Best American rock 'n roll band ever?
- Thread starter gamecockcat
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Drummer and bassist for Jimi Hendrix were British.
"The whole damn band was white, except for Jimi", laugh every time that line is said.
Jimi Hendrix plus two British nobodies. The only member that counts was Merican.
From the very first post in the thread:
"Remember American rock bands - not individuals like Elvis or Chuck Berry.."
By the way, Mitch Mitchell was hardly a British nobody.
All of this is accurate. Their idol was Elvis, as he was in a different stratosphere from everybody…he was the Beatles before the Beatles. But in terms of their actual musical influences, I’d say they borrowed from Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, the Everly Brothers, but more than anything, Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They even named their band after the Crickets.
-The Beatles are basically untouchable, musically. There’s never been anybody that has approached their total body of work, and what’s funny is that they were basically the first modern rock ‘n’ roll band. After music has evolved over a 60-year time period, there’s still been nobody as good as the Beatles.
-The Beach Boys had the Beatles sweating for a bit, as they had a songwriting rivalry in the mid-to-late sixties. Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney used to hang out together. Legend has it that McCartney took an acetate of “Only God Knows Why” back to John Lennon, and McCartney wasn’t sure they could beat it. But they released Strawberry Fields Forever, and Brian Wilson first heard it on a cab ride, when he said, “That is exactly the sound I was looking for.” The Beach Boys would have looked a lot different, historically, if Brian had beaten McCartney and Lennon to the punch. I still maintain they were the best American rock band of all time.
All 3 of these statements are highly debatable, and that isn't meant to discredit what they accomplished, and their historical influence to music.
Untouchable, musically....not even sure what this is supposed to mean.
Total body of work....of the statements, this one is probably 99.9% false.
Bill Haley and the Comets are generally considered the first "rock and roll" band.
Ike Turner always claimed his Rocket 88 song that predates Rock Around the Clock was the first RnR song. It's a good rocking song, I'll give him that.
Totally agree. The Beatles were great (although not one of my top 10). Wrote a lot of memorable songs, pioneered recording techniques (not all of them good, imo). Their total body of work encompassed, what, 7 years. Many artists have maintained a high artistic level 20+ years or more. They drew from a wide range of influences and sang together really, really well.
I downgrade them for their lack of live performances, though. A lot of things can be done in the studio but can you make it work live on stage is a whole other set of obstacles. They gave up playing live halfway through their career. Still immensely influential and wrote several songs that will be played 50 years from now.
I didn’t claim that they invented rock-and-roll. Ike Turner did that. But as far as a “modern” rock band, the Beatles were the first. Bill Haley and the Comets were rock, but they weren’t producing the type of transcrendent music the Beatles were. Elvis did a few songs that were iconic, but outside of him, a few from Chuck Berry, and some from Little Richard, rock didn’t become transcendent until the Beatles hit.
The Crickets had a shot to be relevant in the 60s, but most of the 50s rock-and-rollers died out with the British Invasion.
He definitely was one of the first and most influential, but Elvis popularized it. Then, the Beatles took it to another level.
I miss rock. Anybody have any good rec?
I don't know beans about music, but I have read several articles claiming "Move it on Over" by Hank Williams was the first rockabilly song. It was recorded in 1947. It supposedly had it's roots in black music that predated Move it on Over. One in particular was a Count Basie release of Your Red Wagon in 1941.
Spot on. They ultimately let their aura and mystique define them vs their music.
Unfortunately, there are so many sub-genres of 'rock', no one knows what it even means any more.
Some of the new-ish music I've found and enjoy:
Blackberry Smoke (sort of Skynyrd-ish)
The Pretty Reckless (a bit of goth metal mixed with classic Stonesy bluesy rock - singer has a unique style/sound)
Sugar Ray Rayford (new soul that sounds like the Old Soul)
Marcus King (modern blues)
All of the above are quite different from the others and, imo, would still be 'rock'. There's a ton of newer bands/music out there but I find it hard to find some that I really like other than just a song or two.
Randomly got paired with Bill Szymczyk and his son one day on the golf course. Eagles fans know.
My buddy asked him if he had one band to listen to the rest of his life and he said The Beatles for their influence and how they evolved their sound.
But then he said Rush would be pushing them for that honor. Found it odd until I read later he changed the way drums were recorded and it made sense.
That's it! Out of my cab!
WildcatfaninOhio
All-American
Gov't Mule
Black Country Communion
Rival Sons
Left Lane Cruiser
The Temperance Movement
The Cold Stares
The Record Company
WildcatfaninOhio
All-American
They weren’t a band. They were a vocal group.
They didn’t play rock. They were Motown, which is an amalgam of R&B, Soul and Pop.
The actual band that played the instruments on their recordings, The Funk Brothers, were already listed back on page 1.
They were great. Not sure they were underrated. Most Motown artists and groups are very highly regarded for the huge number of hits they put out, and their incredible success in the 60s and 70s.
Too bad Jeff Gibson couldn't get to see them cuz @Glenn's take stole his tickets in 1991. 🤓 (Yes..that Jeff Gibson)
The Beatles invented stadium rock, but, unfortunately, they were the worst examples of it. They used whatever sound system was available at a ballpark. They traveled only with their three guitar/bass amps, plus the rest of the gear. The contract made no specifications about the system, and, as a consequence, the systems provided were inadequate. Even worse, there was no concept of stage monitors back then. So imagine you're singing into a mic with your cranked-up, shitty sounding solid-state amp behind you, and the dinky little PA speaker columns 30 feet in front of you pointed away from you. And of couse, the constant screaming from the fans. Awful. If they had resumed live performances a few years later, everything could have been different. Think about those massive speaker towers at Woodstock. I saw a lot of concerts back in the day, and I can easily say The Beatles were technically the worst. Of course, the most memorable, too.
It really wasn't until the late 60s that bands could hear themselves. I read a book that mentioned that fact during the Stones '69 tour. It took them a while to adjust to being able to hear whether their instruments were in tune, singing/harmonies were in tune, where the beat was, etc. As you said, prior to that point, the band might be able to hear their own instrument because they were standing directly in front of their amp. But, no way could they hear the vocals or other instruments.
