The greatest bands of all Time are/were mostly British

Is this band one of the most under-rated British bands of all time?

The Waterboys: "Savage Earth Heart" live at Glastonbury 1986

English folk rock at it's best, and it did not rain at Glasto that year!

reply to post by FirePiston

How about Jimi Hendrix?

The man who couldn't get arrested in America? Who had to fly to London and play with two English sidemen before anyone took any notice of him?

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow

The Beach Boys, Byrds, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Four Seasons, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Talking Heads, Ramones, Wilco, Nirvana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The Doors, Grateful Dead, the Replacements, the Flaming Lips, the Pixies, Frank Zappa and the mothers of invention, the Strokes, and you coukd possibly include Elvis when he was with a band.

Each to his own taste, but if this is your list...

The Beach Boys? Rip-off artists par excellence. See my thread here.

The Byrds and Tom Petty are worthy, but who the devil are Tommy James and the Shondells? The Velvet Underground and the Grateful Dead could barely play their instruments. The same goes for the Strokes.

As Keith Richards put it, 'What did the Grateful Dead fan say when he ran out of drugs? "This band is #h#t."' Truer words never spoken.

reply to post by skalla

I hate to get all fair minded and such (really, i do) but the trans-atlantic cross-pollenation of rock is massively important.

Absolutely. Rock ’n’ roll is American, but rock was invented in England.

I don't mean to denigrate the American contribution. The roots of rock lie in music that is indisputably American: blues, R&B (by which I mean Wilson Pickett not Beyoncé), rock 'n' roll and rockabilly, gospel, country-and-western. The greatest rock band ever, the Rolling Stones, are Englishmen who wanted to be Americans.

But — crucially — the Americans they admired were black Americans.

Let's talk a bit more about transatlantic cross-pollination. Yes, America is the fountainhead of British rock and pop inspiration, but America received the bulk of its vast musical riches from the other side of the Atlantic — namely West Africa. That's where the musical elements of what would become the blues, gospel, jazz, etc. originally came from. Even country-and-western music is basically black music in whiteface: it evolved out of Western swing and gospel, both musical forms whose African roots are clearly evident.

American music dominates the world, but it has Africa to thank for that. Also the British, in whose ships thousands of musically gifted Africans were carried across the Atlantic in shackles as slaves. It's not something anyone would want to claim credit for, but it is to England that America owes the musical wealth it gained from Africa; the North Atlantic slave trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was dominated by English operators.

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On topic, the OP is right. Forget about good bands. They come from all over — even from Canada, as someone pointed out earlier. But the greatest bands are nearly all British, no question. Whom does America have at the top table, really? The Byrds, the Doors, the Ramones, R.E.M., and that's about it. Jimi Hendrix was essentially a British act. Creedence Clearwater Revival were basically a solo artist, John Fogerty, pretending to be a band. The Beach Boys were rip-off artists who repudiated the musical genius in their midst, Brian Wilson. The Grateful Dead were musical incompetents whom only drug-addled, tone-deaf people can listen to. The Talking Heads are led by a Scotsman.

No, for greatness — meaning artistic genius with the common touch — in rock, you have to look, by and large, to the UK. The great American music is largely black music.

However, America did produce the greatest artist (not just the greatest musician) to appear in the second half of the twentieth century, and he was a white (sort of) man: Bob Dylan.

alldaylong

nightstalker78

upintheair
reply to post by Beavers

 

G n R....not entirely american....Slash was born in Stoke UK

also Pink Floyd with out a doubt thee greatest band there ever was/is

Guns N Roses is American. They pretty much blow any British band out of the water.

Also,Pink Floyd sucks.

Are you taking the piss?

Bums & Posies material output is laughable. They have produced 6 albums in 28 years
Pink Floyd produced 14 albums in 27 years, and of a much higher quality.

No,they "produced" 4 albums in Six years. And Appetite For Destruction kills any and all Pink Floyd albums. Where are you getting Six from? Chinese Democracy and The Spaghetti Incident? Those don't count. Chinese Democracy is an Axl Rose album,not GNR. The Spaghetti Incident is a cover album.Sorry dude,but Pink Floyd is a cardboard cutout of your typical 70s bands. Terrible. Same with Led Zeppelin.

reply to post by Astyanax


Why are you naming bands that are terrible? They all stink.

