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The Best American Rock and Roll Band

Grillebilly, from Canada? That's an education for me a fan since 1977-78 with songs like putting it straight,hooked on music,makin magic, makes no difference, seen them in a club years ago, excellent live show, anyways i did not know that fact. Thanks! and so i thought.
 
JonL said:
Speaking of a lot of output... The Steve Miller Band. I always liked his stuff well enough, but it was always kind of in the background. I saw him in concert last summer and I was blown away by the number of hits he had. One after another. The entire show was hit records.
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Agree, Steve knew how to make a hit. As did Bob Seger...
 
For those of you that like 70s prog:

Happy the man-same

Ethos-Ardour,Open Up

And of course Zappa,my favorite: Bongo Fury
 
If the criteria is a long lasting band who play great high energy songs live than the answer is Blue Oyster Cult.

How could I forget one of the all time great bands from anywhere,BOC !

As far as aerosmith,they were great up to the mid 70s,after that....
could not care less,at least they are still trying,better than doing nothing.
 
karmahnda said:
If the criteria is a long lasting band who play great high energy songs live than the answer is Blue Oyster Cult.

How could I forget one of the all time great bands from anywhere,BOC !

As far as aerosmith,they were great up to the mid 70s,after that....
could not care less,at least they are still trying,better than doing nothing.
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karmahnda said:
If the criteria is a long lasting band who play great high energy songs live than the answer is Blue Oyster Cult.
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I think that's the problem: everyone has different criteria.

Some people use longevity as criteria.

Some use high energy.

Some use influence.

Some use creativity/uniqueness.

I'd say the last two (influence and creativity/uniqueness) would be my criteria because I can think of a ton of crappy bands that have been around a long time and a ton of high energy bands that are derivative or that don't write good songs.
 
For some reason these seem to epitomize "American," though none of them are my personal favorites. I think all have been mentioned before, but I'm throwing this out there because there's some similarity that I can't put my finger on.

Bruce Springsteen
Bob Seger
John Mellencamp
 
Well if you use popularity then near the top has to be MEATLOAF after all BAT OUT OF HELL has sold 45 million copies. That is more then Darkside of the Moon and just below Thriller in popularity!!!

Bet you didn't know that LOL
 
I know they've already been mentioned, but I think at the end of the day I might go with Creedence Clearwater Revival.

But I'd like to mention two dark horse candidates as well, due to their influence (both bands spawned or directly influenced several whole genres), even though they weren't "popular" when they were around:

The Velvet Underground
The Stooges

In some ways, if you combined the three bands I mentioned above, I feel like you'd get the essence of what an American rock band is about: the power, the energy, the backbeat, the adventurousness, the attitude, the social commentary, the outsider's perspective, the danger, the volatility, etc.
 
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I am really surprised that no one has mentioned KISS. I mean, they are the self proclaimed "greatest band in the land". :smoke:
 
Mark W. said:
Well if you use popularity then near the top has to be MEATLOAF after all BAT OUT OF HELL has sold 45 million copies. That is more then Darkside of the Moon and just below Thriller in popularity!!!

Bet you didn't know that LOL
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I for the life of me cannot see what people heard in Meatloaf.I guess forty five million people can't be wrong???
 
Whether establishing the best American rock band, or the best one on the planet, this will take a lot of time & discussion to establish it (if that's possible). Has Atlanta Rhythm Section been mentioned?

:lurk:
 
I'm surprised no one mentioned Paul Revere and the Raiders or Lovin' Spoonful. But I also would have to say Buddy Holly & the Crickets, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Santana, WAR, Atlanta Rhythm Section and ZZ Top.
 
Steely Dan, Allman Bros., and the eclectic Frank Zappa. All the others don't come close in my opinion (although I love many of them).

I'm talking about musicianship here. To me popularity means nothing.

Rick
 
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