10 greatest AMERICAN bands ever

[jlscorpio]

here's my list, in no particular order:

Van Halen (with DLR)
Metallica (with Cliff)
Queens of the Stone Age
Kyuss
Jane's Addiction
Black Flag
Soundgarden
Pantera
Alice in Chains
Motley Crue

that's my list...let's see yours

[JamSec128]

Nirvana
Guns and Roses
Red Hot Chili Peppers
DMB
Soundgarden
Motley Crue
Aerosmith
Kiss
Phish
Ramones

[Reaper16]

There is an agonizing lack of Agalloch on this thread.

[StcChief]

Here 15...
In ERA order:
Beach Boys
The Doors
The Allman Brothers
CCR

Grand Funk Railroad
ZZ Top
Aerosmith
The Eagles
Lynryd Skynyrd
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Bruce Springsteen

John Cougar Mellencamp
Van Halen(with DLR)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers


Later:
Dave Matthews
Cheap Trick
Heart ????

nothing later worth mentioning

[htismaqe]

Interesting exercise which only serves to remind me how much I thoroughly prefer British music...

I'd have to say Alice Cooper and KISS were both quite influential, as was Van Halen.

Jimi Hendrix was also American. While he was technically discovered in London, he was from Seattle.

[StcChief]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Interesting exercise which only serves to remind me how much I thoroughly prefer British music...

I'd have to say Alice Cooper and KISS were both quite influential, as was Van Halen.

Jimi Hendrix was also American. While he was technically discovered in London, he was from Seattle.

Yeah...I considered Hendrix because he was from Seattle. but worked in London etc. so kinda left him off the American list.

How did I miss Alice Cooper listened alot to him in 70s.......one of my earliest LPs - 'Killer' .

[Archie F. Swin]

The Doors...good call

Heart?...good band, but considered a Zep clone

[Nightwish]

Originally Posted by nm_dbf

Yeah...I considered Hendrix because he was from Seattle. but worked in London etc. so kinda left him off the American list.

How did I miss Alice Cooper listened alot to him in 70s.......one of my earliest LPs - 'Killer' .

I can't believe I missed Alice Cooper, too! He's one of my all-time favorite artists, even!

And regarding nm_dbf's disclaimer about Van Halen, I should also mention that I'm only considering the DLR era. Van Hagar is a whole nother entity, and Van Cherone is barely worth remembering.

[Nightwish]

Originally Posted by Archie F. Swin

Heart?...good band, but considered a Zep clone

Hmmm, I never thought of them as a Zep clone, but now that you mention it, I do see the similarities, at least in Heart's early stuff. With the album "Heart," and everything thereafter, though, they took a big detour from that Zep-influenced style.

[htismaqe]

I guess I never thought of Heart in connection with Led Zeppelin. I always thought they got by on their genes...

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by Nightwish

Hmmm, I never thought of them as a Zep clone, but now that you mention it, I do see the similarities, at least in Heart's early stuff. With the album "Heart," and everything thereafter, though, they took a big detour from that Zep-influenced style.

They've covered a few Zep songs and done a good job with them,in fact saw them last week on VH1 Classic In Concert covering Misty Mountain Hop.

[CosmicPal]

Originally Posted by jlscorpio

here's my list, in no particular order:

Van Halen (with DLR)
Metallica (with Cliff)
Queens of the Stone Age
Kyuss
Jane's Addiction
Black Flag
Soundgarden
Pantera
Alice in Chains
Motley Crue

that's my list...let's see yours

Good gawd, let's keep it all to the hair-bands, heavy metal, trash punk crap why don't we. Are you fuggen serious? For starters- Motley Crue is one of the shittiest bands ever. Give me a guitar, a bottle of Jack, and two months- and I'll be as good as they ever were at the "height" of their career.

Anyways- You do however get kudos for the Jane's Addiction nomination. However, they haven't done enough to justify being a TOP TEN American band. Be realistic with your list.

Here's a REALISTIC list of the best American Bands ever:

1. The Eagles- yea, yea, yea- some sappy old California classic rock shit. The fact of the matter is- there isn't an American living soul today who isn't able to recite the lyrics to half a dozen Eagles tunes. They were more American than apple pie ever was to this country.

2. Bob Dylan- Oh gawd, I can just see the "Uggggghhhhhs" now. He was a major influence to nearly every rock band that made history. One of the greatest song writers ever.

3. Bruce Springsteen- the boy from Jersey. Count the number of hit songs Bruce has and compare it to the number of times you've been laid. Depressing eh? Bruce has you beat by a mile. But the fact is, Bruce speaks of the true American working life. He's more genuine than your mother's smile.

4. The Grateful Dead - I know, a little bit of homerism here, but the fact is theSE guys created an enigma amongst artists: they have one of the largest fan base in all of music, they've broken all the rules and allow their fans to tape their shows free, they've set the tone for merchandising and ticketing, and consistently sell out live shows in some of the biggest stadiums in the world. They've created a massive marketing exposure and literally live off of concert sales.

5. The Velvet Underground - New York, the biggest city in America and inside it's crazy streets was born one of the most dangerous, yet most beautiful noise rock bands.

