I’m a huge Ramones fan, but mainly their first five albums. Just awesome stuff. Love Bon Scott era AC/DC, too.
Never really got in to Motörhead, though. The stuff I have heard just sounds like noise to me.
Yeah, but beautiful noise! (to quote a very different singer/songwriter)
I’m 56 and still listen to a lot of rock and even perform in a rock band. But, there is so much great music out there and I must listen to it all before I die!
In my punk years, Ramones was at the top of this list. But overall, Motorhead is the top of this list.
Yeah, but he and Gene were a couple of the most influential primitives that created the rock drumming of Keith Moon, Neil Peart, Phil Collins and others. At least that’s what they said when asked.
They were influenced by those guys because they were two of the best drummers in the world prior to the advent of rock and roll. But that’s not where they learned how to play rock and roll drums. They learned that from Ringo and Charlie Watts.
I, too, endorse Einstein’s Hund’s premise. Listening to Let There Be Rock the album, for instance, I feel it’s the peak of rock n’ roll, unquestionably based on Berry et al, but made harder, louder, ballsier, perfect for the more modern ear. It’s The Essence, pure and clear.
Most of the time I don’t seek out the essence of rock n’ roll, there’s tons of great music in entirely different genres. But when I do, I know where to look.
Bill Ward, too. His drum kit modeled Rich’s. Bill also once said, “I hate drum beats.”
I can totally agree with this. Some people may have thought my OP was kind of a purist stand, but that’s far from it, I hate purism in music and listen to a whole lot of genres, but sometimes I like the essence. It’s like with blues, I like all kinds of blues influenced or derived music, but sometimes it has to be genuine delta blues.
Rock and roll would not exist without the electric guitar. However, keyboards have played an essential role in the form since its inception. Explicitly excluding the instrument from the “essence” of rock is a bit narrow-minded, at least IMO.
I might counter argue that those bands, rather than being “primitives”, are actually sophisticated and refined distillations of a particular expression of rock. They are advanced art, not primitive.
But maybe that’s more of a semantic discussion that you weren’t looking for.
I can’t think of other bands that fit the criteria: only bass drum and guitar, no balads, only simple chords. If you get a little flexible on some of that, maybe Nirvana or Pearl Jam? I think grunge is definitely on the same branch of the tree as those three bands.
I rest my case
I think that song is a good example of the sound the OP is looking for, but he’s looking for bands whose songs ALL sound like that, which would exclude CCR.
Just going from the memory of one (disappointing) gig back in the day: Rockpile. Where do we stand on them?
Plus, as an aside, The Stray Cats were both primitive and throwbacks..
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Early Kinks? White Stripes? Blue Cheer? Guitar Wolf?
Buddy Holly and the Crickets
All good suggestions. When I first listened to Blue Cheer’s debut album “Vincebus Eruptum” (decades after it was released), I didn’t know what to make of it. Is this the most possible puerile and inapt music ever, or an example of the most glorious noise you can produce? I’m somehow still undecided, but I enjoy the album from time to time.
AC/DC did bagpipes!
I like Einstein’s Hund’s premise too. Those three bands are the pinnacle of a genre that might be called bands that were really loud when I was young – no keyboards, and Motörhead was indeed the first really loud band I saw live. My ears rang the next day or two, which I now know did me no good, but what the heck! They were great! And No Sleep Till Hammershmith is great, just the songs they played 1980 (or was it 1981?) in Madrid.
That category (BTWRLWIWY–NK) could include the Dead Kennedys and maybe even the Sex Pistols.
They both were at least singing about something.
I think that’s what I dislike about The Ramones and AC/DC, at least, of the 3. Just so dumb. both of them. Just … brainless cock rock.
I think primitive rock kind of has to be stupid; you can’t fully rock out while your higher cognitive functions are engaged.
I think there are a lot of punk bands that could fill the bill, notably The Cramps and DOA off the top of my head; but they differ from Einstein’s trio in never having achieved a comparable level of popularity. IMO the Dead Kennedys were too smart and the Pistols too slow to fit comfortably in this group.
That’s why I listed them. 
Have you listed to Beat on the Brat? How can you call those lyrics “brainless”? I heard Bob Dylan was their ghostwriter in the early years.
Reading this thread, the phrase “three chords and an attitude” came to mind. It’s the subtitle of Mid-Life Confidential, the book that recounts the story of the Rock Bottom Remainders. “Primitive rock” would describe their musical efforts very well.