Of public image...

In prog history there has been many strange ways of presenting oneself to the public eye. Some of them are quite peculiar, some are a bit more usual. Which of these classic prog performers entertains you by just beeing (more or less) what they are? Feel free to bring other musicians into the discussion if I failed to give them a mention, and you think they have an interesting stage persona.

Robert Fripp - The puppet master of prog. A quiet man controlling his art from behind the scenes?

Ian Anderson - A musician gone truly insane. A maniac who's always jumping around and when he finally stands, he prefers to do it on one feet?

Peter Gabriel - The shapeshifting narrator from a surreal world?

Jon Anderson - The one who embodies everything that's good and pure in humanity. He is hope, peace, warmth and love. A musician who's past immortal?

Rick Wakeman - Jon's caped sidekick. He is the only superhero in the world who can play 400 notes per minute and command the wind to blow his hair back while doing so!

Frank Zappa - The eccentric. Speaking weird things, looking bizarre, and basicly doing everything that's somehow alien. The mad scientist of prog with no limitations to what he could create?

Syd Barrett - A tragic figure of the psychedelic era. An artist who gave a face to the dangers of hallusinogenic drugs after becoming mentally ill. A brokedown man who spent the majority of his life as a recluse?

Of this group the only one that I haven't seen perform is Syd. Of them I would say Frank would the one. He was always pushing the envelope and didn't care about public perception or corporate types. He stood up in Congress to push for freedom in music. Right or wrong he stood by his convictions.

I appreciate Jon Anderson for his warmth,  Zappa for his brains, and Barrett for his creativity and freedom.  And I should say that I have a completely different "image" of Barrett than the one you note here, the one so often  presented to the public, the one refuted by those who actually knew him well in his later years (ie...not Waters and Gilmour).  But I'm done having that debate. 

Gotta be... the Gabe.

Syzygy wrote: From that list, Ian Anderson - his image is probably the most contrived of any of those listed, but he's got his tongue planted firmly in his cheek most of the time and he's always entertaining.

I thought that an artist's public persona had to be somewhat deliberately cultivated/constructed to some extent to qualify as an "image" in the first place...

Syzygy wrote: The greatest public image of any artist on the site has to be The Residents, though, with Kraftwerk in second place.

Frank Zappa. He always seemed serious, but was always making a joke or being goofy. And at the same time always saying something meaningful and intelligent. And his music is good.

Syzygy wrote: To put it another way, I think that Anderson's private persona is probably the furthest removed from his public image compared with the others

Ain't nothing wrong with that in my book.  I've noticed that a lot of people seem to have a stigma against musicians who put a lot of effort into their image, but if you really think about how art works it becomes obvious that this is only a problem when the image doesn't suit the music. It's like there's some prejudice that a well-considered image necessarily is a sign that the music won't have any substance, which a listen to Jethro Tull exposes as quite the leap in logic!

Anderson Ian

Peter Gabriel always seemed to take himself & his music quiet seriously and with good reason and was more choreographed in his stage shows where Ian Anderson seemed more at ease with having fun entertaining with almost a Monty Python type humor knowing the music was killer anyway.
Both great entertainers in my book.