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OT - Definitive performances.


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This can be either on-topic (albums, CDs etc. by musicians) or off-topic (definitive performances in movie roles by actors/actresses, for example).

 

You don't have to limit it to those...for example you could choose a director's definitive film...anything like that.

 

List an artist, and what (in your opinion) is that artist's definitive performance.

"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Since you mentioned directors and I just watched it again the other night, Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous. I think I love it more each time I watch it. The only complaint I ever have heard about this movie is that it's not dark enough, but it's supposed to be a sentimental look back at his own adolescence. For that, it's perfect!
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For me, it's Sean Penn's career definining role as Spicoli in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High". It's the kind of role that comes around perhaps once in a lifetime for an actor, if they are lucky. The entire body of Penn's work that followed that watershed performance has paled by comparison, but how could it not.

 

;)

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Actors:

 

Tom Hanks - Philadelphia

Robert DeNiro - Taxi Driver

Charlize Theron - Monster (well, maybe too early)

Bill Murray - (tie) Caddyshack, Lost in Translation

Alec Baldwin - Glengarry Glen Ross (only a 15 minute sequence, but the best he's done)

Al Pacino - Scarface

Dustin Hoffman - (tie) Rainman, Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate

Jack Nicholson - (tie) Chinatown, About Schmidt (so-so film, great performance)

Kathy Bates - Misery

Gregory Peck - To Kill A Mockingbird

Julia Roberts - Pretty Woman (that film still defines her career)

Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs

Charlton Heston - Ten Commandments

Sean Connery - any of his Bond films

Peter Sellers - Dr Strangelove

Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects

Elizabeth Berkeley - Showgirls (defined her in the worst way)

Gary Oldman - Sid and Nancy

 

Directors:

Akira Kurosawa - Ran

Martin Scorcese - Goodfellas

Francis Ford Coppola - Godfather

Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction

Coen Brothers - Fargo

Stanley Kubrick - Dr Strangelove

Penny Marshall - A League of Their Own

Woody Allen - Annie Hall

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Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. the perfect record? it's damn close.

 

as for movies, Baraka changed my life. i don't what else to say about it, but go buy it today. you'll never regret it. it's beyond words, and ironically, there are no words in it.

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Blackmore's Rainbow - Suffolk Forum 1978. Not neccessarily the best performance by that band (though they were great), but certainly one of Ritchie's best individual performances. A band called TheGodz opened, and REO Speedwagon was the headliner. Apparently, there'd been an 'event' at the previous show where REO's manager stopped Rainbow's show early... Blackmore seemed particularly furious in his playing that night and blew everyone away. The vast majority of the crowd left, after Rainbow's set, knowing REO could never come close to that kind of performance.

I used to think I was Libertarian. Until I saw their platform; now I know I'm no more Libertarian than I am RepubliCrat or neoCON or Liberal or Socialist.

 

This ain't no track meet; this is football.

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I know virtually nothing about women's figure skating, but the little gal who won the gold at the last Winter Olympics... just watching her, I KNEW she had it in the bag. :thu:

 

Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

Brian dePalma - Blowout (changed my opinion on Travolta as an actor too)

 

Steve Gadd - drums on Aja

 

Phil Woods - sax solo on Steely Dan's Dr. Wu

 

Barbra Streisand - Somewhere

Botch

"Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will

www.puddlestone.net

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Led Zeppelin, "Dazed And Confused," from How The West Was Won. I never thought that the track from this set that I'd listen to over and over would be the 28-minute one. It's dark, it's creepy, it's sexy, it's funky, it rocks, it rolls, it's packed with incredible improvisations on the part of all four guys, it features some of Page's most inspired playing - it has the bow. For a Zep fan, it is the complete package.

 

Speaking of Steely Dan: Larry Carlton on guitar, "Kid Charlemagne." Amazing. Could it be the greatest pop guitar solo of all time?

"I had to have something, and it wasn't there. I couldn't go down the street and buy it, so I built it."

 

Les Paul

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Originally posted by Jode:

Speaking of Steely Dan: Larry Carlton on guitar, "Kid Charlemagne." Amazing. Could it be the greatest pop guitar solo of all time?

It might not even be the best Steely Dan guitar solo. IMHO, that would be Jay Graydon's solo on "Peg". Both are brilliant.

 

The best pop guitar solo? I might pick The Pretenders' James Honeyman-Scott on "Kid". Love that solo.

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Originally posted by Mark Zeger:

The best pop guitar solo? I might pick The Pretenders' James Honeyman-Scott on "Kid". Love that solo.

