Thread: Excellent Classic Rock Concert Footage

Sorry, Ryan, but I don't know who some of those guys are. Today's rock sounds like shit to me in most cases. They might be good, but I get too disgusted by today's rock to listen to the stations for very long at a time. Maybe you could post some videos? I'd love to give them a look.

I have a ton of Hendrix on video, and I have a lot of Page. I have a lot of Townshend also. My favorite stuff to watch on DVD is live classic rock footage. I know a lot about rock history, but I dont' claim to be an expert musical analyst. I just think I know great art when I come across it. I realize that there is a major subjectivity factor in such a stance. I think artistic greatness is partly subjective and partly objective. It is an objective fact that most people, even most guitarists, do not have the ability to play a great deal of what Jimmy Page has played when you consider timing, smoothness, grace, etc. That is the factual aspect of the situation. The subjective aspect is where it comes down to how it sounds to people. So based on my objective assessment and my subjective taste, it is my opinion that Page is the greatest. I thought it was Hendrix for a while. I have all of Hendrix's biggest performances on video, and I have watched them obsessively. But recently, I started getting much more into watching Page play, and he is the one guitarist that impresses me more than Hendrix, objectively and subjectively.

There is a lot of truth to the claim that rock music got wrecked at the end of the 70's. In The History of Rock and Roll (ten documentary set from Time-Life), which I highly recommend, the documentary about 70's rock talks about how Peter Frampton's album Frampton Comes Alive became the biggest selling album in history. That same year, Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours reached outrageous sales numbers. The ability to sell on that level got corporations into rock music, where before it was smaller companies that were run by people who had a lot of interest in the artistic aspect of the music. The record producers would get great bands in their studios and say, "You're the artists. You know what to do. Play your stuff, and I'll record it and sell it." So the artists, the people who understood the art the best, were in charge of the music. When the corporations got so interested, they bought out the smaller companies, the ones that had been producing the legends, and ruined everything. They started saying, "Hey, according to our marketing research, you will sell more if you do this crap and that crap. Our goal is not to make people love this music. Our goal is to make people like it just enought to buy it." And everything went down the drain from there.

Originally Posted by FreshBrains

Okay, maybe David Gilmour isn't the best guitarist ever. Pete Townshend is either damned close or equal.
Not so much classic footage, but a classic band. The Who (Well, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend) playing Eminence Front in 2006.
Townshend seems to take the "The hair thins" line a bit too seriously... Heh.

Eminence Front live 2006
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In that same History of Rock and Roll documentary I was just talking to Ryan about, Townshend had the nerve to claim that he doesn't like a "single thing" Led Zeppelin has ever done. There is no way he really feels that way. I think he is a jealous bitch who knows that Page is out of his league. That's my opinion. Roger Daltrey said he thinks Hendrix is the best guitarist ever, and I am not sure if I believe them. And Led Zeppelin got their name from Who drummer Keith Moon's comment that the band was going to "go over like a lead balloon." My personal opinion is that they knew they were about to get their asses whipped, and it is my opinion that they did.

Originally Posted by Universal

There is a lot of truth to the claim that rock music got wrecked at the end of the 70's. In The History of Rock and Roll (ten documentary set from Time-Life), which I highly recommend, the documentary about 70's rock talks about how Peter Frampton's album Frampton Comes Alive became the biggest selling album in history. That same year, Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours reached outrageous sales numbers. The ability to sell on that level got corporations into rock music, where before it was smaller companies that were run by people who had a lot of interest in the artistic aspect of the music. The record producers would get great bands in their studios and say, "You're the artists. You know what to do. Play your stuff, and I'll record it and sell it." So the artists, the people who understood the art the best, were in charge of the music. When the corporations got so interested, they bought out the smaller companies, the ones that had been producing the legends, and ruined everything. They started saying, "Hey, according to our marketing research, you will sell more if you do this crap and that crap. Our goal is not to make people love this music. Our goal is to make people like it just enought to buy it." And everything went down the drain from there.
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Turn off the radio man. There is a TON of great music out there to be found. But MTV and the Top 40 Countdowns are not the place you'll find it.

A short list of extremely talented, and currently active, 'rock' artists that you've (probably) never heard of:

The Black Keys
Blues Rock
Tracks: "Your Touch", "The Girl Is On My Mind"

Comets On Fire
Rock
Tracks: "Dogwood Rust", "Jaybird"

Deerhoof
Experimental/Psychedelic Rock
Tracks: "The Perfect Me", "Wrong Time Capsule"

Eagles Of Death Metal
Desert Garage Rock
Tracks: "Already Died", "San Berdoo Sunburn"

The Evens
Post Punk (ex-Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye's project)
Tracks: "Everybody Knows", "Around The Corner"

The Hold Steady
Rock (America's #1 bar band)
Tracks: "Massive Nights", "Multitude of Casualties"

Kings Of Leon
Rock
Tracks: "Joe's Head", "Taper Jean Girl"

Lightning Bolt
Noise Rock
Tracks: "Mohawkwindmill", "Crown of Storms"

Man Man
Experimental/Avant Rock
Tracks: "Engwish Bwudd", "Van Helsing Boombox"

Mastodon
Heavy Metal
Tracks: "The Wolf Is Loose", "Megalodon"

Menomena
Rock
Tracks: "Muscle n' Flo", "The Pelican"

Sleater-Kinney (ok, not currently active....but they just broke up)
Rock
Tracks: "What's Mine Is Yours", "Little Babies"

Tapes 'n Tapes
Rock
Tracks: "Insistor", "Cowbell"

The Thermals
Punk Rock (the most intelligent punk rock band you'll ever hear)
Tracks: "Here's Your Future", "Pillar Of Salt"

Tokyo Police Club
Rock (Toronto represent&#33
Tracks: "Nature of the Experiment", "Shoulders & Arms"

TV On The Radio
Rock
Tracks: "Wolf Like Me", "I Was A Lover"