Rick Rubin picks his Mount Rushmore of music: “Invented punk rock”
There’s nothing like going to the pub with your mates, ordering a cold pint and settling in for the night. But then, someone, usually me as a music journalist, has to ruin it by forcing everyone to name their favourite band of all time. Suddenly, the peace found in the middle of your pint is turned to anxiety and stress, as you worry, this decision will define you forever.
But we do it anyway, because we are fascinated by what people inspire us, and we do it through the lens of a historical monument that simply means nothing to us here in Britain. In fact, there’s a large percentage of our population who wouldn’t have had a clue what Mount Rushmore was, before they were incessantly asked to pick their own version through music, film and sport.
Admittedly, though, as the person often asking people to pick theirs, it is a reliable structure upon which to centralise this game. Four faces to be carved into the rock, forever representing their place in music immortality. No picks will be quite as scrutinised as Rick Rubin, who has made a career of working with the who’s who of music. But his selections hit all the notes we’d expect, balancing popularity with obscurity.
“Beatles, I don’t think you can even argue that one,” he claimed emphatically, without any explanation, before passionately picking his next band.
Adding, “Number two, the Ramones. The Ramones invented punk rock. They’re the very first punk rock band. I remember the first time I heard the Ramones, I just laughed because it was so ridiculous. They were playing fast and it sounded like there was something wrong with the turntable. You’ve never heard anything like that ever and it changed everything.”
The Ramones would be a perfect fit for the consciousness of Rubin, given its place in New York. Rubin cut his teeth in the hip-hop scene of The Big Apple, but honed his appreciation for music years before that, as a child of the city’s booming punk scene that was as he quite rightly explains, invented by the band.
“Number three, I will pick James Brown and his band,” he continued. “If you go to see James Brown in concert, you’re gonna see James Brown and his band. At one point in time, it was one band, and then later, the band switched, but there were two bands. Regardless of who you got, they would be the best band in the world at that time.”
Brown’s pick is a hard one to argue, given the role he played in showcasing soul and funk, and how that would later influence Rubin’s discography. But it was the last pick that drew gasps, for its obscurity.
Concluding, “I think fourth, I’m gonna pick Kraftwerk. And the reason I picked Kraftwerk is, regardless of whatever bands are on our list, rock bands otherwise, anyone that anyone else is gonna say, all music made today goes back to Kraftwerk more than anyone else on our list. That’s why Kraftwerk’s on the list.”
The German band are indeed pioneers, innovating the use of synthesisers and vocoders to help create genres of electronic music we enjoy now, but Rubin’s claim is indeed a bold one. But a man who helped grow hip-hop, platform The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and reclaim Johnny Cash’s greatness is as informed as anyone to make that judgment.
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