Best/most important American rock band

Old Time Rock and Roll!
Still the Same!

haha

If Dick Whitman were still extant, we'd be hearing about the importance of Weezer.

 

"Pet Sounds" is not better than "Sgt. Pepper" -- remember, Brian Wilson literally broke down and cried upon hearing "Pepper," knowing they could never match it.
"Smile" might have done it, but the album, the BB's as a group, and Wilson himself, all careened off the rails at the same time. And The Beach Boys were finished as a major artistic force in rock.

 

That's fine, but in my mind, the Chuck Berrys and even the Buddy Hollys are the Hack Wilsons and George Mikans of rock.
Yeah, they accomplished a lot, but I just don't give a lot of import to that era.

I understand that argument has holes in it.

 

My kids, 7 and 4, pretty much demand the Beatles Channel is on if they are in the car. That means along with the Beatles they get a healthy diet of Buddy Holly, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Fats Domino and many more.

Not to mention stuff like The Traveling Wilburys. I am so grateful they aren't into the Kidz Bop shit.

 

Nobody is arguing that Pet Sounds is better than Sgt. Pepper.

We're arguing that Bob Seger should be nowhere near this thread.

 

REM's lyrics are very intelligible from their mid-period on. (After "Murmur" and particularly after "Life's Rich Pageant.")

The loss of Bill Berry cost the group much of its creative depth and finished them as an organically vital live act. From then on they basically became a jukebox in live performance.

 

Bob Seger's career has three phases: first, he was a punkish, grease stained regional superstar in Detroit and Michigan; then he hit it big as a nationwide arena-rock giant from 1975-83 or so, and finally, he transitioned into an easy listening adult-rock oldies act.

He's not among the 5 greatest American bands/ artists, no. But he's among the top 20.

Mellencamp is actually a pretty good comp. Tom Petty was in the same genre, but outdistanced both of them.

 

Get Out of Denver is a pretty awesome song.

 

we've got kind of a category problem with "best" vs "most important"

also with "rock"

and "band"

 

I don't claim to know everything about rock, but JCM's back-to-back of Scarecrow and Lonesome Jubilee may be the best consecutive American rock albums I have ever heard.

And they stand up 30 years later.

 

He definitely had a major hot streak going in the mid-80s. In some ways he directly replaced Seger as the "Midwestern Springsteen."

Seger slid off the radar after "The Distance."

 

I suppose if we're talking "most important," the Velvet Underground ought to be in the discussion somewhere.