Chattanooga Pulse

While hanging out recently with a few local musicians, an interesting question was posed that we never quite resolved within the allotted happy hour. What is THE most influential rock band to come from America?

It’s a tough question to answer, because most people immediately think of the British powerhouse bands like the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Yardbirds, Zeppelin and so on. But when you look back towards our shores, the question seems a little muddier because there aren’t that many influential “bands” per se—at least not of that magnitude.

Sure, American music is credited with providing the roots to rock n’ roll—country, rhythm & blues, blues and jazz. And we can likely be credited with inventing the genre altogether with Elvis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley, Eddie Cochran, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. However, with the exception of maybe Bill Haley’s “Comets,” there’s not a “band” there to speak of—only solo artists.

The record labels that produced much of the American music that influenced the aforementioned British bands—Stax, Chess, Sun, Motown, Atlantic—had extremely talented and pivotal house bands and songwriters that contributed probably more to the sounds of those solo artists than they’ll likely ever be credited. But they were just that—house bands for hire.

As far as the influential musicians and songwriters you have heard of who hail from the good ole USA, we’ve got plenty of those as well—Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Marvin Gaye, Randy Newman, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Leonard Cohen, Patsy Cline, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and many more. And some of our country’s most influential songwriters have backing bands that are just as famous and talented.

Bob Dylan had The Band, Bruce Springsteen has the E Street Band, Tom Petty has the Heartbreakers and Neil Young has Crazy Horse, as well as other variations of backing bands. All of these groups of musicians are critical to helping those artists achieve their signature sounds.

But a great backing band that’s taking marching orders from one main songwriting source doesn’t really count as an influential “band.” The only exception here is The Band, who went on to have their own catalog of exceptional music—and from three or four songwriters within their ranks.

That said, there have been a lot of great American bands with multiple songwriters—Fleetwood Mac, REM, The Byrds, Velvet Underground, B-52’s, Cheap Trick, Drive By Truckers, Black Crowes, Talking Heads, NRBQ, The Cars, Beastie Boys and even though I despise them with every ounce of my being, the Eagles. But you rarely see those bands included on a modern-day artist’s list of “greatest influences,” so maybe these giants are aren’t as influential as they are just great.

This brings us back to the question of the hour. By the long and tedious process outlined above, we’ve pretty much determined that by “most influential band” we mean the songs, sound, look, presence and impact created by an entire group. The whole being much, much greater than the sum of its parts. In fact, the parts may even be fairly insignificant on their own.

In my opinion, as far as the entity of a “band” influencing other artists, Americans caused the greatest impact around the punk era. We truly helped invent and greatly influence that genre of music with bands—not musicians or songwriters. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the handful of pioneering punk bands to come from America in the late sixties and early seventies, there wouldn’t have been a Sex Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks, Joy Division or Stiff Little Fingers, which means there never would’ve been a Replacements, Cure, Nirvana, Pretenders or that smarmy Green Day.

Who are the nominees then? Well, our group settled on three possibilities—The Stooges, New York Dolls or The Ramones. And, even though they somewhat influenced each other (basically in that order), as true pioneering bands they’ve done more to influence every band that came after them than any other American band we could name. But that’s just our opinion. What do you think?

Chuck Crowder is a local writer and general man about town. His opinions are just that. Everything expressed is loosely based on fact, and crap he hears people talking about. Take what you just read with a grain of salt, but pepper it in your thoughts. And be sure to check out his wildly popular website www.thenoog.com