The most underrated and unappreciated rock and roll bands

twentyfive
Living well and enjoying my retirement
Credence Clear Water Revival and Chicago come to mind

50 comments

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nicespice
3 years ago
Are they underappreciated? I like Bad Moon Rising from Credence.

No idea if he’s over or under appreciated, but I’ll pick Buddy Holly.
kilgoretrout12
3 years ago
Warren Zevon
MackTruck
3 years ago
Da Fuck You Mackie Band
MackTruck
3 years ago
And dont forget about FINGERBANG!!!

https://youtu.be/_xEhr2kbRw4

FINGER BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
nicespice
3 years ago
It was delicious Scrubby. Come over to my apartment in Portland and we can both mutually jerk off together while listening to Buddy Holly 🥰😘
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
Lead singer and lead guitarist are sister and brother, Palestinians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQX2vhmT…
shadowcat
3 years ago
Herman's Hermits. The Beatles competition.
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
Dead milkmen. Their satirical lyrics overshadow the fact that they are very proficient musicians. But the only had one good album in them (Beelzebuba). The later ones were just weak shadows of the first.
rattdog
3 years ago
bryan ferry - solo or with roxy music

thin lizzy - only really known for the boys are back in town and jailbreak

nightwish - this band should be real big here in the states but are still playing in 3000-5000 seat arenas. this band played in front of a sold crowd at wembley stadium.

squeeze - still around. recently opened up for hall n oates
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
They are now credited with inventing Punk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwehxN2i… . Did white people ever really start any genre of music? Probably Mozart was really black, but they can't teach it in school cause that would be Critical Race Theory.
Lone_Wolf
3 years ago
Poco - Good Feeling to Know
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
Chuck Berry got fucked over bad. You could compare him to The Who, lots of story songs. He was a better guitarist than Townsend, but like him, not into heavily engineering the guitar's sound. But the demographic that liked Tho Who was not going to get into a black dude in his 40s who liked fucking his teenage white groupies.
Muddy
3 years ago
There's a lot that come to mind but I'm just not sure how underrated we're talking.

Squeeze is a good one. Most people at least know Tempted from them.

The Pixies come to mind. Kurt Cobain idolized them.
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
So this isn't every stripper's favorite CCR song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lit-x30b…
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
Wendy O. Williams did live sex shows in Time Square before becoming the lead singer of this band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuGX188W… .
Cashman1234
3 years ago
I agree about Brian Ferry and about Squeeze. Chuck Berry was a great as well.

NiceSpice and Scrubby - I’m available to stop by and jerk…
Mate27
3 years ago
Dire Straits
Huntsman
3 years ago
Kansas.
motorhead
3 years ago
A question that is perfect for discussion boards but really impossible to answer because if they were truly underrated chances are you wouldn’t know them

For me it may be The Animals - sure they are a long time member of the Rock & Roll HOF and get a lot of radio play, but aren’t mentioned among the elite of Rock bands - Beatles, Stones, The Who, Zeppelin etc. But I have more Animals songs on my workout mix tape than any of the rest
motorhead
3 years ago
A better answer might a band like “Tool”. They certainly aren’t underrated in their circle. They have a huge following in the prog rock community but I don’t really consider them mainstream where an average person knows a lot about them.
jackslash
3 years ago
MC5. Rock revolutionaries from Detroit who gave birth to Punk. They couldn't play or sing very well, but they were loud.
FishHawk
3 years ago
Blood, Sweat & Tears, great musicians, superb lead vocalist.
yahtzee74
3 years ago
CCR and Chicago each sold tens of millions of albums. However, Chicago may be looked down on by a lot of rock fans since they, like Genesis, became pop in 80s.
datinman
3 years ago
I think Death and MC5 are great choices as underappreciated, but influential. I would add Love.

Going back to my 8-track days, I always wondered why UFO, Uriah Heep, and Wishbone Ash didn't get Deep Purple or Grand Funk Railroad popularity.

I always saw Graham Parker and Elvis Costello as being similar, Elvis blow up, Graham not so much.

Older bands I liked a lot that the average person has never heard of include: Big Star, Joy Division, Japan/Rain Tree Crow, Jade Warrior.
Cashman1234
3 years ago
From the 80’s - Richard Butler and the Psychedelic Furs should have blown up.

