West Coast vs. West Coast

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Yeah, pickings seem to be few and far-between! There's basically nothing available for nook or kindle, either.

LA wins easily but you could sorta add Creedence to the SF list in terms of geography and timing if not sound.

Putting Beefheart/Zappa/Mothers in the generic ”etc” category in the poll text seems kinda weird

I went by the Rhino box sets for those lists--they weren't included, so they slipped my mind (ditto CCR). Not a comment on either.

Also you can't really vote SF without overlooking all the great factory/industry pop in LA....maybe LA vs Detroit would be a more fair fight w motown in addition to the pfunk/stooges etc?

At some point in '66 John Fogerty was drafted into the Army Reserve and he only re-entered civilian life in July '67. Also, Doug Clifford was in the Coast Guard Reserve around this time. Perhaps CCR's link with the San Francisco scene was broken in some sense by missing out on that crucial period of it.

The first couple of CCR lps sound like they're being influenced by what's going on around them in SF. Extended jammed songs on the first lp & a lot of the same feeling on the 2nd. Seems like they change quite a bit, get more succinct and less repetitively expansive by the 3rd lp.

Ramble Tamble extendedness seems to have a different feel to that of Suzy Q certainly.
So that's '68 and early '69 where they still sound like they fit in.
There are 3 or 4 different lps in '69 so not sure if that's reflecting different influences or different production. What I've heard of live stuff from that time sounds like its got a lot of the feel that their Suzy Q has, jammed out stuff.

The LA region is so much larger and more populous than SF that it's really not a fair fight. With that in mind, LA scene (or anti-scene, maybe) just seems more diverse, so many different bands with different approaches, as opposed to a bunch of ex-folkies jamming on Gibson SGs (plus Sly the outlier.) So it's LA pretty easily, but I have high regard for the SF scene nonetheless - really, I like practically everyone mentioned on this thread so far.

50ft Hose definitely a point in San Fran's favour, but nowhere near enough.

United States of America easily balances that out for LA's side.

I always forget the United States was from LA. Yeah I am comfortable with my vote...

USA were very short lived though. Less than 6 months in the recording line-up I think.

Some other LA bands that haven't been mentioned yet but are worth consideration:

Leaves, Dovers, The Merry Go Round, The Rising Sons, Alice Cooper, Millennium, Sagittarius, The Association, The Smoke, October Country, The Ballroom, Eternity's Children

Davie Allan & the Arrows

might as well allow Dr. John in there too

also the beach boys are better than every single norcal band in history so

otm x 1000 (except for sly)

i realize this is a boring un-hip opinion and everyone who's cool has long since moved on to being 'over' hating the dead but it needs to be said: the grateful dead are still the worst of the fucking worst

Worse even than the Airplane? Your animosity spilleth over...

i was probably going a bit overboard upthread -- i do like a couple airplane songs.

Well apart from them 9grateful Dead) being absolutely brilliant up to 1974 at least. Well at least lots of their recorded material the ability to fail live just added to the risk which made it more interesting. But there is hours of very good impro rock that is amazing

One Dead song I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't get with their wandering stuff: "Cold Rain and Snow" from their debut. Just a great pop song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7qkbF8PbtE

Well apart from them 9grateful Dead) being absolutely brilliant up to 1974 at least. Well at least lots of their recorded material the ability to fail live just added to the risk which made it more interesting. But there is hours of very good impro rock that is amazing

― Stevolende, Monday, June 3, 2013 4:23 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ stoned right now

xp
lame song

Not stoned at all. Fact , the Grateful dead put out fantastic music up until their '74 retirement and some afterwards. & there is literally hours of amazing impro rock that is scorching, possibly hundreds of hours.
The band in full flight, especially between '68 and '70 is amazing.

so stoned

get ahold of yourself man

We made history last night by getting you to admit you were wrong about something, iatee; I'm hoping you'll also come around on "Cold Rain and Snow" someday.

