Van Halen has always been great and will always be great. The answer was, is, and always will be Van Halen. When I check back in on this thread later it'll still be Van Halen. Next week it'll still be Van Halen. A year from now it'll still be Van Halen. If you asked the question 10 years ago the answer would have been Van Halen. Personal tastes and subjective opinions don't change the fact Van Halen checks every box better than any other to meet the qualification for "America's Best Band Ever." It's not "My Favorite American Band Ever."...Those are two different discussions with different criteria.
My son is way into Nirvana these days. I hear him playing it on the guitar. He shows me how Cobain dropped his whole guitar a half step and then frequently tuned the low string to d flat.
My son is way into Nirvana these days. I hear him playing it on the guitar. He shows me how Cobain dropped his whole guitar a half step and then frequently tuned the low string to d flat.
Those are well put together songs.
I know, my 14 YO twins are too...It's funny...Over the summer one of them asked me, "have you ever heard Nirvana?"...I died laughing....."yeah, kid...so have you your entire life because daddy played it around the house throughout your whole life."....Then we all listened to Never Mind....One of my daughters is really into Nirvana, My Chemical Romance, Panic at the Disco, etc....it's funny how that works...
Oh yeah, over the summer we also sat down and watched the documentary about the making of Never Mind...daddy geeked out on that one...the kids?...eh, not so much...they could care less how the sausage is made...
how can Van Halen be the best American rock band when he and his brother are from the Netherlands?
Were they American citizens, and didn't they spend the majority of their lives--even childhoods--in the United States?. If the answer to that is "yes" then there you go....Plus, their influences were largely American. Their legacy is distinctly American. There's nothing in the American Constitution that would preclude them from this title. They're not running for president, but they are the Greatest American Band.
#1713308 - 01/29/2104:30 PMRe: America's best band ever is either CSNY or Nirvana
[Re: jimmyrock]
TimsterTimster
Artist #'s - 130, 298, 412
Loquacious Planeteer
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 43452
Loc: Center of the Universe
Interesting. Love Anthony's voice. To each his own. Hagar did add some extra musical ability and song writing skills that Dave lacked...but Dave had so much personality.
Although there are 2 or 3 songs of theirs that I dig - they are one of my least favorite bands. Grating to the point that if that shit comes on the radio I'm turning the dial. Fast.
I'm with Timster on this. I don't think Anthony is a terrible singer. I think Grohl is great at what he does and is the perfect voice for his music. He's not pitchy. His voice isn't unpleasant to listen to. He's got a distinctive sound and range...Back to Kiedas, I don't understand the hate on his voice...maybe I just haven't heard them live or something, which I have...but Kiedas also has a distinctive baritone vocal...he's not pitchy, and his voice isn't unpleasant IMO....Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic and Mother's Milk are both awesome records, and I think Kiedas' vocals are classic...they sort of ushered in a new genre of singing during a time when hair bands ruled the airwaves, and everyone was trying to sing into the stratosphere...Props, to Anthony and RHCP for just being themselves and doing their own funky thing during a time when it wasn't necessarily "the cool thing to do."...They stuck to their guns and became a huge success....not a fan of Californication or anything since...but still, I love the classic RHCP.
Now Sammy...Sammy is a different level singer....Period!...End of discussion...Whether you like him with VH or not there's just zero doubt Sammy Hagar was born to sing that type of rock n'roll...I mean, he has "it" in droves as a singer...There are only a handful of other rock singers I would put in Sammy's category (Brad Delp, for instance), but when I think of "the best" rock band singers, Sammy immediately comes to mind.
We're talking "singing," and not just front man antics....Sammy is a front man, but he's been plagued with the disadvantage of following Diamond Dave, who was the quintessential archetypal 80s front man. In terms of charisma and pizazz it's not a fair comparison. Dave projected so much energy that no one could really follow that...Sammy was more laid back but a "better" singer...an incredibly good singer IME...
Which brings up another point in favor of VH being "the greatest American band," which is they had a huge run with the best hard rock singer of all time....
I found Van Hagar to be an utter joke, often clownish.
sammy the better singer but the band was worst for it...bunch of forgetable material when comapred to the DLR VH...still and all a greta band just not the greates.
I found Van Hagar to be an utter joke, often clownish.
It's rock n'roll..it's supposed to be fun...I don't like bands or artists in that genre that take themselves too seriously...VH was never pretentious, which is yet another reason they were great...
#1713335 - 01/29/2105:20 PMRe: America's best band ever is either CSNY or Nirvana
[Re: AL]
TimsterTimster
Artist #'s - 130, 298, 412
Loquacious Planeteer
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 43452
Loc: Center of the Universe
Fun times.
Seen RHCP twice...great act. Californication, by the way and stadium Arcadia are my fave albums...plus a few tunes off of bssm. Plus these are fun guitar songs to play with.
I am wondering who Webster thinks is a good rock and roll singer.
Popmman's opinions mean Zero. He has bad taste in music imo.
I found Van Hagar to be an utter joke, often clownish.
sammy the better singer but the band was worst for it...bunch of forgetable material when comapred to the DLR VH...still and all a greta band just not the greates.
The problem with this is the facts don't support it. VH had their biggest commercial success far and away with Hagar. Look at the number of hits they had with Hagar vs. Roth...look it up...not even close....the Roth cult are mostly people that came up in the late 70s and early 80s and just couldn't get with change....but VH had a whole life after that, which was incredible...it's kind of sad to see all these people who disregard 5150, Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, etc....VH is a totality thing, at least for me....it's not a matter of which era for me...they're both great....
And remember, Sammy stepped up...Dave decided he was too big for VH after 1984 and wanted to go solo...he had become a prima dana with VH...He didn't want to change or evolve...he hated Jump and synths, but the brilliance of Eddie was that he knew the direction he wanted to go....history and success proved him correct.....
I love DLR, btw...I really liked his first solo record with Steve Via...I just think some of the old school VH purist don't give Haggar a fair shake...
lol. Kiedas. Stop Chris. You're wrong. When I accidentally stepped on my cat yesterday - it was more musical than Kiedas on his best day.
There are a handful of people that have made it to the big time that simply lucked out because they are essentially no-talents. Kiedas is one of those.
"Why can't this be love" great...only one I can name.
yes van hagar is forgetable radio music
There's nothing forgettable about those songs if you were a teenager coming up during that time. Those songs are magic, and Hagar just freaking soars and kills it....
A lot of people forget the rivalry and feud between FNM and RHCP. It was real, and it was intense. In many ways, they were carbon copies of one another. FNM claims RHCP ripped them off. RHCP claims it's the other way around...all I can say is I remember seeing pictures and articles about RHCPs in Circus Magazine and some of the other punk rock type magazines sometime around 87/88 as a 14/15 YO kid and thinking "WTF is this?"....
Stop Chris. You're wrong. 
When I accidentally stepped on my cat yesterday - it was more musical than Kiedas on his best day.
