led zeppelin is the best band ever! hands down, they rocked they did all types of sounds for songs and they influenced so many other bands. zeppelin is the best!
I think the Beatles were probably the best "studio rock" group, yeah - top notch production and so many songs that are indelible in their permanence. But after Hamburg they weren't really a rock'n'roll band anymore. They got famous, dressed in suits and "it was a job" as Lennon said. Then they got so freaked out by the whole thing they stopped performing altogether. For immortality in rock'n'roll groups you have to look at CCR, the Stones, The Who, the Dead, and maybe a few more. And you have to look at American groups.. rock'n'roll is American. (Stones/Who/Zep the only exceptions IMO)
hey man, the way i determine who the greatest rock bands of all-time are is i basically look at how revolutionary, how influential, innovative and what music would be like if this band never made a record you know. so this is the bands that came into my mind that should be in everyones top ten list, but are often neglected because they lack notoriety. The Velvet Underground - There has never been a band that has broken as much new territory as Velvet Underground did. It was their lot to be ahead of, or at least out of step with, their time and in their time, Velvet's music was too abrasive for the mainstream to handle, they introduced a new degree of social realism and sexual kinkiness into rock lyrics and blended the energy of rock with avant-garde. The Velvet Underground is the perfect example that album sells and popularity does not make you a great band because it doesn't matter, the Velvet Underground are extraordinary, though short-lived, they recorded three of the greatest albums of the '60s and another in the 70s with one being hailed as the greatest and most influential record of all-time. It's hard to imagine what music would've been like had the Velvet Underground never existed. The Byrds - The jangling, 12-string guitar sound of leader Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker was permanently absorbed into the vocabulary of rock starting in 1965, which in that time influenced the Beatles [Rubber Souls intricate folk-rock arrangements, the Rickenbacker and they even got the granny shades look from the Byrds man], Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, The Mamas & the Papas, The Band, etc. and would later influence Grateful Dead, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Eagles, Tom Petty, REM, and innumerable alternative bands of the post-punk era that feature those jangling guitars and dense harmonies. The Byrds might be the most underrated band of all-time. Though at one brief time they were as popular as the Stones and Beatles, The Byrds have proven to be just as influential as those groups in the long run, if not more influential. They were one of the first acts to devise folk-rock and were more responsible than any other single act (Bobby Dylan included man) for melding the innovations and energy of the British Invasion with the best lyrical and musical elements of contemporary folk music. They also played a vital role in pioneering psychedelic rock and country-rock. I think the New York Dolls and The Stooges deserve mentioning as well.
In no order top 3 The Beatles Grateful Dead They Might be Giants In no order other 7 Dead kennedys Bauhaus Joy Division The Cure The Strokes Iggy & the Stooges Bright Eyes Sonic Youth
Led Zeppelin! There's no doubt! Animals and Doors! Beatles..they are cool. But it's no good to be a "studio group"