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Best/most important American rock band

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Gator, Jan 7, 2019.

  1. Scout

    Scout Well-Known Member

    REM is different because they were a great local band that just spread through word of mouth and passed along mixed tapes. Sure a NYC or LA band could rise up without a record contract, but Athens?
     
  2. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Regarding Talking Heads:

    I'm not sure any band has gone from so great to so off-the-charts shitty as quickly. Those first five albums are brilliant. To release "Remain in Light," follow it with "Speaking in Tongues," and then the tour that produced "Stop Making Sense"... that's absolutely as good as it gets.

    And they followed it with "Little Creatures," a collection of loathsome little ironic cutesy-poo children's songs. It's fucking AWFUL.

    I hate smirking, "yes it's stupid that's the point" irony from rock bands. The whole Zoo TV thing from U2 was the same. And, as I mentioned a few posts up, "Stand" by REM.
     
  3. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    OK
    A couple of things.
    I love love love Talking Heads "Take Me To The River" and "Wild Wild Life".
    Not a GREAT AMERICAN BAND.
     
  4. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    Dan Rather approves.
     
    Wenders and Gator like this.
  5. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Pretty sure One Way Out, the great Allmans oral history dealt with that. Clapton wanted him to leave but Duane never really considered it.
     
  6. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    And the best of that group: The Blasters
     
    YankeeFan likes this.
  7. SFIND

    SFIND Well-Known Member

    Going to disagree with you on that. That may be were 4/5 were born, but their music is thoroughly American. Robbie Robertson talks at length in his memoir about how the South was the holy grail for him and how he had to get to "the source." The group cut their teeth playing with Ronnie Hawkins and came of age playing with Bob Dylan. They're an American band.

    And they're my vote for the best. Life is a Carnival, WS Walcott Medicine Show, Up on Cripple Creek, King Harvest, Acadian Driftwood, Hobo Jungle, The Weight, Rockin ' Chair -- they didn't make a bad song.
     
  8. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    If we count The Band as American, they definitely go top five.
    But under the same criteria, Fleetwood Mac has been American since the mid-Seventies, and they have to be in the mix too.
     
  9. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    Los Lobos is a great band. American. NRBQ. MOST underrated band of all time.
     
  10. RARist

    RARist Member

    The Beatles also point to American - mainly Southern - music as their influence. You claiming them too?
     
  11. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    John and George were pretty much full-time US residents at the time of their deaths, as Paul and Ringo are now. So I guess the Beatles are All-American.
     
  12. SFIND

    SFIND Well-Known Member

    Did they cut their teeth with Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan and take up residence in Woodstock with Dylan after years of touring too? I don't recall ever reading that.
     
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