The Greatest American Rock Band (Poll)

[jlb1705]

Oasis is good they've got good songs..

Blur > > > Oasis

Arcade fire, the critics love them.. but I

Yo, I'm happy for you and I'mma let ya finish, but Arcade Fire had one of the greatest albums of all time. OF ALL TIME.

In that case The Beat Farmers would be #1 or near the top.

If they drank as much or more than Guided By Voices (and Bob Pollard specifically) then they must have been awesome. At the GBV shows I've been to, they started the show by bringing a galvanized washtub full of beer on stage and then they'd play until they ran out. Then they'd go get more and play at least two encores.

 

[MightbeaBuck]

List'em:
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band

Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, obviously named after the Buckeye's defense, meet all the requirements...
Longevity? Over 10 years? How about 15 as a headliner, and over 35 as performers. They had their first album, which contains songs that everybody knows, in 1975. They had top ten songs every year, including a number one, until 1987, over 12 years later. Seger still writes, and he with the Silver Bullet Band still sell albums and perform, but the hits ended when grunge, alternative, etc started taking a larger market share. Still their latest album has gone platinum.

Sell out arenas? Touring success? Even this year Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band sold out arenas. From the mid 70's until the mid 80's they sold out coliseums. 80,000 plus fans. Hell, even their tribute band, "Lookin' Back" played to sold out events this last summer (but doesn't headline)

Top ten songs? "Old Time Rock and Roll" is the number two song EVER on jukeboxes. It is one of the top fifty songs of the 20th Century, chosen by a collaboration of the National Endowment for the Arts, RIAA, and Scholastic Inc...mostly though, this song evokes memories of Tom Cruise dancing in his BVDs.

Top ten albums? "Against the Wind" was the top selling album of 1980. In addition Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band had top ten albums in eight other years. Their "Greatest Hits II", while never being a top ten album in any year, is the best selling compilation album ever.

What makes an act great? Fans. Short for fanatics. More importantly, how the 'star' treats said fanatics. He always plays at least two encores, sometimes three.
Fans? Three times in the last 29 years, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band have added Toledo to their tour because of fan pressure. In 1982 over 40,000 fans signed a petition to Mr. Seger to add Toledo. He caved, and played for them.
In 1996 the same thing happened. I had seen Seger once before, but wanted my wife and I to see him together. The nearest show would be in Detriot, but I found out they had another petition going around. This was stupid, how could they expect him to come to Toledo again, he doesn't need the money, he sure doesn't need this hassle, there is no way he will do this again. Soooo... I made sure I signed the petition! He fell for it and did play Toledo again.
Then this year, after he had announced his concert tours, he added Toledo to the front of it. Was it because he remembered the petitions? Or had some fans already been in his ear? Either way, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band take care of their fans.

 

[Buckeye Maniac]

List'em:
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band

Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, obviously named after the Buckeye's defense, meet all the requirements...
Longevity? Over 10 years? How about 15 as a headliner, and over 35 as performers. They had their first album, which contains songs that everybody knows, in 1975. They had top ten songs every year, including a number one, until 1987, over 12 years later. Seger still writes, and he with the Silver Bullet Band still sell albums and perform, but the hits ended when grunge, alternative, etc started taking a larger market share. Still their latest album has gone platinum.

Sell out arenas? Touring success? Even this year Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band sold out arenas. From the mid 70's until the mid 80's they sold out coliseums. 80,000 plus fans. Hell, even their tribute band, "Lookin' Back" played to sold out events this last summer (but doesn't headline)

Top ten songs? "Old Time Rock and Roll" is the number two song EVER on jukeboxes. It is one of the top fifty songs of the 20th Century, chosen by a collaboration of the National Endowment for the Arts, RIAA, and Scholastic Inc...mostly though, this song evokes memories of Tom Cruise dancing in his BVDs.

Top ten albums? "Against the Wind" was the top selling album of 1980. In addition Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band had top ten albums in eight other years. Their "Greatest Hits II", while never being a top ten album in any year, is the best selling compilation album ever.

What makes an act great? Fans. Short for fanatics. More importantly, how the 'star' treats said fanatics. He always plays at least two encores, sometimes three.
Fans? Three times in the last 29 years, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band have added Toledo to their tour because of fan pressure. In 1982 over 40,000 fans signed a petition to Mr. Seger to add Toledo. He caved, and played for them.
In 1996 the same thing happened. I had seen Seger once before, but wanted my wife and I to see him together. The nearest show would be in Detriot, but I found out they had another petition going around. This was stupid, how could they expect him to come to Toledo again, he doesn't need the money, he sure doesn't need this hassle, there is no way he will do this again. Soooo... I made sure I signed the petition! He fell for it and did play Toledo again.
Then this year, after he had announced his concert tours, he added Toledo to the front of it. Was it because he remembered the petitions? Or had some fans already been in his ear? Either way, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band take care of their fans.

Bob Seger is a scUMmer...automatic disqualification.

Also, RHCP is out for that same reason.

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

Bob Seger is a scUMmer...automatic disqualification.

Also, RHCP is out for that same reason.

rhcp should be out because they and their engineers have consistently churned out some of the worst masterings of the last two decades. the songs may be good, but they think it's wise to clip all the highs and lows in order to increase volume. californication and stadium arcadium are unlistenable. i would rather listen to someone chew mashed potatoes.

