Which band IS really America's Greatest (rock & roll band)?

I've spent a lot of time last few days listening to Jefferson Starship (Red Octopus, Spitfire, Earth) and a little Jefferson Airplane (but absolutely NO Starship!!) for the obvious Marty Balin reason.

As usual when I go back and listen to music from my youth one thing that always strikes me is how good the MUSICIANSHIP was. So perfect in many songs that it is taken for granted as mundane. Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Grand Funk, Aerosmith, Allmans all had serious chops in one fashion or another, be it guitar (Felder really was a great guitarist just like fellow Floridian Duane) or harmony or lyrics, they just seemed to care more about their craft and not so much the fame. 

I guess I  consider The Eagles the greatest American band in many categories. Aerosmith on some, Grand Funk in others. 

But if I was to call out the most influential All-American group it would have to be Buddy Holly and the Crickets. To me, they didn't just get the ball (rock n) rolling, they tossed it off a mountain and the snowball continues to grow. Just ask Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, The Flatlanders, Mac Davis, Natalie Maines, Delbert McClinton, Jesus....

Grateful Dead 

The is an easy one slaw... The Grateful Dead of course (as has been mentioned a few times before)

Bill, I like the kind of rock you like and I'm into the blues a good bit. However, I agree with you that your definition of rock is pretty narrow. It leaves out a lot of bands and music that almost everyone would identify as rock and also be unable to come up with another name for it.

I also agree that rock is dead. But I think it died a little later than your definition.

We all have our own different tastes and takes on things. But that's part of the value of silly threads like this....we get exposed to opinions different from our own and might even get exposed to good music we otherwise might have missed.

@n80- one thing with genres is that anybody who is innovating is gonna break the boundaries. The genre labels are like the Hollywood pitch summaries- 'it's like Die Hard Meets the Terminator on the Titanic"-- sort of sums it up, but puts it in a box. :)
I like a lot of very hard, post-psych stuff, and precursor bands-- but melody is pretty important to me. Rock and roll is very rhythmic - ke-chunk, ke-chunk, often drives it. Love hearing bands with a double bass--kind of emblematic of the early era. In terms of "best"- i leave that to those who do the listening- everybody's taste is different. Somebody with an overwhelming skill set can bore the life out of me; and somebody who doesn't have great technical skill (read Leslie West) can pull the soul out of notes.