Ozzie had it and he took it to Heaven...RIP...man my.See you soon Mate..
The cool factor- who has it?
My question relates to music and musical artist's performance and music. Who has that COOL factor? In the past or currently. For example I think the Beatles had it and also Bob Marley. Today I think Lenny Kravitz (if for nothing certainly for his longevity).
Thoughts?...
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@chrisoshea - great band, the Undertones; even got to see them in San Francisco in the late 70's! Saw U2 a number of times, but that was in the early days of 'Boy', 'October', and 'War' when they were just coming up - I kinda lost interest after that. |
@larsman . I saw him on "The Crossing" tour. He was such a cool guy, unpretentious. |
@slaw - I used to know Alejandro from the Mabuhay Gardens punk club in San Francisco in the 70's, and he was playing bass with the Nuns, one of the earliest SF punk bands. He was one of the nicest, friendliest people; no 'attitude'. |
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I can play along. What makes YOU cool? Please don’t say your audio system because we have some "heavy hitters" at audiogon. Just look at the systems. BTW Anyone on audiogon who has had to abandon their moniker name or pseudonym and create a new one because of being an butt**** would never qualify as cool. I think most here understand this. |
I believe Michael was a very serious guy, especially when it came to his music, he and Don Kirshner had major issues what with his insistence on studio musicians. Kirshner was a control freak, always claimed the Monkees were nothing without him.
Complete serendipity, watching a Harry Nillson doc last night, who should come up but Mickey, seems like I see Mickey in every musical documentary, that guy knew everyone! And he was the "Circus Boy" prior to all this.
And Peter Tork lived out in the valley Charles Manson days, he hung out with all the cool cats. And what about "Head" with the Nicholson. These guys got around, some think of them only as teenybopper idols, so much more, come to think of it they are kind of cool. |
I actually did know about the Liquid Paper, originally called “Mistake Out”. She was a typist (link). About 10 years ago, Dolenz and his sister came and played at a festival in our town. It was a lot of fun. He is a natural showman. |
For some reason I never forget this moment when I was perhaps 12 or 13, listening to the Monkees, really tthought them great, and one of my older sisters puts them down stating session musicians did all the playing, I was kind of hurt, but I continued to like them. My continuing admiration of them turned out to be well founded, Nesmith and Tork both could have played on any of those albums and held their own, and voice is an instrument in any case. Mickey went on to become a decent drummer and did some interesting things over his lifetime, same as Michael and Peter, even Davey, teenybopper heart throb wasn't half bad. Nesmith was always the coolest one for me, he wrote, did some fine solo stuff, produced, plus a very intelligent guy. Bet you didn't know his mother invented Liquid Paper aka White Out. |
Been away for a couple of weeks so just catching up and this interesting thread caught my eye. I agree with the point made by several here, that the public perception of these artists is not necessarily aligned with the reality of their behaviors in life. I believe there is more than a little truth to the persona alluded to by Widespread Panic in their "Tortured Artist" song. More than a few artists seem to tap into a level of anguish and suffering as a source of creative inspiration and therefore, whether as the result or the cause, artistic people may be predisposed to greater emotional ups and downs in their personal lives than your average accountant or engineer. There are some very cool artists listed here but also quite a few that suffered serious addictions, relationship problems, and depression. It is interesting how we individually perceive “COOL”. For example, Johnny Cash (saw him in ’75) would be high on my list of “cool” even though he certainly had his personal problems with addiction, but he was faithful to his family and friends, and gave back through his advocacy for prison reform and treatment of inmates, including his concerts at Folsom and San Quentin prisons. I think there is something to the concept that genuine, authentic persons have a cool factor, in spite of their personal failures to cope. Most of the folks I immediately thought of as having the COOL factor have already been mentioned, such as: Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Greg and Duane Allman, Marcus King, Carlos Santana, Boz Scaggs, Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin, and so many others. A couple I did not see here (but may have missed) would include: B B King, Keith Richards, John Popper, Dr. John, and Bob Marley. Finally, I support @thecarpathian on the inclusion of The Monkees, and especially later on as they grew as musicians, song writers, and bandmates. IMO, while their astonishing level of achievement (the only act to have four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in a calendar year) eclipsed their overall talent, they certainly had moments of brilliance and a “cool factor”. Mickey Dolenz was apparently the first to use a Moog synthesizer on a rock/pop recording, when playing it on Michael Nesmith’s song Daily Nightly from their Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. album. The song is about the night the Pandora's Box nightclub on Sunset Strip burned down. |
‘Cool’ and ‘Elegant’ aren’t the same thing but are interstitial . The coolest musician that I ever spoke with was undoubtedly McCoy Tyner. Completely different but a close second was Delbert McClinton so real authenticity might be a factor. Honorable mention to Jon Faddis with whom I shared a stalled elevator at the Blackstone in Chicago long ago. A kind and well spoken man; also the best dressed guy I have ever seen. |
+1 @larsman In the jazz world, I'd include players who bring (or brought) out the best in others. Miles Davis would be cool by that measure, and so would Art Blakey, Ron Carter, Charles Lloyd, and Tommy Flanagan. I'm sure there are many more.... |
Giving the women their due. Julie London, Peggy Lee, Lana Del Rey. Mose Allison so cool and clever.
