What I mean by greatest rock band of all time is specific. It does not refer to how many records they sold, the size of crowds they could draw, or how long they were together other than that they needed to be together for a while, say at least two years to eliminate short-lived supergroups or super jam sessions. I also don’t mean individual musicians who may have been in or formed multiple groups over the years without any long-term band of their own.
Let’s also not include bands built around one musician like Jeff Beck’s band(s). We’re talking about persistent ensembles. Musicians like Beck belong in a greatest list for their instrument or skill.
They do need to have the acclamation and admiration of fellow musicians. So, we’re talking about what are commonly called musicians’ musicians. I have two nominees to start with who are on many a musician’s short list: King Crimson and Rush.
King Crimson, while having some personnel changes over time, has always had a set of master musicians. This particular iteration was together for a while and featured an all-star cast consisting of…
Robert Fripp, master of playing complicated riffs on guitar
Adrian Belew, probably the only guitarist one might compare to Jeff Beck in terms of total mastery of the electric guitar
Tony Levin, master of an instrument mastered by few, the Chapman Stick
Bill Bruford, one of the best percussionists in rock
This example, Elephant Talk, is from a performance on the Fridays show in 1981:
The Canadian band Rush had the benefit of perhaps the best drummer in the world up to the time of his death in 2020, Neil Peart, who was the band’s lyricist as well. Bassist Geddy Lee is certainly one of the best (some would say the best), and he plays keyboards as well. Guitarist Alex Lifeson is also one of the best and most innovative on his instrument.
Tom Sawyer may be their best-known song. It’s certsinly one of their earliest, and while I don’t have an exact date on this official “live in the studio” recording, it’s got to be from around the same time as the video above. You’ll realize at some point that while the audio is of one piece, the video is a an assembly put together from several takes.
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