Greatest Classic Rock Band

Greatest classicrock band of all time

  • The Eagles

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • Journey

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Rolling Stones

    Votes: 7 21.9%
  • The Beatles

    Votes: 10 31.3%
  • The Who

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • Greatful Dead

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Chicago

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • Creedence Clearwater

    Votes: 2 6.3%
  • Steve Miller Band

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 10 31.3%

  • Total voters
    32
Vincent E and Perdita are right on. Most of the bands you mention have played rock, but they aren't epecially rock bands; they were pop bands that borrowed elements of rock.

Rock and roll is a specific type of music that traces its descent to the fusion of delta blues with rockabilly and jump music back in the post WWII period. To say that Queen or Pink Floyd or the Eagles are the direct heirs and best exemplify the music of rock masters like Chuck Berry and Little Richard is kind of absurd.

Second of all, the fact that a band happened to record your favorite song doesn't make them the best band in the world. You have to look for the group that's best built upon and expanded the essential elements of rock, and in that regard I think you have to choose the Stones. Except for their brief flirtation with psychedelia and disco, the Stones have always been straight ahead rock and roll, and they've been that way for 40 years now. 40 years. That's just unheard of. Think of that: that spans a period of time as great as that between Scott Joplin and Edwardian ragtime to Elvis. Pop music genres don't even last that long, let alone bands.

As for the Beatles: the Beatles were and are in a class all their own. This is the band that made Leonard Bernstein sit up and scratch his head and ask how they did what they did. They're simply the most influential and potent force pop music has ever known. Ever. They had an influence in pop that even outstripped Beethoven's influence in early nineteenth-century classical music, and they handled everything from 1930's style ballads to John Cage-like avant garde, and they did it all well.

If you want to argue about whose music you like the best, that's one thing. But if you're looking for the best rock and roll band ever, it's the Stones hands down.

---dr.M.
 
Last edited:
Rumple Foreskin said:


For what it's worth, number two would be the Stones for their longevity and Satisfaction, with The Who a close third for Pete Townsend and the rock opera, Tommy.

quadrophenia.
 
A trip down memory lane...much appreciation to all for the thread...

Working my way through college as a DJ when 'Hey Jude" first came out...I played it twice in a row and decided it wouldn't be accepted because of all the screaming in the middle of the song.

Boy was I wrong....

The Liverpudlian Boys...as someone said...occupy a lofty place all their own in the annals of popular music...call it what you wish.

amicus...
 
The Beatles were and always will be the best, the most diverse, the most musical.

But they were not rock.

For me it has to be.......AC/DC.

Pure Rock.
 
See now, in my humble opinion,

OK, maybe not so humble,

I THINK,

All these polls suck!

Why, because they give you the answers. Invariably the winners come from the supplied list.

If you REALLY want to know what people think, leave the list blank, and let the voters supply the names.

Another problem of course is compartmentalising music.

One guy's rock is another guy's thrash is another guys heavy pop!

Ain't ever gonna win!!!!!
 
lewdandlicentious said:
compartmentalising

I know I've been going on about it PM's, but damn, I am so fucking impressed!!!!

*proud, with a tear in my eye*

Lou :rose:

P.S. :p :p :p
 
http://www.spinaltapfan.com/spinal-tap-sounds.html



Contrast "Hell Hole" with the sweetly melodic "Lick My Love Pump." You'll have to agree that Spinal Tap rivaled the Beatles for sheer versatility.

But Spinal Tap had grit. The violent deaths of the band's first three or four drummers gave the music its pain and poignancy You can't fake that. It demanded eleven.


"They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry."
~ Rolling Stone review of Spinal Tap's "Sniff the Glove" Tour

"Well, that's nit-picking, isn't it."
~ Nigel Tuffnel
 
Last edited:
One group I don't believe anyone has mentioned is:

The Grateful Dead.

I'm not a "Dead Head" and I'm neither for nor against their inclusion in any "top ten" list of classic rock bands. For all I know, the music scholars among us might not even consider what they do rock. But I figured that they at least rated a mention.

Rumple Foreskin :cool:
 
Kids:
If you like Spinal Tap you'll love Best in Show. I had a very strange experience when I watched that flick. We were sitting in a relatively full theater. The movie started. Down in front a man started to laugh. Then I started to laugh. Then my wife started to laugh. The three of us laughed our asses off throughout the entire movie. The rest of the theater was silent. I still don't get it. I bought the CD and watch it regularly when I want to laugh. A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman aren't quite up to Christopher Guest's best but are still better than 90% of the stuff available. Guest sees the humor in people being themselves.

BTW, sorry to get off the string, but how about Santana?

And for those who say that The Beatles aren't a rock and roll band: you really are nit-picking. They were Beethoven, George Gershwin, and Chuck Berry rolled into one. Their music transcended rock and roll, but they were rockers whenever they chose to be. Lennon and McCartney had two of the greatest and most recognizable voices of the rock era.

And of course, Lennon and McCartney were the greatest composers of the rock era and most other eras. Harrison wasn't a bad composer either.
 
Back
Top