I'm listening again the discography of UFO, one of the greatest names of rock and metal history...

Also, recently I wrote an article about Captain Beyond, a promising and amazing band that disappeared in the 70's...go check the article if you want more information about the band.


What's in your opinion the greatest rock bands in the 70's and 80's? It doesn't matter if they are famous or not...Captain Beyond is not that famous at all and are an amazing band...

Give me your top 5.. Thanks..

Haha, what a topic. What do you mean by rock? Hard rock, glam rock and that type of thing specifically, or anything loosely categorized as rock? Rock over two decades is a lot of ground to cover. >_>

If we're sticking to bands rather than solo artists, and try to avoid borderline cases (like the Cocteau Twins) my quick list might look something like this:

The Cure
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Joy Division
Black Sabbath
The Smiths

Those are the kind of big bands that immediately come to mind when I think of the 70s or 80s. With some work, I could probably make a much more accurate list. It's pretty boring to list the best bands when those decades were really a high point for solo artists:

Joni Mitchell
Kate Bush
Tom Waits
Brian Eno
Paul Simon
Leonard Cohen
Nick Drake
Laura Nyro

Could go on and on, but I think the best thing about especially the 70s were the folky singer-songwriters. The 80s saw plenty of interesting new genres and movements. Rock was really not a strong point for either decade.

Pink Floyd
Joe Walsh
Kansas
Boston
Dire Straits
Fleetwood Mac
Toto
Grateful Dead
Rainbow
UFO
There is alot of that hard rock and classic rock that i enjoy. Righteous stuff.

Boston
AC/DC
Rainbow
Iron Butterfly
Ratt

I think Axe is one of those "forgotten" bands, they play basically a more straightforward version of Deep Purple / UFO version of keyboard hard rock. Some amazing songs from them include "Burn This City Down", "Silent Soldiers" and one of my newly favorite ballads ever, "Battles", which features an absolutely beastly powerful chorus and guitar solo.

I discovered them while checking out the bands in this year's Sweden Rock Festival line-up.

How 'bout Lucifer's Friend? Another forgotten band, but they have a damn fine s/t record from 1970.

Blue Oyster Cult (highly recommended)
Budgie (everyone should know this I dare say)
Bloodrock (American hard rock but quite adventurous)
Epitaph (German band, their early albums are great)
Trapeze (Glenn Hughes's first band)

I'll be back with some more.

Pink Floyd
The Allman Brothers Band
Led Zeppelin
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Rush
Camel
Queen
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bob Dylan
Blue Öyster Cult
Cheap Trick
Fleetwood Mac
Ramones
Dire Straits
AC/DC
Creedence Clearwater Revival

Written by In Bone Factory on 08.09.2015 at 18:57

Pink Floyd
The Allman Brothers Band
Led Zeppelin
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Rush
Camel
Queen
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bob Dylan
Blue Öyster Cult
Cheap Trick
Fleetwood Mac
Ramones
Dire Straits
AC/DC
Creedence Clearwater Revival

great list, the only thing is that I wouldn't put Dylan and CCR as examples of 70s music when they both released their essential works in the 60s.

I love 70s progressive rock, too many bands to mention, nice to see Camel in your list, one of my favorite bands.

Written by [user id=17278] on 09.09.2015 at 10:47

Written by In Bone Factory on 08.09.2015 at 18:57

Pink Floyd
The Allman Brothers Band
Led Zeppelin
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Rush
Camel
Queen
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bob Dylan
Blue Öyster Cult
Cheap Trick
Fleetwood Mac
Ramones
Dire Straits
AC/DC
Creedence Clearwater Revival

great list, the only thing is that I wouldn't put Dylan and CCR as examples of 70s music when they both released their essential works in the 60s.

I love 70s progressive rock, too many bands to mention, nice to see Camel in your list, one of my favorite bands.

You're right pal. I just didnt want my list to miss them. And yeah Camel is great.

For 70s hard rock my favourites are,

Rainbow
Whitesnake
UFO
Status Quo
Deep Purple

Zebra

Top 5 70´s Hard Rock

1.KISS
2.Alice Cooper
3.Van Halen
4.Judas Priest
5.Black Sabbath

So Many bands, classics.

Someone remembers 80s super group Hear 'n Aid whit song Stars


Here is new version

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/foreigner-rainbow-stryper-house-of-lords-members-team-up-for-frontiers-all-stars-push-through-single/

Steely Dan.

I don't know what else to say than they're phenomenally good, far from hard rock and metal, but the quality is definitely there. The amount of sweet old school guitar work on their original albums is plain ridiculous.

Written by Metal Diogenes on 22.08.2020 at 04:46

Steely Dan.

I don't

Drink scotch whisky all night long. I have few if their albums. Its good, have been a while. As you mention them, Peter Framton came in my Mind as well