Who is your Favorite classic band?

[bat1]

The Beatles? Jimi Hendrix? Rolling stones?

Pre 1980 stuff only...

Mine is ..

Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix plus David Bowie

[Sulka_bewitched_me]

Beatles and Led Zeppelin

[ed_jaxon]

Steely Dan

[pharcyde]

Pink Floyd

[Corran]

I was just getting into rock and roll. A friend put a tape in and the first thing I heard was a guy saying "Helloooo baby" followed by the crunchiest gutiar riff I'd heard at that point in my life. The band? Van Halen. The album? 5150. I was hooked and yes, I discovered and like the Roth fronted Van Halen but the Sammy Hagar led version really got me into rock so they hold a special place in my rock and roll heart. It didn't hurt things that every album they released was awesome and they were and are the best concert I've ever attended.

[Stavros]

To answer this question I think I would argue that the scene before the emergence of stadium rock was rooted in clubs, which is where all the great bands went to in order to start, and be heard and out of which they migrated if they developed into the bands that could fill a stadium. Pink Floyd are an example of such pioneers because they moved out of the clubs to produce 'shows' with themes and also, because their fan base became so large, a club was too small a venue to satisfy the customers. I think that on both levels, Pink Floyd and the Mothers of Invention were musically the ones who made the transition; but for the club scene, which is where most of us went two or three times a week or certainly on a weekend, to hear raw, live music, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in the 60s, even with those ever-changing personnel, were for quality, unbeatable. This is one track with its dazzling guitar work is from the album which catapulted Eric Clapton to the top of the guitarists table which he shared with Hendrix. Mayall was a gateway for a lot of musicians, he was, and perhaps remains, a diffiicult person to deal with, but with Alexis Korner he was the foundation of blues-based rock music in the UK.

[Prospero]

As a schoolboy I sneaked into clubs in Richmond and Twickenham to hear some pretty seminal bands - The Yardbirds, The Pretty things, Them (with Van Morrison) and on one occasion The Rolling Stones. But I still cleave to the belief that the Beatles were the band who more than any other transformed bland fifties pop into the music that is still mutating today. They, of course, started as a club band as well - in Liverpool and then honed to sharpness in Hamburg.

The Pink Floyd played at the Eel Pie island Hotel in Twickenham on one notable occasion - in those days Syd Barrett had not become an Acid casualty. When he left their music changed fundamentally - losing its quirky englishness and whimsy and become more studied and - in a way - laying the seeds for pomp rock.

A lot of other bands had their start in clubs like UFO and Middle Earth in London (and others in the provinces).

Never saw Mayall but what a breeding ground for talent that band was... Clapton and Mick Taylor among the guitarists who moved into the spotlight from his early bands.

[speedking59]

i'll go with Mountain. i remember when Climbing! came out. i was at a party for the opening of the Kingston Mines Theater in Chicago and side two was being played repeatedly.

[maxpower]

The Beatles, of course, but also The Who, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and The Velvet Underground.

[Dino Velvet]

Black Sabbath