Best American Band ever

[Lammycat]

This poll is unpossible.

[Winston Legthigh]

CCR

[tugmoose]

Um ... Ramones.

[ih8music]

Ramones, Replacements, Husker Du or Minutemen. Then SY, then Wiiiiilco.

[suites]

Both of the last 2 guesses are wrong, btw.

 

So who is it (in your opinion)?

 

Also, solo acts don't count (Bruce, Hendrix, Petty.......)

[Lammycat]

So who is it (in your opinion)?

 

Also, solo acts don't count (Bruce, Hendrix, Petty.......)

Honestly, it doesn't matter what I think, but what the facts point to. Since Buddy Holly and the Crickets aren't an option, it falls on the GD.

[LouieB]

We're an American Band....Grand Funk Railroad.

 

LouieB

[tinnitus photography]

A niche group that evoked comment and praise from the sitting president when it's key member died. A group that spawned and influenced countless other bands, including a lot of the post-Punk bands. A group that, literally, evoked and combined just about every form of "American" music variation, at one time or another, throughout it's career.

 

But I see your point: "jam" bands suck.

 

literally, just about every form?

[PopTodd]

Again:

The Byrds

[Lammycat]

literally, just about every form?

Literally, just about. Literally.

[LouieB]

Again:

The Byrds

Definitely.

 

LouieB

[PopTodd]

Los Lobos?

[LouieB]

Los Lobos?

Great one for sure, but not greater than the Byrds.

 

LouieB

[mpolak21]

Again:

The Byrds

 

The Cros!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ONOqTtKTxw

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Hmm, so far it's ...

 

1) Wilco

2) The Band

3) The Grateful Dead

 

Not exactly 673

[Lammycat]

The Band are Canadian.

[choo-choo-charlie]

The Band are Canadian.

 

 

By "American" I'm refering to the continent.

 

[Plumplechook]

No Allman Brothers, no Steely Dan, no Little Feat, no Byrds, Fail!

[dagwave]

A niche group that evoked comment and praise from the sitting president when it's key member died. A group that spawned and influenced countless other bands, including a lot of the post-Punk bands. A group that, literally, evoked and combined just about every form of "American" music variation, at one time or another, throughout it's career.

 

But I see your point: "jam" bands suck.

 

like it, i love it !!!!!

[dtram]

Funny that with the break up of R.E.M. I've been thinking about this a little bit. IMO, no American band has a stronger collection of records than they do, and it really isn't a contest. But there are things about the Dead that I think puts them over the top.

 

First, they wrote 60-70 of the greatest songs in rock music history. If Hunter took an active role as a playing member and was more visible to the public at large, he'd be regarded as up there with greats, Dylan, etc and I don't think that's hyperbole. If Jerry has wrote those lyrics, he'd be held up even higher than he already is, if that's possible. And Barlow was no slouch himself, Cassidy is up there with Hunters best stuff.

 

Second, I'm not sure there's an American band who covered the same breadth of styles that the Dead did. Rock, country, folk, jazz, blues, even a little funk, they could move between styles seamlessly and effectively. When it comes to "American Music," they covered it all in a way no other band did. The shows with Branford Marsalis stand out especially as to how versatile their music was and how well they could integrate with other musicians.

 

Third, as a live entity, 2,300 + shows is just an amazing number. It's easy to miss this fact since their tours turned into traveling carnivals but they never stopped evolving, never stopped writing new music and never turned into a nostalgia act, despite what one might think from the crowd outside. I think the dead gets overlooked for that very reason. People see the fans and the jamming and think it's just an excuse to party (and for some fans I sure it was) but it was obviously more than that to the band and i think they will be more appreciated as people come to the music who never experienced the scene and only hear the music and appreciate for just that. The volume of quality live recordings, both official and shared doesn't hurt either.

 

Lastly, they were an amazing cover band, effectively making other peoples songs their own. Many bands wrote great songs, none incorporated covers as effectively as they did.

 

Taken as a whole and respecting all of the other bands mentioned, no one did it like the Dead and they were the best.

 

As a last note, if the question is greatest rock era composer arranger producer, it's not even close: Brian Wilson

[tinnitus photography]

But there are things about the Dead that I think puts them over the top.

 

First, they wrote 60-70 of the greatest songs in rock music history.

 

i would probably violate many VC rules by replying how i would like to this statement.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I've got two bands on my mind here.

