The Loon
I would like to nominate the late great Keith Moon as one of the all time eccentrics. Although i have and will never meet the loon his legend lives on. What else needs to be said of the alleged inspiration for Animal in the muppets. He was the yard stick for almost every rock and roll excess . Drive a car into a hotel swimming pool ? Been done.

Who else agrees?
(welgar, Sun 2 Nov 2008, 7:40, 6 replies)

excess =/= eccentric
he was a more likeable, more talented, pete doherty. deal with it.
(UppityDamnPrimate LET'S OPEN THIS F*CKING PIT UP, Sun 2 Nov 2008, 8:47, closed)

I think that
driving a Rolls into a swimming pool is eccentric, rather than excessive. Pete Doherty's habit of just buying new cars when the old ones get clamped is excessive.

In the same way, Moon's prank of getting a man to go into a clothing store, and rip a pair of trousers in two to test the strength, and then have a one-legged man come in who looks at the half trousers and says "Ah! Exactly what I'm looking for" is pretty damn eccentric.
(LickOutTheJamsMotherfuckers!, Sun 2 Nov 2008, 12:13, closed)

At first
I thought you were talking about me...

For eccentricity it would be hard to top Tom Waits, though. (Apparently he was the inspiration for Rowlf, and was not amused by this.)
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Sun 2 Nov 2008, 13:41, closed)

win
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Stanshall
(unclestinky, Sun 2 Nov 2008, 18:10, closed)

Definately
Tom Waits and Viv Stanshall were good, Syd Barratt was somewhere else but Moon was a cut above.

For some real insights read "All The Rage" by Ian McLaghan - he was the keyboard player in The Small Faces/The Faces and married Moon's widow.

Keith Moon never passed his driving test so he got a chauffer, but then ran him over. Then he discovered that you don't need a driving license for an electric vehicle, so he bought a battery milkfloat to go to the pub in.

Sheer class...Pete who?
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Sun 2 Nov 2008, 20:09, closed)

As an ardent Who fan, I agree entirely.
I also refuse to believe all these people who have recently sprung up to claim that John Bonham was rock music's greatest drummer. Where the hell did that come from? I've always maintained it was Moon, and if you disagreed with me strongly enough, I'd concede it might have been Ginger Baker or Mitch Mitchell...but never Bonham.

Tom Waits is also very entertaining...though if Moon was rock n'roll's ultimate clown then Waits is probably The Joker.
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 3 Nov 2008, 15:01, closed)