What is THE american rock song?

If you had to explain american rock music to someone who had never heard it, and you could only play them one song, what would you pick?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAdZ4ZgH7Tk

AMERICAN WOMAN (ironically made by Canadians).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AlzsP4jN1E

This was my first thought.

my other answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvBN3C2wepY

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdxRS_GyBbM

Great question! Some quality answers too. Gotta think more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hSW67ySCio

First thing that came to my mind, "Fortunate Son"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJeA7yD8DXg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qQMdCuCE-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwfmfMBLZiM&feature=related

Johnny B. Goode

Train Kept A-Rollin'

Works in just about any genre of rock....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSZ3ZWn18RY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLyBRMGZnm4

not to split hairs here, but we are talkin' "rock" here right, as opposed to rock n roll? so like late 60s forward...

Rocky Mountain Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HICsPNm2ARY&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WcgqXMncf4

American Woman = Canadians

Fortunate Son = political, ergo less universal

More Than a Feeling = stupid

therefore I vote for Eddie Cochran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=776TYJ8tfB4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEKUmzJO54Y

"Born To Run", surely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsTFCA2zeMI

Tonetta 777 "It's All Bullshit"

you can fuckin die.

Anything by Grand Funk, including but certainly not limited to "We're An American Band".

Jack And Diane

maybe obvious ones but...

Chuck Berry - Promised Land or Back In The USA
take yer pick - Route 66

Velvet Underground = not what American rock is. It's what American rock should have been.

CCR seems like the most american band to me.

Totally. It's been said before, but CCR are one of the only post-Beatles 60's bands you can imagine existing as exactly the same band even if there had been no Beatles.

Velvet Underground = not what American rock is. It's what American rock should have been.

― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:14 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Thank god it wasnt.

the correct answer is Louie Louie

altho I can get behind CCR as THE quintessential American rock band, Louie Louie is like ground zero for so much of rock n roll (white kids trying to play the blues, three chords, indecipherable lyrics, super easy to play and thus spawned countless covers and imitations, etc.)

imagine CCR playing Louie Louie

def this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMsIrKjSM6Y

more cowbell please.

Tonetta 777 "It's All Bullshit"

― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 12:52 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you can fuckin die.

― Trip Maker, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:19 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark

u mad

Goddamn, Grand Funk is just killing it in that video above. I vote them.

ha, agree w/ either 'louie louie' or maybe 'fortunate son'

anything from the 70s is too late imho. its gotta be late 50s/early 60s to be considered as the template

Wild Thing - The Wild Ones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5886Nb_psg

imagine CCR playing Louie Louie

― pariah carey (Mr. Que), Wednesday, October 14, 2009 5:53 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i wonder if they did back when they were the golliwogs?? i could totes see that.

yeah honestly I'd be kinda surprised if they didn't

Panama x2

Goddamn, Grand Funk is just killing it in that video above.

^^^

u mad

― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 5:57 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I was just referencing my favorite Tonetta 777 track of late.
(fwiw, my sources tell me he's from Toronto, so not American)

Maybe I'm being unduly influenced by the word "American" in the title, but "American Girl" ain't a bad choice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_eE0NPArEY

too much country in dat rockabilly tbh

what's wrong w/dat?

If you wanted to tell the story of American rock to people, "Mystery Train" is practically the perfect song - packing in the Carter Family, Junior Parker, Sam Phillips and Elvis - the crazy quilt nature of American rock&roll in its distilled,essence.

Although if we're insisting on the old distinction between rock and rock&roll, then maybe this would be even better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0GtRI4Ulo&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSa4AMF9Zjk

It's gotta be "Born to Run." The lyrical theme basically embodies the American spirit, and the music is incredibly moving.

my morning jacket c'mon really dude?

this thread sucks

In a more perfect world, VU, The Modern Lovers, THE MC5 and the Stooges would be the quintessentials.

― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 4:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Fuck that, it's all about Grand Funk.

"Louie Louie" or death

my morning jacket c'mon really dude?