Pretty sure Metallica, Megadeth,Slayer,Pantera and every other American Rock/Metal band is better then all of those listed.

Can't forget Bruce Springsteen either.

I remember one year this song played and played....

Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence (Remastered Music Video)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=diT3FvDHMyo
www.youtube.com...




After a lot of thought I would have to say Staind was one of the best if not the best Rock Band USA gave birth to!!



Anyone gonna give Stone Temple Pilots an Honorable Mention??

Stone Temple Pilots - Wicked Garden (Unplugged)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0khoMZSRtnk
www.youtube.com...




Grean Day Is too Hardcore for some....



and not one of you brought up Beastie Boyz??

Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORYO0atB6g
www.youtube.com...

Astyanax
Let's talk a bit more about transatlantic cross-pollination. Yes, America is the fountainhead of British rock and pop inspiration, but America received the bulk of its vast musical riches from the other side of the Atlantic — namely West Africa. That's where the musical elements of what would become the blues, gospel, jazz, etc. originally came from. Even country-and-western music is basically black music in whiteface: it evolved out of Western swing and gospel, both musical forms whose African roots are clearly evident.

To be fair, musical elements of blues, gospel et al also include European melody. Simon Emmerson, founder member of the Afro Celt Sound System notice similarities between African and Irish music.

I don't care what any of you say...

The best damn band to hit the planet came out of Australia:


AC/DC


Thank you Aussies !!







I'll be 80 years old sitting in my wheelchair, peeing in my diaper, and still head banging along with Angus listening to these boys do their thang.

Yeahhhh...

CranialSponge
I don't care what any of you say...

The best damn band to hit the planet came out of Australia:


AC/DC


Thank you Aussies !!

I'll be 80 years old sitting in my wheelchair, peeing in my diaper, and still head banging along with Angus listening to these boys do their thang.

Yeahhhh...

Only problem is, most members of AC/DC were from Great Britain originally

nightstalker78

alldaylong

nightstalker78

upintheair
reply to post by Beavers

 

G n R....not entirely american....Slash was born in Stoke UK

also Pink Floyd with out a doubt thee greatest band there ever was/is

Guns N Roses is American. They pretty much blow any British band out of the water.

Also,Pink Floyd sucks.

Are you taking the piss?

Bums & Posies material output is laughable. They have produced 6 albums in 28 years
Pink Floyd produced 14 albums in 27 years, and of a much higher quality.

No,they "produced" 4 albums in Six years. And Appetite For Destruction kills any and all Pink Floyd albums. Where are you getting Six from? Chinese Democracy and The Spaghetti Incident? Those don't count. Chinese Democracy is an Axl Rose album,not GNR. The Spaghetti Incident is a cover album.Sorry dude,but Pink Floyd is a cardboard cutout of your typical 70s bands. Terrible. Same with Led Zeppelin.

Take a gaze at this list, and see where Pink Floyd and Led Zepp appear:-

en.wikipedia.org...

Then go way down the list to find Gun's & Roses

Interesting thread and something I've never really thought about because the people of America, Britain, , Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all share one common language. So when we make music it's not really that easy to tell where a band is from. Although as the 20th century drew to a close the impact of the internet and strict radio playlists has killed a lot of the innovation and creativity we all once had. Simple economics are now in play.

In fact now, here in the UK, the media makes it seem that only a handful of bands actually release new songs any more and that will be sidelined whenever the 3 goddesses of music for the masses, Gaga, Perry and Rihanna are bringing a new song out.

But It wasn't always like this. If you are British then there really was a time when your favourite bands were almost totally British. We've also taken an awful lot of American/Commonwealth bands to our hearts as well.

Thinking about it I suppose, first of all,we should give a big consolation prize to Abba (Sweden) for arguably being the most successful European band and Kraftwerk (Germany) for being one of the most influential bands of the latter half of the 20th century. Canada have given us Rush and Bryan Adams. And down under we have to mention INXS, Crowded House and the vastly under-rated Icehouse. Not sure about Men At Work or Mental As Anything . Although Aussie band ,The Church, might be worth a mention as well?

