And did I miss the B-52s in this TOR, or were they here and got killed in the first round?

Besides which, Hendrix is the bomb!

@ Tom – i never really got into REM. i thought they were/are a solid band, but not spectacular. Bill Berry typified that — solid drummer, but not jaw-dropping. MIke Mills is a mediocre bass player, but he has a hell of a sense for harmony/backing vocals. i think Peter Buck is a mediocre guitarist, but he knows his limits and i think REM’s sound is defined as much by his guitar tone as Michael Stipe’s voice. Speaking of Michael Stipe, i can’t think of a bleeding-heart liberal who has annoyed me less. he got involved in causes but never beat people over the head with it. he has a good voice and deftly walks the line between sensitive artist and “i’m going to stand up and be counted” strength. the sum was greater than the parts and it came together well, particularly on Document and Out of Time. but really, i think it came down to Bill Berry’s eyebrows, Mike Mills’ glasses, and Stipe’s reticence toward the spotlight. those three things caused their label to repackage them as “college rock” as a way of explaining why these oddball kids from Athens should be on your MTV between all the other pretty faces that seemed so important at the time. oh yeah, the good songs had something to do with it. the most embarrassing thing they did was “Stand”. A lot of bands would be thrilled to have something so innocuous be their low water mark. REM was consistent … they just never did anything to make me think “wow”.

No doubt that sticking around too long can be a bad thing. We’ve kicked the idea around before here (the Elton John case comes to mind, but there’s also Rod Stewart, and thank all the gods that The Police split instead of Sting trying to make them his solo backing band). Jim is on record saying that latter day suck doesn’t erode a legacy of brilliance, but I don’t agree.

I’ve always said that we deify Hendrix, but if on the day he died Rod Stewart had died instead, well, who knows. Hendrix might be riding herd on Celine Dion’s autotuner, and there’s no doubt that we’d revere Rod the way we do Joplin.

But here, we have one of the bands that won’t fully embarrass itself against an eventual showdown with The Beatles, and their a friggin’ coin flip with Hendrix? To date, I just assumed that I was too young and musically uneducated to follow these votes, but now I’m not so sure.

Get on with it, Jimi….

Also, thanks for fixing the comments.

I’ve been thinking about the whole boomer/Xer legends thing. I wonder if longevity has something to do with it. Most of the Boomer legends were around a long time, the Xer ones broke up after just a few years. There are exceptions, but anyway, that’s the beginning of a thought.

If you go on catalog alone, it’s an easy win for Zeppelin. But when I thought of all the hallmarks and cliches of rock ‘n’ roll, Hendrix spawned a number of the former and Zeppelin were guilty of too much of the latter. Maybe I should never have watched The Song Remains the Same. Points in LZ’s favor though: 1) despite existing in 1979, they did not do a disco record and 2) they had the dignity to break-up after Bonham’s death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfpXfdRStu4&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=FCC1368DF9BDE312