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Mt. Rushmore of American Rock Bands

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Taking into account all aspects...influence, popularity, longevity/relevancy, etc., I would say:

 

Van Halen

KISS

The Jimmy Hendrix Experience (counting them as American since lead by Jimmy)

Eagles

 

Please, nobody get all "avant-garde" and "hipster" and start throwing out names like The Ramones, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, etc. They were relative "niche" bands that at best only had a cult following, were never popular and heard and or liked by the population at large. Doesn't mean they weren't good and had talent within their ranks or didn't influence other better know acts that followed them because I know for a fact they did. They just never because Van Halen or KISS.

 

Say what you want about KISS, nobody ever made 3 chord rock sound so dang big, loud and vibrant, with some world class guitar solo's thrown in for good measure. Not many were better that Ace Frehley at the top of his game, and they had more than adequate guitarist after his departure Not to mention they have been at it for about 40 years and are still supremely popular today.

 

Van Halen? Eddie. Influenced thousands of guitarists and one of the best EVER. Great hard rock. No more needs to be said.

 

Jimmy Hendricks Experience? Jimmy. See above.

 

The Eagles. Largest selling American rock band with about 150 million albums sold. They have to be on there somewhere.

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Pearl Jam

Aerosmith

CCR

The Doors

Grand Funk Railroad(We're an American Band).

Cheap Trick

Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band.

Aerosmith

Grand Funk Railroad(We're an American Band).

Cheap Trick

Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band.

Aerosmith

 

This song is the first thing too that went through my mind when first seeing this thread.

 

It was also the first cover tune our band learned years ago in the very first band I was ever in that never got anywhere near leaving our practice space.

 

Funny, no band that I was ever in ever got out of our practice space.

 

Aside from singing the tune I was in charge of playing the one note key (I'm not a keyboard player) in the song.

 

We called ourselves "Sterling" and I hated the name, but it was the drummer's idea and it was his practice space so we had to buckle to him. I insisted that we call ourselves "Tempus Fugit" after the Yes tune off the Drama album (love that song) even though we were not a progressive band. I just thought that it sounded cool, and had a more metal or rock sound to it since most of our songs were Judas Priest, Van Halen, and so on.

 

Good call on GFR... they were an awesome band.

CCR

The Doors

Beach Boys

Eagles

Taking into account all aspects...influence, popularity, longevity/relevancy, etc., I would say:

 

Van Halen

KISS

The Jimmy Hendrix Experience (counting them as American since lead by Jimmy)

Eagles

 

Please, nobody get all "avant-garde" and "hipster" and start throwing out names like The Ramones, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, etc. They were relative "niche" bands that at best only had a cult following, were never popular and heard and or liked by the population at large. Doesn't mean they weren't good and had talent within their ranks or didn't influence other better know acts that followed them because I know for a fact they did. They just never because Van Halen or KISS.

 

Say what you want about KISS, nobody ever made 3 chord rock sound so dang big, loud and vibrant, with some world class guitar solo's thrown in for good measure. Not many were better that Ace Frehley at the top of his game, and they had more than adequate guitarist after his departure Not to mention they have been at it for about 40 years and are still supremely popular today.

 

Van Halen? Eddie. Influenced thousands of guitarists and one of the best EVER. Great hard rock. No more needs to be said.

 

Jimmy Hendricks Experience? Jimmy. See above.

 

The Eagles. Largest selling American rock band with about 150 million albums sold. They have to be on there somewhere.

 

Sounds about right really. Works for me. :thumb:

Hendrix/Experience

Eagles

Springsteen/E Street Band

Doors

Somebody should have established the rule that "(Solo Artist) and The (his/her band)" don't really qualify, because they aren't really, truly "bands" per se so much as a solo artist with their supporting band.

 

And Jimi Hendrix does not qualify in that light, or on the "American" side, since the other two were English and he broke out of the English scene.

Eagles, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Kiss[/u]

Taking into account all aspects...influence, popularity, longevity/relevancy, etc., I would say:

 

Van Halen

KISS

The Jimmy Hendrix Experience (counting them as American since lead by Jimmy)

Eagles

 

Please, nobody get all "avant-garde" and "hipster" and start throwing out names like The Ramones, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, etc. They were relative "niche" bands that at best only had a cult following, were never popular and heard and or liked by the population at large. Doesn't mean they weren't good and had talent within their ranks or didn't influence other better know acts that followed them because I know for a fact they did. They just never because Van Halen or KISS.

 

Say what you want about KISS, nobody ever made 3 chord rock sound so dang big, loud and vibrant, with some world class guitar solo's thrown in for good measure. Not many were better that Ace Frehley at the top of his game, and they had more than adequate guitarist after his departure Not to mention they have been at it for about 40 years and are still supremely popular today.

 

Van Halen? Eddie. Influenced thousands of guitarists and one of the best EVER. Great hard rock. No more needs to be said.

 

Jimmy Hendricks Experience? Jimmy. See above.

 

The Eagles. Largest selling American rock band with about 150 million albums sold. They have to be on there somewhere.

 

As I've said before, just because they're popular doesn't mean they're good. Exhibit A: Milli Vanilli.

 

The Ramones, NY Dolls, Velvet Underground are among the most influential bands ever in rock history. Far more bands were influenced by VU than ever were by The Doors. You can't just dismiss those bands out of hand simply because they weren't pop stars.

Somebody should have established the rule that "(Solo Artist) and The (his/her band)" don't really qualify, because they aren't really, truly "bands" per se so much as a solo artist with their supporting band.

 

And Jimi Hendrix does not qualify in that light, or on the "American" side, since the other two were English and he broke out of the English scene.

 

But that was`nt the rule...they were a band...and he was the leader and was American. IF however I had to throw them out...might replace wirh Areosmith or a grunge band like Nirvana, with appropriate supporting arguments of course.:)

But that was`nt the rule...they were a band...and he was the leader and was American. IF however I had to throw them out...might replace wirh Areosmith or a grunge band like Nirvana, with appropriate supporting arguments of course.:)

 

Ask yourself: How many people have you ever heard of saying they were going to a E Street Band or Heartbreakers or Crazy Horse concert? Nobody? That's because those bands were/are support mechanisms for the creative driving force, the solo artist. I can only recall once circumstance where one of those type bands were able to stand apart from the solo artist and be successful on its own right, and that's The Band.

As I've said before, just because they're popular doesn't mean they're good. Exhibit A: Milli Vanilli.

 

The Ramones, NY Dolls, Velvet Underground are among the most influential bands ever in rock history. Far more bands were influenced by VU than ever were by The Doors. You can't just dismiss those bands out of hand simply because they weren't pop stars.

 

They didnt meet all my criteria, and fall quite short on a couple of areas. But as i stated do get points for influence.

As I've said before, just because they're popular doesn't mean they're good. Exhibit A: Milli Vanilli.

 

Exhibit B: Billy Ray Cyrus (I don't care if he is from Kentucky)

 

Exhibit C: Vanilla Ice (stick to remodeling houses and Shut, Up, Baby!!

 

Exhibit D: Just about all the boy bands. The tinnie boppers who listened to them in the day are embarrassed to admit it today.

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