106 Iconic Acts Live!

I recently succumbed to the lure of clickbait, and went though an online checklist of How Many Of These 100 Iconic Bands Have YOU Seen Live?, or whatever it was called. I scored a mere 11 out of 100, though my grapes aren't really sour when I point out that much of the list included acts that I don't even like. At all. And it didn't include The Kinks! Sorry. I could never accept a list like this if it includes Kansas but eschews The Kinks, and Prince, and The Monkees. And The Beach Boys, fercryinoutloud!

(Among the list's other "iconic" acts? Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Warrant. Skid Row. Blues Traveler. Cinderella. Great White. Kid razzafrazzin' Rock?! This was not a list of my icons, friends.)

So I slapped together an alternative list of 106 iconic acts, including a number of acts from the previous list and subbing in many more I think should also be considered iconic. I couldn't narrow my list all the way down to a mere hundred, and it's certainly not a comprehensive listing. It's a bit shy on R & B acts, it's very light on country, features no real jazz, and it still includes both a number of acts I love and a number I don't care for (lookin' at you, Eagles and Van Halen). I arbitrarily excluded acts that were no longer performing by the second half of the '60s. But it's all just in service of a fun exercise anyway. Your mileage may vary. (And throw The Flashcubes in here, too; they might not be considered iconic, but they oughtta be!)

[Acts I've seen are noted with an asterisk. Only 38, I fear, but better'n 11]

1. AC/DC
2. Aerosmith
3. The Allman Brothers Band
4. The Animals *
5. Badfinger/Joey Molland *
6. The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson *
7. The Beatles/Paul McCartney [or those three others, too] *
8. Chuck Berry
9. Big Star/Alex Chilton *
10. Black Sabbath
11. David Bowie *
12. James Brown
13. The Byrds/Roger McGuinn
14. Johnny Cash
15. Ray Charles *
16. Cheap Trick *
17. Chicago *
18. The Clash *
19. Alice Cooper
20. Elvis Costello *
21. Cream/Eric Clapton
22. Creedence Clearwater Revival/John Fogerty
23. Bo Diddley *
24. The Doors
25. Bob Dylan *
26. The Eagles
27. Earth, Wind & Fire *
28. The Everly Brothers *
29. The Faces
30. Fleetwood Mac
31. The Four Tops *
32. Genesis/Peter Gabriel
33. The Go-Go's
34. The Grateful Dead
35. Heart
36. Jimi Hendrix
37. The Hollies
38. Iron Maiden
39. The Isley Brothers
40. The Jackson Five/Michael Jackson
41. The Jam
42. Rick James
43. Jefferson Airplane
44. Billy Joel *
45. Elton John
46. Judas Priest
47. B.B. King
48. Carole King *
49. The Kinks *
50. KISS *
51. Led Zeppelin
52. Jerry Lee Lewis
53. Little Richard
54. Lynyrd Skynyrd
55. The MC5
56. Metallica
57. Joni Mitchell
58. The Monkees *
59. The Moody Blues
60. Mott The Hoople/Ian Hunter *
61. Rick Nelson
62. The New York Dolls/Johnny Thunders/David Johansen *
63. Nirvana
64. The O'Jays
65. Roy Orbison
66. Parliament/Funkadelic
67. Tom Petty *
68. Pink Floyd
69. Iggy Pop *
70. Elvis Presley
71. The Pretenders *
72. Prince *
73. Queen
74. R.E.M.
75. The Ramones *
76. The Rascals *
77. The Raspberries
78. Otis Redding
79. The Replacements *
80. Paul Revere & the Raiders *
81. Smokey Robinson
82. The Rolling Stones *
83. Linda Ronstadt
84. The Runaways/Joan Jett *
85. Rush
86. Santana
87. The Sex Pistols
88. The Shangri-Las/Mary Weiss *
89. The Shirelles *
90. The Spinners
91. Bruce Springsteen
92. Steely Dan
93. Talking Heads *
94. The Temptations
95. Tina Turner *
96. U2
97. Van Halen
98. The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed
99. The Ventures *
100. War
101. The Who
102. Stevie Wonder
103. Yes
104. Neil Young
105. The Zombies
106. ZZ Top

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: I had legit chances to see James Brown, 3/5 of The Byrds, and Rick Nelson, but I made poor choices. I bought a ticket to see Lou Reed in 1978, but the show was cancelled. I was denied parental permission to see Alice Cooper (with my certain-to-be future bride Suzi Quatro!) in '75.

No worries, Carl. I would not have said "I do."

Furthermore, it wouldn't take much to convince me that a number of other entries in my Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery could rightly be called iconic:  The Bangles, The Bevis Frond, The Chesterfield Kings, The Crickets, The dB's, The Fleshtones, The Georgia Satellites, Debbie Harry, Herman's Hermits, John Hiatt, Joe Jackson, Tommy James, Living Colour, NRBQ, Peter, Paul & Mary, Gene Pitney, The Romantics, The Saints, The Searchers, The Skeletons, The Smithereens, The Stray Cats, and The Turtles among others. AND THE FLASHCUBES!! Dammit, I'm countin' 'em!



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