r/musicsuggestions • u/RRE4EVR • 4d ago

Best American rock band of all time

This is obviously a subjective post. As post suggest “all time” so feel free to go back to to the 50’s and please consider that bands from this millennium may not hold up in a couple decades. Also genre blending bands welcome.

Greatful Dead my answer

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u/CloudsTasteGeometric 4d ago

Little Feat, at least according to Jimmy Page

Total sleeper pick but they’re amazing. A bunch of ex Zappa musicians broke off and formed what I could only describe as an alternate universe Grateful Dead that is steeped in southern rock, funk, and jazz fusion.

Unbelievable live. And after 50 years they STILL tour.

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u/darcydeni35 4d ago

Gotta love Lowell George- died way too young.

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u/Decent_Brush_8121 3d ago

They ALL died way too young. RIP, members of the 27 Club.

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u/darcydeni35 3d ago

So true!

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u/LanardSkanard 4d ago

Two (Lowell George and that other guy who left after the second album…and good riddance) doesn’t quite constitute “a bunch.” They were a California band that predated “southern rock,” for that matter.

Lowell notoriously hated the fusion leanings of some of the other guys, particularly “Day At The Dog Races,” which he refused to play on, asking them, “do you guys think you’re fucking Weather Report now?”

I don’t really get the Dead comparison, Lowell’s aborted Shakedown Street production notwithstanding. Feat very decidedly didn’t do free-form jamming. I love both, but they were very different bands.

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u/FearlessFreak69 4d ago

They still rock. I saw them last February and will be seeing them again in October.

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u/Beneficial-Produce56 4d ago

Little Feat is an amazing band. Lowell George had one of the best voices in rock, along with John Fogerty and Leon Russell.

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u/Similar_Tie3291 4d ago

Do they have any albums that are closer to folk-rock?

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u/goodcorn 4d ago

Perhaps some songs here and there that trend that direction. (Willin', Trouble, Roll Um Easy...)

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u/Similar_Tie3291 4d ago

Ok, I’ve always heard good things about Little Feat, but the only album I’ve heard is Dixie Chicken and it wasn’t really my thing.

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u/Ya_Got_GOT 4d ago

One of my favorites, but I prefer the Lowell George-led swamp rock to the progressive direction the other members took, particularly after George died.

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u/Did_I_Err 4d ago

Not to be confused with Little Feet - but he’s awesome in his own right.

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u/RRE4EVR 4d ago

I’m gonna have to delve further into their catalogue

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u/CloudsTasteGeometric 4d ago

They're really fantastic.

Start with one of their live albums, ideally Waiting For Columbus (but they're all great.)

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u/HerbieVerstinks 4d ago

"Waiting for Columbus" is the greatest live album of all time, IMHO. The percussion on "Fat Man in the Bathtub" is top notch.

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u/SuggestionOrnery6938 4d ago

Saw them and know what your saying. 

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u/heffel77 3d ago

Waiting for Columbus is still one of the best live albums of all time!!

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u/LowerObject2985 4d ago

I could never get into them or the Dead for that matter. I do recognize that many others do…

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u/Impressive-Sky2848 4d ago

Give the album. ”Waiting for Columbus” a try. If you don’t like one of ”Dixie Chicken”, ”Willin’” or ”Spanish Moon”, at least you tried.

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u/Lucky-Coconut-1683 4d ago

Willin is the answer

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u/TemplesOfSyrinx 4d ago

...and about 100 times better than the Grateful Dead.

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u/sharbinbarbin 4d ago

The Dead are about 100, no 1000 times more influential on American culture since 1965 then Little Feat could ever hope for. Not even debatable.

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u/TemplesOfSyrinx 4d ago

So why does such a sizable portion of music lovers really detest the Dead? Why are they so simultaneously loved and hated?

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u/sharbinbarbin 4d ago

Attention spans. People don’t have the attention or possibly the desire to listen to improv. Look at all the people that can’t stand Jazz or miles Davis. Does that mean miles Davis is bad? No, it’s just like licorice. Most people don’t like licorice, those that do, they really like licorice.

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u/TemplesOfSyrinx 4d ago

For the Grateful Dead, I think it's more along the lines of their out of tune singing, self indulgence and slog of uninspired studio work. Beyond American Beauty and Workingman's Dead (both "OK" albums in my opinion), it goes downhill fast.
I like jazz and Miles Davis but 'Blues for Allah' by the Dead (maybe their most jazzy album?) is just self-indulgent horseshit.

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u/NewtonsDucks 4d ago

This is a pretty shallow way to look at the Dead. As the other person that replied to your comment has said, studio albums were not the priority for the Dead and it should not be the only metric for which you judge a band. If you ignore the improvisation and organic quality of the Dead and just hold up two studio LPs as you’re evidence, you completely missed the point. The Dead was not trying to be Steely Dan, having polished to perfection albums was not their goal. They were a live band, and there’s a reason most deadheads spend so much time listening to shows and not so much studio recordings. They were at their best live, and there is something special about that. There is a reason why greats like Miles Davis and Bob Dylan spoke positively of them. If musicians of that caliber respected what they were doing, it might be worth considering whether the self indulgence is in the music or in writing them off without considering what makes them truly great.

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u/sharbinbarbin 4d ago

As per Blues for Allah: Help on the way>Slipnot >Franklins tower is a fun complex piece of music by pop standards and a series of songs often segued into each other in a very “jam-centric” way.

While I can understand the opinion that the Grateful Dead can be seen as self indulgent, it’s also very important to understand how that came to be. It goes hand in hand with understanding that the Grateful Dead had minimal if any desire to produce studio albums.

It wasnt really until their third album that they even made a serious attempt to utilize the studio for anything other than a microphone/recording apparatus attempting to encapsulate their sound.

What they knew and what they were about was playing live in the moment with a reactive audience who was there for the experience. They were specifically there for the unknown. And if you ever heard Garcia talk about, it isn’t ego-centric-self indulgence. It was life in the moment to be shared for the beauty of making art….and also mistakes were expected.

To reduce it all to horseshit and self indulgence is a very curt summary and very benighted. There’s a bit more to view under the surface. And I’m not suggesting you have to like it or anything but it’s a very interesting thing the Grateful Dead did for culture in the Ameircas.

The Grateful Dead like so many of their contemporaries took to the road when Haight Ashbury became commercialized and with them the great spirit of the open road of America went

And they kept America on the road for 30+ years.

There is great cultural significance and their song list is great and worth a deeper dive.

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u/TemplesOfSyrinx 4d ago

I think the greater point is: The Grateful Dead can't possibly be the best American band of all time when so many people despise them. It's just basic math. The best American band of all time has to be a band that has some level of universal appeal, in my opinion.

Here's a recent music thread (newer than this one) titled 'Name a band that you would never listen to even if your life depended on it' and you can see that The Grateful Dead pops up on it repeatedly, along with Kiss, Kid Rock and so on.

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u/sharbinbarbin 4d ago

Ok, you’re cherry picking. And it was a silly cherry pick bc Bob Dylan was on that list. Has more updoots even. Taylor swift is on there. So what’s your point? You have no point but eventually your ax will be sharp if you keep at it….i guess. For now your non-argument remains dull and featureless

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u/TemplesOfSyrinx 4d ago

It just popped up on my algorithm, I swear.
But, even Jerry said It's like just like Jerry said (something like...) The Dead are like black licorice, the people who love it, love it. And the people who hate it, hate it.

...essentially admitting that they're not for everybody - and I agree with him.

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u/NewCaptainGutz57 4d ago

That's a low bar.