Fresh Cream and the Top 10 Power Trios of All Time

7. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
Double Trouble - drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon - are sometimes dismissed as mere sidemen for Texas' primo guitar hero. As anybody who saw the group perform at Fitzgerald's back in the day could probably tell you, though, the spiritual connection between the trio went quite a bit deeper than that.

Built around the callous-shredding leads and plaintive vocals of the inimitable Stevie Ray, the band's one-of-a-kind sound still stands as the pinnacle of blues-rock perfection, widely imitated to this day by big touring acts and neighborhood bar bands all over the world.

6. Nirvana
Kurt Cobain probably would've hated being grouped into the same category as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Green Day, but it's not like he stuck around to defend himself, so fuck it. Nirvana needed nothing more than Cobain's distressed guitar and vocals, Dave Grohl's pounding drums and Krist Novoselic's thudding bass to wipe out an entire generation's worth of rock excess from the mainstream, becoming MTV darlings and future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers in the process.

Back in the early '90s, the three of them packed more of a punch than the two guitarists, conga player and female brass section that Guns N' Roses was trotting out every night on tour.

5. Motorhead
Anchored by the violent strumming and phlegmy vocals of one of rock and roll's greatest badasses, Motorhead has risen no shortage of hell with a variety of lineups over the past 37 years, but for our money, the best tunes were "cranked" out (get it?) by the classic trio of Lemmy on bass, "Fast" Eddie Clarke on guitar and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on skins.

Amphetamine-fueled stompers like "Ace of Spades" and "Overkill" were gnarly enough to earn the respect of punks who wouldn't have been caught dead listening to Judas Priest, and the modern version of the band continues to compel heads to bang hard long after each of those guys should've started drawing a pension.