SECOND Greatest Band of all Time

[Freypower]

Are you kidding me? I would so Include Kiss And Aerosmith as being influential

How were Kiss influential except in terms of encouraging people to dress in outlandish costumes? To this day I can only name a couple of their songs. I don't have any of their albums, true, but their appeal always seemed purely visual.

Edit: There may be a lot of 'agreeing to disagree' here and perhaps I am showing my age, but to me the music has to have really stood the test of time and there has to be a lot of work which appeals across a very wide range of people.

[EagleLady]

Ok Mike--I can now play your game.

Actually, I've been thinking about this topic quite a bit this afternoon, and must admit I am having a LOT of difficulty here. Everyone is different, what may have influenced my love of music will be totally different of what others here think. Are we talking influence over all in Music or for each of us individually or just Rock Music and then that leads to so many different types of rock music.... here lies my problem...am I picking it all apart to much? PROBABLY!!!

Some for your consideration that I feel A LOT of people might think of (sorry if I repeat anyone):
Heart
Black Sabbath
Pink Floyd
Queen
Van Hale
Styx
The Animals
The Hollies
Sweet (ok sorry but I had to do it because they sure as h*ll had an impact on me)

I agree-Kiss- NOT (sorry EL) they were nothing more than a gimmick --take away the makeup--big deal!!! JMHO

And then if you break it down by genre.... My gosh this could be a great big project. Heavy Metal, Southern Rock, New Wave, Punk, Glam Rock, etc..... If we break it down please add The Cars in the New Wave category.

I'm making this a mountain out of a mole hill aren't I? SORRY!!!!!

[Freypower]

I think we should add some influential black artists (NB I am only including 'rock' or 'soul' musicians.

Otis Redding
Marvin Gaye
Prince
Michael Jackson (yes)
Sly Stone
Sam Cooke
Al Green

[MikeA]

Willie,

LOL: It would have been a LOT easier if we just listed Eagles and Beatles and had a slugfest noting the influence and popularity. Hate to say it, but the Beatles impacted not only the Music Industry, but also Culture itself! Popularity, I think they were about equal.

When I started this thread, my definition of "Influential" really was intended to be that of influencing other Artists or the Music culture. For example, SRV made it abundantly clear that he was almost ultimately influenced to be what he was because of Jimi Hendrix. To carry on the torch, SRV then pretty much defined Texas Blues.

Bob Dylan (dang...left him off the list and MUST add him in though I was never a big Dylan fan) was extremely influencial in that he Electrified Folk Music and demonstrated to upcoming artists that Rock could make a statement.

I really wasn't considering personal influences. If that were the case, I'd have to list the Mamas and Papas....their "California Dreaming" had a profound impact on me personally. And maybe they should be included anyway.

I'll keep this open for a while longer....maybe tomorrow afternoon to give it 24 hours to accumulate whomever you all wish to consider. But at some point SOON we are going to have to close the nominations and start deliberating on maybe the top 10 or 20 to be considered.

It is going to be difficult for me personally to be objective in this yet I am determined to make the best attempt at objectivity as I can muster. There are artists who have been mentioned that I have never owned any works of theirs, yet I reluctantly in some cases, acknowledge that they did have an impact on the music scene either with Influence on other Artists, Influence on the Industry or in Popularity with those who love music.

[TimothyBFan]

Got ya!!! I thought that was where you were going. But wow---how hard will that be OVERALL, instead of breaking it down by genre? See, I didn't even add Folk in my list of genres. This is really really hard ~~ but I LOVE it!! Real fuel for thought.

And how could all of us forget about Bob Dylan (not one of my faves either)?

I remember your Mamas And Papas story. Thanks for sharing that with us awhile ago.

[Freypower]

My God - Dylan - my hero. This leads of course to the Byrds, without whom there would be no Eagles.

I also forgot David Bowie, Van Morrison & I think Elton John should be at least considered. For influential women probably Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin.

And then there is Bruce Springsteen and (shudder) U2. I can't stand them but they have had an impact which I cannot deny. To U2 lovers be grateful I mentioned them.

[luvthelighthouse]

Ok Mike, you are going to have to break down by Rock, Folk, Punk Solo, etc.

If we are doing punk, the Ramones and Green Day for sure!

For solo, I agree, Bowie (much influence on me and an icon for decades) and Elton John.

I also agree U2 must be included. I'm not a fan, but their popularity and mass appeal speaks for itself.

Oh... and Poco... for without them, there would be no Eagles... as even Glenn himself has been quoted that he really liked the sound coming out of Poco and even tried to emulate them to a degree.

[eaglesvet]

Boy, I missed alot in 24 hours. I agree with the ton of bands listed, and thanks to FP for posting the Boss!

[MikeA]

On first thought, breaking it down by "Genre" sounds like a good idea. But after thinking about it, that would be very difficult to do.

For instance: Robert Johnson was a premiere Black Bluesman from the Delta country of Mississippi. But if we broke him out as a Blues Artist, then we wouldn't be able to consider the influence he had on the Beatles or Clapton, or Mayal, or Peter Green or Mick Taylor or Jimmy Page or the Rolling Stones...none of which (except for Clapton who actually admits to being ulitmately a Bluesman) is known for Blues. Heck, Led Zeppelin was taking Blues methodology to the ultimate and incorporating it into what was at the time, Hard Rock which morphed later into Metal! So who's the INFLUENCE there? Robert Johnson, Gatemouth Brown, Lightening Hopkins....or was it Zep?

I think that in the vane of Objective here, I would have to tip the scales to Zeppelin. I would like to give it back to the Bluesmen, but where they set the stage for virtually all of what we know as Rock Music, Country Western and later Metal as well as having written the Bible on Blues, They didn't have the "Popularity". And it is Influence PLUS Popularity that should determine the top spot.

I mean Influence is HUGE in this, but most people do not know who they were, then how could they be the Second Greatest Band Of All Time? Conversely, If the band or artist is the most Popular in History but didn't invoke change in the Music Industry and inspire other musicians (Like Three Dog Night maybe?), how could they be considered for top honors?

I'm thinking that when we finish with our nominations, we might try to each narrow the list down to the top 20....then to the top 10.....then to the top 5 and at that point, start debating. Hell, we've ALREADY started Debating!

[TimothyBFan]

I totally agree with your whole blues commentary. Without the Robert Johnson's and Mayal's of music, there simply wouldn't even be rock n roll, or at least rock n roll as we all know it.

I like your idea of starting point of 20 and working our way down. I seriously think we each will be all over the place on this. I will be very interested to see how everyone's list will compare when we start narrowing it all down. I still like the genre thing but you are correct about how hard that will be. I would in the future, in another thread, have everyone interested give a list by genre of their favorites or most popular. I think that would be really fun. Maybe some people would even discover new genres of music they really hadn't even paid attention to. Like punk Mike---The Clash---you never heard of them before? WOW!!! They were all over MTV in the 80's, so that really surprised me.

Oh hell, I'll just say it now---I intend to vote for Zeppelin in the end, no matter what...now I just have to figure out how to get to that point by narrowing the rest of the list.