2. music
  3. 138612-1975

Which band IS really America's Greatest (rock & roll band)?

When I consider my priorities for this category, I cannot come up with any other than CCR.

Their output as a band was short compared to others, yes..

When I say America's greatest rock & roll band, this = the output or even the basis on which a band formed, had in their DNA, America's roots! It doesn't even matter that we now know CCR formed in California, their DNA as a band transformed their birthplace but it more importantly brought forth the (soul) of get down and dirty) Rock & Roll in it's raw form!

HELL YEAH!
128x128slaw
janewyman
81 posts
 
George   Thorogood & The Destroyers
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Jefferson Airplane
Mountain
(live) Stevie Wonder
and every band that gets your motor runnin'
skyscraper
829 posts
 
Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin at the helm. Their one album at the Fillmore West was bold, brash and outstanding in every way, and in my opinion outshines all other American groups of much longer duration.

Beach Boys were great too for a fairly long period. I liked Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies as well as Mike Bloomfield’s not as well known The Electric Flag, who were self-titled "An American Band". No complaints about CCR or the Allman Bros’ either. Billy Joel, whom I don’t really care for, should get an honorable mention for having played our high school with the Hassles, a local Long Island group from Hicksville, one town over.

No need for any more replies, as this is obviously the definitive take on America’s greatest R&R band. Accept no substitutes. Love,

Mike


geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Canned Heat is not chopped liver
djones51
4,947 posts
 
First I heard of NRBQ was in 1968 when I was 12, my mother worked with Terry and Donn Adams mother in the office of a small local compamy. She gave my mother a copy of their first album that came out in 1969. Being young and more into the British invasion it didn't get much playing time, my mother never cared for it so it was passed on to us kids. It didn't survive in that environment but I wish I still had it. I have listened to them since and enjoy some of their stuff. When I get my streaming going I will check them out again been a while. 
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,760 posts
 

@djones, there have been a few different NRBQ lineups. The one on the 1st album (on Columbia Records, where they back the great Carl Perkins) reminds me somewhat of the first version of Springsteen's E Street Band---a little weak (though not as bad. Springsteen's first drummer was terrible). The eclectic vision is there, but it's not quite realized.

Pianist/leader Terry Adams and bassist Joey Spampinato then enlisted drummer Tom Ardolino and guitarist/singer Al Anderson for the band's classic, decades-long lineup. They made a lot of albums on Rounder Records, and established themselves as one of America's great Rock 'n' Roll bands. Fans of theirs include Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, and every good musician I know.

Their influences include Rock 'n' Roll, Rockabilly, Jazz (Sun Ra in particular), Blues, Hillbilly, Show tunes, Pop---just about all strains of American music. There live shows were wild, unbelievable explosions of kinetic energy, amongst the best I've ever witnessed. And I saw The Who with Keith Moon twice!

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