WHO IS THE GREAT AMERICAN BAND?

     Last year, I was at a Bob Mould show at the 9:30 Club in DC when a guy about my age came striding up to me, looked me in the eye and without as much as a hello, demanded, "Who was the greatest American band?"
    Right away, I said "Fugazi."
    The guy laughed, for he was the ever-affable Brendan Canty, who used to play drums in Fugazi.  "No," he said, "c'mon!"
     But I might have said it anyway.  Fugazi really was one of the great American bands.  And not just because they were a great band that came from America.  Fugazi embodied some of the best things about America, or at least some of the things I idealize about our country: a defiant, can-do spirit, a do-it-yourself pragmatism and a rigorously questioning attitude that extended well past the music and reached as far back as Thoreau.  They were deeply rooted in their very American geographical place — they always introduced themselves, "We're Fugazi from Washington, DC" and contributed time and money to their community.  And they were the kind of patriots who expected much from their country, critiqued it because they loved it, and kept on doing so even in the face of continual disappointment.  Fugazi inspired me and a lot of other people like no other band has.  Unfortunately, their appeal was relatively limited, so maybe they're not the Great American Band.
    So set aside Fugazi.  I impulsively suggested the Band.  "Canadian," Brendan quickly pointed out, as if he'd been anticipating my next answer.  "Except for Levon Helm."  OK, they don't meet the citizenship requirement.
    How about Creedence?  Four guys from a working class suburb in northern California, playing sturdy New Orleans-derived rock & roll and using iconic American imagery to limn the cultural landscape.  "Nah," Brendan said.  "Singles band.  Only around for a few years [1968-1972], really." Well, fair enough, although I was sad to see them go.
    The Beach Boys?  To be brutal about it, there was really only Pet Sounds.  The rest of it spoke to the California Dream, not the American Reality.
    I offered up Hüsker Dü, the Replacements and REM.  Definitely great, definitely American.  But the first two don't quite have the universal, household name thing you're looking for when you're talking about the Great American Band.  REM are very worthy contenders.  They've always had a definitively American sound, but not crass 'n' brash; during their '80s heyday, they symbolized hopes and dreams that were bigger than they were, or even that music is.  But there is that remote, enigmatic thing that keeps them at a slight distance, as well as a fairly circumscribed audience.  And then there are the Lost Years, after Automatic for the People and before Accelerate.  I reluctantly took them out of the running.
    I later realized I forgot the Ramones.  Now, that was a great American band.  They even used the Presidential seal for their logo.  Their music was almost purely American — yes, it harked back to the British Invasion, but even that was strongly based in American music, and the bulk of the Ramones' sound came from the Ronettes and the Stooges.  They had tons of great songs, several of which are played in baseball stadiums to this day.  They could have been huge.  But maybe, like one of their other key influences, the Beach Boys, this quintessential New York band was a little too rooted in their place to be a truly American band.  Same with the undeniably great and life-changing Talking Heads.
    Parliament-Funkadelic is in the running too.  Heaven knows they spoke to the American condition on many levels, and with huge amounts of insight and humor, not to mention danceability.  And even though they were a large band and each member played different parts, those parts interlocked ingeniously — truly E Pluribus Unum.  No wonder Funkadelic had a song called "One Nation Under a Groove" — in the end, there was nothing more American than funk, everyone doing their own thing and yet contributing to a greater whole that was strong, vibrant, free, and ever-evolving.  I think P-Funk is one of the strongest contenders of all, even though it really was the vision of one person.
    And then the conversation finally came around to facing up to the truth.  If you're looking for a band that embodied the American spirit of individualism, who were popular from the '60s through the '90s, who nurtured a vast, multi-generational community around itself, a band that appealed to and drew from north and south, east and west, contained elements of American idioms like country, bluegrass, blues and folk, that not only reflected but affected the spirit of its time and its culture, a band that contributed many iconic songs to the rock lexicon, influenced musicians as disparate as Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews and Animal Collective, a band that appealed to beatniks, hippies and, yes, punks, and did it all on their own terms, well, it's hard to beat the Grateful Dead.
    So I'm going to come right out and say it: the Grateful Dead were the Great American Band.

Comments

[Jim]

wait, what about grand funk railroad ha ha

[Michael Azerrad]

Well, the title of their song was "We're an American Band," not "We're the Great American Band." That's the only reason I didn't mention them.

[Sandwell]

Deerhunter

[Michael Azerrad]

Deerhunter! Ha, good one.

