Quickly: Give me your vote for the greatest American rock and roll band.

Content: A few years ago I went to an Aerosmith concert with two of my sons and some of my childhood friends. En-route, we argued about who was the greatest American rock and roll band.

There’s rough consensus that the Brits dominate the overall list (The Who, Beatles, Stones, Zep, Cream, et. al.).But who would be at the top of the American list?

We had two rules: 1) You can’t choose an individual, so that eliminates Dylan, Elvis, and arguably Jimi, and Bruce. 2) We tolerated a smattering of Canadians, so that keeps The Band and Crazy Horse in the running.

I am ridiculously consistent, so I gave my impassioned case for The Allman Brothers Band (…if you come to Forrester’s U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, MA, you’ll find the above picture hanging in our lobby). My case for the jury: The Allmans are: 1) blues-based, a requirement in my book, 2) have an extensive catalog, 3) were/are instrumentally skilled (unlike the incompetent Dead), 4) great song writers, 5) still going/still popular, 6) complex (unlike the simplistic Skynyrd). I could go on (…and if you ever want to spend a few hours and have a few drinks, I will).

But hey, that’s my opinion. Give me your comments and votes and we’ll attempt to divine the top spot. A little diversion from all of the gloomy economic news…