Are the Eagles America's best band?

[VAisForEagleLovers]

This article is in anticipation of tonight's concert in Atlantic City, but these guys ask the question and give it a good discussion. I felt it deserved it's own thread as surely people here will have opinions on it, especially about who else might at least be contenders.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/life/are-the-eagles-america-s-best-rock-band/article_be2f29fe-2c1d-11e5-b7da-b74b2061d9e0.html

[UndertheWire]

Interesting. If you'd asked me three years ago who were the most successful american band, I wouldn't have guessed Eagles. I had no idea. And yet, I struggle to name many big american bands. Individual artists, no problem, but for a band, I've got to look to the british ones.

Why are there so many great british bands and so many great american solo artists?

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Interesting. If you'd asked me three years ago who were the most successful american band, I wouldn't have guessed Eagles. I had no idea. And yet, I struggle to name many big american bands. Individual artists, no problem, but for a band, I've got to look to the british ones.

Why are there so many great british bands and so many great american solo artists?

Great minds and all that. I was thinking the same thing in another thread when we all listed our top ten bands, and it occurred to me that so many were British.

ETA: I wonder if it's a culture thing... Like Led Zeppelin, Plant did the lead vocals. Perhaps in the US, the band would have been Robert Plant & the Led Zeppelin band. Like Bob Seger and the Seger Sound Machine (or whatever they were before he hooked up with the Silver Bullet Band). Springsteen and the E Street band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was common for bands here to have more than one lead singer, or at least an occasional song by another. CSNY, etc.

[Brooke]

It's obvious to me, of course it's the Eagles! And I'm not just saying that because they are MY favorite band. Firstly, they are all American. Their numbers tell the story in album sales alone. And also when you look at the other criteria. Many bands and solo stars have said they were influenced by them, country stars included. Don H, Glenn, and Joe were top solo stars in their own right. And the classic songs top it off! Some of their songs will still be sung and heard 50 years from now.

The only contender for me would be Fleetwood Mac, but over half the band are actually British.

UtW, as we're looking for American bands here, British bands don't qualify.

[AlreadyGone95]

I can name plenty of American bands(Van Halen, Aerosmith, Styx, Lynyrd Skynyrd etc), but none that have the staying power and the amount of hits that the Eagles have. They are THE American band. I knew that even when I was a casual fan.

Of course, only 3 out of my top 10 bands are American. The rest are British.

[Fleurette767]

Wow what a provocative article. The bands he mentioned I was considering, then he dismissed them for reasons I might have also.

Another band I would consider would be Metallica whose history has spanned decades (they also had personnel changes and uhhh LOL intraband battles, guys quitting, etc.) but they are a niche/genre band (sorry to say but still excellent)! They have the longevity but I guess not the mass appeal factor.

R.E.M.? They had diversity in terms of artistic development through the years, several high quality albums that were increasingly mature. They started to become more mass appeal in the late-80 and even had some hits. But what are the enduring hits? They had hits but when's the last time you thought of Fall on Me or Everybody Hurts. Those are wonderful songs but even on my go-to alternative stations, I don't hear R.E.M. too frequently.

However, while I love and occasionally listen to these two bands, among many others, they don't hit all the criteria that the Eagles have. R.E.M. & Metallica might be great for me on certain days and are certainly influential, but they don't have mass-appeal, enduring hits like Take It Easy where probably even very casual fans probably can sing the words and know what's coming on the first two chords.

[Jonny Come Lately]

The article isn't showing for me. :sad: I've clicked the link a few times and it's not showing. Shame, I'd certainly be interested in reading the piece, and I'd love to know which other bands were mentioned.

