re: Who is your favorite musician of all time?

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Ryan Adams

No one favorite, I lost two of my idols last year- Alvin Lee & Lou Reed. Have to include Frank Zappa, Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Robert Wyatt and Brian Auger. Oh, and I can't forget John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders and Bennie Maupin. This list could grow, I had lots of favorites through the years.

beethoven ...

yeah, there are lots of other, modern musicians ... i'm an allman bros fan, so as far as modern 20th century musicians are concerned, they're it ... someone mentioned john prine and emmylou harris, and they're fantastic (fb friend posted a prine song the other day that i'd not heard - 'blue umbrella') ... and i like jazz a lot, esp miles davis ...

but symphonic music has so many more layers ...