Posted on 02/26/2025 12:43:50 PM PST by Red Badger
I’ll see your Captain and Tenille and raise you Tiny Tim.
Rock and Roll: great.
Rock: sucks.
I’m gonna get so much hate for this, but I think Led Zeppelin is the most preposterously overrated band of all time. I get why Rolling Stone loves them, for their anthems to anal sex and whores, but I don’t get why non-perv, non-drug addicts like them so much. I’m not even saying the reason I don’t like them is because I disapprove of the lyrical content; I’m saying that’s the only reason I can imagine why anyone thinks they’re so great (besides Robert Plant’s incredible voice).
They have four great songs: Stairway, Immigrant Song, Kashmir and Rock’n’Roll. Besides that? Black Dog, a marching cadence with spastic guitar interludes? The simulated orgasm of Whole Lotta Love? A pile of mediocre roots plagiarisms?
Good Times, Bad Times has great drumming and starts off like it’s going to be totally kick ass, but the refrain fails to pay off. Going to California? When the Levee Breaks? Meh,
On your list: the Byrds.
I should have included them. Never got to see them or the Electric Flag. Overflowing with talent.
Incredibly, the Columbia Records bosses were afraid of the risk in their new album contract for the Byrds, fearing they might not be musically talented enough as unknowns. They had the reliable (unknown) session musician Leon Russell do a lot of the first album work without being credited. A group with David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, et al.
1) ac/dc...
2) aerosmith...
3) judas priest...
4) metallica...
5) linkin park...
I agree about the Stones. Go to any Juke Joint and the number of Stones songs on the Juke Box will way out-number any Beatles. As for Beatles being a ROCK band, I say no. They were originally a Bubble-gum group who later went into Sgt. Peppers originality. I give them credit for that, but what Juke Box doesn't have "Honky Tonk Woman" as opposed to "Day in the Life" or "Love Me Do"?
Once the Stones started writing their own songs, very litte can compare with "Gimme Shelter" or "Brown Sugar" or even many on "Aftermath" with Brian Jones. Jagger and Richards were on the cutting edge of real RnR while the Beatles were still doing pop music for the teens. Sorry, "Gimme Shelter" was after the Beatles breakup. The intro to that song is just plain haunting. It has been used in numerous movies. It's my favorite Rock song of all time.
I would swap The Who for Queen.
I’m not sure what the criteria was for defining ‘rock’. For the bands listed they’re all quiet different - which means it should open the door to all kinds of bands...of which, nobody would probably agree on a ‘top 5’.
I mean - Metallica might be ‘metal’ but their legacy is hard to argue with in a historical context (e.g. sold records, number of albums, revenue, years together, concert tours done, etc., etc.).
Beatles
Stones
Eagles
Skynyrd
GnR…..
Not in rank order…….
Of course, I could fill out a list of 50 in less than five minutes in no rank order…..
RLTW
I’m good with your list. Although I would swap Aerosmith with Queen.
When the Levee Breaks is a cover of a 1920's (?) blues song. Many bands have covered that, and I love the song--probably because I like the blues.
Dread Zeppelin's version is pretty good.
Janis, Jimi, Jim, sorry.
Folks these days just don’t know.
They also forgot how to have a good time.
Delete The Beatles and notch Zeppelin up to the top.
My favorite all-time live performance
The Who - Young Man Blues (1970 Isle of Wight Festival)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9boFzhUVG4
✅Van Halen (not Van Hagar)
✅Rush
The Beatles sucked.
I never liked them.
Stones
Byrds
Led Zeppelin
Doors
Eric Clapton also Cream
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Yardbirds
Flying Burrito Brothers
Animals
Led Zeppelin controversy here.
When I was one of the biggest fans of Creem* I was crushed when they broke up and never accepted the recording industry’s replacement band Led Zeppelin.
As Eric Clapton said of them “I can’t really stand hearing all that high pitched singing.” He respected former bandmate in the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, though. I also just listen for the guitar work in all those ubiquitous hits that are now classics of rock.
* I coordinated by vacation from work at the library to travel to NYC to see the first tour of the new band Creem.
Note: not the brief appearance on the long bill of groups like Mitch Ryder, the Young Rascals and Simon and Garfunkle on March 25, 1967, at the RKO Keith Theater on 58th and 3rd Ave in New York City, when Cream and The Who both made their live debut in America.
The first US tour as headliners.
Reporter to snarly drummer Ginger Baker: “How do you like the US so far?”
Baker: “That’s an idiotic question. We saw the airport and now we’re in here. What the f-— could we have an opinion about?”
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