West Coast vs. West Coast

not even close

Sorry, the San Francisco list got cut off: Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Charlatans, Beau Brummels, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe & the Fish, Moby Grape, Sly & the Family Stone, Steve Miller Band, Big Brother & the Holding Company, etc.

I took the lists from these Rhino box sets:

L.A.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Action_Is!_Los_Angeles_Nuggets_1965%E2%80%931968
San Francisco: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Song-Sing-Francisco-1965-1970/dp/B000PHX0VE

It's not that clear-cut for me.

From those two lists, LA easily. Though if the Doors and Sly & the Family Stone could swap houses, that would be even better.

^ this

I think it'd be about dead even for me. The Byrds and the Airplane are in my personal pantheon, so that'd be close to a wash. (In and of itself, that alone would tip the scales well towards L.A. for most people.) When I work down from there--Buffalo Springfield vs. Sly, Beach Boys vs. Charlatans--they're all almost even.

Are the Byrds that much more popular than the Airplane? Those two are probably even for me too. (Being an asshole, though, I might actually like Red Octopus even more than the Airplane albums i know.)

i voted San Francisco because of Sly and the Family Stone. I'm not an expert on 60s San Fran psychedelia but I like Jefferson Airplane well enough and I get the sense that that city was an exciting place to be at that time in a way that LA just wasn't.

never heard of Beau Brummels. worth checking out?

the LA draft features two of my favourite artists of all time, so that's obviously how i'm gonna vote

(xxxpost) I think the Byrds are pretty revered, at least in the context of something like ILM; the Airplane, I think, are somewhat relegated to the wings.

On the classic-rock and oldies radio, both are now pretty much confined to a couple of songs: "Somebody to Love"/"White Rabbit" and "Mr. Tambourine Man"/"Turn! Turn! Turn!" (with "Eight Miles High" getting some FM airplay).

Beau Brummels had some great songs: love "Don't Talk to Strangers," "When It Comes to Your Love," and "Sad Little Girl."

LA by a vast margin. The Magic Band! The Mothers! West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Van Dyke Parks, Nilsson, Electric Prunes, etc. So many more great bands in LA at that time.

never heard of Beau Brummels. worth checking out?

Bradley's Barn is a good country rock album. the earlier stuff is OK.

I get the sense that that city was an exciting place to be at that time in a way that LA just wasn't.

not true at all. although you're really talking two different time periods. LA was the place to be until they shut down the strip and then the action moved up north. Still LA was better for a lot longer. SF scene was good for what, a year?

if the Doors and Sly & the Family Stone could swap houses, that would be even better.

Sly arguably did his best stuff after moving to LA

Beach Boys vs. Charlatans--they're all almost even.

lol, come on

For me, yes. I OD'd on Endless Summer as a teenager, and I'm not as enamored of Pet Sounds and beyond as everyone else; the Charlatans have four songs--"Alabama Bound," "Walkin'," "Time to Get Straight," and "Number One" that are all-time favourites, and I can't say that of the Beach Boys anymore. Obviously, I realize I'm alone on this.

Codine is great too. But yeah, you have to admit that's pretty batshit.

For me it comes down to:

Byrds, Love, Beach Boys, Doors, Mothers, Beefheart, Buffalo Springfield, Seeds, Kaleidoscope, Turtles, Mamas & Papas, Monkees, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Van Dyke Parks, Electric Prunes, United States of America

vs

Blue Cheer, Dead, Airplane, Sly, Charlatans, Beau Brummels, Country Joe & the Fish

it kills me to vote SF but most of the 60s LA stuff people revere is stuff I just don't care about at all whereas SF has the Dead and Moby Grape and Sly & the Family Stone and Santana, who were killer back then. Beefheart & Zappa yes indeed but I'll take the Dead & Sly over them and that's what this comes down to for me

I don't think the Mothers are on that Rhino box, so I missed them on the summary list. The best songs on Freak Out! are probably enough to move my vote over to L.A.

Mays vs. Koufax would be nearly as tough for me.

la : for the seeds alone ..

Confluence of Beefheart, Neil Young, & Arthur Lee is enough to cinch it for LA for me, but the existence of Sly and CCR makes it v close, not to mention how much better the Dead and the Airplane were than the Byrds

ps Moby Grape blows

Aargh--CCR! S.F. just opened up a clear lead for me.

Love the first Moby Grape LP, also a few songs from '69:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnr_JvIc4So

Let's Get Together vs. For What It's Worth

i voted San Francisco because of Sly and the Family Stone. I'm not an expert on 60s San Fran psychedelia but I like Jefferson Airplane well enough and I get the sense that that city was an exciting place to be at that time in a way that LA just wasn't.

― the strange and important sound of the synthesizer (Treeship), Saturday, June 1, 2013 3:12 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Didn't George Harrison once describe San Francisco in the '60s as being "full of spotty dropout kids on drugs"? I remember reading or at least hearing that he wasn't incredibly impressed when he went there to visit and that he was kinda expecting some kinda 'happening' place and was sorely disappointed.

Anyways, this is LA for me... by miles!

