I caught up with Chris Martin of Coldplay the day after he dropped $400 on vinyl at Amoeba Records. Naturally, I asked him what was in the stack. “I walked out with, let’s see, some live Paul Simon, some Rammstein, some Talking Heads and some John Williams, some Jay-Z, all of it on vinyl …” Wait, Chris, did you say Rammstein? “Yeah, I love Rammstein, are you kidding?” Sure, of course, my bad: The guy who sings “Yellow” adores German industrial metal. That makes total sense.

 

Martin considers the careers Jay-Z, the Beatles, U2 and Stevie Wonder to be compass points for him, but when it comes down to the greatest living music talent, he named a man with a baton in his hand.

 

“The best concert of all time, at least that I’ve ever seen, was John Williams in the Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic performing music from Steven Spielberg movies. I’m telling you, John Williams is the best musician alive. At one point, he said to the audience, ‘This next song is from a George Lucas film, but I don’t think Steve will mind,’ and everybody knew he was going to do the ‘Star Wars’ theme and they went nuts. All these bankers and rich people in tuxedos just went crazy, punching the air, throwing their bow ties up.”

 

I told Martin my theory that the theme from “Jaws” is the most quickly identifiable piece of music in the contemporary American consciousness — play just the first two notes and everybody thinks about sharks. “Yes, yes, it’s true. And think how many people have performed it in pools. It’s not only brilliantly, musically clever, it’s also so simple that 7-year-olds can sing it when they’re trying to scare each other. It’s the ultimate music. It’s very clever.”

 

One last question, Chris: What band do you think should be celebrated more? I thought he might say that Coldplay deserved a break from the haters, but instead he went back in black: “AC/DC. I think their legend has really yet to be written. I consider them to be on the same level as the Beatles. That music was amazing. Maybe we should do ‘Hells Bells’ at our shows …”

 

– Geoff Boucher

 

http://theguide.latimes.com/blogs/soundboard/2008/06/24/chris-martin-coldplay-singer-and-rammstein-fan/

Wow, the world's largest independent record store.

 

http://www.amoeba.com/

 

I bet Guy had some fun in there too! Nice interview that, I can imagine Chris getting excited about John Williams. He seems to be at his happiest when he's drooling over all his favourite bands and artists lol.

Aw Amoeba! I used to live at the one in SF.

 

Thanks for posting this (: Its always interesting to hear what your favorite musicians have to say about their favorite musicians. I'm a big John Williams fan too, so all the better :nice:

except beyonce and jay z i liked all the other musical tastes of Chris till now like brian eno,kraftwerk,rammstein,talking heads,vampire weekend,sigur ros etc....his is a big list of choices in music.

Yeah Amoeba! There's no way I could go to the store in Hollywood without spending less than an hour or two in there. That store is my heaven :D

 

LoLz at the article. Chris is waaay too enthusiastic with music; EVERYONE'S practically the greatest thing since The Beatles. :P

Sure, of course, my bad: The guy who sings “Yellow” adores German industrial metal. That makes total sense.

 

:laugh3: It makes perfect sense when the guy who sings "Yellow" happens to be Chris Martin. :wacky: