Martha and I were googling around (oooh!) and found many lists of Top 100 Americans or Top 25 Most Influential People, but no lists of Top Indie Heroes.
I thought if there were such lists they’d be mostly indie music band people or comics characters, and there are a couple lists that come close to that.
But, really, there are no lists of influential or cool people who were not affiliated with any big politics, wars or banking. Take all that out of the equation and you’ve removed a lot of filters and grinding PR axes behind the making of heroes. Heck, any big professional/business/political/academic/religious affiliation makes the person themself far, far, far less of a factor, seems to me.
In fact, really big world-important people often seem to me to be more like weather: the times push them up. Their options are actually very limited. They can’t really be themselves. In fact, the weather analogy is probably very close. But an Indie Hero? That’s a person. Sure, they’re also a product of their times, but they take their litmus test and run with it where they like.
Anyway, here’s a start on my own list. Feel free to chime in and add your own via the Reader Comments below!
Also, does this kind of list tend to be a modern thing? Inventors seem to be indie, but often they’re in neck’n’neck races with many others and have big funding and are even more than others products of their time — like Edison. Lots of bookish and writerly folks are in my list — but they, too, are products of serious cherry-picking by big publishers, with better folks, in all likelihood, left unknown — until the mimeo/zine/web era when indie voices became harder to suppress. Although how easy is it to find new voices even on the Internet? There are SO many voices (and so many cat-blogs) that NEW voices might actually be drowned out worse than before!
Maybe it’s unfair to exclude a titan like Dylan just coz he had backing — some of my indie writers had backing, too. Oh well! Ah, maybe a test for Indie Hero would be “people like us, who answer the telephone”!!! (No bodyguard or lawyer needed. Or even secretary.)
Welcome to the first-ever Top Indie Heroes list!
OK, in no particular order, I’m just brainstorming here. Lots of outdoorsy dudes in my list, but that’s just me. I’ll put their topic after their name — ah, but for many of these a single term seems impoverished — integrated multifacets seem a common aspect. But at least if you don’t know the name the label can get you started in the right direction for further digging. (Whoa, only one woman in the early running! Several indie musician ladies pop up later, but they’re “big” and thus were early on wired into mega-PR efforts.)
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Gwen Frostic – art
Eddy Merckx – bike
Mr. Rodgers – TV
Charles Bukowski – poem
HD Thoreau – book
Garth Williams – art
Kenneth Grahame – book
John Kennedy Toole – book
Verlen Kruger – canoe
Greg Lemond – bike
VVA – bike
Bill Mason – canoe
Jack Saunders – book
Grant Peterson – bike
Sheldon Brown – bike
Jan Heine – bike
Bill Koch – ski
Ray Jardine – hike
Nessmuk – camp
Joshua Slocum – boat
Tristan Jones – boat
Robb White – boat
Robbie Fulks – music
Gillis Brothers – music
The Fugs – music
Ed Sanders – book
Grey Owl – culture
Howard Hill – bow
Ron LaClair – bow
Phil Bolger – boat
Arthur Ransome – book
John Bennett – book
Michael Hoy – press
Mike Gunderloy – zine
Lucinda, Gillian, Iris – music
Seth & May — and Earthwork Music
Bloodshot Records
Edward Abbey – book
Hunter Thompson – book
Woody Guthrie – song
Howard Finster – art
