What artist/artists do you regard as being influential to you?

[IanR]

I'm influenced by whatever I just heard.

Melbourne's version of John Peel is Stephen Walker http://www.rrr.org.au/presenter/stephen-walker/

I heard X-Ray Spex for the first time on his radio show. It blew my mind. I was never the same again.

Ian

[chapperz66]

This is an interesting question, and a difficult one to answer, as others have said.

Deep Purple were a huge early influence on me and so being a guitar/keyboard mangler I have to say Messrs Blackmore and Lord.  A little later on I heard Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas, and when I got to hear Leftoverture and Song for America - well I was astonished and I'm still influenced by them to this day. 

And Jethro Tull cannot go un-mentioned for me.

Paul

[Blooby]

Maybe the acoustic harmonics stuff I attempt by way of Michael Hedges. Miles made me appreciate space more. Alex Lifeson might have influenced me early in that he used lots of bizarre chords beyond your run of the mill major and minor.

It's an interesting question.

Peace.

Blooby

[Redler]

I can't name any certain artist or band, but there has been many important bands to me from the 70's to present.
70's: Clash and other punk bands
80's and 90's: Smiths and other indie bands.
2000=> I have got familiar with more diverse genres; jazz, prog rock, folk etc.

[Oldrottenhead]

okay aside from john peel

when i was a wee boy it was the beatles

pre/early teens yes, todd rundgren and genisis

mid teens captain beefheart and can

late teens wreckless eric and johnny rotten

early adulthood danny wilson and van morrison

in my dotage frank black and steve mason.

i have missed hunners oot so john peel for all i missed.

update jings my list is like maslow's hierarchy of needs  and erikson's stages of development but to guid music.

[bruno]

Sh$t Kenny, you asks some hard questions ....
This could take some time ....

First and still an influence was Pink Floyd. Wanted to play guitar cos of Blackmore and Purple. Burn was the album for me, tune and musicality and early synths. And the vocals don't get much better than this. Coverdale and Hughes were the funk. 80's Rush wrote the tunes and the lyrics, Magnum's provided the grandness. Journey provided melody. Sabs provided the heaviness, Sting the class, Gary Moore the speed, Focus the craziness. Asia provided the soul. Hell too many to say .....

This is my rhythm of life :-)

B

[chapperz66]

Bruno - how could I have left out Magnum? 

And It Bites.

and

and

and.

[Flash Harry]

Two - are you kidding?

There are 479001600 ways of arranging 12 notes in sequence, and that's just one octave and without rhythm and just one note played once in the 12 note sequence, how many composers, song writers, jingle makers, etc. etc. would it take to make use of all the permutations of a single 12 note phrase made from a single octave?

And you ask for two who have been an influence?

Two?

Assuming 100 songs, pieces, compositions on average from a single creator, that's still over 4 million who could have influenced me, assuming 90% of these creators were rubbish, that's still 400000 who may have contributed to influencing me, if I had heard only 0.01% of them, it's still 4000 and you want two?

OK....

Bowie.
Byrne.

 

[Geir]

Just two makes it dead easy.

Beatles

Zappa

[BrettBob]

After years of listening to the usual FM radio suspects (The Beatles, Elvis, Chuck, Zeppelin), The Allman Brothers were really the first thing that really grabbed me. And they haven't let go. Dickey Betts, Duane Allman, and Derek Trucks are all huge influences on my guitar playing and opened a whole Pandora's Box of related music and sounds. Though I listen to a lot of stuff, the rootsier stuff is what I tend to want to play - The Band, Delaney & Bonnie, Traffic, JJ Cale, etc. The Tedeschi Trucks Band is doing some really cool stuff right now blending Jazz, Folk, Soul, Blues, etc - I think they have the same playlists I have because they tend to cover every tune I would if I had a band. So that saves me the trouble.