An interesting one might be Dave Mustaine (and Megadeath) - as he never reached the commercial success of Metallica - after his departure.
twentyfive
3 years ago
I got an album from my younger days by Mountain, named Nantucket Sleighride, which has been an all time favorites and no one ever mentions it, I've always though that people tend to dis Chicago despite how many great musicians are part of that ensemble, and with CCR, John Fogarty has always been my idea of what a badass musician would be like.
rattdog
3 years ago
the reason why people diss chicago because of peter cetera. he is the main reason why people can't stand that band. early 70's chicago is considered cool. the rest after that not at all.
motorhead
3 years ago
^^

100% correct on Chicago
datinman
3 years ago
25, I almost put Mountain down on my list, but they did have a sizable hit with Mississippi Queen. Leslie West is definitely an underappreciated guitarist.
drewcareypnw
3 years ago
Jack and Justin are probably right wrt MC5, unless you hang out in punk circles where these bands are relentlessly cited. For my money it’s Cringer. This thread is revealing more about tusclers than most!
ElDuderino_AZ
3 years ago

Great call on CCR. That classic rock era was dominated by the Brits, Jimi, The Doors, The Eagles, Aerosmith, but CCR may have actually been the greatest American band.
twentyfive
3 years ago
^ and many don’t know this but CCR broke up acrimoniously in the early 70s and John Fogarty and his brother and fellow band mate Tom Fogarty never spoke to each other again and if my memory is correct Tom died in the mid 70s and John Fogarty in an interview a few years ago said that was his greatest regret.
mike710
3 years ago
I grew up into the heavier guitar-centric rock and really liked UFO with Michael Schenker and Montrose. Triumph was another favorite band. They all had some popularity but they definitely weren't the Top 40's popular type of music.
motorhead
3 years ago
Montrose was a good one. My college roommate introduced me their records to me back in the late 70’s
mike710
3 years ago
I recently found out that Montrose played guitar on one of Van Morrison's hit songs "Wild Night". Once I listened to the song after I saw that, I could hear that it was him by the style of guitar playing.
jackslash
3 years ago
For those not familiar with the MC5's oeuvre, here's a selection of their music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74jS3dW0…

rattdog
3 years ago
"Montrose played guitar on one of Van Morrison's hit songs "Wild Night""

yep u nailed it. that style can also be found on edgar winter free ride.
Muddy
3 years ago
I don’t know if they aren’t appreciated per se they do get a lot love. But I don’t know if people realize how many hits Hall and Oates had.
MackTruck
3 years ago
Finger bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
docsavage
3 years ago
The Kinks are underrated here in the U.S. They were banned by the American Federation of Television and Recording Artists for unknown reasons in 1965 and were unable to tour here for four years. That hurt their popularity and record sales here in the United States. They had numerous top forty singles in Great Britain over that time period.
anothercraig
3 years ago
^^^ The Kinks, totally agree. Also The Velvet Underground.
yahtzee74
3 years ago
Crack the Sky - great debut album in 75
UFO - Strangers in the Night great live album
Triumph - should have been as popular as some of their contemporaries
April Wine - checked out a couple of their hits collections and they had a lot of good songs I had never heard before
Longball300
3 years ago
Breaking Benjamin, Pop Evil and Alter Bridge.
skibum609
3 years ago
Terry Kath might just be the finest lead guitar ever. Forgotten Pop bands - The Grassroots. The Guess Who. Alice Cooper.
MackTruck
3 years ago
Metallica, Motley Crue, Judas Priest, System of a Down, Kiss.
twentyfive
3 years ago
LOL
Fuck you Mackie
EastCoaster
3 years ago
skibum said (in regard to the band Chicago), "Terry Kath might just be the finest lead guitar ever." You know who else said that? Jimi Hendrix. Certainly some high praise.
Call.Me.Ishmael
3 years ago
Social Distortion.
twentyfive
3 years ago
Another name to add to the under appreciated is one of the all time greats Roy Orbison
minnow
3 years ago
Grand Funk Railroad. When song "Gimme Shelter" is mentioned, everyone thinks of The Rolling Stones version. IMHO, GFR version kills it.
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