Off the west coast of Britain the Irish have produced U2 and Thin Lizzy. Two rather decent bands if I may say so.

The ultimate trans-atlantic band award perhaps goes to the latter incarnation of "Fleetwood Mac".



I may have missed it but no one seems to have mentioned the Kinks. They have a very English sound to them and it was something that bands like The Jam and Squeeze in 1980s and then Blur in 90s used as a template to their own sounds. But perhaps they never made it across the pond?

By the 1970s in Britain there were was Elton John, Pink Floyd, T-Rex, Slade, Queen, ELO and Wings (the band the Beatles could have been :how. No honestly, McCartney's band that toured the World in 1975/76 were at the top of their game. But as the decade came to a close there was a very different sound coming out of the UK as the Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Elvis Costello, The Police, The Jam and The Clash trashed the old prog-rockers like ELP and Yes. American bands like the Cars and Blondie were able to ride into the slipstream and good old Meatloaf was still popular.

But 1979 was a pivotal year in British music because the charts were a mish-mash of new wave, funk, disco and punk. Despite the diversity many of the big hits of that year are still well known today and yet things were about to change.

These were the number one hits of 79 as the 1970s drew to a close.


"Y.M.C.A." - Village People best selling single of the year
"Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" - Ian Dury & The Blockheads
"Heart of Glass" - Blondie
"Tragedy" - Bee Gees
"I Will Survive" - Gloria Gaynor
"Bright Eyes" - Art Garfunkel
"Sunday Girl" - Blondie
"Ring My Bell" - Anita Ward
"Are 'Friends' Electric?- Tubeway Army
"I Don't Like Mondays" - Boomtown Rats
"We Don't Talk Anymore" - Cliff Richard
"Cars" - Gary Numan
"Message in a Bottle" - The Police
"Video Killed the Radio Star" - The Buggles
"When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman" - Dr. Hook
"Walking on the Moon" - The Police
"Another Brick in the Wall" - Pink Floyd

The 1980s ushered in a more synthesized European influenced sound as bands like Ultravox, The Human League, OMD,Thompson Twins, A Flock of Seagulls, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode and the Eurythmics hit the charts. Bands like Duran, Duran and Spandau Ballet also fused that electro sound with more traditional rock/pop music. Later on the Smiths surfaced with their melancholic lyrics set to the bright jangly guitar sounds made by Johnny Marr. The Cure were making their own unique sound.

We should not forget the power pop of the Mission, Simple Minds, Big Country, The Alarm, The Proclaimers, Deacon Blue and the overproduced and ultimately limited Frankie Goes to Hollywood during the 1980s. The Specials, Madness, and The Beat also brought a multi-cultural sound to a changing nation. Def Leppard may deserve a mention as they always seemed to be massive in America but had only a few hit singles and an album or two back home?

Somewhere amongst all this Status Quo survived.

But the music landscape changed and it wasn't until the Britpop era of the mid-90s when Radiohead, Oasis, Blur and Pulp defeated the growing cacophony of automated synthetic computer sounds, and annoying repetitiveness of rap. It was the last breath of the Brit bands. Somewhere at the end of the century everything lost it's way...

Mainstream pop music is neither artistic or thought provoking any longer. There is no money to be made in forming a band and writing your own material these days. Solo artists and boy bands singing about the bland topics that prey on a vacant mind are the only game in town these days. Mainly due to the rise of the "X-Factor" type TV talent shows and the shrinking budgets of record companies.

I don't really care whether the greatest bands of all time were British or not. Some of my favourite bands are from beyond these isles. What disturbs me is how somewhere between the late 1970s and the present day that popular music has slowly become soulless, antiseptic and manufactured.

you all sound like a bunch of adolescent girls.

listen to what you like.
if you dont like something - dont listen to it.



also: beatles, come on. i could drop my my guitar and create a more imaginative tune.
the beatles really did suck.

reply to post by teapot

To be fair, musical elements of blues, gospel et al also include European melody. (There are) similarities between African and Irish music.