 

The first one is a great band based out of Chicago. Cheap Trick. These guys are stupendous. They got caught up in the updraft of a live album they never intended on releasing in America and it threw their career off track while offering them their greatest commercial success.

 

The Second is a stellar band from Boston. The Cars. These guys got caught up in the New Wave scene and backlash that obscured the fact that they were a damn fine rock band.

[howdjadoo]

One of America's greatest, most influential, and legendary cult bands, Flamin' Groovies came out of the San Francisco area in 1965 playing greasy, bluesy, rock & roll dashed with a liberal sprinkling of British Invasion panache, in an era soon to be dominated by hippie culture and hyperextended raga-rock freakouts. Caught in a double bind of playing the wrong kind of music at the wrong time (as well as not looking the part), the Groovies were almost completely forgotten as the Fillmore/Avalon Ballroom scenes, dominated by the Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, et al., rendered them anachronistic. The plain truth, however, was that despite not being in tune with the zeitgeist, the Groovies made great music, and managed to sustain a career that lasted for over two decades.

 

What made the Groovies such a formidable band was the double dynamite supplied by guitarist Cyril Jordan and singer/wildman Roy A. Loney. Together they formed an uneasy partnership that guided the band through its most fertile period, from 1968-1971. In 1968, for next to nothing, the band recorded a seven-song EP entitled Sneakers. This little bit of DIY ingenuity resulted in a contract with Epic and the huge sum of 80,000 dollars (1968 dollars, mind you) to be spent on their debut recording, Supersnazz. It was a great album that didn't sell, but did get them dropped from Epic. Quickly signing with Kama Sutra, the Groovies closed the '60s and started the '70s with two terrific records (Flamingo and Teenage Head), but public apathy and the increasingly tempestuous relationship between Jordan and Loney led to the latter's departure for a solo career in 1971. Jordan, now free to run the band as a "benevolent" dictator and indulge his passion for a more folk-rock (read: Byrds) focus, hired guitarist/vocalist Chris Wilson, curiously added the apostrophe to their first name, and in 1972 moved the band to England.

 

Oddly enough, the Groovies had a larger, more enthusiastic following in Europe (especially in England and Germany) than they did in the States, and it seemed perfectly reasonable to assume that if great rewards were to be reaped, it would happen in Europe first. Hooking up with Dave Edmunds, who was keen to produce them, Jordan and company recorded a handful of songs as early as 1972. However, this seemingly natural collaboration yielded little until 1976, when the Groovies released their finest post-Loney effort, Shake Some Action. Loaded with ringing guitars, great covers, and Edmunds' spongy, bass-heavy production, Shake Some Action became a well-received album in punk-era Britain, as was the fine follow-up, Flamin' Groovies Now. This new notoriety brought renewed interest in the Groovies in America, but the string of good albums ended abruptly with the mostly covers and mostly forgettable Jumpin' in the Night, in 1979. Clearly, the band had run out of gas. That fact, however, did little to convince Cyril Jordan that Flamin' Groovies in any form were no longer viable.

 

So, after five or six years of no new music -- there were instead countless repackagings, anthologies, and lousy bootlegs -- the band ended up in Australia, now reduced to Jordan and a bunch of unknowns (with the exception of longtime bassist George Alexander), shamelessly covering '60s material and living off the band's legend. It should be noted that after his departure in 1971, Roy Loney, after a couple of music industry jobs, made some wonderful records with his band the Phantom Movers (with ex-Groovies drummer Danny Mihm). Loney occasionally worked behind the counter at Jack's Record Cellar in San Francisco, and recorded with the Young Fresh Fellows.

[howdjadoo]

I've got two bands on my mind here.

 

The first one is a great band based out of Chicago. Cheap Trick. These guys are stupendous. They got caught up in the updraft of a live album they never intended on releasing in America and it threw their career off track while offering them their greatest commercial success.

 

The Second is a stellar band from Boston. The Cars. These guys got caught up in the New Wave scene and backlash that obscured the fact that they were a damn fine rock band.

 

Not The Castiles?

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I26YiePA3iM

[dtram]

 

 

i would probably violate many VC rules by replying how i would like to this statement.

 

Go for it. I do want to clarify that statement to say i don't think they that have THE 60-70 greatest songs ever, just that their best songs are up there with the best songs in the genre.