Can Rock-N-Roll have great sound quality?

Maich is dead on... but IMO great recording quality is not always required to achieve lift off, anyway, other evil serious (and well recorded) brain bombs are available from:
Dysrhythmia,(all three are good)
Dr. Nerve (Skin)
Trevor Dunn (Trio Convulsant)
Hasse Bruniusson (Flying Food Circus)
Coryell/Coster/Smith (Cause And Effect)
Massacre (w/ Fred Frith start w/ 2 or 3)
Il Berlione
Don Caballero
P.O.N.
Jonas Hellborg (Time Is The Ememy, Abstract Logic)
Nekropsi (Mi Kubbesi)
Alamaailman Vasarat (1st)
David Fiuczynski (Kif, or Mandala)
Harriett Tubman (Prototype)
Bone Structure (Bendian/Stinson/Gauthier/Liebig)
Ruins (Vrresto... most of their others are kinetic monsters too, don't waste yer' time w/ Magma, this two man band easily eclipses them).

Maybe not so depraved, but still pretty narcotic:

Kollektiv (1st)
Guru Guru (Kanguru)
Sonic Youth (A Thousand Leaves, Sonic Nurse)
Ganger (Hammock Style)
Priam (3 Distances)
Tarental (Any)
Boom (One Hour Talisman)
Ui (Two sided Sharpie)
Tortoise (1st 3)

What does your system consist of. I spent nearly 2 years trying to make this work. I listen to everything from AC/DC to Zeppelin. I have got it real darn close. Some recordings just plain suck and you will never get them to sound good. But I would say I have got about 90% of them down. Everything needs to be forgiving. I am running tubes and analog, so I don't know what you have.

.....this all reminds me of my ultimate system back in the late seventies........the BEST of the BEST analogue.
Dirty, filthy grungy gonzo rock n roll sounded like a cruel joke on my purist system. The Frederic Fennel (sp?) demo albums just didn't cut it when I needed a "Raw Power" fix.
Marakanetz is so right re: classic rock.......tone controls and be one with the music......to hell with the "sound".

I have to jump in here as I mainly listen to rock and am a recovering Audiophile. I still enjoy the hobby but I am not an extremist as I used to be. I once built this system for absolute accuracy and it would absolutely sound amazing with good recordings. (YBA Integrated amp, JM Lab Speakers, Silver Interconnects, Spkr Wire etc) The problem I found was most of what I wanted to listen to was not recorded perfect.

I then found myself searching the world over for "good recordings" and not for "good Music" that I really wanted to pursue. Well, I finally came to my senses and sold my complete system here on Audiogon and put together what I have now. It still sounds fantastic on great recordings yet is forgiving enough to enjoy 99% of my collection. Do some discs sound better than others, absolutely! However, I can through in most anything and enjoy it. For me that is what this hobby is really about! Enjoying Music!

Chris

AC/DC "Back in Black"
Metallica "Metallica"
Porcupine Tree "In Absentia"
Alice in Chains "Essential Alice in Chains"
Soundgarden "Superunkown"

These are all well recorded, SMOKIN' recordings. You can't go wrong.