The most underrated bands in rock&roll history

[Cowpolk]

Billy Cobham

 

[CouchCoach]

Foghat

 

[cowboy_ron]

I am going to offer up my favorite band of all time and was also my wife's favorite and I cannot listen to them now. If we're taking Rock in the broader context this band never quite fit into a niche and therefore radio didn't know what to do with them on most of their music. Their lineage is quite impressive with the players that they've had since their inception in 1968.

My top song of all time, Rose of Cimarron, used to bring tears to my eyes in one part where Timothy B. Schmit took his voice to a high I have never heard any contemporary singer reach before or since.

POCO is my nominee for most under-rated and appreciated band.

I went to a concert that had POCO the front band to YES, it was an awesome concert

 

[CouchCoach]

I went to a concert that had POCO the front band to YES, it was an awesome concert

That might seem like a strange pairing but they could have exchanged vocalists and not missed a beat.

The strangest pairing I ever saw was Stevie Ray opening for The Moody Blues. That was in Dallas so it kinda sorta makes sense but it did not work, wasn't Stevie Ray's crowd.

But for weird but wow, we saw ZZ TOP and Charlie Daniels in Arlington with a young kid who's album had just dropped and this was when he had the rock edge. Billy Joel walked out in a black suit and tie, tennis shoes and proceeded to own that crowd in 30 minutes and play the piano like few of us had ever seen and his energy level was off the chart.

 

[cowboy_ron]

This will really show my age but waaaay back in the day there was a "underground" type club called the "Cellar" in downtown Ft Worth that bands play before they really became popular that instead of tables and chairs they just had wall to wall chair and couch cushions to sit on in front of the band stand.......some that played there were Edgar and Johnny Winter, ZZ Top, Johnny Nitzinger, Bugs Henderson to name a few. The Cellar was actually upstairs but before you started to climb the narrow stairs it was always a good idea to look first to make sure their main bouncer named "Tiny" wasn't throwing somebody DOWN the stairs......lol, good times.

 

[CouchCoach]

Not only a very under-rated band but collectively one of the greatest grouping of musicians ever in one band, TOTO. I saw them right after their first album dropped at a free show sponsored by one of the greatest radio stations ever, KZEW. Tightest band I have ever seen live and 6 players on the smallest stage you could imagine.

 

[CouchCoach]

This will really show my age but waaaay back in the day there was a "underground" type club called the "Cellar" in downtown Ft Worth that bands play before they really became popular that instead of tables and chairs they just had wall to wall chair and couch cushions to sit on in front of the band stand.......some that played there were Edgar and Johnny Winter, ZZ Top, Johnny Nitzinger, Bugs Henderson to name a few. The Cellar was actually upstairs but before you started to climb the narrow stairs it was always a good idea to look first to make sure their main bouncer named "Tiny" wasn't throwing somebody DOWN the stairs......lol, good times.

There was a club like that in Memphis and I can't recall the name of it but the house band was Ronnie Milsap's when he was a rocker and he was a damned fine rocker.

When the label guys used to come there from Nashville, they'd try to sell him on going country and one of them finally got through. I am not a country guy but I do like me some Ronnie Milsap.

 

[cowboy_ron]

There was a club like that in Memphis and I can't recall the name of it but the house band was Ronnie Milsap's when he was a rocker and he was a damned fine rocker.

When the label guys used to come there from Nashville, they'd try to sell him on going country and one of them finally got through. I am not a country guy but I do like me some Ronnie Milsap.

Yea, Conway Twitty started out as a rocker too.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

Alice Coopers original band and those 7 albums{especially from Love it to Death until Muscle of Love}were pretty darn good. Right up there to me.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

this is probably the best guitar solo i've ever heard..this band did not do much but this is awesome.

This is perhaps one of most wonderfully constructed solos I have ever heard. Adrian was very good.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

I think Thin Lizzy deserves the underrated moniker easily, they had a huge library of work that was quite impressive and yet are really only known for 1 song{possibly 2}.

 

[yesfan]

Alice Coopers original band and those 7 albums{especially from Love it to Death until Muscle of Love}were pretty darn good. Right up there to me.

I agree 100%. Saw many of those tours and there was nothing like them.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

I agree 100%. Saw many of those tours and there was nothing like them.

You must be a bit older than I, bet those shows were awesome.

 

[TheDude]

I start with harder rock. Skid Row is known, but they really had it all with the song writing and versatile from real metal to ballads. Bach had a great voice and the lyric writing was incredible from Slave to the Grind and Subhuman Race, the latter got washed out with the Grunge era. Rachel Bolin and Snake Sabo could craft a song

 

[3rd_n_inches]

Les Claypool is a bass playing god

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Winger.

 

[G2]

Nelson

 

[Runwildboys]

I start with harder rock. Skid Row is known, but they really had it all with the song writing and versatile from real metal to ballads. Bach had a great voice and the lyric writing was incredible from Slave to the Grind and Subhuman Race, the latter got washed out with the Grunge era. Rachel Bolin and Snake Sabo could craft a song

What, no video of Bach whipping a beer bottle into the audience, and hitting some innocent girl in the face?

 

[YosemiteSam]

• Metallica
• Beatles
• Elvis
• Led Zeppelin
• The Rolling Stones

Definitely underrated.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. A lot of people don't realize that Fleetwood Mac was a band before Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joined. Way back when, the band was led by Peter Green and their music was harder, bluesier, and edgier and, IMO, better than the well-known Fleetwood Mac. They wrote the Green Manalishi, which was later covered by Judas Priest.