Greatest Band Round #2 Top Twenty

[Fan_For_Life]

Personally, Heart are among the few female singers I consider listen worthy. I could play a song of theirs and actually enjoy the entirety of the song.

Musically, Magic Man and Baracuda are the more influential of songs from their catalog.

[luvthelighthouse]

Are you kidding me? Heart, Basically the best Female rockers of all time. and Cream, Very influential! JMHO.

But why? What makes Cream influential? As for Heart, I would put Joan Jett or the GoGo's before Heart, but that's just me.

[EagleLady]

But why? What makes Cream influential? As for Heart, I would put Joan Jett or the GoGo's before Heart, but that's just me.

You gotta be kidding me, Heart came way before GoGos or Joan Jett, I would say they were influenced by Heart. Cream had Eric Clapton, who is a very influential guitarist.

[Freypower]

Although my husband loves Heart, they are just a standard rock band who happen to have two female singers. I fail to see how they have been 'influential' in any way. Popular, yes.

Cream invented the power trio along with the Jimi Hendrix Experience and wrote some of the most memorable rock songs of the late 60s - Sunshine Of Your Love, Strange Brew, White Room, Badge and the blistering version of Crossroads.

I don't really want to lobby that much for the people I think should win but they should include Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

Dylan is the greatest songwriter ever apart from Lennon/McCartney. He drew on and added to so many genres from folk to blues to rock and even during his 'born again' phase. Every songwriter working today is in his debt. Before he came along songs were restricted pretty much to innocuous love songs.

The Rolling Stones are not known as 'the greatest rock band in the world' for nothing. Again, their appeal stretches across the many genres they have played. They have a wonderful songwriting team, a great singer/lyricist and a great guitarist. Just get some of those riffs in your head and see if you can get them out.

As for Led Zeppelin they are the 70s answer to the Rolling Stones with a gigantic, incredibly deep catalogue which includes everything from blues to cod-reggae. They invented heavy metal, but they were better than that.

OK. My top 20:

Beach Boys 11
David Bowie 11
Elvis Presley 11
Eric Clapton 11

Bob Dylan 10
Chuck Berry 10
Jimi Hendrix 10
Led Zeppelin 10
Rolling Stones 10

Aretha Franklin 9
Byrds 9
CCR 9

Bob Marley 8
Joni Mitchell 8
Pink Floyd 8
WHO 8

Buddy Holly 7
Simon & Garfunkel 7
Stevie Wonder 7

Cream 6

How it hurt me to eliminate Elton and the Bee Gees there. Oh well. Incidentally I think Nei Young as a solo artist was far more influential than CSNY, whose collective recorded output was very small.

[EagleLady]

Well, I think Heart was influential in that they may have been the first official Female Rock Group. JMHO, and paved the way for other Female Rock groups.

[Freypower]

And what about all those 'girl bands' of the Phil Spector era like the Ronettes, Martha & the Vandellas, etc? They may not have written their songs and they may not have played instruments but they were 'girl bands'.

[EagleLady]

I was referring to the female bands who actually play instruments.

[MikeA]

"Heart" was big. Great songwriters too. Pretty good instrumentalists. They were very heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin and sort of proved that a band focusing on female artists DID NOT have to win their popularity by playing on the fact that they were beautiful women! Their music stood on its own. But then, Janis Joplin had already done that 10 years earlier!

Ironic isn't it though that both the Wilsons and Hendrix were spawned out of Seattle. Must be something in the air up there!

One must weigh whether the groundbreaking they accomplished with their success for women in Rock outweighs the contributions of other artists. At that point, it gets Subjective and there is no way to avoid it.

I almost got to see them in KC at a casino a couple of years ago. They still kick a$$! I was a big fan in their heyday and still am for that matter. I don't know if I can justify their position on my own list of 20 from their careers, but I'm definitely going to deliberate that possibility. There are a LOT of others in that Top Forty that are carrying some heavy weight.

Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were and still are great musicians. But other than the Power Trio thing and some great Rock Ballads, I'm not sure what the group Cream did for the industry. They could just barely stand to be around each other from the get-go and their concerts pretty much were all a battle between all three musicians to see who outdo the other two!

I think Clapton carried a lot more influence on the Industry, particularly other guitarists, that did Cream. I'm not sure if it was Clapton who popularized the guitar solo extending song length into the 10 or 15 minute range. Everyone was doing it there for a while....Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Clapton, James Gang...they were all recording long jam sessions. But I'll have to dig to see who initiated it.

There were a lot of guitarists who cranked up after listening to Clapton. One of Jimi Hendrix ambitions was to jam with Clapton. In fact that was a determining factor in his agent getting him over into the UK..."ONLY if he could sit in with Clapton!" But Clapton was nervous about Hendrix. I mean, Clapton had already been proclaimed "Clapton is GOD" by graffiti artists in London! I think I recall that Clapton had seen Hendrix before or at least heard about him before he had agreed to the jam session and wasn't very enthused about it at the time.

But then Hendrix was a phenomena and I have a lot more to say about him!

[luvthelighthouse]

Well, I think Heart was influential in that they may have been the first official Female Rock Group. JMHO, and paved the way for other Female Rock groups.

They weren't an girl group though. I said Joan Jett, but I should have said the Runaway's. Runaways were an all girl group. Joan Jett went on to start the JJ and Blackhearts. Micki Steel went on to be a Bangle. Lita Ford had a solo career. Runaways were truly a Female Rock Band. Yes, Go-Go's came much later, but again, all girls. However, I would strike them from my first comment, as they were much later. Heart and the Runaways were both early-mid 70's.

Hmmm... just writing this up makes me feel like I should pick up some Runaways music. Good job Mike, I think that is what you intended! Get us stepping out of our box to explore or rediscover other avenues.

[luvthelighthouse]

As far as lobbying for who should stay... well, there are few, even if I wasn't a fan... but the Greatful Dead influenced a whole culture. Heck, even Henley sang a nod to them. Dylan was a poet and deserves his acclaim. Madonna, reinvented herself, music and stage presence for the past 20 years and is still going strong.

Led Zeppelin. Hmmm... In jr high, I recall having several of their albums (cassettes if you will). I listend to them because they were "cool"... or so I was told. However, aside from my favorites, I'm not sure I really dug all their music. I think I was 50/50. I may have to revisit them too. I mean, yes, the highly coveted Zepplin IV, with Black Dog and Stairway was a part of a generation. However, my favorites are Kashmir and All My Love. I do believe they should surely be in the top 10.