Who's The Greatest American Rock & Roll Band Ever?


We've witnessed and been a part of many music debates over the years. Who's the greatest band? What's the greatest album ever recorded? What's the best song put on wax? But Whitney Matheson today proposed an even tougher question in her USA Today column Pop Candy.

What's the greatest American rock band of all time?

While Matheson provides many convincing arguments and anecdotes supporting a variety of bands, I couldn't resist posing the same question to my friends. Not surprisingly, I got a variety of answers with no consensus on which American band is the best.

Among the responses was the well thought out "there's no way to answer that question as different time periods have different greats" and the unsupported "CRACK THAT WHIP! Is Devo American?"

Of course, the first response I got was "you know this going to get ugly before it's over, right?" And with that the suggestions rolled in...

Creedence Clearwater Revival, R.E.M., The Eagles and The Beach Boys were all frontrunners. But there was also the obligatory Nirvana vote (although that was probably just to piss me off) and the left field suggestion of The Jayhawks. My personal favorite was "does Lisa Lisa and The Cult Jam count?"

For the record, Music 4 Life supports the idea there are many great American rock & roll bands from many different eras. Fleetwood Mac is just as important as The Grateful Dead. And love them or hate them, jam bands like Phish and the Dave Matthews Band have been equally important in recent years. How do you overlook the impact of the Ramones or focus completely on The Beach Boys?

Read Pop Candy and join the great debate.

Posted: Wed - June 29, 2005 at 11:06 PM      

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