Episode 1: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’60s First Round)

Punk singer Matthew Brennan (currently in Deep Pockets) and fellow music nerd Scott Floman (author of The Story Of Rock and Soul Music: Album Reviews and Lists and Greatest Underrated Guitar Solos) have joined forces to talk about music.

The first several episodes will feature NCAA Tournament type brackets  (one each for the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s) that will attempt to  determine the greatest rock band/solo artist of all-time. We spent a  fair amount of time on choosing which of the 64 bands/solo artists  should be entered, the seedings/match ups, and of course the winners,  but the actual conversations about the match ups was 100% spontaneous,  and we did minimal editing afterwards (Matt did all the technical work there so thanks Matt!). In other words, what you hear is what you get,  but we’ll try to correct some obvious mistakes we made via the Notes section below.

Matchups for this episode:

(1) The Beatles vs. (16) Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Sometimes Young)

(2) Elvis Presley vs. (15) Cream

(3) Bob Dylan vs. (14) The Byrds

(4) The Rolling Stones vs. (13) The Doors

(5) Jimi Hendrix vs. (12) The Band

(6) The Beach Boys vs. (11) The Velvet Underground

(7) The Who vs. (10) Simon & Garfunkel

(8) The Kinks vs. (9) Creedence Clearwater Revival 

Notes for this episode:

To be clear, we slotted bands in particular decades based on when they peaked artistically (though we made some exceptions for the '80s which you'll see later). However, the winner of each match up is based on their entire career, not just that decade. 

Scott completely botches the word “coronavirus”! 

Scott incorrectly contradicts Matt about how the winners of each  match up are chosen. Ignore that part! The winners were somewhat  objectively picked, though obviously our personal preferences will inevitably come into play as well.

Scott incorrectly called Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by the  title “Can’t Stop Falling In Love” – same sentiment but wrong word.

Scott completely botches trying to say “sadomasochism” – should’ve just stuck with S&M!

Scott incorrectly said that David Crosby left The Byrds during the  recording of the fourth album. He was thinking of the right album, but The Notorious Byrd Brothers was actually the fifth Byrds album, not fourth (that was Younger Than Yesterday – both of these are Scott’s favorite Byrds albums, BTW).

Most of Cream’s studio songs were 3-4+ minutes, not 2 minutes. And by pioneering live improvisation, we meant specifically for rock bands;  that practice was already common for jazz bands. Cream was also one of the first power trios which we failed to mention. 

When talking about The Band-Dylan connection, we should’ve mentioned The Basement Tapes as well (though maybe we do so in a later episode). Also, although The Band peaked early on the first two albums, they did have other high-quality albums thereafter as well. 

Nico was only on the first Velvet Underground album (not “albums”) called The Velvet Underground & Nico.

The original “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was actually by  Gladys Knight & The Pips, the more classic version everyone is familiar with by Marvin Gaye came after that.

When discussing The Who's live prowess we should've also mentioned Live At Leeds, considered by many to be the greatest live album ever.