― headroom (max) (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, October 14, 2009 6:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this thread sucks

― Remove This Vile Tweet (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, October 14, 2009 6:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivShsgFz3jw&feature=related

Canadian, yes. But first thing that came to mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tfSqjc_WRY

in my perfect world more stuff would sound like the last five minutes of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INoay_1ofio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3S7mlRYL-8

For what it is worth, I conceived my first ideas about America listening to a cassette called "Fonzie's favourites" when I was 8 or 9. Two songs in particular struck me: "Tallahassie Lassie" by Freddie Cannon and "Lonesome town" by Ricky Nelson. A big big place at the same time exciting and a bit scary. Hence, for me the Cramps are and always will be the quintessential American band.

god i love grand funk. and the mc5 and the stooges and the velvet underground. i don't know if i really LOVE the modern lovers. they were cool though.

god i love rick nelson.

man i was listening to chuck berry yesterday and i gotta tell you in case you didn't know chuck berry was the coolest.

Night Beat! (another old old favourite of mine)

what if it's AC/DC

No car or teenager references, no credibility. And it can't be too Greil Marcus-y because we don't like intellectuals.

1950s: Maybelline - Chuck Berry
1960s: Fun Fun Fun - The Beach Boys
1970s: Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
1980s: Jack & Diane - John Cougar Mellencamp
1990s: Free Fallin' - Tom Petty
2000s: Hey Ya! - Outkast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tDP-yMwXI

Big Rock Candy Mountain

1990s: Free Fallin' - Tom Petty

1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN1_3zHjhW8

Born to Run

Living on a prayer?

Why is the American thread "Rock", and the English thread "Pop"? I mean, it feels instinctively right, even if a lot of the best rock is english, and a lot of the best pop is American.

"Born to Run" is nearest to answering this question.

Fuck that, it's all about Grand Funk.

That's my point. In a perfect world, it WOULDN'T be.

In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected
and steppin' out over the line
Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I want to guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims
and strap your hands across my engines
Together we could break this trap
We'll run till we drop, baby we'll never go back
Will you walk with me out on the wire
'Cause baby I'm just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta find out how it feels
I want to know if love is wild
girl I want to know if love is real

Beyond the Palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight
In an everlasting kiss

The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight
but there's no place left to hide
Together Wendy we'll live with the sadness
I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl I don't know when
we're gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go
and we'll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us
baby we were born to run

> the correct answer is Louie Louie

yes.

2nd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtcVvWRvrIU

My first thought was "Sweet Home Alabama". I'm surprised that more people haven't mentioned southern rock ... or is that not "universal" enough? (I dunno, to me, southern rock is the most quintessentially American form of rock)

Fuck that, it's all about Grand Funk.

That's my point. In a perfect world, it WOULDN'T be.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, October 16, 2009 7:09 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You're 100% wrong on this.

you guys are close to a breakthrough here

I admit it is a debate for the ages. Up there with Lincoln-Douglas.

My first thought was "Sweet Home Alabama". I'm surprised that more people haven't mentioned southern rock ... or is that not "universal" enough? (I dunno, to me, southern rock is the most quintessentially American form of rock)

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, October 16, 2009 11:53 AM (1 hour ago)

I thought the you tube clip of the 12 yr old playing freebird I put up was pretty cool! anyway, the correct answer is freebird not born to run, because jersey can never be considered "real" amurica but the south can

Trust me, most of Jersey has a LOT of south in it.

is jersey the south of the northeast? i think my mind just exploded

"Louie Louie" disqualified for being the national anthem (ought to be anyway).

You're 100% wrong on this.

... according to you.

is jersey the south of the northeast? i think my mind just exploded

― iago g., Friday, October 16, 2009 9:49 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Parts of it are very very close. But the honor on that goes to Pennsyltucky.

Parts of it are very very close. But the honor on that goes to Pennsyltucky.

― Bill Magill, Friday, October 16, 2009 3:54 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

oh yeah! that's why obama had such a hard time there

By the way, does anyone feel like imparting to a simpleton how to do italics on ilm?

(click on 'show formatting help')

louie louie
roadruner
born to run

all seem like good choices. I would play them the White Stripes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOjyURPJBjY

OK thanks

doh!