Posted on 07/27/2008 3:26:41 PM PDT by Bobarian
Okay, FRiends. It's a lazy Sunday afternoon and I need a distraction from Obamamania. Anybody care to debate the top ten rock & roll bands?
Not necessarily personal favorites, but in terms of influence, endurance and popularity.
I think the top four, in no particular order, would have to include:
The Doors
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Also The Kinks.
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To borrow a line from Blade Runner, the candle that burns the brightest is gone the soonest, or something to that effect :-)
The best bands have usually had short, tumultuous histories, oftentimes because of incredibly talented people trying to get along with more pedestrian compatriots. Most bands only have one album in them if that much, and are merely rehashing their own (or somebody else's) material thereafter. Although you may well be correct, I would have hated to see the Pistols stay together for 25 years living off of the fame of their first album and putting out trash thereafter like so many tired old bands that are still plodding along these days.
Not top ten, but worthy of mention: Mountain
****Cream was no. 11****
Does that mean they were one louder?
No mention of Iron butterfly?
< /silly >
I have a Mountain album that is still sealed.
DIRE STRAITS, Uriah Heap, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos, Spencer Davis Group, Seatrain. Dave Mason Band.
Not top ten material - but I think Cheap Trick was a very good band in it’s day.
Agree on ELO. I would also add Styx.
AC/DC
Primus - Les Claypool is a genius
And on the subject of guitarists:
Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Stevie Ray Vaugan
Satriani
Buckethead
Iron Butterfly is nowhere near a top ten.
Vanilla Fudge
Blues Magoos
Blue Cheer
Fugs
Flying Lizards
(well, OK, some of the worst bands ever)
I think Machine Head was Deep Purple.
But that had Smoke on the Water (i think).
Sweet Leaf was on Master of Reality, 1971.
There's no denying the incredible influence of the Velvet Underground and, upon reflection, they were probably more worthy of a spot on my list than Colourbox, great as they were. Agreed on the Stooges and MC5, as well as the New York Dolls. I was making a judgement based upon the thread author's request for a list of ten only. There are so many great and influential punk-era and pre-punk era bands that more modern artists cite when they are asked about their influences, it's hard to limit the list to ten particularly when I tried to cover the whole Rock genre :-)
This question arises from time to time. usually it transgresses from the “best” to personal favorites.
The greatest rock and roll bands should be classified by their number of hits, their longevity, their influence on other groups or music trends and the ability to fill a stadium and bring down the house.
Thus there is no one comparable to the Stones. Put Led Zeppelin a close #2. Below them there are plenty of greats; Eagles, Who, Fleetwood Mac, Santana, ZZ Top Allman Bros and no list of pure talent rock and roll is complete without Little Feat even though Lowell George left us too soon.
Whats odd is that we are on the third page of this thread and no one has offered up Aerosmith or the Boss.
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Thank you. Hard to fit a one-hit wonder in here. OTOH, Zappa takes it all regarding ingenuity, depth, technical mastery of music and composition, technical mastery of guitar sound and improvisation, etc, etc, long (30?ish) discography, a number of pop hits. Extensive orchestral compositions. Too bad his idiosyncratic nature overtook the beauty of his work. Much was un-listenable, only due to sophmoric antics. And while he had the best players avalable, it was pretty much never the same band twice. Still like ZZ Top tho.
155 posts and quite a few entries from my Worst of list! Keep it up! Iron Butterfly anyone? Rosie and the Originals?
I agree, they were influential though.
Has anyone mentioned the Moody Blues?
I say these are kind of in a class by themselves:
The Doors
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
The Who
There are a dozen bands who could compete for the last four spots. I did no see much love for AC/DC on this thread.
Crap, sorry, you’re right. However, I’m sure that Sweet Leaf was Sabbath, as you pointed out. Those days and that music are all a blur. Probably too much sweet leaf clouded my memory.
Three Dog Night Ought to be on the list.
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