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MisterDDDD
Don't quite agree with this writer's conclusion.. but he does show his work.
What is the Greatest American Rock Band of All Time? The Answer is Not as Easy as You Think…
At first, upon reading this, I surely thought there’d be a definitive answer, but when I started to think, I found myself scraping the bottom of the barrel – what American band can hold up against the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and the Stones? The answer is not as clear as you think, and some names may surprise you. Discounting singer/songwriter driven bands (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) in consideration for groups that contained individual personalities coming together to create, among popular answers were the Ramones, Guns n’ Roses, The Eagles… And after a few weeks of digesting this question, we’ve come down to a few solid names that could even hold a candle up to those British bands.
[eraofgoodfeeling.com]
Interesting!
«but maybe that’s just how American pop culture has shaped up to be. We crave and reward individual talent and personalities mainly because Americans have been programmed to do so – we are obsessed with the success of the individual»..
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Big Al
Regarding The Beach Boys and them possibly being the greatest American band: am I the only one who prefers their songs about cars, girls and surfing? The bulk of Pet Sounds doesn't do it for me, and I only like their late-60's singles thereafter: Good Vibrations, Darlin', Do it Again, etc.
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Big Al
Regarding The Beach Boys and them possibly being the greatest American band: am I the only one who prefers their songs about cars, girls and surfing? The bulk of Pet Sounds doesn't do it for me, and I only like their late-60's singles thereafter: Good Vibrations, Darlin', Do it Again, etc.
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jbwelda
To me there are really only two contenders: the Grateful Dead and Little Feat, after much consideration
jb
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Big Al
I'm going to have an honest a stab as I can:
The Beach Boys - it's unarguable, surely?
The Doors
The Velvet Underground
Guns N' Roses
Nirvana
I mentioned Green Day and Weezer in an earlier posting: Green Day, as much as I enjoy their music, still fall slightly short. Weezer, I'm still exploring; although, their debut, 'The Blue Album'. is surely an alt-rock classic.
I enjoy music by The Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful and many others; but they're just not quite good enough. If we're using British acts like The Beatles and Stones as a yardstick, that is. I really do believe that the genuinely great bands hail from the U.K. Again, as UI stated in an earlier post: we have the U.S. to thank for the beginnings; the British Isles for what followed.
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jahisnotdead
Is there really a specific, definable difference between a Bruce Springsteen album/show and one by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band? Besides the obvious difference of doing a show completely alone, if Bruce had a backing band that wasn't the E Street Band and did a show or a tour, would there be any significant decrease in fan interest?
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Big Al
Regarding The Beach Boys and them possibly being the greatest American band: am I the only one who prefers their songs about cars, girls and surfing? The bulk of Pet Sounds doesn't do it for me, and I only like their late-60's singles thereafter: Good Vibrations, Darlin', Do it Again, etc.
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Big Al
Regarding The Beach Boys and them possibly being the greatest American band: am I the only one who prefers their songs about cars, girls and surfing? The bulk of Pet Sounds doesn't do it for me, and I only like their late-60's singles thereafter: Good Vibrations, Darlin', Do it Again, etc.
I with you on this. Dance, Dance, Dance has some of the most amazing harmonies ever recorded. Pet Sounds is massively overrated.
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jahisnotdead
Thank you all for the responses, this is a very interesting and thought-provoking thread! It's fascinating to hear the bands that rock fans from outside the US first think of when asked the question.
Here's my take on the E Street Band, and maybe to a slightly lesser extent the Heartbreakers. Is there really a specific, definable difference between a Bruce Springsteen album/show and one by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band? Besides the obvious difference of doing a show completely alone, if Bruce had a backing band that wasn't the E Street Band and did a show or a tour, would there be any significant decrease in fan interest? If there was conceptually one member of the E Street Band that could have been considered irreplaceable, it would have to have been Clarence Clemons. Wouldn't everyone agree? Well, was anyone at all surprised that Bruce kept the E Street Band together after Clarence's death? If Clarence Clemons was replaceable, then anyone is. It's because, to me, there isn't really any difference between Bruce solo with a backing band and Bruce and the E Street Band. In my opinion the E Street Band only exists as Bruce's band, not as a larger entity.
And I haven't looked it up, but my recollection is that Tom Petty consistently did material that he recorded as a solo artist during Heartbreakers shows. Not all Stones fans buy Mick or Keith's solo material or attend their solo performances. I personally have a hard time imagining that the fan base for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers isn't virtually identical to that of Tom Petty recording as a solo artist.