I didn’t think it made sense to combine my favorite artists, along with my favorite bands, so I’ve split them into two lists. Of source, anyone who knows me, knows that Todd is God. With no exception, there is no other musical artists which means as much to me as Todd Rundgren. For me, the Rock and Roll Hall is an abomination without Todd’s presence, and that of Rush and Devo, but I digress. I plan to write more about Todd, so I won’t bore you with my fanatics.

However, I will tell one story. On Todd’s Nearly Human tour, which in my opinion is another one of his masterpieces, I was able to see him four times. On three of those occasions, I paid for one of my three brothers to go with me to witness the magnificence of seeing Todd perform live. When my oldest brother Russell died we were sorting through some old pictures that he had held on to. Mixed in among those photographs, I found the ticket stub to the last concert we ever went together. It was the Todd show in Cincinnati. Boy, I’ll have to confess, that made me choke up and cry when I found it. I think it was difficult for Russ to show or express affection, but by finding that ticket I knew how much it had meant for us both.

Top five favorite musical artists (in parenthesis is the number of times I’ve seen that artist live):

1. Todd Rundgren (8)
2. Eric Clapton (2)
3. Neil Young (2)
4. Carlos Santana (2)
5. Frank Zappa (1)

And rounding out the top ten I would have to include

6. Alice Cooper (1)
7. Cat Stevens
8. Bob Seger (1)
9. David Bowie
10. Robin Trower

Now any top ten list wouldn’t be complete with a long list of honorable mentions. Coincidentally enough this list also contains some of the artists I most want to see in concert before they or I die. Of course none of them ever come to Puerto Rico, so it’s likely that I never will. I was very fortunate to have caught SRV before he died. His death was one of those moments, that I can say I knew exactly where I was when I heard the news. Sadly it was driving into Washington DC to go to work.

• Bruce Springsteen (1)
• Elvis Costello
• Joe Satrianai
• Jeff Beck
• Pat Travers
• Steve Miller
• Stevie Ray Vaughn (1)
• Stevie Wonder
• Tom Petty (1)
• Bob Marley
• Elvis “The King” Presley

A while back, as I was thinking of an old pet project of mine, I came up with a list of questions that I would want my children to remember about me after I’m gone. So this is the first in an ongoing series of posts that I hope to one day compile and self-publish. So I’ve been thinking of this one lately, so I thought I would get the ball rolling with my ten favorite rock and roll bands. Now I’ve purposefully started with just bands, of course, my favorite artist of all time is Todd Rundgren, he’s mostly been a solo act with a wide assortment of back-up bands. So my next post will be about my favorite solo rock and roll artists. Anyhoo, here goes…ohh the number in parenthesis is the number of times I’ve seen them in concert…

My five favorite rock and roll bands:

1. Rush (easy, and yes Pete was right) (5)
2. Led Zeppelin
3. The Who (1)
4. The Beatles
5. Pink Flyod

Now the next five get a little fuzzy; fuzzy because after the top five the list of bands I like grows exponentially to include such a wide array of artists that it gets to be a little difficult to choose only five more. Anyway, here’s the rest of my top ten:

6. AC/DC (2)
7. Yes (2)
8. Black Sabbath (2)
9. The Police (2)
10. Incubus (1)

Wheeh, that was tough. without going into too much, here’s a few criteria used to compile the list. First, how many times I saw them in concert. Of course this didn’t apply to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles because they weren’t touring by the time I hit 15, which was when I went to my first concert. I never saw Pink Floyd, but that was partly because I never remember having a chance, and when I realized how important it would be to me to see them, Roger Water had left and well I’m kind of snobbish when it comes to groups. I rarely want to see a group after important members leave or die. The second, was how much time in my life I’ve spent listening to their music. Finally, I considered how much their music has affected the way I think. That said, I think I owe it to a few more bands to add a few honorable mentions, because there’s definitely a few bands I’ve seen more times than a few of the bands in my list, such as:

• Utopia (2)
• Triumph (3)
• Blue Oyster Cult (2)
• Van Halen (2)

Finally of course, there’s been one band who’s come to mean a lot to me, but I was only able to see them once and had a really bad trip, but nevertheless is truly inspirational. That would be the Grateful Dead. I did see the Jerry Garcia Band as well, but it’s only know that I realize how cool of a scene (vibe) the Dead were able to create.