Your favorite band's peak

Watching Nirvana Live at the Paramount on Palladia and, fuck, they were good. They were long my favorite band, eventually surpassed by Pearl Jam, I suspect in large part because PJ kept putting out great music.

It got me to thinking about what song represents Nirvana at the peak of its talent. Not peak popularity.

It might seem an obvious choice, but I think Heart Shaped Box probably represents them at the height of their talent. Smells Like Teen Spirit is their iconic song and it launched them, but Heart Shaped Box just feels like the song that shows what the band was growing into.

Pearl Jam is a tougher band to tackle because of the size and breadth of their catalog, so I'll have to give it some thought.

So what song do you feel best represents the height of your favorite band's talent?

 

"When Doves Cry" probably was the most exceptional moment in music history.

 

This was released after a 2-year hiatus in the synthesizers-and-strings haze of Pepperland, which was a magical place to visit, but even at age 9/10, I was wondering: were they going to stay there forever?

(And really, in the year before 'Pepper,' their dominant songs had been 'Yellow Submarine,' 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Yesterday,' so the visual and aural image of them playing kick-ass rock-and-roll was fading far into the distant past -- a flickering BW memory about how we all watched Ed Sullivan in kindergarten.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_wKZGWRF9g

And, of course, we hadn't heard "Helter Skelter" or any of the punchier stuff from the White Album, either -- the hardest-rocking stuff they had put out up until then was probably "She's Down" or "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" -- so when the intro to this first roared across the radio airwaves, it really did sound like an air-raid siren.

 

There's no disputing that the Grateful Dead's peak, at least in the studio, came in 1970, with the twin miesterworks of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty.

These were real songs, beautiful songs that came from the heart and were painstakingly crafted. It's no coincidence that the songs from these two records formed the heart of the band's repertoire for the next 25 years.

Live, though, the Dead were never better than on their spring tour in 1977. I've listened to a lot of the shows from that tour and they are just amazing. Garcia's voice was really good, he seemed to be realtively clear-headed, and the jams were tight and purposeful, unlike the aimless meanderings that marked their shows when they were off their game.

The fall tour that year wasn't bad, either. Deadheads also point to the first half of 1970 as really good vintage Dead, and they played some outstanding shows in the latter half of 1987, as well. I've got a tape of one from September 1987 at Madison Square Garden that is just stupendous.

 

I would disagree with Heart Shaped Box as the peak of Nirvana's talent only because their Unplugged performance was so amazing.
My favorite band growing up was Dave Matthews Band and I can't tell if they peaked in the mid 2000s or I just outgrew them.
My current favorite bands all peaked in the mid-80s. Yacht Rock Forever.

 

"All Apologies" unplugged is the best Nirvana song.

 

Shake My Tree - Page and Plant in '95 — my all-time rock favorite.

 

Oasis was at its peak with Dig Out Your Soul.

Then one of the wanker brothers bolted.

 

To me, Prince's last truly brilliant moment was "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man".

 

The Rolling Stones.

"Gimme Shelter."

 

The Black Crowes playing Zeppelin sets with Jimmy Page.

 

I forgot you are a big Crowes, guy, as well. I go back and forth between defining my "favorite" band as the Stones or the Crowes.

I'm going to cheat, and go with a second band then:

"My Morning Song."

And I think to fully appreciate it, you have to listen to the whole second half of "Southern Harmony," starting with "Hotel Illness," then, "Black Moon Creeping," then "No Speak No Slave," and then, as a balls to the wall grand finale, "My Morning Song." Probably my all-time favorite sequencing of tracks in rock history.