One of my contenders for that title is whoever played the solo in The Rembrandts' "That's Just The Way It Is". Amazing little neo-classical bit that even snuck its way onto commercial radio. :eek:
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Originally posted by Botch.:

I know virtually nothing about women's figure skating, but the little gal who won the gold at the last Winter Olympics... just watching her, I KNEW she had it in the bag. :thu:

 

Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

Brian dePalma - Blowout (changed my opinion on Travolta as an actor too)

 

Steve Gadd - drums on Aja

 

Phil Woods - sax solo on Steely Dan's Dr. Wu

 

Barbra Streisand - Somewhere

Botch did ya know that Gadds solo on Aja was a "first take" based on his reading of charts laid out by the Dan. Amazing.

Also -FWIW Mr Gadd lives a few miles from me in suburban Rocheswter.

His brother was my barber for a while and his young son Duke also plays drums.

Check out some tunes here:

http://www.garageband.com/artist/KenFava

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Stan Getz has got the definitive sexy sax tone/technique IMO.

 

Live/Evil is the definitive live electric jazz album.

 

In A Gadda da Vida is the definitive overblown self - indulgent sixties psycho-rock.

 

Sgt Peppers: the definitive concept album

(Tommy is a very close second)

 

Mahavishnu Orchestra inner mounting flame- the definitive jazz fusion album ( Corea/ RTF is a close second)

 

Eagles version of J. Browne's "Take it easy": The definitive california easy rock cut.

 

SSS/GM's forums: the definitive music forums on the web.

 

J. Beck the definitive guitar tone/technique maestro.

 

Sly Stone - the definitive rock-funkmaster- all esle is derivative. (James brown is pure R&B - a different category IMHO)

 

Enough for now.

 

oh yeah- Sonia Braga: the definitive brunette :D

Check out some tunes here:

http://www.garageband.com/artist/KenFava

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Originally posted by Mark Zeger:

Originally posted by Jode:

Speaking of Steely Dan: Larry Carlton on guitar, "Kid Charlemagne." Amazing. Could it be the greatest pop guitar solo of all time?

It might not even be the best Steely Dan guitar solo. IMHO, that would be Jay Graydon's solo on "Peg". Both are brilliant.

 

The best pop guitar solo? I might pick The Pretenders' James Honeyman-Scott on "Kid". Love that solo.

Like em both but - i prefer the guitar solo on Gold teeth II on Katy Lied- Is that Denny Diaz?

Check out some tunes here:

http://www.garageband.com/artist/KenFava

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Jimi Hendrix playing at the Monterey Pop Festival. The performance where he burned his guitar at the end.

 

He did better stuff later on but I think this stands out as a defining moment in both his career and in rock music.

"You never can vouch for your own consciousness." - Norman Mailer
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Originally posted by Gabriel E.:

Jimi Hendrix playing at the Monterey Pop Festival. The performance where he burned his guitar at the end.

 

He did better stuff later on but I think this stands out as a defining moment in both his career and in rock music.

That was 1967 i think.

-Zack

 

When our war for love overcomes our love for war, we will b happy...

-Jimi Hendrix

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Originally posted by Guruman:

Marty Turco during the first game of a Stars/Blues home and home series.

 

Flat out the best performance by a goalie that I have ever witnessed.

This is exactly what I'm talking about, Steve :D I can't pick a topic, music, movies, whatever, Guruman just put a great sports example up. Any definitive performance!
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Jaco Pastorius - "Teen Town"

Stanley Clarke - "School Days"

J.S.Bach - Toccata & Fugue in D minor

 

Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" ( 741 consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts, that's as definitive as it gets!)

 

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings

William Shakespeare - Romeo & Juliet

Steven King - Salem's Lot

Robert Hienlien - Stranger in a Strange Land

 

George Lucas - Star Wars

Akira Kurosawa - Seven Samurai

Ridley Scott - Alien & Bladerunner

(Director unknown) - Akira

 

Harrison Ford - Indiana Jones

Tom Hanks - Castaway (45 min Solo with almost no dialogue and still fantastic)

Clint Eastwood - The Good,The Bad and The Ugly

David Carradine - Circle of Iron (bet you didn't see that one comming :D )

Tom Baker - Dr. Who

Bruce Lee - Enter the Dragon

Tishiro Mifune - Sanjiro

 

just a few off the top of my head

 

Cheers!

Nothing is as it seems but everything is exactly what it is - B. Banzai

 

Life is what happens while you are busy playing in bands.

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