Who is/was the greatest rock and roll band of all-time?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones.
I actually saw Led Zep in Pittsburgh in the early seventies and they were amazing. I never did see the Stones, tho.
that’s me answer, too.
They defined the attitude of the genre, on stage and off, and even in hotels.
The canonical answer is “the Rolling Stones”
…although I could see making an argument for Zep.
The Who
I’ll have to go with The Who, too, although Led Zeppelin would be a close second.
I third Steven D and Indianadem – it’s The Who, baby.
By the way, looks like Tea Party Patriots.org is sponsoring Booman Tribune now. Good stuff.
I have a ton of respect for the Stones and Zep – Zep in particular nearly invented about three genres – but by that criteria you have to mention the Beatles. No band before or since has had such a profound impact, nor put out such a huge quantity of music that was both popular and (especially in their later years) cutting edge.
For later generations, The Clash similarly spawned a million bands, and while some of their later stuff (as with the Stones) is just dreck, U2 probably deserves a nod, too.
BTW, Keith Richards’ book is a hoot. It’s amazing he’s still alive, let alone in such good shape.
I agree, but can you really call the Beatles a Rock Band? I feel like the are a genre unto themselves.
Yep. Best studio band, without question. But rock bands must tour, and the Beatles didn’t do that after 1966.
Stats seem to place the Beatles squarely in #1…
Opinion? Either The Who or the Blimp, baby…gods of R&B
Still, for sheer virtuoso performance, my hero is Neil Peart
The Clash
Truly. Now we are talking. 1979 Clash hands down.
I suspect the BooMan is hoping for a long holiday weekend and is venturing an unresolvable query to bait us into a three-day donnybrook.
You people are low-born traitors, each and every one. Rock and roll is a uniquely American art form, but who do you people name as its greatest practitioners? Brits! You royalist backsliders, you tea-sipping, fancypants, anticolonialist queen kissers!
Any band that ever backed James Brown could scald Mick Jagger’s pouty lips to a heap of ashes! And that’s just for starters! From Buddy Holly’s Crickets to the outstanding San Francisco bands of the psychedelic era to Springsteen’s E Street Band, rock and roll made in America, by Americans, for Americans!!
I’m embarrassed to be seen in the same thread with you people.
I had to log in to applaud the exuberant audacity of this comment. A 4 for you Quaker.
It’s the Stones all the way though baby.
p.s. San Francisco psychedelic bands bah humbug.
I’d put Love on the list, too, especially if we want to get to the United States.
Lol! Brilliant, from start to finish. 😀
Little Feat’s right up there, for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOlTZGuLKM&feature=player_detailpage
That’s easy: Of course, it’s Pink Floyd.
Hard to be the greatest rock and roll band when your guitar player cannot actually …….. Play guitar;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClgtoM2RwQY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Chuck and the back up group can’t seem to believe what is happening. Their faces are priceless. Chuck Berry used to tour by himself, and he got more money if the back up group provided could not play. Me thinks he would have insisted on the higher amount if stuck with the Stones.
nalbar
As I have stated here on numerous occasions, The Rolling Stones are nearly incompetent at anything but bullshit hype. They are at best semi-professional musicians who make a lot of money. Nothing more. This video is simply proof of the matter. The entire Anglo/American pop music/rock/rap/MTV-VH1-hyped scene is almost totally bereft of any “music” whatsoever, and you people who blather on about which of these so-called bands is better have been hypnomediated into total cultural submission. Any good jazz, latin, blues, funk or American country band makes these fools sound like children.
Wake the fuck up.
The last time I picked up a Rolling Stone mag out of total boredom in some lame waiting room…years ago…it was featuring a “Greatest 100 guitarists” article. With a very few exceptions…Eric Clapton being one and I believe Chuck Berry another…there wasn’t one of them who could even play in he same room with Jim Hall, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, John McLaughlin, Vic Juris or any one of dozens of other great jazz guitarists. Not one. All smoke and mirrors, no real chops and not much knowledge either.
Wake the fuck up.
There is a rather clunkily translated article up on the rec list here titled Why Europeans Think We’re Insane.
The very first sentence sums up the problem here.
Yup.
I “left ‘America’ ” when I became a real American musician…when I was taught about the realities of “America” by high-level black, white and latino musicians in the hard streets and cellar clubs of New York City.
Maybe y’all oughta consider “leaving America” as did the author of that article. If that’s the only way to drop the scales from your eyes (and ears as well, apparently), then that’s what you should do.
Wake the fuck up.
The Rolling Stones!!!???
Ludicrous on the face of it.
You been had.
Again.
Ain’tcha tired of being had yet? Droning on about the same old sociopolitical/sociocultural bullshit?
Unbelievable.
What a job they have done, these “plutocrats!” Gotta give ’em their due. Maybe you can fool all of the people all of the time. Damned near all, apparently.
Disgusting.
AG
Considering live performance the best judge, you have to say The Who. Songwriting and musicianship.
Look at this clip and argue otherwise – it made the Stones lockaway a million dollar project for 20 years because The Who showed everyone up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtqGqkWmsN0
Ridge
Trout Mask-era Beefheart and the Magic Band.
Have at me.
Rolling Stones!
Radiohead!
Flog me for this but I’m gonna say Talking Heads.
I still think that an argument can be made for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, just because he was so dominant and no one could have ever touched him if he had lived. Of course, when he died he had formed the Band of Gypsies, who were good but not yet as good as the original trio.
Who has the Spirit of The Beach Boys?
Only with Blind Faith can The Cream rise above all the Talking Heads who in their R.E.M. dreams find Nirvana.
However those who are among The Grateful Dead may think it is a Little Feat that some go Phishn’
Metallica. Period.
LOL. Love my Julianne Moore.
UK: The Clash
US: The Replacements
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
Derek and the Dominoes.
One album. All that was required. Not even they could/would ever top it. What would be the point?
The Guess Who
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbPyvGJ9BR0&feature=related
The Beatles
Hot Tuna, of course. (or, more correctly, Hot F*ckin’ Tuna)
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one.
But then it comes down to
love the one you’re with.
Huh, funny about that new embed feature.
Re’ rock n’ roll…
The genuine article has a sexy groove that ROLLS, and is irresistably danceable. It ended about 1965. Not to pass judgement on the Stones and the other bands that came along later, but they are playing ROCK, not rock n’ roll.
US: Velvet Underground. UK: Wire
Neither were exactly hit-makers, but they both are bands who influenced many subsequent bands.
UK: Any Robert Fripp related project – probably not even rock n roll
US: Big Star