[Susie Tennant]

Thats a hard one to try to answer michael....Intellectually I get the points you are making, but emotionally I'm just not there with the conclusion. The beauty of music I guess... It's deeply personal yet universal at the same time. Or, we could say that's the difference between a cultural observer / critic and the average 'yeah, but what about MY needs?' person --the category this thread puts me squarely in...thanks for posting I've enjoyed thinking through the many bands that would be contenders on my list...

[Michael Azerrad]

Well, I actually do stand behind my conclusion as a fan as well as a cultural observer. I saw the Dead three times back in the day and was fascinated. I'm really interested to hear what your Great American Band is, Susie! And no explanation necessary.

[susie tennant]

the replacements were the first band i discovered that really spoke to me, outside of what was mainstream at the time. sure i heard/seen the ramones by then, but for me, i had more of an emotional connection to the replacements. plus, they led me to the indie & punk rock world that thrived in the early 80's - early 90's, (my twenties, which is a related fact, i'm sure) and led me on musical journeys backwards and forwards, both obscure and mainstream.... never saw the grateful dead, never owned one of their records, so i can't say either way on them but i do get the criteria you laid out in your argument.

but in the 'my world/my needs' catgeory: replacements and nirvana = the most life changing american bands. xoxoxo!

[Michael Azerrad]

As you know very well, I love both those bands too! Vastly more than I love the Grateful Dead, I might add.

[Countryfckr]

I think your begrudging acclimation is another good sign that you hit the nail on the head. The band itself is a paradox similar to our own great yet troubled nation. DIY credo yet masters of capitalism. A lot of people are loyal to the point of being blind to the mistakes, greed, and 40 minute jams. And a whole lot of people hate them based on the worst of the fanatics with out ever exploring the subtleties, dedication, and genius that truly made them great. There are certain stages of their existence that make me cringe and others that make me happy.

[Michael Azerrad]

Outstanding comment, Countryfckr. Thanks for weighing in.

[Sandwell]

You've lost your edge, Azerrad. anyone can relate to "Cryptograms", everyone has been through that in life. good as they are, who can relate to the Dead?

[Michael Azerrad]

Their multi-generational legions of fans aside, the question is not who can relate to the Grateful Dead, but who wishes they could.

[Sandwell]

i dont think their can be one band really, america is too big and broad a place. there are too many different places. maybe there should be the great regional american bands. any suggestions? i say (early) meat puppets for the south west and (early) modest mouse for the north west

[Michael Azerrad]

Might as well break it down to areas of each state: southern New Hampshire, eastern Washington, northern Idaho, central Kentucky, etc. Go for it — I look forward to your list.

[Sandwell]

yeh good point haha

[Neal]

Speaking as the son of an die hard Deadhead there is an excellent case to be made for the Grateful Dead possessing the scope to qualify as America's band. They helped define the modern concert as a stand and listen event whereas before musicians were, on balance, either utilitarian performers or else played in theaters. With the Dead it was about standing and listening, something pretty new to pop music that was only ushered in with a handful of acts beforehand and even then there was often more spectacle than performance.

I'm surprised Springsteen hasn't been mentioned by anyone, given that his entire pallet was 20th Century working class Americana.

I think though for all the baggage which comes with the choice, that it's not a band but Elvis Presley. We're living in the landscape that Elvis and those he took with him on the American charts pioneered for about a dozen years.

And that's a risky choice because often Elvis more associated with celebrity culture. But Elvis pioneered the idea of a national act with pop music. Arguably the first person to succeed nationwide. He was a southerner who worked hard to please RCA in New York and convince them he could be marketed out of the traditional country and rockabilly markets on and below the Mason-Dixon: something Frank Sinatra couldn't do while a foreign band like the Beatles took the Elvis road map and exploded with it.

His styles did encompass everything geographically during his salad days. West coast sentimental balladry, east coast urban toughness, southern sleepiness, and enough gospel to sweep him through the Midwest.

[Will T]

Hmm, but what about The Velvet Underground? Too New York?

Okay, The Byrds?

[Duncan S]

I know I'm a little late for this, but I can't help myself. Something about the conclusion rubbed me wrong, and I just figured out what it is. Since British and American music are inextricably linked, I immediately thought of the Beatles as being the great British band. What percentage of the British population do you think could name a Beatles song? Any song. 90%? 95%? Now, what percentage of Americans do you think could name a single Grateful Dead song? Maybe 25%, I'd guess. And if you took this hypothetical poll, what percentage would say anything other than Uncle John's Band, Casey Jones, or Truckin' (all of which came out in a 16-month period in 1970-71)? They're the great American live band. But, like it or not, part of the equation has to be units moved. The Dead didn't make the Billboard top-ten until 1987.