you were having an acid flashback clem I never admitted I was wrong

lol

a billboard article from nov 14, 1970 has convinced me I am wrong

― iatee, Sunday, June 2, 2013 10:14 PM (Yesterday)

Flashing back all over again.

http://i.imgur.com/hIlaWeS.jpg

Just a great pop song.

this song sucks fyi

Well, I don't think I'm making any converts here--along with "China Cat Sunflower" and "Friend of the Devil," it's my favourite Dead song.

if you're not stoned right now yet you're participating in a thread called "west coast vs. west coast" about which city had a better '60s rock scene, then I really question wtf you're doing with your life.

some really boring trolling in this thread, I grew up in SoCal and have spent hours & hours rolling out anti-NoCal hate, good times on Friday nights. ~When I was a teenager.~ Not afterwards though. Anybody got some "hippies are smelly!" jokes? Lol!!

I stick with what I'm saying. Dead have a larger archive of recorded material than most and between the late 60s & mid 70s there is a stack of jaw dropping music by them. They were incredible in full flight. As out there as pretty much anybody before or since.

NorCal is a better place than SoCal it just made worse music

San Francisco is too nice to really inspire good music whereas the beach boys were inspired by the bleakness and despair that is Los Angeles

This turned out a lot more strident than I expected. I actually thought it'd be everyone tripping over each other about how great such-and-such are. Instead it's been the Jefferson Airplane are awful, the Beach Boys are awful, the Grateful Dead are awful, etc.

Santana up to Caravenserai is really some of the best shit ever, just incredibly pleasurable music.

Peanut Butter Conspiracy are good.

This turned out a lot more strident than I expected. I actually thought it'd be everyone tripping over each other about how great such-and-such are. Instead it's been the Jefferson Airplane are awful, the Beach Boys are awful, the Grateful Dead are awful, etc.

hey you're the one who was claiming the Charlatans were equals to the Beach Boys! just because the beach boys had the nerve to make music that was so great you listened to it until you were utterly sick of it.

San Francisco is too nice to really inspire good music whereas the beach boys were inspired by the bleakness and despair that is Los Angeles

true. freaks vs. hippies sums it up really. a bunch of nice, well educated kids playing dress up vs. some truly strange and damaged people, hustlers, social climbers, and just the overall dregs of society.

"I OD'd on Endless Summer as a teenager, and I'm not as enamored of Pet Sounds and beyond as everyone else"--that doesn't exactly seem the same as saying such-and-such is the worst thing ever. I also said I realized I'd be alone on valuing the Charlatans just as much.

I mean, that's fine. I'm just saying I'm surprised that some of these bands are so hated.

"just because the beach boys had the nerve to make music that was so great..."

Where do you come up with stuff like this?! You're saying you never get a little tired of certain artists because you went through a period where you played them too much?

I was just giving you a hard time. I do think that some of the hate on this thread must be exaggerated. a lot of the time "that sucks" really means, "if pushed, I would begrudgingly accept that it's classic but I've heard it too much and am bored of it."

One thing that definitely interferes with my feelings about the Beach Boys today--I suppose it shouldn't, but it does--is the idea that they've never stopped, that they're still out there going through the motions and playing these songs. I think of Mike Love, and that interferes. Ditto the Rolling Stones, ditto the Who. (Bob Dylan and Neil Young, being so idiosyncratic, are spared from that.) The Charlatans, Moby Grape, Beau Brummels, even Sly, that's not a problem--it's easier to romanticize them, and easier to keep some of that mystery intact. Again, not fair, but a reality for me.

the last Beach Boys album actually had some startlingly good stuff on it

true story

Surprised nobody added Flying Burritos Bros to the LA pile-on.

just the overall dregs of society.

Grateful Dead fans iirc

i saw one of the BBs 'reunion' concerts last year and i was kinda stunned by how good it was. probably as much due to the backup band as anything, but nearly all the songs sounded great.