Roger Daltrey: Rolling Stones a Mediocre Pub Band

[urban genie]

They can try but they were all small time composers next to the giants.
Musically speaking no Brits until The Beatles had a huge effect on the world of international music.

Handel was held in high esteem by fellow composers, both in his own time and since. Bach attempted, unsuccessfully, to meet Handel and Mozart it is claimed to have said of him, "Handel understands affect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt, he also converted Handels lryical work into germanic and french as it was popluar across the" To Beethoven he was "the master of us all... the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb." Beethoven emphasised above all the simplicity and popular appeal of Handel's music when he said, "Go to him to learn how to achieve great effects, by such simple means.

Messiah is still banned in China, and you will find his music and operas used as much as others still bought and played the world over.


Elgar is still performed globally and his reputation and popularity has been for decades already established far beyond England, though he's most often played here because of his pomp and circumstance pieces. There are consistant performances in Canada, Germany (many), Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, France, Portugal, Holland, Poland, Macau, Slovakia, Estonia, China, South Korea, Vancouver, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, and in many other cities and countries, across South America, his cello concertos are velebrared the world over, though his reputation here is as a stuffy edwardian, his appeal still continues globally

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Not reading 14 pages but someone has to have The Kinks in there.

They may have come up in about 13 of the 14 pages thus far............. ;-)

 

[urban genie]

They may have come up in about 13 of the 14 pages thus far............. ;-)

Yeah but only about the music, we never even got to how they were fashion icons with David Davies pioneering the long haired floppy mop top at least 3 years before harrison the rest of the beatles or anyone else and their look around the time muswell hillbillies was coppied by robert plant and the rest ;-)

 

[Bill Walker]

Not reading 14 pages but someone has to have The Kinks in there.

Love the Kinks but they never could fill big stadiums

 

[Bill Walker]

They may have come up in about 13 of the 14 pages thus far............. ;-)

Hahaha

Cream, anybody mentioned them ?
Or The Zombies, made one of the best albums of all time.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

I’ll just throw Freddie & The Dreamers into the mix……cement mixer.
They were from Manchester. Were they not briefly huge in the States when all the Yanks were “Doin The Freddie”? Did any of those other British supergroup acts have a dance named after them…….and work on “Crackerjack“??

The Dave Clark Five were one of the biggest ever British success stories in America, believe it or not, Hermans Hermits
were very successful too.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

The Spice Girls would probably finish above the likes of Led Zep, Beacch Boys, Smiths etc..

Tell us who you want, who you really really want.

 

[OB1]

Now you give us Radiohead, thanks a fucking bunch :)

There was a really interesting piece someone wrote a while back on the greatest American rock band that concluded “great” American musical artists tend to be “solo” — Elvis, Dylan, Springsteen, Prince, Michael Jackson, Sinatra. It made an intriguing objective case for The Grateful Dead. I’ll dig it up.

I’d guess my favo(u)rite American band that everyone would know would be either REM or Steely Dan but I have a few dozen more. The UK owns classic white boy rock and electronica/new wave. But as you note outside the rock context, the US were the forebears of jazz and blues, punk (with UK help), country and hip hop.

I recall we had quite a debate going about the gretatest American band(s) (It's VH and KIss BTW ;-) ). I'm sure you brought the Dead into the mix and I have not gone off to check facts but when Bill mentioned stadium filling acts, I think at one point the Grateful Dead led the league for concert attendance; pretty sure over 25 million have been to their gigs.

 

[OB1]

I guess what we take from this is, everybody has different views on music, I thought the Beatles were and still are the biggest band ever. Of course lots of people will disagree with that and thats fine by me.
But their statistics and facts are hard to argue against, but essentially I never regarded them as "Classic Rock" like LZ or The Who. The Beatles were principally a band who wrote songs and sang them. They were masters of the 3 minute song, in many genres.....30 number 1s proves that, 12 number 1 albums proves that.....plus they wrote hits for other artists which they didnt record themselves.
The Beatles were not a huge stadium band (although they did do the first ever stadium gig at Shea Stadium) like The Who and Led Zep, they didnt have a lead singer who posed and pranced around the stage like Jagger, Daltrey, Plant or Freddie Mercury, they didnt have a massive light show and props like PF, they just stood there with their guitars singing. A bit like The Kinks. They just sang songs.

The biggest 4 Stadium filling Classic Rock bands for me..
Stones
Led Zep
The Who
AC/DC
All with front men singers.

Pink Floyd are massive but not "Classic Rock" they are in the Progressive Rock category.
The biggest band of them all, not classic rock, sort of Pop/Rock song based ...Beatles.

So there you go, the worlds biggest bands ALL English and one Australian. Very poor showing by those Yanks :)

Be proud, up till The Beatles Britain never had any famous world musicians, even classical we were poor, The Germans had Beethoven, Bach & Mozart, The Yanks had all those R & B singers, Soul singers, Jazz musicians, Elvis, Sinatra etc etc. Britain had no-one, then along came The Beatles and what followed was the British invasion, of the world really.

Classic Rock is a broad church and covers multiple genres of music so the Beatles and Floyd fall into that but the Beatles are primarily a pop group in my eyes.

You will certainly find that Floyd are played constantly on US Classic Rock radio, which is where the term really originates from.

 

[Winchester]

They were/are vastly overrated and were helped by the hype they got in the british invasion of the mid 60s.

They were never an inspirational uk band to create new musical styles or inivations as the beatles, kinks, hollies etc were, more just a standard blues band with a lot of swagger, honestly cannot think of more than 10-12 song I like or would bother listening to.

They are all well to do upper middle class kids who marketed an image as working class heores who popularised sex, drugs and rock n roll and the epitome of good marketing of bad behaviour to make them seem edgy and anti-heroes.

Also they won't fuck off, so their longevity keeps them popular.

Total crap