Season 3

"As a live group, they created momentum and they seemed to be released by the ritual of their playing. The Who began as spectacle. They became spectacular."

"Peter Gabriel is an artist not afraid to embrace modern technology but he never lets it overwhelm his music. He has always focused our attention on the core of his songs — and his best songs are distinguished with depth and ambient complexity."

"Byrne likes to challenge himself and, by extension, challenge us. He looks at life, takes in the big picture, revels in the miniature, asks some big questions and offers some pertinent thoughts and observations along the way."

"In 1985, when Be Yourself Tonight came out, they were two of the biggest stars on the planet. There weren’t any other artists able to rope Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder in to contribute to their album."

"Devendra Banhart is an artist who is hard to categorise — the best most people come up with is “freak folk”, but they’re really not trying hard enough."

"Waits has been described as a 'barfly raconteur, backwoods bluesman, dust bowl poet and an absconding guest of an asylum' — and it’s a compliment. Waits doesn’t write moon in June — he writes instead about real life. Real people. And there’s an honest sincerity to the tall tales he tells."

"A lot of people would carve Paul Weller’s career into three slices, The Jam, Style Council and his solo stuff — but that doesn’t account for how richly diverse his solo career has been."

"Johnny Cash was a pioneer, a rebel, an icon, a legend. He was a man who knew pain, but later found pleasure in the arms of his second wife. Above all, he was a man committed to his music."

"In 2010, Rolling Stone released a list of what it regarded are the greatest artists of all time. The Beastie Boys came in at 77 and Run-DMC came in at 48."

"When the pair broke up there was only one thing Simon was going to do next and that was forge ahead with a solo career. Garfunkel tried to have one too, but without Simon’s songs to sing, his never really took off."