin jazz.)

Basinski

^ word

I have been listening to The Fall all day, on shuffle. Had I not been doing this I probably would have said The Fall. I'm kind of sick of him by now. Also the general sensation that lingers from the music is dis-ease, which is not my favorite sensation at all. So R. Kelly.