Which band IS really America's Greatest (rock & roll band)?

It's a silly topic really but still...NRBQ were an astonishingly great and original band and crazy good live. Little Feat in the 70s were considered the best live band out there...that opinion was shared by a lot of the English guys like the Stones and Zep, and they were likely faves of just about any musician playing in the 70s...including me. Lowell George (of Feat) produced at least one Dead album, and his one solo album is very cool. The Band were amazing, and I consider them an American band...saw them as the Hawks with Dylan (no Levon at that time), and later also as The Band, and even once later without Robertson...I wore out a copy of the "Brown Album" and that still is in the rotation around here. If you think Rock and Roll is dead I suppose you missed the SRO insane Greta Van Fleet show at Red Rocks last week...my CO based daughter sent me some live video of ’em. Derivative (so what?), young, and fun...American! 

Steely Dan are and were astonishing. Becker's solo albums are so good I was mostly angry about his death because his output stoped. My most recent live experience with those guys was a show with Elvis Costello (!) opening a couple of years ago...the groups they assembled for recent live shows was heart stopping...best backup singers, tight utterly pro monster players all around..Jon Herington...man. I have every original vinyl of 'em from the 70s, all the solo stuff, and my former neighbor Elliot Scheiner got a grammy for Gaucho, which is still an amazing album I listen to often.

I saw Moby Grape when I was 16 in 1967. A surfer friend I was visiting in Santa Barbara got us tickets to see Tim Buckley since he knew I was a huge fan, and the show turned out to be Buckley opening, with The Jimi Hendrix Experience second, and Moby Grape headlining. Suffice to say this was a life altering event as Moby Grape was one of the most powerful live bands I’ve ever seen, and sort of made all the other "folk-rock" white guys seem tired. Buckley was cool also of course, and that Hendrix guy...wonder if he ever made it...

Buffalo Springfield were a major influence on my early musical career, but they were legendary for their inconsistent live shows...fist fights...out of tune playing and singing...but obviously monster talent. I tried to sing like Stills which for me was a really bad idea as it likely sounded like a 17 year old surfer kid who had just swallowed a frog.

Buffalo Springfield represented an "actual" lunatic fringe, using actual fringe. And "Mister Soul" was a kick a** R&R song as was "Bluebird," especially the long version. In the early 70s I saw a faux version of Buffalo Springfield consisting of Dewey Martin and a bunch of studio guys...Martin was obviously drunk, and the whole thing was really weird and somewhat shameful.