What makes for rock music greatness is not necessarily commercial success, longevity, or even a great deal of musical ability; rather, greatness seems to emenate from those groups that manage to be very creative and to develop a style and a sound all their own. Bo Diddley, back in the 50s, developed a style all his own, with the underlying basis of his sound being the "bo diddley beat," which Bo himself explained as deriving from a style of dance known as the "hambone," a style involving the stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheek, and derived from African culture via the Southern plantations and various Caribbean locales. Or, another example is the Kinks, a British Invasion band whose sound was rooted in a more aggressive version of the early 60s British rock but then was refined a few years later through more complex arrangements of their hook-filled songs.
I posted this once before elsewhere a few years ago, and am reposting an edited version of it here. These are arguably the 25 greatest bands in rock history.
1. The Velvet Underground
What made them great: hung out with Andy Warhol and were the Factory's house band, released 4 classic and influential LPs, combined noise/art/drones with well crafted songs, gave us two great talents - Lou Reed and John Cale, influenced punk, post-punk and indie rock from the 1970s on. It has been said that very few people owned the Velvet Undergound's LPs in their time, but that everyone who did was inspired to start a band of their own, or to, in some way, create. Perhaps.
2. The Kinks
What made them great: The Kinks, unlike a lot of other bands of their day, exposed their own weaknesses and vulnerabilities, not to mention their utter Britishness - with their music filled with references to village greens, royalty, afternoon tea, to music hall and to various memories of ordinary British life. They perfected the concept album and were also pioneers of the theatrical side of rock band performance. Much of their music is truly gorgeous and moving (e.g., Waterloo Sunset, Days, Starstruck, Hollywood Blvd., etc.). And their leader, Ray Davies, is undoubtedly a genius, one of rock's greatest geniuses, in fact. In short, they made both pop and art and combined the two in a way only they could.
3. The Beatles
What made them great: The Beatles caused the whole world to fall in love with them, and all with a few basic chords and a few well placed "yeah, yeah, yeahs." The Beatles' greatness, in addition to deriving from both their personalities and their music, has something as well to do with how intertwined they were with their decade - the 1960s. Much was packed into a short span of time, particularly from 1964 until around the time of the moon landing and Woodstock.
4. The Stooges
What made them great: The Stooges are a band now understood to be as seminal as the Velvet Underground for punk rock and other forms of modern music. But whereas the VU were something like a group of art school misfits, the Stooges were more a motley collection of trailer park dirtbags and lowlives, from the wilds of Ypsilanti, Michigan (thus also tied to the great Detroit garage band/biker band scenes). The Stooges seemed to thrive on tension and on stage, this consisted of confronted the audience, in the studio, one another, and when not playing music, themselves. Musically, they captured what is essential about rock, namely its noisy, rhythmic power - no surprise that one of their classic albums was called "Raw Power."
5. The Ramones
What made them great (from a personal review of their 1st LP): I first heard the Ramones debut record in early 1977, shortly after reading a review of them in a music magazine (I think it might have been Trouser Press or perhaps Hit Parader) when I was 15, and I was blown away by its stripped down sound. Hearing them made me an instant fan, as I suspect it did for many others. I remember just loving the Ramones' sound and their twisted sense of humor, not to mention their look (kudos to Roberta Bayley and Arturo Vega for the band photos), and beginning with them, embracing the punk revolution as a breath of fresh air. Here indeed was a band for kid who grew up on Mad Magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, comic books, Ed Sullivan, and late 60s bubblegum, and who came of age in the middle of the anomic 1970s. Here the Ramones are sounding extremely stripped down and raw. Recorded for just a few thousand bucks (cheap even by mid 70s prices) the raw sound is a perfect compliment to these songs - some of the Ramones great classics. Songs like Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat on the Brat, 53rd and 3rd, and I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You have well stood the test of time. And with a cover of the oldies song Let's Dance, the Ramones link themselves to rock's glorious past, its transistor radio era. In short what we have here is the start of a musical/cultural revolution.
