And Grew Immortal In Their Own Despites

      Always a little late with things, this blog only recently stumbled upon Rolling Stone's "The Immortals," which identifies what it claims to be the 50 Greatest Artists Of All Time. The nice touch is that most of the entries on the named artists are by other artists, many of whom reflect with surprising candour on their subjects. Van Morrison, for example, on Ray Charles is right on the money, and it's as much an example of self-explanation as it is appreciation of another (see also, by the way, Peter Wolf on Morrison). Check out the named artists and their discussants:

1) The Beatles by Elvis Costello 2) Bob Dylan by Robbie Robertson 3) Elvis Presley by Bono 4) The Rolling Stones By Steven Van Zandt 5) Chuck Berry by Joe Perry (oooh, that rhymes!) 6) Jimi Hendrix by John Mayer 7) James Brown by Rick Rubin 8) Little Richard by -- who else? -- Little Richard 9) Aretha Franklin by Jerry Wexler 10) Ray Charles by Van Morrison 11) Bob Marley by Wyclef Jean 12) The Beach Boys by Lindsey Buckingham 13) Buddy Holly by John Mellencamp 14) Led Zeppelin by David Grohl 15) Stevie Wonder by Elton John 16) Sam Cooke by Art Garfunkel 17) Muddy Watters by Billy Gibbons 18) Marvin Gaye by Smokey Robinson 19) The Velvet Underground by Julian Casablancas 20) Bo Diddley by Iggy Pop 21) Otis Redding by Steve Cropper 22) U2 by Chris Martin 23) Bruce Springsteen by Jackson Browne 24) Jerry Lee Lewis by Moby

25) Fats Domino by Dr. John 26) The Ramones by Lenny Kaye 27) Nirvana by Vernon Reid 28) Prince by Ahmir Thompson 29) The Who by Eddie Vedder 30) The Clash by The Edge 31) Johnny Cash by Kris Kristofferson 32) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles by Bob Seger 33) The Everly Brothers by Paul Simon 34) Neil Young by Flea 35) Michael Jackson by Antonio "LA" Reid 36) Madonna by Britney Spears 37) Roy Orbison by K.D. Lang 38) John Lennon by Lenny Kravitz 39) David Bowie by Lou Reed 40) Simon and Garfunkel by James Taylor 41) The Doors by Marilyn Manson 42) Van Morrison by Peter Wolf 43) Sly and the Family Stone by Don Was 44) Public Enemy by Adam Yauch 45) The Byrds by Tom Petty 46) Janis Joplin by Rosanne Cash 47) Patti Smith by Shirley Manson 48) Run-DMC by Chuck D 49) Elton John by Billy Joel 50) The Band by Lucinda Williams

Unfortunately, to get linked access to all of the pages, one has to go through a Google cache (and I'm frankly too bleedin' lazy to do all the linking myself) which can be found here. This blog does want to know, though, who in the hell thought it was a good idea to have Britney Spears "write." All in all, it's an interesting list, and it makes me wish I'd known sooner and bought the issue.