LA was probably incredibly exciting to be in at the time, and that's not even counting the fact that a bunch of creepy friends of a lot of those musicians were going around murdering people

I wonder what the SF scene would have been like if John Phillips hadn't organized Monterey Pop and written San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair). The SF music scene was basically invented by LA!

Also are we talking where musicians were born (can't count people like Neil Young for LA then), what the club scene was like (who cares unless you have a time machine), or which place made more great records? If it's the latter we get to count the first four Jefferson Airplane albums and the first couple Grateful Dead albums as LA albums.

The Mamas and Papas basically make it no contest for me. on the other hand, I'll bet it would have been tons more fun to actually be in SF during the 60s!

no reason to go to sf until '67 or so though. would have been pretty damn great to be a teenager in LA in the early to mid '60s and do stuff like go to the TAMI show or see Beefheart and the Magic Band win the battle of the bands at the Teenage Fair!

I guess it would be worth going up to SF around the time of the Trips festival in 66

Not mentioned yet for L.A. - Standells and Music Machine.

I wonder what the SF scene would have been like if John Phillips hadn't organized Monterey Pop and written San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair). The SF music scene was basically invented by LA!

lol, no.

voted for Sly Stone

Oh yeah, if were counting CCR, then the Bay Area easily. Otherwise, LA easily.

lol, no.

thousands of teenagers didn't flock to SF because of bill graham.

I hate the SF psych stuff but the two shining paragons of the scene - Sly and CCR - tower so far above anybody else (except the Beach Boys), I'm inclined to vote SF here. but it's close.

kills me to vote against sly for any reason but i hate pretty much every band on the SF list. the airplane in particular are easily one of the worst bands of the '60s.

not to mention how much better the Dead and the Airplane were than the Byrds

ugh puke argh

ccr are not really sf

Where were they living?

"There was no San Francisco sound when we started playing. There weren't any bands in the high school district we were in. We were the only rock and roll band practically on the East Bay," Clifford said. "We played what we liked, and that was blues. The real blues. The raw blues ... and country, the real country, Hank Williams and the like."

http://www.wiscnews.com/news/local/article_59ccc37e-46b5-11e0-8025-001cc4c03286.html

That isn't the same as saying they weren't from San Francisco, just that they predated a particular sound that supposedly emerged from there. From the same article: "Living in the Bay area in the early 1960s there were a lot of diverse cultural styles in the music world and no real sound."

the airplane in particular are easily one of the worst bands of the '60s.

Ouch--I must present counter-evidence and flee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCVMWx08Nmk

San Francisco and El Cerrito are very, very different places

thousands of teenagers didn't flock to SF because of bill graham.

actually in part they did. Bill Graham as a promoter was so far ahead of everybody else's game it can't even be calculated. He understood what people wanted in terms of shows: what they wanted, how the shows had to feel, how what was going on was different from what had gone on in the fifties. Bill Graham was the guy who packaged it, and thousands of teenagers flocked to SF because the sense they were getting from the media was that that was a package they wanted to buy into it. Thousands of teenagers didn't flock to SF because of a miraculous grassroots groundswell. There was a shit-ton of marketing involved and a lot of money to be made, and Bill Graham knew how to play the angles on that without too too many people getting cynical or suspicious.

I mean I guess you can argue "the Fillmore wasn't that big a part of the whole SF music scene from '65 onward" if you want but you will be talking utter nonsense

bill graham should write a letter to morrissey, maybe help him out

Aren't you splitting hairs, iatee? From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bio:

The origins of the group date back to 1959, when guitarist Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford formed the Blue Velvets, an instrumental cover band, while attending junior high in the San Francisco suburb of El Cerrito.

If three-quarters of the band, including Fogerty, first met as junior high students in a San Francisco suburb, that seems more San Francisco to me than some of these bands where the personnel came from other parts of the country altogether.

it's not really a san francisco suburb. it's a small town in the east bay that's, if anything, a suburb of oakland. someone growing up in el cerrito at that time is fairly isolated from the city of san francisco.

Generic Flipper would be my favourite album from the punk group, and the Avengers' "The Amerikan in Me" probably my favourite song. I'd still vote L.A. for the combined X/Germs/Black Flag output, plus the Dead Kennedys would be a huge minus.

Generic and Fresh Fruit are two of my favorite albums of the 80s, plus the Avengers. Also: wasnt Chrome kind of in that scene? SF punk all the way...

But wait Gun Club is LA arent they? Maybe its not so clear cut :/

huh I always thought all these bands were from the same place ¯\(°_o)/¯

I only know country joe from the st to the movie of quiet days in clichy which I watched a lot as a teenager ahem

Thats not trolling; thats doing battle w dreaded foe iatee

iatee and I are fellow Steely Dan heads, I don't think our blood feud carries over to ILM for the most part

OC punk even beats SF

Chrome is the only good band from San Francisco, but they're progressive rock.

El Chicano was way better than Santana

yeah our blood feud is mostly politics/worldview but it is kinda appropriate that aero loathes my favorite band

don't forget Flesheaters/Horsemen/Chris D.!!!

does Pedro count as L.A.?

