Of course the great Dr Feelgood count. And I don’t really make a difference between r’n’r and r’n’b.
Sorry @blondebear, it was hyperbole. 
Chuck Berry is what rock ‘n’ roll is all about. You need look no further.
In principle, I agree, and at least AC/DC and Motörhead are unthinkable without him and built on him. But hey, they played louder.
I saw the Flamin’ Groovies just last year.
Hey, that’s cool, I didn’t know they’re still around. Are many original members left?
Yeah. Jordan, Wilson, and Alexander. Loney died a few years ago.
ETA: I looked it up to make sure, and Jordan might be the only one in the line up I saw on The Little Steven’s Underground Garage cruise.
Would love to see them, but I heavily doubt they’ll play in Germany, they’re virtually unknown here.
I think that, if you’re going to identify “the three great primitives” of something, then those three have to cover the full gamut of that something. But even if you feel that, for instance, “the best rock doesn’t have keyboards”, still, some rock does include keyboards, and so you have to have keyboards in at least one of your primitives.
Huh? Some Rock includes theremins, maracas, or the jawbone of an ass. Do they all have to be represented?
Hmmph. I will remind you that David Lee Roth is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Van Halen!
Well, OK, if your primitives don’t include a jawbone of an ass, then they don’t quite encompass the full gamut of all of rock, but they might still come really, really close, because very few rock bands include ass-jawbones.
But an awful lot of them contain keyboards, and so if you don’t include that, it’s a poor approximation of a gamut, indeed.
I thought they were Granite, Gneiss and Schist…
Nope. Just bagpipes.
I get what OP is going for and I concur with this. My 18 year old self loved all three for their straight-ahead formulas. Not sure I need to listen to them much these days, but back then, hell yeah!
The difference seems to be that I still feel my inner 18 year old, although I’m hitting 58. Rock’n’roll is one of the reasons I never really felt adult.
Seriously, if primitives are the fundamental, basic building blocks or original elements from which more complex things are built, then I’d nominate for the primitives of the guitar/bass/drums category of rock:
Chuck Berry
Bo Diddley
Monk Montgomery
Gene Krupa
Buddy Rich
Oh yes, a good example, one of the greatest primistivists in music.
There are a couple of Aussie bands that took AC/DCs formula and ran with it. Airbourne and The Poor come to mind. I would think some of the NWBHM would count too. Blitzkrieg and Satan both come to mind, though Blitzkrieg did change their sound. I have had Satan on all day today and don’t remember any ballads, at least no maudlin shit as you’d say.
Those are jazz players. Buddy Rich hated rock and roll.
And I’m not sure I understand the OP. Rock and Roll was around a lot longer than any of those three bands. They were no trailblazers, IMO.