I personally like R.E.M. a fair bit - Losing My Religion is to my mind one of the relatively few genuine classic songs to become hits in the past 25 years or so, and I absolutely love the closing sequence of tracks on Automatic for the People - Man On The Moon (my favourite song by them), Nightswimming (absolutely gorgeous piano and strings) and Find The River (also beautiful). Their main weakness IMO is that even their strongest albums typically contained one or two filler tracks - Star Me Kitten on Automatic is a good example IMO. Then there is Shiny Happy People, I song I have mentioned my distaste for in the past. I know it was meant to be a satirical piece, but I think they got the tone badly wrong. Their parody of a meaningless summer pop song was too convincing for its own good, and it duly became one... Quite simply I find it extremely irritating and nauseating to listen to. I think the way I feel about SHP is kind of similar to how several people on here feel about The Disco Strangler (FWIW I think it's one of the worst Eagles songs, but I really don't dislike it that strongly and I don't tend to skip it).

I don't consider Fleetwood Mac to be an American band, but I don't consider the Rumours line up to be British either (the Peter Green version of the band however, I see as an unquestionably British blues band). I was to pin labels on a world map with the names of different bands on I would probably the Mac's pin somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean...

The Eagles are the only American band that are definitely in my top five - my three other definite choices are British (Floyd, Zeppelin, Dire Straits) and fifth spot would most likely go to a certain aforementioned mid-Atlantic band! Lynyrd Skynyrd are my second favourite US band and would be in my top 10 but probably not my top five.

[Brooke]

JCL, from the article:

OTHER CONTENDERS
"Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band have plenty of reasons they could be called the greatest American rock ’n’ roll band — classic albums and songs, four decades of CDs worth hearing and five decades of live-performance excellence. But the question remains: Are they a truly great band, or just an extremely creative leader and his talented sidemen?

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been one of the most consistent rock bands of the last five decades. But they are arguably better at producing singles than albums, and their period between 1976 and 1993 is stronger than their output during the last 20 years.

Aerosmith is still performing live with all the original members from its 1970s heyday, and the album “Rocks” from 1976 is a hard-rock classic. But the band is not as good live now as it used to be, and studio CDs over the past 20 years have been weak.

Pearl Jam delivers one of the best live rock shows by an American band that can be seen currently. But their 1990s studio work is better than the material they released during the past 15 years.

Green Day has risen from humble beginnings to become a Grammy-winning band whose members are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their live shows are still energetic. But some of the fun of their earlier years has been lost with the seriousness of the more recent albums."

[Fleurette767]

[QUOTE=Jonny Come Lately;305479]The article isn't showing for me. :sad: I've clicked the link a few times and it's not showing. Shame, I'd certainly be interested in reading the piece, and I'd love to know which other bands were mentioned.

I personally like R.E.M. a fair bit - Losing My Religion is to my mind one of the relatively few genuine classic songs QUOTE]

Oh wow, you added some valid points, that sometimes, REM weren't as sincere and included a few tongue-in-cheek songs that were distractions.

Let's not even get into the inscrutable lyrics on the early albums, which I love mind you, but even with those lyrics published now on the web now, meanings still aren't cleared up for me. And that would be another drawback to being Best American Band. Songs need to have lyrics that are meaningful. Now I like poetry and pastiches, but you won't be best band ever that way. You may however, be influential, ala Dylan.

I won't even get into how on each subsequent album from @ Fables through about Out of Time, in interviews Peter Buck would diminish the previous album. To me, not standing by your work is also a problem.

Additionally, I think Peter Buck was kinda limited in his playing LOL. You can't be best American band unless your guitarists can overtake Joe and Felder, and for that matter GLENN! Buck did a mean mandolin on Losing though but dude don't go thinking you're Bernie or something.

I loved SHPeople though. Sorry it grates. Maybe it's that screaming in the background when he sings "gold and silver shine". I always thought that, if it's intended and not just a recording error, it's the suffering that goes on while people in the foreground go about vapid contented lives ignoring the cries and suffering that's hidden (AIDS crisis was peaking at that time)? However that's just my conjecture (because REM has never confirmed screaming) and the video (where an old tired man in the background pedaled a bike to stream the cartoonish pictures in the foreground) was also disturbing to me.

[Freypower]

Great minds and all that. I was thinking the same thing in another thread when we all listed our top ten bands, and it occurred to me that so many were British.