Absolutely. That's why I eagerly embraced skalla's term, cross-pollination. Settlers from the poorer parts of the British Isles brought their folk music along with them; in America, European folk styles blended with African ones in various admixtures and proportions of descent to produce the vast range of North American musical styles. The same thing happened with Latin and African music in South and Central America.

The three-chord turnaround in the blues and other American forms is a European import. African 'blues' usually just stays on one 'chord' or alternates between the tonic and the fourth. The use of fifths in gospel and Appalachian folk harmony comes also, I believe, from the European folk tradition. And, of course, the instruments — guitar, piano, string bass, brass, harmonica — are all European.

What is interesting is that, if we trace the development of European folk music forms and instruments, we find that these, too, had their roots in Africa. Not West Africa, where the blues comes from, but North and East Africa, the playground of Arab slavers rather than European ones. The plucked bow with attached resonater gourd became a crude one- or two-string lute, which evolved into the oud of the Arabs, which became the European lute and the Spanish guitar. European folk music was strongly influenced by the troubadours, itinerant musicians reinterpreting Arab musical forms they learned Crusading in the Middle East; it was also powerfully influenced by Arab culture in Spain and places like Sicily. Many elements of Arab music — the instruments, the triple metres — came originally from Africa.

The other rootstock of European folk music are the people known as the Roma, or, as they were once more commonly known, Gypsies. Their origin is a matter of dispute, though I understand that DNA analysis suggests an origin in Rajasthan, India. If we're talking musical cross-pollination, the Roma were bees of Europe.

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reply to post by nightstalker78

Why are you naming bands that are terrible? They all stink.

According to whom? You're rating bands according to your own taste. I'm rating bands with established, enduring reputations among music lovers, musicians and critics as well as the general public. My own taste doesn't come into it.

Metal is popular with teenagers and (mostly single) young men with maturity issues, but that isn't enough to qualify any band as great. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera and the rest are brilliant at what they do, but what they do is defined by a very narrow compass — musical, lyrical, emotional and lyrical. Metal is a ghetto; and you have to rise out of the ghetto to achieve greatness.

Can't forget Bruce Springsteen either.

I'm glad you mentioned him. One of the nearly-greats at least; certainly a fine songwriter and performer. But while Bruce may be great, the E Street Band weren't. They could cook up a storm all right, but intimacy and subtlety were never their strong suit.

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reply to post by Rikku

beatles, come on. i could drop my guitar and create a more imaginative tune. the beatles really did suck.

His self-importance rises with the number of things of which he does not know the value, and which he therefore despises as unworthy of his notice.

— William Hazlitt, 'On the Ignorance of the Learned'

I suggest you learn to play a Beatles song on that guitar of yours. You'll learn a thing or two about harmony and composition.

reply to post by Astyanax


Just because something is popular does not make it good. Hell,I'd put skid row's Slave To The Grind album above pretty much every band you mentioned. What the "general public" loves does not make something good. See the poster above who responded to me. According to him the BSB,Brittany Spears,Mariah Carey,ETC are better then GNR. I'm a musician myself. Been writing/playing music for nearly 20 years. Think I've got a pretty good grip on what makes a good musican. By the way,mentioned Springsteen because my dad used to play with him before he got famous. Even sold him a bass way back in 1984.

reply to post by nightstalker78

Just because something is popular does not make it good.

That's not what I said.

Then again, if your qualification to judge quality in music is that your father sold a bass to Bruce Springsteen, I guess there isn't any point in arguing with you.

reply to post by nightstalker78


Seriously man, once you mentioned Skid Row it rendered all views you hold on anything as rot. It took courage for you to say it, a bit like filling your mouth with dog crap.

Skid Row, ffs.

reply to post by upintheair


with you on floyd and Slash moved out as a kid!

reply to post by alldaylong

Yes the three core members of ACDC are brothers originally from Scotland so it's a blended band.

reply to post by mirageman


Absolutely excellent post and summary. Star for you.....also because you mentioned Status Quo


Rainbows
Jane