While lying awake in bed at this early morning hour, I started thinking about bands that are overrated. So I decided to compile a list of the Top 5 Most Overrated Bands. Here it is:
1) the Doors
2) Pink Floyd
3) Soundgarden
4) Nickelback
5) Led Zeppelin
I know a bunch of rock geeks (like me) are probably up in arms after having read that list, so let me clarify. This is not a list of bad bands. I happen to think all of these bands have made some excellent music. This is a list of bands whose reputations, whose mystique, whose legend have out-grown their actual contribution to rock and roll.
The Doors were a great band, don't get me wrong. Love Me Two Times, Light My Fire, Hello, I Love You, Five to One, and Road House Blues are all great tracks. But one can only take so much Doors. The lack of a bass guitar makes their music sound kitschy. I've heard they opted against including a bassist because they didn't want to sound like the Rolling Stones. Well, trust me, nothing I've ever heard from the Doors sounds even remotely as great as the worst Rolling Stones songs. The Doors were pretentious and they were limited in what they did musically, the Rolling Stones were expansive in every sense of the word. I think it's more likely the Doors just couldn't find a bassist who could put up with Jim Morrison. The Doors, a very good band by all accounts, are not the legends they are claimed to be. The Doors are the most overrated band in rock music history.
Pink Floyd is another very good band. They have written some very important music. They mastered the rock opera. They were the most psychedelic of the psychedelic bands. I remember talking to a friend who disagreed with my claim that the Beatles were a better band. I suppose I needn't say more than that to convince you that Pink Floyd is overrated. Pink Floyd owes their career to the Beatles. The Beatles were recording at Abbey Road Studios when Pink Floyd were there recording their first record. The Beatles created (and by many accounts perfected) psychedelic rock before Pink Floyd became the Pink Floyd most of us remember (Syd Barrett left the band and was replaced by David Gilmour in 1968) . In 1965 the Beatles' Rubber Soul laid the foundation for psychedelic rock and a year later Revolver perfected it. By 1968 the Band's Music from Big Pink raged against psychedelia and in doing so told the world that psychedelic rock was over. It was 1967 that Pink Floyd recorded their first album. They were late to the party, and the party was over almost as soon as they got there. They added the most bizarre and unmusical sounds to their records. This helped them find a niche audience of pot smokers and acid droppers, but didn't help them earn legendary status. One can only wonder what would have been if Syd Barrett hadn't fried his brain like that egg in the old anti-drug commercials. Pink Floyd was a marvelous band, with some excellent music, but nostalgia and greenish haze has led them to more fame then they ever deserved. Pink Floyd is the second most overrated band in history.
Soundgarden was one of the founding bands of grunge, and a very good grunge band. They came out of Seatle with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. Their Badmotorfinger was their breakout album in 1991 (the same year as Nevermind and Ten), and Superunknown gave them their reputation in 1994. But 1996's Down of the Upside showed they weren't good enough to succeed after the grunge bubble burst. Lead singer Chris Cornell had more success in five years with Audioslave than in 13 years with Soundgarden and drummer Matt Cameron has had more success since joining Pearl Jam in 1998. Don't get me wrong, I love Blow Up the Outside World, but I'd rather blow up the myth that Soundgarden was a great rock band. Their success while riding Vedder and Cobain's coattails exaggerated their legend. Soundgarden is the third most overrated band in rock music history.
Nickelback has had almost unmatched popular success since 2001's Silver Side Up. They have written some of the greatest straight forward rock songs this millenium, and they've balanced that menace with some excellent balladry. But I'm not convinced these guys actually know how to play their instruments. Their last album, All the Right Reasons seemed to feature guitar solos in only a few songs. Those same songs all featured guest guitarists (Follow You Home and Rockstar featured Billy F Gibbons, while Side of a Bullet featured a Dimebag Darrell solo). Coincidence? Nickelback are great at writing catchy, just loud enough to annoy your parents, post-grunge pop songs. They've earned their success through the time honoured tradition of repeating lyrics (which makes the song catchy and easy to sing along with) and simple musical structures. Nickelback is the fourth most overrated band in rock music history.
Led Zeppelin are classic rock giants. They were the most popular band of their time. They wrote what is arguable the greatest rock song ever (Stairway to Heaven). They seemed to find their success hanging around the outer edge of the mainstream. They were excellent musicians (Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham are all considered among the elite players of their respective instruments). But sometimes the sum isn't as great as the parts. Their music was pretentious. They knew how good they were and they showed it - to their detriment. Some of their songs are almost Pink Floydian in that you almost have to be baked just to get them. Others, including Stairway to Heaven, have no meaning at all. But I cannot continue to criticize this band. I have, in a previous blog (the old blog) rated Led Zeppelin among the top 10 rock bands in history (#6 if my memory is correct). I said at the start that all these bands are good, just overrated, and this is most true here. Led Zeppelin was a great band. But Led Zeppelin does not deserve to be called the greatest rock band ever. They aren't even in the top 5 for my money (off the top of my head, right now: Beatles, Rolling Stones, U2, the Band, Nirvana). They aren't in this list because they weren't great, they're in this list because of how great people think they were. Led Zeppelin is the fifth most overrated band in rock music history.
I know this has stirred some emotion among the rock geeks in my readership. I will reiterate that I happen to like all these bands, I just don't think they're as great as people seem to think. It's not an insult to the bands or their fans, it's just an opinion.
Hope you enjoyed the list, stay tuned for more meaningless drivel from yours truly.
No comments:
Post a Comment