6. Aerosmith - The Americanized version of the Rolling Stones. The classic all-American rock band.

7. The Ramones - The true American punk band. They influenced all others, including Nirvana.

8. The Doors - An incredibly gifted band that unfortunately had a short career, but a profoundly lasting one. Their music is timeless and endearing and how can you not listen to songs like "L.A. Woman" and think summer in America!

9. R.E.M. - Well, I'll prolly get a lot of shit for this one, but they set the tone for College rock radio and made MTV a hit. They launched a whole new world of underground alternative music that was once limited to local college stations. They can be political like Dylan and pop like Michael Jackson, but you cannot overlook the huge impact they had on the American college radio at the time.

10. Beach Boys - Man oh man was there ever a band more American than this? Brian Wilson- the boy genius and his superfluous and hypnotic blend of surf music made the girls all dizzy in the head and everyone else wanting to move to California.

Now that's more like it: Bands who deserve to be in this list as well- Sly & The Family Stone, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Metallica, Van Halen, CCR, and Kiss.

[Reaper16]

I'll be honest, I can only recall a few lyrics from one Eagles song. I must be a bad American.

[Mile High Mania]

There's only two that I will put up a fuss about ... Aerosmith and Van Halen (prefer the DLR era).

[StcChief]

Originally Posted by CosmicPal

Good gawd, let's keep it all to the hair-bands, heavy metal, trash punk crap why don't we. Are you fuggen serious? For starters- Motley Crue is one of the shittiest bands ever. Give me a guitar, a bottle of Jack, and two months- and I'll be as good as they ever were at the "height" of their career.

Anyways- You do however get kudos for the Jane's Addiction nomination. However, they haven't done enough to justify being a TOP TEN American band. Be realistic with your list.

Here's a REALISTIC list of the best American Bands ever:

1. The Eagles- yea, yea, yea- some sappy old California classic rock shit. The fact of the matter is- there isn't an American living soul today who isn't able to recite the lyrics to half a dozen Eagles tunes. They were more American than apple pie ever was to this country.

2. Bob Dylan- Oh gawd, I can just see the "Uggggghhhhhs" now. He was a major influence to nearly every rock band that made history. One of the greatest song writers ever.

3. Bruce Springsteen- the boy from Jersey. Count the number of hit songs Bruce has and compare it to the number of times you've been laid. Depressing eh? Bruce has you beat by a mile. But the fact is, Bruce speaks of the true American working life. He's more genuine than your mother's smile.

4. The Grateful Dead - I know, a little bit of homerism here, but the fact is theSE guys created an enigma amongst artists: they have one of the largest fan base in all of music, they've broken all the rules and allow their fans to tape their shows free, they've set the tone for merchandising and ticketing, and consistently sell out live shows in some of the biggest stadiums in the world. They've created a massive marketing exposure and literally live off of concert sales.

5. The Velvet Underground - New York, the biggest city in America and inside it's crazy streets was born one of the most dangerous, yet most beautiful noise rock bands.

6. Aerosmith - The Americanized version of the Rolling Stones. The classic all-American rock band.

7. The Ramones - The true American punk band. They influenced all others, including Nirvana.

8. The Doors - An incredibly gifted band that unfortunately had a short career, but a profoundly lasting one. Their music is timeless and endearing and how can you not listen to songs like "L.A. Woman" and think summer in America!

9. R.E.M. - Well, I'll prolly get a lot of shit for this one, but they set the tone for College rock radio and made MTV a hit. They launched a whole new world of underground alternative music that was once limited to local college stations. They can be political like Dylan and pop like Michael Jackson, but you cannot overlook the huge impact they had on the American college radio at the time.

10. Beach Boys - Man oh man was there ever a band more American than this? Brian Wilson- the boy genius and his superfluous and hypnotic blend of surf music made the girls all dizzy in the head and everyone else wanting to move to California.

Now that's more like it: Bands who deserve to be in this list as well- Sly & The Family Stone, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Metallica, Van Halen, CCR, and Kiss.

Bob Dylan - without a doubt but didn't consider him even with The Band. IMO Just a solo artist. Very influential talented song writer.

The Grateful Dead - Top 10? Maybe ...quite a following of Deadheads....concerts where their deal....
Some catchy tunes...A lot of live Jam. though.

R.E.M. - Top 10? A generation changing influence band. Never really listened...
but always heard the hype here about one of their guy's being from the East side of STL. Same with Sheryl Crowe...BFD.

Sly Stone - top 10??? Top 25 with some the later bands.

The Ramones - top 10? true American punk.
The Velvet Underground - top 10? maybe 15-20

Give me Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Grandfather of Grunge
Crosby Still Nash & Young - Another deserving bands in top 15-20.

[NewChief]

Re: Grateful Dead

I think the Dead are worth a mention just because they're so quintessentially American. They delved into country, folk, traditional balladry, blues, jazz, early rock (ala Buddy Holly and Elvis), and full on 60s psychedelia. In many ways they personify the American music tradition. They also pretty much singlehandedly created the entire genre of "jambands", whether you consider that a good thing or not is a matter of preference.