6. The Who
What made them great: They were tied, at the start of their career, to an anglicized version of Motown/R&B, as well as to the "mod" subculture, and later explored these roots in the LP and (very underrated) film Quadrophenia. They embraced pop art and the swinging 60s, but brought to these things a great deal of testosterone fueled aggression, making their acts of aggression into pop art itself. However, they also balanced their aggressiveness with insightful moments of introspection and reflective insight into the human condition. They were a highlight of Woodstock and released the classic Who's Next, filled with anthems. They then stuck around for several more years, adding to their legion of devoted fans.
7. The New York Dolls What made them great: Not so much their musical skills, which were somewhat limited, as their attitude, one based on their outer boroughs New York personalities, their aggressive androgyny, and their association with drug induced decadence and anomie, all of which made rock music once again seem rebellious, after a long time of not being so. They were the perfect contrast to the corporately sponsored mellowness of mid-70s, Seals and Crofts-era, rock. This attitude and contrastiveness paved the way for the punk scene a few years later.
8. The Fall What made them great: Their droning, atonal sound and the personality of band leader, lead singer and lyricist Mark E. Smith. Even when he's doing things like reading British football scores in the voice of someone with a bad hangover, Mark E. commands the performance space. In short, the Fall, while flirting here and there with commercial success, have been a creative force in indie/underground rock
for decades, and for very good reason.
9. My Bloody Valentine What made them great: They invented/perfected an ethereal style of play, known as "shoegazer." Their music is extremely powerful and seductive and leaves the listener wanting much more.
10. Joy Division What made them great: They captured a moment, when punk seemed dead and the world of possibility was completely opened up, with their music, which is haunting, intense, powerful, and mournful about the various tragic elements of essential existence.
11. T Rex What makes them great: Moved from hippy to glam and thus helped to create the 1970s. And, they are one of a handful of performers/groups (such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, AC/DC, Motorhead, Ramones, and ZZ Top) with a patented sound of their own.
12. Yo La Tengo What makes them great: They encompass the history of rock's critical and indie highlights in its entirety in their recordings and performances, and embody the principle of refraining from selling out. Plus, since I like cheering on the home team, and since I have a bit more of an identification with Hoboken's later renaissance than with its 1940s Sinatra-era glory days, I cheer for YLT as my musical home team.
13. Sex Pistols What makes them great: They took anarchism and made it into a band ethos. And they inspired Greil Marcus to write his great Lipstick Traces, which found connections between punk and situationism.
14. The Raincoats
What makes them great: They managed to combine punk and feminist impulses, and gave us a homey, lovely sound.
15. The Beach Boys What makes them great: The musical genius of Brain Wilson, as demonstrated in the LP Pet Sounds and the song "Good Vibrations."
16. Sonic Youth What makes them great: Sonic Youth represents the triumph of the Lower East Side's early 1980s post-punk "no wave" scene, but whereas most of the bands associated with this scene were producing their music almost as an art project - not necessarily meant to last for very long, SY actually dedicated themselves to their band as a career, and produced an extensive body of work, merging guitar noise and conventional song structures.
17. Guided By Voices What makes them great: They've got bulldog skin and they knew how to make lo-fi rock as hard as a metal band.
18. The Television Personalities What makes them great: Someone had to be the cheekily ironic commentators on the punk revolution. Why not them?
19. Hot Tuna What makes them great: They are the anti-Starship, a Jefferson Airplane spinoff band actually better than the band from which they emerged, and thus a continuation of the ideals of the 1960s and of roots rock. And having seen them live, I can easily vouch for their musicianship.
-also, some bonus points here for the fragile, lovely music of Jefferson Airplane alumni, Skip Spence.
20. Stereolab What makes them great: Marry 50s lounge music to 90s synth-pop, and do so perfectly. Listening to their music always puts me in a better mood.
21. The Buzzcocks What makes them great: they were, as the Spin Alternative Record Guide puts it, a "pop band born in punk heaven."
22. TheClean What makes them great: Their total commitment to lo-fi musical greatness and their pioneering status as New Zealand's first great indie rock band - a further instantiation of Beat Happening's notion of an "international pop underground."
23. The Ex What makes them great: Their idealism and their experimental approach to music.
24. Pink Floyd What makes them great: starting with Syd Barrett, one of the great conceptually oriented rock bands, with a great interest in alienation and dystopia.
25. The Minutemen What makes them great: Their energy, their commitment to truth and to ideas, and the fact that they could really play, in a style like no other band of their era.
No comments:
Post a Comment