OC punk even beats SF

I think this is a makeable case

yeah, I was kind of serious with that. DI, Adolescents, I guess TSOL was from Long Beach so maybe they don't count as OC.

does Pedro count as L.A.?

it's called the Port of Los Angeles for a reason

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nardcore
"Early bands in the Nardcore scene included Agression, Dr. Know, False Confession, Ill Repute, Habeas Corpus, RKL (Rich Kids on LSD) and Scared Straight."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ9GyqL8eOs

The Residents & Negativland vs. the LA Free Music Society?

My 10 favorite songs from each side, no duplications allowed:

L.A.: "She Don't Care About Time" (Byrds), "Rock and Roll Woman" (Buffalo Springfield), "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (Beach Boys), "Egyptian Gardens" (Kaleidoscope), "You Showed Me" (Turtles), "Trouble Every Day" (Mothers of Invention), "Got a Feelin'" (Mamas & Papas), "Take a Giant Step" (Monkees), "Christine's Tune" (Flying Burrito Brothers), "Going Up the Country" (Canned Heat).

San Francisco: "Mexico" (Jefferson Airplane), "Hot Fun in the Summertime" (Sly & the Family Stone), "Ramble Tamble" (CCR), "Alabama Bound" (Charlatans), "Cold Rain and Snow" (Grateful Dead), "Omaha" (Moby Grape), "When It Comes to Your Love" (Beau Brummels), "Janis" (Country Joe & the Fish), "Down on Me" (Big Brother & Holding Company), "Dino's Song" (Quicksilver Messenger Service).

If I started rating those songs out of 10, "Dino's Song" is the only one I'd give less than a 9, and it'd be close. There'd be many 10s, more on the San Francisco side. I'm much more of a song than album guy, so if I put discographies aside--and I realize that's inconceivable for most people--and base the comparison on my very favourite songs only, San Francisco would just barely win.

Like NickB posted, not voting for the Byrds in any context feels wrong to me. But San Francisco it is.

Mexico and Ramble Tamble are both 1970. LA wins again.

Good point--I did say '65-69. I could change those to "It's No Secret"/"Come Up the Years"/"Today"/"We Could Be Together" or "Bad Moon Rising"/"Fortunate Son" (most of my favourite Creedence stuff is '70/'71) and it would barely move the needle, though.

(You're trying to give me a hard time again, right?)

too late. disqualified!
xp

the court rules in favor of Los Angeles

http://monkees.coolcherrycream.com/include/w.php?i=images/season-1/14-dance-monkee-dance/0509-mike-davy.jpg

Sorry, I know those two guys, and they're from El Cerrito.

nah, you're thinking of that other bubblegum act

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

sonned francisco

appalling result.

actually, it's not. it's just different from how i voted. the beach boys were a pretty good band i guess.

From the tenor of the posts, that's about what I expected. Thank goodness for El Cerrito.

why not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkwvz2JD2PQ

That's a good one--familiar, think I have it on a compilation. "Free Advice" is my favourite by them.

yeah grace slick's vocal part in that is awesome. bay area acid rock was good stuff.

Voted LA, but I expect this to be a lot closer

i think people here might hate the grateful dead more than the doors because they are insane

I'M NOT CRAZY

dead has considerable support on ilx, they did pretty well in a series of polls putting them head to head against their peers last year. someone should probably redo all of those, see if the numbers have changed.

interesting. i know that "jam bands" as a rule aren't popular here, but i have always liked the dead's studio recordings better than their live stuff. touch of grey is my favorite dead song by light years... which probably marks me as someone who doesn't like them very much, but i think they are more palatable than the doors who are tedious and self-important in my view. i voted san fran because of the psychedelic rock scene and sly stone.

you are both too old and too young for the doors, the lizard waits for you but you do not yet know it.

L.A. just comes at this from too many directions imo. Apart from the mega-huge rock groups, it was EASILY the biggest garage rock scene in the whole country (Standells, Love, Music Machine, Seeds, Leaves, etc.) and a major pop hub.

I don't expect much agreement, but I think the Nuggets bands as a whole are overrated. Not their most famous songs--those are great. (You can get a lot of them in one place: Nuggets.) I've collected a fair amount of music from the Standells, Music Machine, Seeds, etc. over the years, and once you get past the "Moulty"s and "Pushin' Too Hard"s, there's not a lot. There's not a garage album I've ever heard that's nearly as good as the first Moby Grape LP.

I know, I know--the ghost of Lester Bangs just gave me the finger.

There are certainly garage band greatest hits albums that are as good or better than the first Moby Grape LP. The Music Machine had an incredible run of singles, the first three of which were big-time double A-sides:

"Talk Talk" / "Come On In" (1966)
"The People in Me" / "Masculine Intuition" (1967)
"Double Yellow Line" / "Absolutely Positively" (1967)

I've got this one:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GMBEJY7KL.jpg

They do a great "Cherry, Cherry," I'll give you that.

are albums the point?

Who knows? Whoever came up with this poll didn't set the parameters very clearly.

knew LA would take this but damn

don't think I even voted :-/

this is relevant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq19haZ0w7s

haha wow, I missed these results! groovy.