KISS too. Their music was wishy-washy rubbish, but they took the idea of “band as characters” and ran with it.
Oh, Chili Peppers would be good, too. I’m not so much a fan of their music, but what they do is great, and I’ve seen many funk-rock type bands trying to ape the Peppers and nobody does that sound as well as they do. Plus I’ve noticed they seem to have a lot of international fans/influence. When I lived in Hungary, it seemed like every other rock band was trying to rip off the Chili Peppers. Drove me nuts, as, like I said, nobody can do the Chili Peppers except the Chili Peppers.
A litte Straight Dope synchronicity: I just got back from picking up my daughter from pre-school and caught the tail end of the talent show. The winner was a Mexican 8th grade boy, wearing a Ramones tee-shirt. Cross cultural and cross generational! 
(He did a cover of a Snow Patrol song, though.) (Plus, oddly enough, I saw a woman with a RHCP tee-shirt as well, on my drive back. I thought, huh, I haven’t thought about them in a while, and here it is on the Dope!)
For as short as they were around (I don’t count anything past “The Spaghetti Incident?” as G’n’R), their original output was remarkably, consistently high quality. Among their entire catalog of original music there are maybe 2-3 legitimately shitty songs. I doubt many, if any, other bands can claim as few outright duds as G’n’R.
I never got into The Spaghetti Incident, and there were some snoozers on Use Your Illusion II. Appetite is perfect, though.
Slight hijack, but: I truly believe the single most common reaction to learning that a group had the sheer audacity to perform as The Supremes was hey, what’s her name? Diana Ross? Wow, she seems like a bona fide superstar; I can’t say a thing against her. Oh, and look: two other people are also there! Well, how about that!
And CCR was John Fogerty and some other dudes.
Without Creedence how could you have a movie where some kid steps off the plane in Vietnam for the first time? It would just be dead air unless you could play “Fortunate Son”.
And his first time getting lost on patrol wouldn’t be the same without “Run Through the Jungle.”
Nah, there are like 15 other songs that are just as popularly associated with Vietnam.
Bill Haley & his Comets.
Who rocks harder than Metallica?
Slayer!
[quote=“Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor, post:89, topic:813547”]
Bill Haley & his Comets.
[/QUOTE]I’m not sure if this is a joke or not, but I think bringing up Bill Haley is very much missing the point of my OP. And I don’t mean this as a personal affront or to be snide in any way, I’m just trying to explain my thought process. The criteria I suggested included musical skill, longevity, continuing influence, etc.
Bill Haley and the Comets were certainly very, very influential to the birth of rock music, but are there many people today who even know one of their songs other than Rock Around The Clock, or current musicians who would count them as a major influence?
Warrant. “Cherry Pie” is the greatest song in the history of rock n’ roll.
I’m the biggest, baddest Grateful Dead fan on this board, and I’d never call them a “rock band.” They were a “rock-blues-bluegrass-jazz-avant garde classical-jam-boogie band”
I’d like to make this work, but as I was playing with it in my head I kept stumbling. The Stones became the Mick and Keith show even before Brian Jonesed himself to death. Pink Floyd was Syd Barrett’s band and then Roger Waters and then David Gilmore’s. Fleetwood Mac was Peter Green, and a title that was a joke about the rhythm section. Can anyone name the bassist for Blind Faith? (Rick Gretch. I hope I’m spelling that right without looking it up. Nope. Got both names wrong.)
You know who it does work for? Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young). I think they’re a great band. I think the first album is as perfect a piece of vinyl as ever came out. Influence? It created an entire genre and a decade’s worth of music. (How many others can say that? The Allmans did it for Southern Rock; Led Zeppelin for Hard Rock/Heavy Metal.) The personalities made the band, and then just as famously unmade it. They were never as strong as a live band as in the recording studio, though, and that has to count in greatest rock band discussions.
Ike, I think I’m a crucial decade older than you. I remember when the Beatles appeared and defined the words “rock band.” They blended every musical genre in the known universe. That’s still rock to me.
I guess my definition of rock is broader than yours. I think it is a very broad category indeed. There are rock bands who draw from all of those influences and can still be considered rock bands.
Their influence on other rock bands is undeniable, at any rate. I once had a guy say, “I hate the Grateful Dead.” I asked him, “what music do you prefer?” He said, Punk and 80s New Wave. I said, “Do you like Elvis Costello and the Attractions?” Fuck yes, he replied enthusiastically - and why wouldn’t he, they’re awesome. Well, a major component, not just rhythmically but also musically, of the Attractions and thereby Elvis Costello’s whole ouvre, was the bass playing of Bruce Thomas, who’s not only one of my favorite bassists of all time, but also a friend. And guess who was one of Thomas’s biggest influences? Phil Lesh.
Oh, well, definitions of “rock band” have been the subject of inside jokes for a long time.
Gilbert Shelton, the underground comix artist famous for the “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers,” has done an on-and-off comic since 1994 about Not Quite Dead, a band who has famously argued about their genre status.
The members are Cat Whittington (bass); Elephant Fingers (guitar); Sweaty Eddie (alto sax); Felonious Punk (keys); and Thor (the loudest drummer in the world). Mighty fun stuff — check it out.
You are correct. Everyone else in this thread is horribly wrong. And probably roots for non-SEC college football teams. Which is also horribly wrong.
I do like Gilbert Shelton and all the other underground comix artists of the 60s. I have several anthologies of that genre, including numerous R. Crumb collections. It was before my time (I’m 31) but most of it holds up pretty well.
By the way - are you able to see my “location”? One thing I don’t understand about this board is why it shows up in the corner of some of my posts, but not others. Anyway, that’s been my location since I registered here.
When I skimmed the thread title, I immediately thought "Well, the strongest contenders for the title of ‘greatest rock band ever’ would be the Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Clash …
… and then I saw the word “American”.
Now I feel like we’re just lowly colonists.