Louis Prima and Keely Smith, "just A Gigolo", their whole act was the epitome of cool.
Dave Cousins of Strawbs, do people equate sensitive with cool, or is cool about being aloof? I do love the entire Brit folk/rock/traditional movement of early 70's. Brit music in general way cool, they've invented so many genres.
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Miles Davis was not a cool guy in real life, many, many issues. And some of the others mentioned here also not cool in real life. Harming oneself is one thing, harming others is quite another.
I also saw Miles live towards the end, the audience treated him as a god, basically all he could do at this point was blast out a single note from time to time. Really one the worst displays of trumpet playing I've ever seen, band carried the show, he was missing in action. |
@whart on your quoted “Miles D” and the car crash episode. You are indeed a real borderline cool dude party pooper. l will now forever think of Miles Davis as the “black, white powder guy” |
There's the public persona and the private person. I think you may be disappointed by some of your heroes. There's a well-publicized account by a guy I knew back in NY who helped Miles D after he crashed his Miura and there were bags of white powder all over the floor of the car. J Morrison was pretty gone by the time I saw him, after the indecency bust--overweight, not very engaging with the audience, the band just split in the dark when they were done with their set. The coolest person I met and knew in the industry was not a performer but he made a lot of careers possible-Chris Blackwell, who was described by one writer as louche. Chris had an ear for the "new" music when the majors were still selling dreck in the late '60s and signed a lot of important acts (from King Crimson and Tull to Marley) in the early days of rock-- he was someone artists were drawn to and he helped transform the sound of contemporary music. There are a few others who were "behind the scenes" who most of you know of by reputation. What's interesting is Morris Levy, long associated with his disreputable "mob" connections, ran one of the first racially integrated clubs in NYC back in the day when that wasn't "cool." As somebody once said to me, "when you think you're cool, you aren't." And, an awful lot of musicians came to awful ends--sure, I can enjoy Rory Gallagher or Paul Kossoff for what they gave us musically (like many jazz greats who died tragically), but I think a lot of them lived pretty dark lives. Sorry to be a buzz-kill. |
@wsrrsw “a few come to mind, not yhat l listen to thrm all”
Longest list l have ever seen…..
Your house must be really COOL …… But not your typing P🛟🛟L |
A few come to mind, not yhat I listen to thrm all. Fat Freddies Drop Gotan Project Dylan The Boss Jhonny Guitar Watson MC 900 foot Jesus James Brown Lambert, Hendrix & Ross Tina Turner Mose Allison Joni Herbie Fela Kuto Doors Heads B52’s Ike Quebec Mary Ann Faithful Beatles Miles Beasty Boys CSN & Y Dead Most all Brazilians… Seu Jorge Patrica Barber Kurt Elling Any Marsalis Jon Baptiste Stanton Moore RL Jones & RL Burnside ….,,,,,,,
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@jnovak Bullitt “ l tried to watch it once” l believe that McQueen garnered the label “King of Cool” because of Bullitt and “The Thomas Crown Affair” Think of that glider sequence, the music and song “Windmills of Your Mind”, and all the lovable sleuthing with Fay Dunaway. Also consider “The Cincinnati Kid” as another character he played in that short period that moulded his cool persona in the public eye. The car chase is remembered more than his acting ability in Bullitt, but he did look “extra cool” playing opposite a bad stiff wooden performance by Robert Vaughn. |
Cool, who is or who isn’t is an overheated argument now. Times have changed and just about anyone can be cool (a little like everyone has the potential for 15 minutes of fame, as alluded to by Andy Warhol’s brilliant claim) Cool was once a term used only sparingly for just a few people who were ultra brilliant in their class. I first heard of the expression in conjunction with Steve McQueen. Have there been any other actors that have topped this? Not many people are “really cool” now as l believe the term has been seriously undervalued because of it’s all too easy frequent overuse. I prefer to use the term acceptable or luke-warm for a lot of the suggestions made on here. My conclusion only which will not be deemed “cool” by those who like to over use the outdated “hay man that’s cool” expression.
A reflection from my partner. Someone mentioned Elvis was “cool” in his early years…. She says he definitely was NOT cool…. He was HOT Steve McQueen made Schifrins music even cooler when he composed for Bullitt. Jazz scores took off with Quincy Jones too. |