Overrated/underrated musicians and bands

Well we are finding a few differences musically but be a boring world if we all liked exactly the same music and all supported Man U or The Dippers!

I did think that you would get that Van Halen (not Van Hagar) are the greatest American band ever but, hey, it's all about opinions.

Steely Dan are a band: they are not a solo artist. Whatever you want to class them as, they are not underrated as far as my definition goes. As a sidebar, I still find a lot of comments on this thread just expressions of personal taste rather than genuine assessment of bands being overrated.

I think the Beach Boys is a good shout for the greatest US band but nothing like my fave American band although I like them very much and should get some more of their albums in my collection. My lists of the ten greatest and my ten favourite US bands would be different although VH would be in both and The Dan probably would be too.

I love American music and more specifically the music that Americans love. We've done a few U.S. road trip type holidays and one of my little pleasures is listening to classic rock radio and seeing how long we can go before they play a track that I don't have in my collection. My collection is pretty broad but the core of it would allow me to run a U.S. classic rock radio station.

We could have a debate about whether Bruce with the E Street Band is a band rather than a solo artist. I'd have Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in both my 10's.

The Grateful Dead would not make my top 10 fave US bands but they have to be one of the greatest. They are not popular in the UK but I have to say they are a band that I've grown to like and appreciate a lot more over the last ten years - maybe it's age and a frustration with modern bands and music. I have a fraction of their output, given how many live releases there are, but I've got a reasonable number of their studio albums and a few really good live ones. I never got to see them live myself and was mortified to find when as a lockdown project I was putting all my gigs onto setlist.com that I went to see Cher at Wembley the same week that The Dead played what I presume was their last gig in the UK (very early 90's) - WTF was I thinking. For some reason, I don't think I even knew they were playing as I'd have thought I would have gone just for the experience at that point. Funnily enough "Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac" is one of my favourite lyrics.

I missed this before but just for the record I LOVED Van Halen from day 1 — I saw them three times I think. Quintessential Southern California band and between Eddie who is masterful (best ever guitarist? Not sure but he’s in the pantheon) and David Lee Roth who was I think a hilarious goofball — that shriek of his is instantly identifiable — they have to be up there. The problem as you rightly point out is Sammy fucking Hagar, who is a very well-known Nor Cal shitbag whom no one likes (he owned a restaurant a few minutes from me). As soon as he joined you knew that band was going only one way — down the fucking tubes. Worst band replacement member ever and it’s not even close.
 
Oof. He was arguably the most talented musician of the 80s — not only as a guitarist, but also his stage presence and the sheer variety of musical styles he could perform. He also wrote for other bands. First person I ever heard suggest he was overrated. And I’m not the biggest fan of the music he made, understand, but talent is talent.
Yes I'm not a fan of his but I recognise his massive talent.
There's a YouTube of him playing a guitar solo at the end of While My Guitar gently Weeps , the Beatles song...it's better than Claptons in my opinion.
I didn't even know he could play guitar. He literally blew everyone away.
 
I missed this before but just for the record I LOVED Van Halen from day 1 — I saw them three times I think. Quintessential Southern California band and between Eddie who is masterful (best ever guitarist? Not sure but he’s in the pantheon) and David Lee Roth who was I think a hilarious goofball — that shriek of his is instantly identifiable — they have to be up there. The problem as you rightly point out is Sammy fucking Hagar, who is a very well-known Nor Cal shitbag whom no one likes (he owned a restaurant a few minutes from me). As soon as he joined you knew that band was going only one way — down the fucking tubes. Worst band replacement member ever and it’s not even close.

I had three VH albums in my top 10 favourite albums when I voted on that other thread as I did Zep (my two favourite bands).

First time I saw VH was supporting Black Sabbath. I saw them eight times with Roth; four times on their 1980 invasion tour and then their first Madison Square Garden gig the following year, which was something else - helluva way to start one's first trip to America. Loudest audience I ever heard and Roth had them eating out of his hand, perhaps the best performance I ever saw by a frontman.

Eddie quite possibly is the best guitarist of the lot.

I was a Hagar fan before he joined VH and I don't mind Van Hagar but Roth was as important to VH as Eddie.
 
I had three VH albums in my top 10 favourite albums when I voted on that other thread as I did Zep (my two favourite bands).

First time I saw VH was supporting Black Sabbath. I saw them eight times with Roth; four times on their 1980 invasion tour and then their first Madison Square Garden gig the following year, which was something else - helluva way to start one's first trip to America. Loudest audience I ever heard and Roth had them eating out of his hand, perhaps the best performance I ever saw by a frontman.

Eddie quite possibly is the best guitarist of the lot.

I was a Hagar fan before he joined VH and I don't mind Van Hagar but Roth was as important to VH as Eddie.

You could have had any of the Roth albums -- I love I and II most, but 1984 was a kick in the pants too, and I like them all but I'll guess those were three you had.

It's a hard selection but I think Dead or Alive is my top tune of theirs but the first time I ever heard Jamie's Crying when I was, what, 13 I think, I was totally blown away.

There's no question that I and II bring me back to a time when I really loved life and had no cares -- I was just getting into music and I have very fond memories of happy times sitting in my room with those records blasting away.

And that's an impressive list of concerts -- are you sure you weren't a groupie??? :)

Sorry one more -- my favo(u)rite record critic of all time is Robert Christgau and he had some relatively harsh and funny words for their first record that I always loved (even if I disagreed):

"For some reason Warners wants us to know that this is the biggest bar band in the San Fernando Valley. This doesn't mean much--all new bands are bar bands, unless they're Boston. The term becomes honorific when the music belongs in a bar. This music belongs on an aircraft carrier."
 
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You could have had any of the Roth albums -- I love I and II most, but 1984 was a kick in the pants too, and I like them all but I'll guess those were three you had.

It's a hard selection but I think Dead or Alive is my top tune of theirs but the first time I ever heard Jamie's Crying when I was, what, 13 I think, I was totally blown away.

There's no question that I and II bring me back to a time when I really loved life and had no cares -- I was just getting into music and I have very fond memories of happy times sitting in my room with those records blasting away.

And that's an impressive list of concerts -- are you sure you weren't a groupie??? :)

Sorry one more -- my favo(u)rite record critic of all time is Robert Christgau and he had some relatively harsh and funny words for their first record that I always loved (even if I disagreed):

"For some reason Warners wants us to know that this is the biggest bar band in the San Fernando Valley. This doesn't mean much--all new bands are bar bands, unless they're Boston. The term becomes honorific when the music belongs in a bar. This music belongs on an aircraft carrier."

The three were actually Women and Children First, Fair Warning and I, in that order. If we’d been allowed 5 albums II and 1984 would have been Top 20.

l’ve read some stuff by Christgau; did he write for Creem?
 

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