 

[Dryden]

I agree. I would think the GREATEST rock band would be able to sell out arenas. VU is out, Talking Heads are out. Longevity, in my opinion, is also another key component. VU is out out again, Nirvana is out.

That leaves the Beach Boys and R.E.M. as the 2 bands that can claim massive critical success, touring success and success that lasted over a decade. Metallica and Pearl Jam, perhaps are the next in line?

I think Dave Matthews Band will be drawing fans for an endless tour 30 years from now like the Grateful Dead used to do.

 

[MightbeaBuck]

Bob Seger is a scUMmer...automatic disqualification.

Wow, he wasn't born there, but you take away all he has done because of where his parents forced him to live there as a child? He never took classes there. He may have grown up in Ann Arbor, but never claims it. He simply says "the Detroit area." From that it appears even he doesn't want to be associated with scUM. You may not think Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band are among the greatest, but to use his childhood neighborhood as the reason is pretty sad.

 

[AuTX Buckeye]

I think Dave Matthews Band will be drawing fans for an endless tour 30 years from now like the Grateful Dead used to do.

Agreed but ... can you count DMB or Grateful Dead as "rock"

 

[TexasBuck]

List'em:
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band

Solid suggestion and he deserves mention. He fits the bill in a lot of areas. I think he's lacking to some extent in critical acclaim though. I don't think I've ever seen a Bob Seger album on a top 500 of all-time list. "Night Moves" is probably as close as he comes to a "signature album". Seger is also walking the fine line of solo artist/band. I'd argue that Bruce Springsteen (another band/solo artist debate) has done everything Seger has done, and done it better.

 

[PlanetFrnd]

Agreed but ... can you count DMB or Grateful Dead as "rock"

What else would you call them?

 

[AuTX Buckeye]

What else would you call them?

Think of them more as R&B/Funk/panty_dropin_music (atleast DMB's Old stuff worked when i was in college). I don't know.. its really such a subjective thing...

 

[jwinslow]

What else would you call them?

if you,stretch to call that Rock, it better have soft or light in front of it.

 

[MightbeaBuck]

I think he's lacking to some extent in critical acclaim though.

Now you add another requirement.
a.) albums
b.) singles
3.) longevity
D.) fills arenas

5.) critical acclaim

Based on critical acclaim, about a third or so of those on Muck's list would disappear, including two of the top four vote getters (as of now.) To look at it another way, if critical acclaim were important, there are more than a dozen bands missing from his list.

As with movies, the most popular bands don't receive "critical" acclaim. The best are the most popular, the fans with their pocketbooks are the judges.

 

[TexasBuck]

If you go through the thread, I've been preaching "Critical acclaim" the whole time. (Possibly overly so) I think critical acclaim also goes hand in hand with influence, which is another criteria that has been discussed at length here. There is no "official" criteria. We've been making that up as we go along.

I agree that a lot of the bands on the list don't belong there. Muck was just trying to keep the "Other" category from getting 95% of the votes. We are basically trying to make the subjective, objective in this thread. That's always going to be an uphill battle. (But a fun one in this case)

 

[scarletmike]

My top 3 on this list are

1) GnR - Slash is amazing
2) Aerosmith
3) Metallica

Honorable mentions on the list: Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Chicago, Van Halen, Journey, Nirvana, The Eagles.

Honorable mention not on the list: Savatage. Savatage is without a doubt one of my top 5 favorite bands (I count Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra as one entity), and their producer, Paul O'Neill, was integral in taking the rock opera style to ridiculous levels with them. Streets, Gutter Ballet, and Dead Winter Dead are amazing rock opera albums, and Hall of the Mountain King has some ridiculous shredding. Criss Oliva was without a doubt a phenomenal guitar player, and it is a damn shame he was taken from the world in a car crash.

Speaking of great guitar players and Savatage/TSO, there are two others that you cannot leave out of the equation; Al Pitrelli and Alex Skolnick. Al has played with Megadeath, and Alex has been a staple of Testament for a while. These are two guitar players who manage to fly under the radar way too often, and played with Savatage after Criss' death.

Here's Al with TSO (the solo isn't from The Dark, its actually another solo from The Storm off Wake of Magellan).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfeaWp6Yg0w&feature=player_detailpage#t=214s

Here's Savatage with Skolnick.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Btm3I6dkY"]Savatage - Gutter Ballet Japan Live '94 - YouTube[/ame]

Here's Savatage with Criss on guitar (and yes, The Mountain on TSO's Nightcastle album is a redo of Prelude to Madness).
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKrLxyqc7yA"]Savatage- Prelude To Madness - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Muck]

If they drank as much or more than Guided By Voices (and Bob Pollard specifically) then they must have been awesome. At the GBV shows I've been to, they started the show by bringing a galvanized washtub full of beer on stage and then they'd play until they ran out. Then they'd go get more and play at least two encores.

Country Dick would drink beer non-stop & do shots of tequila with the crowd while playing. He would regularly pass out behind the drum kit in during the of the show. He had a heart attack & died on stage in the same way and no one paid attention because they thought he was just drunk as usual.