Best all-time rocker? Top artists pick their faves
As Rolling Stone magazine launches its ‘Immortals’ issue, musicians tell ‘Today’ about their favorites in rock and roll. PLUS: An online-only video bonus
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NOTE: This is an edited script of the "Today" show segment on Rolling Stone magazine's "Immortals" issue. For copyright reasons, we cannot provide the video of the "Today" segment; however, online-only video of some of the interviews accompanies this story.
Fifty years ago a new kind of sound emerged that would change music forever. At first they called it rocking and rolling. It became known, of course, as rock and roll.
And now, Rolling Stone magazine, one of the foremost chroniclers of rock and roll, is celebrating with a special commemorative issue called “The Immortals.” It lists the 50 all-time bests — the legends — as voted on by their peers.
Some top musicians, as well as Rolling Stone founder and editor in chief Jann Wenner, talked to "Today" about their favorites through the decades — the ones who influenced them most.
Moby: "Number one on my immortals list was David Bowie.”
Jackson Browne: “In many ways Bruce [Springsteen] really kind of epitomizes the qualities of rock and roll. …It's like he has become a, you know, a short-story writer like some of our best short-story writers.”
Matt Lauer: “When we talk about people like Springsteen, the Stones, Madonna, people who have stood the test of time to some degree or another, what's the common thread there? What allows them to do that?”
Jann Wenner: “Song writing ability really counts. And it counts really heavily on this list of the Immortals. I mean the people in there are mainly able to write their own material, write their own music. But it's [also] … a connection with their audience.”
Art Garfunkel: "For me, the greatest of them all, I'd go right to the Beatles…."
Joe Perry, Aerosmith: "Chuck Berry. I still put him on all the time."
Chuck Berry is not just one of the greatest, but one of the pioneers of rock and roll. You say you want a revolution? Back in the 1950s, rock and roll caused social and generational upheaval. Berry, along with fellow "Immortals" Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, sparked a firestorm of controversy — each accused of imbuing America's children with the devil.
Lenny Kravitz: “People like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. They are the true pioneers. I mean they were the guys inventing it, you know. And it's pretty incredible -- imagine playing places you could play and draw a crowd but you couldn't walk through the front door, [where] you couldn't get a meal.”
Moby: “Marvin Gaye’s "What's Going On"…. I just think that's probably the most consistently wonderful album to have been made in the last 40 years.”
Art Garfunkel: “To me, when you're a great one, you make very danceable groove music. It's the key to everything. (SINGING) "They say you want a revolution." The Beatles -- these are great grooves, you know.”
It was 1964. The British invasion The Beatles landed in America and rock and roll would never be the same. The Beatles rank number one on Rolling Stone’s “Immortals” list.
In the ‘60s rock and roll reinvented itself. Counterculture rebels turned music into a genuine force of cultural and political change. “Immortals" Simon and Garfunkel, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan helped define a generation.
Lenny Kravitz: “For me, the best rock and roll album is Jimmy Hendrix's first album, "Are You Experienced?" Incredibly electrifying, psychedelic. it's completely in outer space.”
Jackson Browne: “Bob Dylan changed everything. He sort of made everybody feel like they could and should do it for themselves. And that everybody had a story to tell and that — that if Bob Dylan performs that's what you wanted to spend your life doing …
Matt Lauer: “So many different directions were traveled in the ‘70s, in terms of rock and roll and other kinds of music. We had the onset of country rock. We had arena rock — or some people call it metal rock, and then we had disco. Take me through these things. How did we survive this decade?” (LAUGHTER)
Jann Wenner: “It was work, but we were all there. We were young and ready to survive it. But, the ‘70s was also Fleetwood Mac, it was the Eagles, it was the golden period for the Rolling Stones. "Let it Bleed", "Sticky Fingers", "Exile on Main Street". The ‘70s was one of the most creative of all the periods. In fact, other than some Beatles stuff, Beach Boys stuff, and, of course, the Dylan period [in the ‘6os], the ‘70s probably is as creative a period in rock and roll as there ever was.”
Lenny Kravitz: “I was trying to emulate Michael Jackson [who] was singing “ABC” and “Stop the Love You Have.” And, you know, I would sit there with my rubber rain boots. I used to put those on because they had these boots in their concert. And they wore knickers. And I would … stand on this piece of plywood that we had. And I'd pretend that I was in the Jackson Five.”
The ‘80s meant big music, big hair and bigger personalities. "Immortal" Michael Jackson defined the decade, releasing "Thriller," one of the best-selling albums of all time.
And MTV launched the careers of "Immortals" Madonna and Prince.
Very few artists who emerged in the ‘90s rank as Immortals. Nirvana made number 27 on the list. The “Immortals” list seems to cherish the early pioneers most -- embracing the classics, the indelible images, the unforgetable sounds that created a soundtrack for our lives and the last 50 years.
Matt Lauer: “Number one rock and roll album of all time?”
Jann Wenner: “It's probably gotta be "Sergeant Pepper's."
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