ETA: I wonder if it's a culture thing... Like Led Zeppelin, Plant did the lead vocals. Perhaps in the US, the band would have been Robert Plant & the Led Zeppelin band. Like Bob Seger and the Seger Sound Machine (or whatever they were before he hooked up with the Silver Bullet Band). Springsteen and the E Street band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was common for bands here to have more than one lead singer, or at least an occasional song by another. CSNY, etc.

There are plenty of American bands with one frontman whose name isn't in the title like Journey, Metallica, Van Halen ,Toto. REM, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Aereosmith etc. I used to love REM & then they fell apart, plus I listened to their pre Out Of Time work & I didn't think it was as great as critics claimed. As I have said before, the Eagles are the only American band in my top 10.

[Funk 50]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned The Beach Boys. I'm not a fan of The Beach Boys but if there was an American band to rival the Eagles, they'd be my top choice. Are Bon Jovi and The Monkees huge in America?

I suppose you had to be ultra ambitious to be a national success in the USA, and earn the support of a big studio. GB is so much smaller, Bands had to aim national to earn a living.

I think mainland Europe was very welcoming to British bands too.

There's a whole thesis in there somewhere. :thumbsup:

[SoaringRockyMountainWay]

I would definitely say the Eagles are the greatest American band. They did have the BIGGEST selling album of the 20th century.

[UndertheWire]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned The Beach Boys. I'm not a fan of The Beach Boys but if there was an American band to rival the Eagles, they'd be my top choice. Are Bon Jovi and The Monkees huge in America?

I suppose you had to be ultra ambitious to be a national success in the USA, and earn the support of a big studio. GB is so much smaller, Bands had to aim national to earn a living.

I think mainland Europe was very welcoming to British bands too.

There's a whole thesis in there somewhere. :thumbsup:
It's been done:

The top 20 artists, in order, are The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, AC/DC, Whitney Houston, The Rolling Stones, Queen, ABBA, The Eagles, U2, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Aerosmith, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand. The list is perfectly split between 10 solo artists and 10 groups. Eight of the 10 solo artists are from North America, while eight of the 10 bands are from outside America, the majority being British. Remarkably, the country that invented rock and roll has not produced any of the top seven rock bands. America's strongest contender, in at No. 8, is often-derided (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-vwPuiILBc) soft-rock stalwarts The Eagles. (The link was to a Big Lebowski clip)

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/the-worlds-biggest-bands-are-british-and-its-biggest-solo-artists-are-american/277472/

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Well - If we are just talking about American bands, then the Eagles are absolutely the best in my absolutely totally unbiased, objective opinion. :thumbsup:

So while I agree with this writer's premise, I have to disagree with most of the other bands he names except for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street band. Like F50, I would definitely include The Beach Boys along with CCR, CSNY, Aerosmith, and possibly The Doors as top contenders for the title.

[Fleurette767]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned The Beach Boys. I'm not a fan of The Beach Boys but if there was an American band to rival the Eagles, they'd be my top choice. . :thumbsup:

I also considered The Beach Boys since I love that band. They have the record for the most singles in the U.S. Top 40 for a U.S. Band, incredibly influential, honored frequently (especially Brian Wilson), and they definitely have a range of material. However, I'm thinking the article was a musing that began with The Eagles being honored by the Kennedy Center.

I think when most people think "band" they're envisioning a scenario where band members play their own instruments (both in studio and on tour) and some (or all) of the members play a part in collaborating with songwriting and/or arranging most songs.

The Beach Boys are different. While The Beach Boys have always played their own instruments on the road and on tour, Brian Wilson began to more and more use studio musicians (The Wrecking Crew) on the recordings. Obviously, the guys still sang their own parts on the recordings and, for those mega-fans, let me add I'm simply summarizing some very complicated info in a shorthand way -- there's a very intense debate (with musician's union sheets being researched, etc.) in their fan community to have Carl, Denny, Al, Bruce, etc. more recognized for their instrumental efforts in the studio, whether on demos or released tracks, because casual fans think The Wrecking Crew played all the tracks for every record from Surfin' onward.

And of course, there's the issue of songwriters. Brian Wilson used many collaborators outside the band (Gary Usher, Tony Asher, Van Dyke Parks). Mike Love was recognized as songwriter on a few of the songs then sued (and won) in the '90s to to have his name included as co-writer on like dozens more mid-60s hits. And people are still debating the legitimacy of that as well. LOL.

