If you could bring back one great artist that has

Not meaning to be argumentative, but "J.S. Bach is better than all mentioned put together" is not just "one man's narrow minded opinion." There are a great many other composers who shared that same narrow-minded opinion, as do a fair number of other music lovers, myself included.

I was turned on to JSB by the smartest human I have known in my life, a music major and graduate of The University Of California at Riverside, known for it's excellent music department. He also loved Mozart and Beethoven, but put J.S. Bach on a pedestal above all others. Genius on his level comes along only once every few centuries.

It does roxy54, and I don’t disagree. I was in a band with a real fine bassist who really didn’t like Baroque music, but loved 19th and 20th Century stuff (Beethoven, Wagner). JSB to him sounded too mechanical, too stiff and regimented. I can see why one would feel that way, but the composer’s chord structures, melodies, harmonies, and insane counterpoint just thrill me to death.

It’s no different in Popular music. Some listeners hear a Brian Wilson song and just don’t get why Paul McCartney considers him The Master. Another listener may hear only the voices of the not-so-hot Beach Boy singers (apart from Carl Wilson), while I hear the spectacular chord progressions in his best songs, and his use of inversion (the bass not playing the root note of the chord, but up a third or fifth. James Jamerson---with whom McCartney credits opening his mind to the possibilities in bass playing---uses inversion brilliantly in "What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted". It’s unadulterated J.S. Bach!).