Results: Wow. In another major upset, Prog-Metal masters Queensryche dispose of both The Allman Brothers and #8 seed The Grateful Dead. What a long, strange trip our search for the greatest band of all time is turning out to be. The numbers: Queensryche 41%; The Allman Brothers Band 29%; The Grateful Dead 20%; T. Rex 9%; Bon Jovi 1%. Queensryche advances in the Hollywood Bowl region.
Next we move to the Red Rocks region, where the first band I ever fell in love with wades through yet another minefield.
- #6 Queen: Listen
- Jefferson Airplane/Starship: Listen
- The Cars: Listen
- Suede/The London Suede: Listen
- Kate Bush: Listen
If you’d be so kind as to give the participants a listen and register your opinion below. Polls close Saturday at midnight.
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Categories: Music/Popular Culture, Tournament of Rock
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 
Son of a bitch! You did this just to piss me off, didn’t you? Grrrr. I guess it’s Karma for the last Pod. Went with Queen, of course. But damn it, that means I have to vote against the Cars, JA, and Kate Bush all at once. That’s just plain mean.
Listen, this ain’t easy for me, either. Queen is one of my all-time favorite bands. They were my Beatles. But I love The Cars, I think JA is one of the most important bands that people don’t talk about enough ever, Suede is easily one of the most important bands of the last 20 years (although nobody in America knows it) and Kate Bush deserves a better fate than to be in this bracket.
The odd part is that I don’t imagine a lot of people would see this bracket and realize just how formidable it is (or ought to be). Along about 1990 or so it’s like Britain ceased to exist where America was concerned. While we were being dominated by the oppression of grunge, they had all kinds of FAR more interesting things going on. Shoegaze and Britpop spring immediately to mind. I loved Nirvana and the first Pearl Jam record and “Jar of Flies,” but I’d give anything if we could have had Verve, Blur, Oasis, Suede, MBV, Catherine Wheel, and Lush instead…
Queen is the one band I think could give the Beatles a run.
I always suspected you were evil incarnate. This just proves it. I’m going to go cry in my coffee now.
Would have voted for Jefferson A/S because of their importance, but I’ve loved Kate Bush for years and voted for her. Yes, Sam, Cars were greater than ever given credit for.
Man alive do i hate Queen with a passion that borders on the pathological. They’re right up there with Jimmy Buffet in my book. No, i don’t know why…never even bothered to try figuring it out.
After eliminating them, i’ll have to think the rest of it through some.
Passing on this one. Lex and I have strangely similar tastes. Should I be worried?
Here’s my Queen story. For the Golden Jubilee several years ago (50 years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign) there were lots of celebrations and whatnot. So my wife and I were wandering home one night after the fireworkson the river and through sheer indavertence ended up on the Mall, which is the long stretch in front of Buckingham Palace, where there were live concerts, including, um, Paul McCartney. It also had Brian May playing from the roof of the Palace. But there were also all these large tv screens all over the place, and as we wandered by they started playing Bohemian Rhapsody. And EVERYONE in this country knows ALL THE WORDS to that stupid song, and were all singing it as loud as they could. We almost moved back on the basis of that. But I like the beer too much.
I think this is the first pod where all 5 deserve to advance (in my lousy opinion). For me though, this comes down to Queen and Jefferson Airplane. Tough, tough choice.
I agree with Dr. Slammy that I wish we’d known more about what was going on in Great Britain during the ’90s. Some top notch music came out during that period.
Great pod – but no problems in voting.
Sam,
I agree with Mike you are evil incarnate. Queen and Cars are two of my all time favorites and I also think JA should have been seated well before Grateful Dead. Ended up voting for Queen.
Yeah, a pretty tough pod. I had to give it up for The Cars though. They were my Beatles.
Interesting comments. I voted for Queen although I think these are all good groups/artists. But for me… The Beatles are my Beatles 😉
Sam, I’m still not very pleased with you regarding the last bracket. And here, I’m sort of stunned to see Queen’s just a 6. I’m not saying there aren’t 20 greater rock bands out there, but I’d be hard pressed to name them.
Wufnik – Everyone in most English speaking countries know the words to that stupid song. Those crazy Brits aren’t fully to blame for that one.
If you haven’t seen this, watch it. It’s freakin amazing. It’s Queen’s Innuendo.
Without the Cars, you don’t have ’90s or millennial cynic pop. Weird Al took a pretentiousness cane to every artist but the Cars. How can you knock a band that is its own cynic? It was the voice of Gen-X before they knew it. Desperately wanting to prove to the Woodstock generation that they had value but not willing to stick their cheese out to prove it. Desperately wanting to say “my life has meaning”, but at the same time “hey, not like I care or anything”.
Meanwhile, without Queen, we wouldn’t have Wayne’s World or Supertramp. Yes, I’m sadly pandering for more comments. Maybe it’s just because I”m the Cars acolyte who has grown out of that and am now saying “fuck it, i care. bring it.”
Tom: Maybe I was bending over backward because I love Queen so much. If the argument is that they deserve better than a 6, then I’m more than willing to listen.
wufnik: yes you should. The tell, however, will be how you feel about James Brown, George Clinton (his assorted incarnations/cohorts) and the Funk Brothers. I long for the ToR&B.
I’m still working on my decision: between the Cars and Kate Bush.
Sam, I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt until I see who else you put up there. I can honestly say I’ve never even attempted this with bands. (I have with fictional characters Fight Club sort of thing. Note: Final was Bobba Fett versus Captain America.)
Anyway, I’ll make comment once we see The 48.
As I noted before it got started, there are arguments to be had, and I look at the top seed and see a couple where I know there might be sniping. But that’s true of every possible ranking and I’m confident that the choices are defensible.
We’ll see where it winds up.
fikshun: With all due respect to The Cars, who I love, I’m not sure you’re being real fair to Queen. On the one hand, it is tough to point to a number of bands that clearly sound like Queen, and that may mean they weren’t influential. Or does it? I find people RAVING about the band in the oddest places – like on the Audities list, which is dedicated to Power Pop. Not very Queenlike at all.
What I wonder is this. Do so few bands show obvious Queen influence because they were so incredible hard to imitate? I’ve heard a number of attempts to cover them, for instance, and in 100% of the cases the results were unconvincing. Back when they did ROCKSTAR two or three years ago there were maybe three or four cases where they made the contestants do a Queen song. And most of these singers were pretty accomplished, whatever else you may think of them. In all cases but one Queen just murdered the contestants. The one exception was this Aussie who had played the lead in a stage show based on the music of Queen.
All of which is to say that influences place certain demands on a band. If you play the bass and you have the rough skill level of Sid Vicious, you’re going to have a hard time being influenced by someone as good as Les Claypool.
I don’t know if I’m making this case adequately, but I will say that Queen is simply one of the most uniquely talented bands ever, and they set the bar quite high….