To me they're such a special case in the sense of "band." Often, these days, Brian Wilson is the one exclusively honored (Music Cares and Kennedy Center honor) rather than the Beach Boys as a group; and more and more, people are no longer thinking of Beach Boys as a traditional band situation.

That being said, I love their music in all forms: surfing and racing songs, ballads, heady Smiley Smile, etc. LOL.

[Funk 50]

I agree that The Beach Boys lose points for fragmenting and splintering. Joe played on the title track of their Keeping The Summer Alive album.
CSN[Y] are only half American and arguably only half a band as they'd hire a rhythm section to accompany themselves on stage.
The Doors, I've been told, were only semi-successful until well after they disbanded.
CCR, like many potentially great American bands, only stuck around for a short time.

I'd love to see how bands like The Hearbreakers, The Silver Bullet Band and The E Street Band would cope without their marquee name up front. Queen haven't done bad without Freddie and JD but I've no doubt that it's only the original line up that defines the band.

That leaves the Eagles and Aerosmith. Despite being diluted with backing musicians since HFO, I can't opt for Aerosmith. Never-the-less, the fact that they've still got the same line up that had in 1971, makes Aerosmith truly exceptional.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

F50 - You are right about CSNY being only half American. I didn't even think about that when I listed them because they are always thrown into mix of any discussion of American bands. Yet Fleetwood Mac is usually excluded because they are half (okay 3/5) British. It seems to me that we should either include or exclude both, depending on how you view it.

In any event, most discussions I've seen about this topic in recent years does seem to boil down to the Eagles and Aerosmith. The Eagles usually win out based on the overall quality of their catalog and their broader appeal. And I have to respectfully agree with that. :thumbsup:

[DJ]

Here are these 4 guys from different parts of the US coming to CA looking for their dream. After failures with other bands they culminate at Disneyland with Linda Ronstadt and the rest is poetic history. They perfected a sound that wasn't even heard of at the time, Country Rock! Enough said. Not just because I like them but because they searched out their dream and it came true. Perfecting a sound that was unheard, having the guts to play it in front of people and then go on to sell millions of albums, win many grammy awards and get inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. The answer is Yes!

[Freypower]

Here are these 4 guys from different parts of the US coming to CA looking for their dream. After failures with other bands they culminate at Disneyland with Linda Ronstadt and the rest is poetic history. They perfected a sound that wasn't even heard of at the time, Country Rock! Enough said. Not just because I like them but because they searched out their dream and it came true. Perfecting a sound that was unheard, having the guts to play it in front of people and then go on to sell millions of albums, win many grammy awards and get inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. The answer is Yes!

Country rock had been pioneered by the Byrds, Buffalo Springfiled & the Flying Burrito Brothers, not to mention Poco. It could even be said that a couple of Bob Dylan's country albums pioneered it. It was not 'unheard'.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Well, it may not have been unheard of, but the Eagles took it to a whole new level of popularity and it was heard by a heck of a lot more people after they came along for sure.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I was going to say, no one I know from where I grew up heard of those bands before the Eagles popularized the sound! I have some cousins who may of heard of Buffalo Springfield, but that's about it. The Eagles and Linda were on country radio. The others were not, at least not in the Mid-Atlantic.

[Freypower]

OK, they popularised it. They didn't invent it.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

True, but I guess it depends on who you talk to. I've always been of the mindset that it can't be called country-rock if it never got played on country radio. They may have invented the sound, and people who were rock purists may have added the 'country', but until Take It Easy came along, only Linda had her toe in the door on main-stream country&western radio.

[MaryCalifornia]

I was going to say, no one I know from where I grew up heard of those bands before the Eagles popularized the sound!

I grew up in Southern California in the '70s and didn't know any of those bands' music. I sure knew the Eagles, though.

[NightMistBlue]

I wonder why the article didn't mention the Doors or the Beach Boys; maybe they're too old school. Certainly the Eagles are among the very best American bands, no question.

