Vinyl Me Please Essentials

Joe Mac said:
It’s funny you say that because I always think of classic rock as a sound from the late 60s and 70s and that anything after 1980 like that is more of an ongoing heritage act or an anachronism.
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Of course there are also acts that started out during that classic era but didn’t take off until the 1980s like The Boss or Petty.
 
Joe Mac said:
It’s funny you say that because I always think of classic rock as a sound from the late 60s and 70s and that anything after 1980 like that is more of an ongoing heritage act or an anachronism.
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I think what you have in mind is quite similar to the "classic rock" radio format here in the U.S. Maybe we should call it "boomer rock" instead.
 
It is wild to me how little recognition the Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater Revival are getting in this discussion of greatest american classic rock bands.

Aerosmith arguably wins the endurance award for putting out new music in 4 different decades that was at least commercially successful (and also has the best ride at any disney park).

Maybe Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, too, though having their first album in 1976 is stretching the definition of “classic,” at least for my taste. Even Aerosmith had FOUR studio albums by then.

The Byrds are every bit as influential as the Velvet Underground or the Ramones, they just weren’t from New York.
 
Ericj32 said:
It is wild to me how little recognition the Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater Revival are getting in this discussion of greatest american classic rock bands.

Aerosmith arguably wins the endurance award for putting out new music in 4 different decades that was at least commercially successful (and also has the best ride at any disney park).

Maybe Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, too, though having their first album in 1976 is stretching the definition of “classic,” at least for my taste. Even Aerosmith had FOUR studio albums by then.

The Byrds are every bit as influential as the Velvet Underground or the Ramones, they just weren’t from New York.
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The Beach Boys and CCR have the flipside of the same problem. The Beach Boys had one amazing album and a bunch of inconsistent albums, many very good, not great albums. CCR was incredibly consistent, but didn't have one defining album. For whatever reason Cosmos Factory never got lumped in with the other classics of its time.

Most of the bands mentioned were both consistent and had multiple classic albums.
 
Beach Boys had a ton of hit singles before albums became important .

CCR put out four master albums but they were only around for a minute before they broke up ....plus those four albums came out in two years (THREE! in 1969 alone).
Still , I think both have great arguments for best American rock n roll band.

Also, yes The Byrds are def in the discussion as well. They were one of the most important and influential bands ever and changed rock music .
 
....but to my original point that The Doors are arguably the greatest American rock n roll band.......you don’t see tshirts with Tom Petty’s or David Byrne’s face in Walmart everywhere like you do Jim Morrison, just saying. They are iconic and his face and their music is everywhere.
 
wmeugene said:
The Beach Boys and CCR have the flipside of the same problem. The Beach Boys had one amazing album and a bunch of inconsistent albums, many very good, not great albums. CCR was incredibly consistent, but didn't have one defining album. For whatever reason Cosmos Factory never got lumped in with the other classics of its time.

Most of the bands mentioned were both consistent and had multiple classic albums.
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I’d agree if the primary criteria for being a great band is the ability to create a lot of great albums that are consistent from start to finish, but that’s somewhat anachronistic and was an idea that the Beach Boys kind of invented as an experiment. But that wasn’t what everyone’s goal was back then. The Rolling Stones certainly weren’t.

I think back in the 60s bands were weighed based on their live performances and the popularity of their singles as an overall body of work. The Beach Boys had 4 #1 singles, none of which were from Pet Sounds. According to their wikipedia page, they had more singles in the US Top 40 than any other American band from the 60s to the 2010s.

EDIT: @keylime_5 beat me to it!
 
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keylime_5 said:
....but to my original point that The Doors are arguably the greatest American rock n roll band.......you don’t see tshirts with Tom Petty’s or David Byrne’s face in Walmart everywhere like you do Jim Morrison, just saying. They are iconic and his face and their music is everywhere.
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I think that has more to do with the mystique of him dying so young and never getting old and rich though.
 
Yeah I mean in the early 60s when The Beach Boys were huge, the album wasn’t as important as the hit single. Shortly after they starting putting out great albums Brian had his nervous breakdown and they weren’t the same. Also, Pet Sounds wasn’t their only great album, they had several, notably Surf’s Up and The Beach Boys Today .
 
Ericj32 said:
I think that has more to do with the mystique of him dying so young and never getting old and rich though.
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Doesn’t change the fact
They are one of the most played bands on classic rock and oldies stations as well. And their influence is huge. Jim changed the game for bands to have charismatic front man lead singers.
 
keylime_5 said:
Yeah I mean in the early 60s when The Beach Boys were huge, the album wasn’t as important as the hit single. Shortly after they starting putting out great albums Brian had his nervous breakdown and they weren’t the same. Also, Pet Sounds wasn’t their only great album, they had several, notably Surf’s Up and The Beach Boys Today .
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I think that All Summer Long and Surfin’ Safari are great albums, but what do I know haha. They’re the only band that gets docked for not making a Pet Sounds every time they put out an album.
 
Like if we’re going to consider Revolver to be one of the all-time great albums and overlook the cheesiness of Yellow Submarine and then turn around and say that the beach boys had too many songs about surfing and girls and weren’t serious enough to be “great.”
 
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