I know the Beach Boys are thought of as purveyors of a regional style, but the amount of singles they recorded that are identifiable to the average Joe has to trump the Dead's resume in this competition.

[Michael Azerrad]

Units moved, or chart hits, isn't the sole or even major indicator we're talking about here. If that were true, then the question would be simple, merely a matter of arithmetic. Still, it would be more instructive to ask a cross-generational sample of Americans whether they've heard of the Grateful Dead or the Beach Boys. It's quite likely the former would get as many, or more, yesses. True, the Beach Boys' dysfunction and excess would count greatly in this consideration, but that all became known well after the band effectively ceased to exist.
As far as the Byrds, I've always found them cold, soulless. That's not very American (although you could say it was prophetic). Not much of a mythos swirls around them, or at least a fly-speck of one compared to the Dead. The constant turnover of band members — there were 11 Byrds that I know of, in a nine-year lifespan — counts against their having a distinct identity. And let's face it, they were really only popular for a couple of years. I'm not saying they weren't influential, commercially successful, or didn't embrace American musical idioms, but those aren't the only things we're talking about here.
And if you're basing it on familiar hit songs, then the Eagles surely beat the Beach Boys — they are the best-selling American band. And they certainly embody many aspects of America.

[Will T]

I'm throwing one more curve-ball in the mix: Sly and The Family Stone.

Highly popular then and now, a slew of hit singles, a couple of classic albums including one all-time pop music masterpiece, an influential sound that incorporated rock, soul, R&B, pop, funk, blues, jazz, and pretty much any other American musical idiom you can think of, politically very much in tune with the national mood, racially integrated, and hey, they even had a quintessentially American rise-and-fall story.

Eh?

[Michael Azerrad]

Sure, Sly and the Family Stone is a very worthy contender, top ten for sure, probably top five. See Greil Marcus' revelatory and masterly _Mystery Train_ for some great reasons why they are such an important American band.

[Steve Holtje]

I have to go with the Minutemen, and as late as I am weighing in on this topic, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned them yet. True, they also lack "the universal, household name thing," but they did have a documentary film made about them, which is good enough for me.

They frequently addressed political issues that cut to the core of American identity, including subversion/infiltration of pop culture. They blended musical styles in prototypical American melting-pot fashion, and built their sound on a strongly American foundation so diverse that their cover songs included both Blue Oyster Cult and Steely Dan. They were ambitious, in the sense of wanting to create vast masterpieces (which certainly describes Double Nickels on the Dime), not the I-wanna-be-famous/rich sense, and I think that ambition is a necessary criterion for consideration as The Great American Band. They were prolific and innovative contributors to a new American musical idiom while nonetheless remaining somehow outside of it, than which there is nothing more American (which is why Thelonious Monk is my favorite jazz artist). They were weirdo outsider provocateurs (a major category of musical Americana from William Billings to Charles Ives to the Velvet Underground) who masterfully wielded the ultimate American iconography, the automobile, to give non-weirdos something to latch onto. And they unleashed furious energy with surgical precision, which strikes me as somehow American though I haven't thought it through enough to say why, though come to think of it there is something car-like to that seeming contradiction. And D. Boon and Mike Watt certainly had the individualism-within-teamwork thing working on all cylinders.

As soon as the titular question was raised, the Minutemen struck me as my answer, and I'm eternally grateful to have seen them on their last tour.

[Michael Azerrad]

Good one, Steve! Well said, sir. Thank you.
Somehow, being as prolific as the Minutemen were also strikes me as very American, but I can't put my finger on exactly why.
Funny, when I think of America unleashing energy, I think of a wildly overpowered, inefficient approach, cases in point ranging from Vietnam to muscle cars, although the latter fits in with your very astute point about the Minutement's association with the automobile.

[Steve Holtje]

True, "furious energy with surgical precision" is more of an American ambition than an American achievement. Smart bombs, neutron bombs - it's an ideal we're fixated on, but working out the details has, as usual, eluded us. But as long as shit blows up, we're satisfied.

[darrenprodger]

Pardon me for saying, but I'm surprised that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have not come up. Even the E Street Band by itself deserves acknowledgement. Also, what about Crazy Horse, though of course never received much in the way of chart success.