[AlreadyGone95]

Thanks to my parents and "oldies" radio, I knew about Buffalo Springfield before I knew of the Eagles. I first heard For What Its Worth when I was 5, and it stuck with me.

The other bands (Poco, The Byrds, etc), I didn't know about (or ever hear of) until I was a teenager, and my mom got us DSL internet connection. Then, I began to discover all kinds of music! I honestly hadn't heard of The Flying Burrito Brothers until I watched HoTE. (I knew who Chris Hillman was because he was in Manassas with Stephen Stills).

[Funk 50]

I've got the two Manassas records. They're great! and they must've been an awesome experience live in concert. Another potentially great American band cut off before they reached their audience. If only they were British....

Maybe Hendrix and the Eagles would have met a similar fate if they hadn't crossed the Atlantic :shrug:

[AlreadyGone95]

I've got the two Manassas records. They're great! and they must've been an awesome experience live in concert. Another potentially great American band cut off before they reached their audience. If only they were British....

Maybe Hendrix and the Eagles would have met a similar fate if they hadn't crossed the Atlantic :shrug:

I have Down the Road on vinyl. (One of the best, cheap local buys I've ever found for $2). I like it,but it's nowhere near the masterpiece that the first album is. Unfortunately, I'm still on the hunt for it. (Vinyl/cd/cassette, I'll take it in any of those formats).

Have you seen this video of them performing live on some show? https://youtu.be/iKmlcb4HSLM. It blew me away when I first saw it!

I really don't know what caused Manassas to basically be forgotten about. Maybe it was the CSNY reunion in 1974? Americans really sermed to love the British bands for sure! (Or bands that recorded in England lol)

[NightMistBlue]

True, but I guess it depends on who you talk to. I've always been of the mindset that it can't be called country-rock if it never got played on country radio. They may have invented the sound, and people who were rock purists may have added the 'country', but until Take It Easy came along, only Linda had her toe in the door on main-stream country&western radio.

Maybe the Everly Brothers invented country rock, or proto-country rock. They were played on country radio and Top 40.

[MortSahlFan]

My list:

1. The Doors
2. Steely Dan
3. Eagles

[VAisForEagleLovers]

My list:

1. The Doors
2. Steely Dan
3. Eagles

It's very strange, I was a huge fan of The Doors back in the 70s and 80s. Now, I switch the station any time they come on. I have no idea why, except maybe I just played them too much when I was younger?

[NOLA]

Without a doubt, I believe the Eagles deserve the title. I know it's been said many times before, but they have provided the virtual soundtrack to millions of people's lives across the globe. Their music has the innate ability to cross genres and generations. There is something to be said of a legacy that has endured for over forty years.

[AlreadyGone95]

My list:

1. The Doors
2. Steely Dan
3. Eagles

Maybe it's because I'm a youngster, but I never hear Steely Dan talked about much. Radio stations only play 2 or 3 of their songs, compared to 10 or more of The Doors anf the Eagles. Noneof the friends that I talk with about music ever mention them. If it wasn't for my mom, I probably wouldn't know anything about them.

I'm not saying that they're not one of the greats. I just wanted to say that coming from the standpoint of a almost 20 year old, they wouldn't be. If you were to ask a random person around my age, I'm nearly positive that they hsve heard of the Eagles and the Doors. I don't know about Steely Dan.

[Funk 50]

I've heard from 60s music fans that The Doors were much more successful in 70s and beyond, after Morrison's death than they were when they actually existed. I think the same is true of Queen after Freddie's death.

The Doors legacy also got a lift by the 1991 movie starring Val Kilmer.
Steely Dan make enjoyable music but I don't think they're mainstream enough to be America's best band. The Beach Boys are too fickle and haphazard, the Eagles, since the 70s aren't prolific enough.

I fear America's top rock band may be a band I don't like.

[Fleurette767]

I'm still wracking my brain on this one you know...Perhaps in the U.S. we tend to have more influential solo artists than bands... If you think worldwide influence on rock, then it's Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, Bob Dylan, etc. Those might be easier to come to a consensus over than U.S. bands?