The Greatest Band in Rock History: Part 1

Twelve albums.  Four members.  Seven years.  A legacy that changed rock forever.   

Twelve albums.  Four members.  Thirty-three years.  A sound unlike any other.   

The Rolling Stones.   But who is the greatest?  

Naming the greatest band in the history of rock and roll might be an impossibly subjective task.  It might incite controversy.  Families may live or die by my words.  Highly literate and resourceful three-year-olds may leave their parents and form enclave communities honoring their favorite bands because of what they read here.  But really, I’m just hoping this little foray into rock and roll will provoke some discussion—and even better, some heated argument.  I mean, really:  what’s music without a little bloodshed?  Isn’t some of the best music born of our blood, sweat, and tears?

Now, before I go any further, I’m going to bracket one of the three bands I mentioned above.  I don’t know enough about The Rolling Stones to make any arguments for or against their status in the pantheon of rock gods and goddesses, but I do know that with over two dozen studio albums and a lengthy career, enough people consider them the greatest of the greats that I have to include them, at least peripherally.  If you think The Stones are the crème de la crème, say so.  Fight for what you believe!  Because…I’m not going to mention them again.           

If you haven’t already figured it out, the other two bands I hold as contenders for my Greatest Rock Band in History award—not to be confused with the Cutest Rock Band in History award, which would obviously go to REV—are John, Paul, George, and Ringo—The Beatles—whose career spanned 1963-1970, and Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr. (best name ever—am I right?)—the boys collectively known as U2, whose 33-year career continues to this day; their new album, which may be entitled 10 Reasons to Exist, may appear this year.  That, my friends, was one of the longest sentences I’ve ever written.

Next, we need some criteria for judgment.  We could talk record sales—The Beatles sold more than 300 million albums, U2 ha sold around 150 million to date.  But sales don’t necessarily reflect what I see as thecriterion for judging music:  ‘cuz music is about soul.  A band can put whatever it wants out there, but if it doesn’t have soul, it’s not worth hearing.  I want to talk about deep impact, about music’s power to take hold of and shake up something inside us.  The Soul Factor is tied strongly to The Live Factor—the power of a band to explode off a stage—to rip out and chew up (in the best way possible) its fans’ hearts and minds.  This second criterion has to do with live impact, with crowds of people sharing their humanity in all its joy and sadness with one another.  It’s about seeing people be human together, transcending their individual selves toward a unity that, perhaps, only music can bring.  And it’s on the basis of these criteria—The Soul Factor and the Live Factor—that I’m going to unabashedly claim that U2 is the greatest band in the history of rock and roll.  Hey, kids: Let’s get ready to rumble.  (Anybody else always wondered what that guy looked like?)