Top 5 greatest bands of all time

[Nilsi]

 • The Beatles
 • Pink Floyd
 • Tool
 • Led Zeppelin 
 • Queen

Share yours

[Proserpina]

• Tool
• A Perfect Circle
• Puscifer
• Carbon Based Lifeforms 
• Solar Fields

[Carl-Richard]

I can't make such a list ? Too many genres, too many bands, too many differences.

[Nilsi]

35 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

I can't make such a list ? Too many genres, too many bands, too many differences.

Yeah, I feel you. If someone was holding a gun to my head though, this would be my top 5.

[Carl-Richard]

I could probably make a list of top 5 virtuosic guitar players (they have the technical ability to instantly play basically anything you tell them):

Allan Holdsworth
Guthrie Govan
Steve Vai
Joe Satriani
John Petrucci

Edited September 17, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[Carl-Richard]

5 minutes ago, Nilsi said:

Yeah, I feel you. If someone was holding a gun to my head though, this would be my top 5.

Yeah in that case, my list would probably be the same but swapping Tool for Metallica, even though I love Tool. It would be fun to derive the definition of "greatest".

Edited September 17, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[Nilsi]

1 minute ago, Carl-Richard said:

Yeah in that case, my list would probably be the same but swapping Tool for Metallica, even though I love Tool.

Nice. Not the biggest Metallica fan, but I also had them in mind.

[Nilsi]

8 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

I could probably make a list of top 5 virtuosic guitar players (they have the technical ability to instantly play basically anything you tell them):

Allan Holdsworth
Guthrie Govan
Steve Vai
Joe Satriani
John Petrucci

I have no idea about technical abilities, but as far as most enjoyable guitar players go, mine would be

• Jimi Hendrix
• Frank Zappa
• David Gilmour
• Jimmy Page
• Eric Clapton 

[Carl-Richard]

6 minutes ago, Nilsi said:

Nice. Not the biggest Metallica fan, but I also had them in mind.

When I think "greatest bands of all time", it's no longer so much about my own tastes as just knowing about a band and their general praise.

[Nilsi]

9 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

It would be fun to derive the definition of "greatest".

Yeah, that's a tricky one. I think to me it's what's most closely approaching "Creativity," but that doesn't really define much I'm afraid.

It's somehow self-evident, but I have no idea how to really define it.

[Carl-Richard]

3 minutes ago, Nilsi said:

I have no idea about technical abilities, but as far as most enjoyable guitar players go, mine would be

• Jimi Hendrix
• Frank Zappa
• David Gilmour
• Jimmy Page
• Eric Clapton 

Zappa is dear to my heart because my dad used to listen to him all the time around me when I was little. His style is so unique and out there. His rhythmic and melodic complexity flies way above the head of most people.

Anyways, this a fun video if you want to understand the possible depths of virtuosity:

 

[Nilsi]

3 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

When I think "greatest bands of all time", it's no longer so much about my own tastes as just knowing about a band and their general praise.

Yeah, same, but my own taste is mostly congruent with that I would say (which is kinda sad actually, but also probably inevitable if you go meta enough).

[Nilsi]

12 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Zappa is dear to my heart because my dad used to listen to him all the time around me when I was little. His style is so unique and out there. His rhythmic and melodic complexity flies way above the head of most people.

Anyways, this a fun video if you want to understand the possible depths of virtuosity:

 

Interesting. So improvisation and developing ideas on the fly is important it seems. I had thought of Zappa as a virtuoso, but he's a huge nerd and carefully writes all his music, so that's probably why he's not on your list. But Hendrix is pretty much improvising all his stuff, as far as I'm aware. What's your take on him?

[ZzzleepingBear]

When it comes to guitar, my two faves are

Estas Tonne and Buckethead

[Carl-Richard]

19 minutes ago, Nilsi said:

Interesting. So improvisation and developing ideas on the fly is important it seems. I had thought of Zappa as a virtuoso, but he's a huge nerd and carefully writes all his music, so that's probably why he's not on your list. But Hendrix is pretty much improvising all his stuff, as far as I'm aware. What's your take on him?

Zappa was a genius and great improviser, but we have to do a little history. The virtuosos I listed belong to a later generation of guitarists. There was the 60-70s era of great guitarists that influenced the next generation and essentially layed the groundwork for virtuosic playing: Hendrix, Page, Blackmore, etc., which parallells how Hard Rock gave birth to Heavy Metal. Zappa belonged to that 60-70s generation, while the ones I listed belonged to the 80-90s generation (except Holdsworth which is an absolute alien).

It's funny how much of it is interconnected though:

• Steve Vai was trained by Joe Satriani (Joe also trained Kirk Hammett from Metallica and other great players).
• Steve Vai got hired as a transcriptionist by Zappa in 1978 at only 18 years old and then played with his band for some years.
• Zappa's favorite guitarist was Allan Holdsworth.
• Adrian Belew from Zappa's band joined King Crimson in the 80s and developed prog rock which influenced many of these virtuosos as well as Tool.

 

So Zappa is in many ways a main node in rock music history and was definitely one of the great influences on modern virtuosos.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[Nilsi]

44 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Zappa was a genius and great improviser, but we have to do a little history. The virtuosos I listed belong to a later generation of guitarists. There was the 60-70s era of great guitarists that influenced the next generation and essentially layed the groundwork for virtuosic playing: Hendrix, Page, Blackmore, etc., which parallells how Hard Rock gave birth to Heavy Metal. Zappa belonged to that 60-70s generation, while the ones I listed belonged to the 80-90s generation (except Holdsworth which is an absolute alien).

It's funny how much of it is interconnected though:

• Steve Vai was trained by Joe Satriani (Joe also trained Kirk Hammett from Metallica and other great players).
• Steve Vai got hired as a transcriptionist by Zappa in 1978 at only 18 years old and then played with his band for some years.
• Zappa's favorite guitarist was Allan Holdsworth.
• Adrian Belew from Zappa's band joined King Crimson in the 80s and developed prog rock which influenced many of these virtuosos as well as Tool.

 

So Zappa is in many ways a main node in rock music history and was definitely one of the great influences on modern virtuosos.

You really know your guitarists, huh? Thanks for the insights

[Nilsi]

@Carl-Richard

One of my all time favorites, in case you don't know that one yet.

 

[Cireeric]

Wouldnt claim these to be the greatest bands of all time, but some of my favorites:

Tame Impala

Pixies

The Police

and pretty new and recent ones:

Turnstile

Idles

 

[Carl-Richard]

4 hours ago, Nilsi said:

@Carl-Richard

One of my all time favorites, in case you don't know that one yet.

Ah yes, the groupie blues  He probably has like 10 songs fully dedicated to groupies, and they're all hilarious 

 

The solos in this song at 4:07, along with the solos from The Mammy Anthem and I'm The Slime from the same album, are definitely my favorites:

It's all live as well, and everything sounds so good. He probably had the tightest rock band in the world from the mid 70s to the early 80s.

So nostalgic too. I remember listening to this in the car when I was around 7 years old, just floating away into a different universe.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Carl-Richard

[AtheisticNonduality]