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| Is this the answer? |
I thought it might be healthy to not talk about the Renegades tonight (even if I just did).
I took note of another bracket discussion on Twitter this evening. This one was on the greatest American band. From what I could tell, the Grateful Dead were on their way to likely winning the whole thing.
With all due respect, blech.
But, with that said, what is the right answer?
It seems much clearer in the UK, for instance, as The Beatles tend to get most love but the Stones, Who, Zeppelin, and others get hyped. It often feels like the US is playing for second or much further back.
Not to say the US has bad bands. We can claim the Beach Boys and Metallica and Van Halen as well as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Eagles, the Velvet Underground, The Allman Brothers Band, The Doors, R.E.M., and Nirvana.
There are underappreciated bands like Big Star that we should mention as well.
Those saying Bon Jovi will be hit with a response that will include something about a band whose “early work was a little too New Wave for my taste, but when SPORTS came out…”
Yeah, I’m not kidding. Huey Lewis and the News are legit but I also know their place. They crafted legitimately great pop/rock songs as a band who honored Memphis soul combined with the trends of their time and harkened back to early American rock.
I realize there are tons of bands I’m not mentioning. I realize I haven’t brought up The Ramones or Talking Heads or Blondie.
Or Up Front (for Jon and Jeff and Shagger Dave and anyone else who might get that reference). I can still claim that I attended an Up Front show in the late 80s and I’m a better man for doing so.
Then there are the bands that are a mix of Americans and elsewhere, such as Fleetwood Mac, which achieved global success after adding two Yanks, and The Band, who were largely Canadian but one can’t forget Levon Helm from Arkansas.
Of course, one always leaves solo artists out even though they have great, tight bands behind them. Billy Joel comes to mind, for instance, especially in the main days of his band from the 70s until the late 90s. Then there are bands like The Pretenders, whose main four members were really only together for two albums. Besides, only Chrissie Hynde is American, and she’s lived in England since 1973.
Chrissie Hynde is great and I will hear no slander on that topic.
What do we do with groups like the Mamas and the Papas and Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young)? The Mamas and the Papas weren’t really a band, I suppose, so OK.
And what about The Monkees? Surely, despite the disrespect over them being “the Prefab Four,” they still made some remarkable music — both from Brill Building writers and on their own.
Chicago? What about them? OK, we can deride their sappier “Cetera-influenced” years but the Terry Kath era was pretty great and that man was an intensely brilliant guitarist.
Like I said, we can just keep spouting band names. None truly grab me as clearly “the greatest.”
I’ve often thought the easiest answer was the Beach Boys, simply with the work they created between 1962 and 1967. Brian Wilson’s intricate works inspired the Beatles a few times. “Here, There, and Everywhere” and the “Sgt. Pepper’s” album were both thanks to “God Only Knows” and the “Pet Sounds” album respectively. Greatness inspiring greatness.
The results post-1967 were middling, with the infighting and Mike Love’s narcissism taking over. Of course, there’s also the matter of Brian Wilson’s mental health.
Sure, a case can be made for Nirvana and I’m fine with that. Still, their output was so brief before Kurt Cobain killed himself.
So there’s the conundrum. Of course there’s no correct answer. If you think it’s the Dead, well, I know Huey Lewis had a connection with them. That pleases me.
But, still.
If you think it’s someone else, it’s probably not wrong.
So, have at it. Honestly, I don’t plan to dig my heels in on anything.
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