My hypothetical group of dead musicians is better than yours (BAND VERSION)

Thanks Leet for the fantastic response. This is indeed a most enjoyable debate. ______ DRUMS I am pleased to note my opponent's concession that Moon the loon surpasses Bonzo Bonham. _____ BASS My opponent attempts to side step Mingus' accomplishments as a musician, band leader and composer to focus on the negatives of his personality. Mingus was, like many artistic geniuses, a troubled man. He had a terrible temper and did not suffer fools gladly. It was however a mere handful of incidents, throughout a career spanning 4 decades, that earned him his reputation for beating up his band mates. On the whole Charles Mingus was a very warm and forgiving individual. If he was such a nightmare to work with then how come some of the biggest jazz names of the forties and fifties hired him on bass? How come he led so many successful ensembles and attracted the hottest rising jazz stars of the sixties and seventies to his groups? A few of the jazz greats who chose to work with Mingus: Lionel Hampton, Oscar Pettiford, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thad Jones, Quincy Jones, Gunther Schuller, Billie Holiday, Max Roach, Bill Evans, Eric Dolphy, Yusef Lateef, Roland Kirk, Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, The Brecker brothers. This really is just a fraction of the more well known names. http://www.jazzdisco.org... Clearly this was a very sociable individual who could get along and work well with others. Many of the above listed (eg. Parker, Monk) have personalities every bit as temperamental as the members of my band and Mingus had no problems collaborating with and working alongside them. Some players, such as Dannie Richmond and Jimmy Knepper worked consistently with Mingus for decades and even after disputes (such as the one between Mingus' fist and Knepper's lip) they always made up and continued to work together. My opponent's assumption that Mingus would not get on or cooperate with the rest of my band and would be disruptive is not supported by the evidence. I will address the issue of how being the most innovative and influential relates to being better, in the guitar section below. I can't find any evidence for my opponent's claim that "Burton essentially led [Metallica] musically until his untimely death". From looking at the Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org... it seems that Burton was not a founding member and that if anyone it was Lars Ulrich who was the band leader. It also notes that Dave Mustaine feels that the band continued to use his ideas and recycle his guitar riffs after his departure. My opponent attempts to prove Burton's worth by quoting record sales but as he points out the majority of Metallica's sales were after his death and the Wiki page informs us that their record sales actually increased after Burton's passing, "And Justice For All" being their first top ten album. _______ GUITAR My opponent invites us to judge Vaughan's performance of a Hendrix tune and decide for ourselves who is the better guitarist. To make this a fair comparison I have linked a video of Hendrix himself performing a slightly different version of the song. http://www.youtube.com... I also invite readers to judge for themselves but with an entirely straight face I can indeed say that Jimi's performance is better. I'm not a guitarist myself so perhaps Leet can point out some of the finer points but I see no difference in technical ability here. What I can observe is that Jimi feels more comfortable, he moves around freely and is much more fluid and relaxed in his playing style. He also doesn't need to keep glancing at the fret board every two seconds like Stevie seems to. We should also take into account the fact that Jimi was creating and pioneering a whole new style of guitar playing. He combined the Blues playing of his heroes with cutting edge technology and effects such as wah and distortion to create a style of playing undreamed of before. Later musicians such as Vaughan were able to build on his innovations but would probably not have had the vision to even try them were it not for the example of Jimi. This links nicely with my next point. My opponent is superficially correct in saying that being the most influential does not necessarily make someone "the best" but what we must consider is why someone becomes the most influential in the first place. Both Mingus and Hendrix became the most influential in their fields, not only because they were virtuosos on their respective instruments but also because of the way they innovated and altered the instruments roles. Mingus utilised the bass as a lead instrument, often presenting the main theme of a piece on the bass first. Hendrix gave the electric guitar its own voice, rather than being merely an amped acoustic, it became the iconic instrument for a generation. Had they lived on, they would almost certainly have been unsatisfied with the musical status quo and would have continued to innovate and develop their craft. That is what makes them the best. The "idiots" who compile the guitar lists in my link include the leading rock journalists in the industry (Rolling Stone magazine) as well as the general public. Readers, my opponent thinks that those who go along with the accepted consensus that Jimi was the best are "idiots and no-nothings". Are you gonna stand for that Hendrix fans? As far as comparing these two guitarists vocally, while I accept that Jimi is not a singer of the calibre of Lennon or Mercury. I find his laid-back, semi-spoken style very appealing. I think he is a soulful and expressive singer with a very pleasant natural tone. Stevie sounds dry in comparison and I don't think my opponent's video source backs up his assertion. Leet seems to have ignored the comparisons on song-writing, charisma and good looks. I wonder why. ____ VOX I will concede that Freddie's voice is a better instrument than John's and that the Queen frontman is a marginally better singer. However the rules clearly state that technical ability is only one category to judge our individuals on. Lennon was a far, far greater songwriter than Mercury was. Count the hits. Bohemian Rhapsody was Freddie's only composition to make UK number 1 http://www.funtrivia.com... Parlophone managed to fit 23 Lennon/McCartney no.1s on one album. http://www.aboutthebeatles.com... The Elton John comment was partly an aside in reference to a recent debate of my opponent's (Eminem) but also just to illustrate that Lennon is a better guitarist and pianist. Mercury did play both but generally utilised other musicians for recordings and concerts. ____________ SONG WRITING My opponent says: "for a band to write good songs, they must work together as a team." This is however a completely false statement. Most great songs have in actual fact been written by just one individual. Most Beatles songs are credited to John and Paul but it is a well known fact that they mostly wrote separately. Queen also wrote independently, as does my opponent's favourite, Dylan. _________ PERFORMANCE As argued above, there is every reason to believe that Mingus would cooperate fine with the rest of the group. Who wants to go to a concert and watch a group of stiff musos backing Freddie when they can see a real rock and roll show. My opponent says "A band filled with tension is no band at all" but is this true? Some of the greatest bands ever were fraught with tension, including Led Zep, The Beatles, The Who, The Clash, The Velvet Underground and The Ramones to name just a few. If you don't believe me you should start reading band biogs. ____ I'm out of space but there were also some points from my last round that weren't responded to. Thanks.