Who's the greatest American band of all time?

[WestGorton]

Glenn Miller Band.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

I once saw George and J.Geils Band on the same bill, supporting The Rolling Stones.

Slane?

 

[ChicagoBlue]

9 circuits now and came home saying he needs a NorCal sectional chart and an aviation calculator!

Brilliant! Time to refi the house!
;-)

Look, I LIKE The Jam. But it’s an unequivocal fact that they never made it here, and they never made it here IMO because they were so English. They didn’t translate. Also, their hooks weren’t that good. Like Green Day. And they evolved into a kind of Shitty Beatles. Tell me Smithers-Jones isn’t an Eleanor Rigby knock-off. Anyhow, are they greater than Jefferson Airplane? Yes. Better than Jefferson Airplane? Yes. Greater than Talking Heads, Van Halen, Aerosmith, The Ramones? No. Better than those bands is a matter of taste. I’d say they aren’t, but they mean something to you as an Englishman, and that’s great. The fact that The Jam couldn’t translate is an instant ding against their greatness.

OK, you’re forgiven!

The “translation” issue is, to me, meaningless, because taste is so personal and The Jam spoke of some uniquely British things and the zeitgeist of the time.

Indeed, in many ways, it is a feather in their cap that they didn’t translate in America at that time because we all know what happened in 1980 in America!

Just as I don’t gauge things today by likes or social media saturation, so I don’t value musical taste by where the band “made it.” Sometimes, that can be complete happenstance and timing and has nothing much to do with the music.

Top 40 radio cycle in America was the be all and end all back then, and the turnover velocity in England is multiple times that of the US.

Anyway, if nothing else, this has proven that taste is personal and with the thread being about American bands, I should leave this distraction alone.

Now back to enjoying Smithers Jones!!! Eleanor Rigby, indeed! Pfft!

:-)

 

[OB1]

Slane?

Leeds 1982

 

[Blue Til Death]

Nirvana .. Close the thread ..!

 

[Blue and true]

The Doors.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

NSYNC .. Close the thread ..!

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Slane?

Slane had some great shows over the years.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Brilliant! Time to refi the house!
;-)




OK, you’re forgiven!

The “translation” issue is, to me, meaningless, because taste is so personal and The Jam spoke of some uniquely British things and the zeitgeist of the time.

Indeed, in many ways, it is a feather in their cap that they didn’t translate in America at that time because we all know what happened in 1980 in America!

Just as I don’t gauge things today by likes or social media saturation, so I don’t value musical taste by where the band “made it.” Sometimes, that can be complete happenstance and timing and has nothing much to do with the music.

Top 40 radio cycle in America was the be all and end all back then, and the turnover velocity in England is multiple times that of the US.

Anyway, if nothing else, this has proven that taste is personal and with the thread being about American bands, I should leave this distraction alone.

Now back to enjoying Smithers Jones!!! Eleanor Rigby, indeed! Pfft!

:-)

Let me put it this way — when I first found out about the record entitled All Mod Cons, I swear to God thought it meant that all mods (like The Jam) were convicts, or fakes. I’d never heard the phrase in the US before.

Anyway despite me making fun of Smithers-Jones (and I forgot to make fun of Start, named that because it starts exactly like the Beatles Taxman), I do like it. I always liked Setting Sons the best of their albums, and maybe Eton Rifles best of their tunes.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Leeds 1982

Same year as Slane then.