Greatest American rock band

I think REM, the Beach Boys and CCR need to be on the list. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, too, if you want to list them as bands and not as solo artists. I'm shocked, though, that five pages into the thread that there has been no mention of Talking Heads. I think they have to be in the discussion.

 

As of now, my 10 top-five candidates look like this (but are always subject to change).

1. The Beach Boys
2. Bruce and E Street
3. R.E.M. (my personal favorite)
4. The Ramones
5a. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
5b. Pearl Jam
5c. CCR
5d. Nirvana
5e. The Allman Brothers

I would think The White Stripes are going to shove their way into this list before too long, though. People are going to be listening to their CDs and remembering how awesome they were long after they're gone. I think The Black Keys could shove their way in there, too, if more people would become less stupid and realize how awesome those guys are. I think My Morning Jacket could eventually become list-worthy, too, but I'm sure the old people won't agree.

I couldn't bring myself to put Aerosmith on there. I know most people love them, but I never, ever, ever, ever have. Not sure if it's the vocals, guitar, both ... whatever. I've just never like Aerosmith outside of Sweet Emotion and Dream On.

 

Jim Morrison is a pathetic film school dilettante who couldn't even do a good version of "Gloria," for pity's sake. (To say nothing of his hackery of Howlin' Wolf.) His band didn't even have a bass player.

 

I think at least half of the biggest musical arguments I've ever been in started with me saying I never liked the Doors.

 

If you want to get technical about the status of some the great "American" bands...

Van Halen brothers were born in the Netherlands.
Gene Simmons was born in Israel.
Lars Ulrich was born and raised in Denmark.

My greatest....

1. Beach Boys - Duh.
2. The MC5 - Captured lightning on record. Didn't sell shit, but influence will outlast the Beatles.
3. The Stooges - Created a blueprint which everyone tried to follow. Very few got it right.
4. The New York Dolls - Saw em last night and had I not I wouldn't even consider them on a list like this, but they were perfect. And that was without Jerry Nolan, Johnny Thunder and Arthur Kane.
5. The Dictators - Nevermind the Ramones, these Bronx boys are better. Yes, you heard me.

Other considerations - Alice Cooper Group, Heart, L7, Blue Oyster Cult, Devo, The Dead Kennedys, Alice in Chains, The Violent Femmes, REM, the Replacements.

 

wasn't cox like 14 in that vid?

 

Think they'd take him back?

 

Tom Petty gets accolades because he's been around forever.
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Yeah. Like Nolan Ryan.

 

With The Band it's not a matter of where they were born, it's a matter of nationality:
Robbie Robertson - Canadian
Richard Manuel - Canadian
Garth Hudson - Canadian
Rick Danko - Canadian
Levon Helm - American

Most descriptions you see of The Band call them a Canadian-American band
Any description you see of Van Halen you see them called an American rock band. The Van Halen parents moved to the US when the Van Halen brothers were very young and they became US citizens - Americans. Not sure when Gene Simmons' parents moved to the US, but I assume the same line of logic applies, spent childhood and adult life in the US.
With The Band the majority of the group spent their childhood and a portion of their adult lives in Canada before coming to the US to play.

 

1. Pearl Jam
2. Nirvana
3. Aerosmith
4. Green Day
5. Switchfoot

 

Negative. She was 19 or 20 based on the video coming out in 1984 and the fact she was born in 1964.

 

Do we include backup bands?
Booker T and MG's?
The Funk Brothers?