Song of the Moment

J. Cole - Lost Ones

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

If I Leave Here Tomorrow, Would You Still Remember Me?

Much of my ramblings lately just seem to be one post makes me think of something to do next. Well, after posting about Pink Floyd, it made me think about classic rock in general. A long time ago, I created a 50 best rap songs of all time (I'll post that sometime in the future too) and I decided to do the same with classic rock. Now, there are a couple rules to this. 1) One song per artist (I know, I know - then it's not really a top 50 songs of all time, but part of my goal is to get people to listen to some songs they never heard of before). 2) The repeatability factor is huge. These songs are obviously classics, you can't get sick of 'em. 3. Hits don't mean anything. Just because the masses liked it, doesn't mean it'll be on my list. There will be cases in which I pick an obscure song that I just think is WAY better than one that was super popular. 4. "The Dude" said it best, this is just my opinion, man. Please disagree with me on these! I will put 50 songs (in only alphabetical order) that I think are in the top of that genre. I will even add a dozen honorable mentions or so. Comment on how stupid my picks are for an individual artist, or artists that I omitted and I should be shot for. Let's get the debate rolling!

TOP 50 (NOT IN ORDER OF GOODNESS!!!):
  • ACDC - Hells Bells
  • Allman Brothers - Jessica
  • Bad Company - Bad Company
  • Beatles - I Am The Walrus
  • Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine
  • Black Sabbath - War Pigs
  • Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone
  • Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry
  • Bob Seger - Against the Wind
  • Boston - Foreplay/Long Time
  • Canned Heat - Going Up the Country
  • CCR - Someday Never Comes
  • Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
  • Deep Purple - Child In Time
  • Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
  • Doobie Brothers - Black Water
  • Doors - Roadhouse Blues
  • Eagles - Hotel California
  • Elton John - Tiny Dancer
  • Eric Clapton - Bell Bottom Blues
  • Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
  • Grateful Dead - Casey Jones
  • Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
  • Jethro Tull - Aqualung
  • Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child
  • Kingsmen - Louie Louie
  • Kinks - Lola
  • Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  • Marshall Tucker Band - Can't You See
  • Motorhead - Ace of Spades
  • Mott the Hoople - All The Young Dudes
  • Neil Young - Southern Man
  • Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
  • Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
  • Rush - 2112 Overture
  • Santana - She's Not There
  • Simon and Garfunkel - Sound of Silence
  • Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle With You
  • Steely Dan - Do It Again
  • Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
  • Steve Miller - The Joker
  • Stevie Ray Vaughn - Pride And Joy
  • Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
  • The Band - The Weight
  • The Cars - Moving in Stereo
  • The Who - The Seeker
  • Tom Petty - Learning to Fly
  • Van Morrison - Moondance
  • Yes - Roundabout
HONORABLE MENTION:
Buffalo Springfield - For What it's Worth
Cat Stevens - Wild World
Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4
Foghat - Slow Ride
Guess Who - American Woman
Harry Chapin - Taxi
Jackson Browne - Stay
Janis Joplin - Piece of My Heart
Joe Walsh - Life's Been Good
Styx - Renegade
Supertramp - School
War - Low Rider

This post is long enough as is, so I won't go into detail as to why I've picked what I've picked. There are 62 really good songs on this list that you should check out if you've never heard. And again, comment back with your likes and dislikes.

9 comments:

  1. 'learn to fly' instead of 'breakdown?' epic failure.

    i knew you'd have dazed and confused in there, but i was expecting it to place higher.

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  2. Breakdown is not super high on my list. I also would have had Into the Great Wide Open above Breakdown.

    As stated though, these songs are not in order of 1-50 favorites. They're just in alphabetical order. Putting them in the order of greatness would be even more difficult.

    Keep the comments coming!

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  3. I disagree with your use of the word "alphabetical"!
    Pretty sure Bob Dylan would be under D (not B) and CCR technically comes after Cream for Creedence! I made a playlist on grooveshark.com. I will be taking a listen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Haha...as long as you know they're not in order in which I think they stand in terms of all time ranking, I'm good. I might actually sit down and try to do that soon, when I have more time.

    Please let me know what you think of some of the songs you hadn't heard before. There are some gems in there!

    Tune me into some of the cool things JenInTosa is grooving to that I'm not aware of as well!

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  5. GOtta love foreplay/long time, but "SOmeday never comese for CCR? DUde.okay fine. It's your list. NO styx in the top 50? where's "Cherry BOmb"?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Peterman, thanks for the comments!

    I feel like CCR has a bunch of good songs but none that are just incredible. I could have also gone with Fortunate Son, but I like those two about the same.

    Styx got the honorable mention nod. Scuba Steve would call me a cynical asshole, but I just don't think they really belong up there.

    Cherry Bomb...nice. I'll have Mikey review that someday, I bet he gives it 0 out of 5.

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  7. So what exactly is "Classic Rock"? You got everything from 60's to the 90's. (Right? The Tom Petty song is from 1991.)
    I guess my biggest critique is the fact that you go from Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix to Simon & Garfunkel, Elton John and Bob Marley. This playlist also made me want to go play some Guitar Hero III.

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  8. You have a good point. 20 years old is right around classic time frame - but I can see you're argument about spanning genres. 1991 might be cutting it a little tight, as I wouldn't have anything in there from the alternative revolution that occurred right in that time frame, or shortly after.

    S&G, Allman Bros may not be in the same exact category as Zeppelin or Floyd, but those lines are a bit blurred to me. Pink Floyd wasn't really "rock" either, as most of it was electronic. I guess that'd be more in the Styx or Supertramp or even Boston category.

    It'll be interesting in the future to see how we classify the music from "our" generation. Will STP, Soundgarden get lumped into the same categories as Creed, or Rage? There are probably three different types of music there, but they all were big during the same time frame. Great comment Jen!

    If nothing else, it's a helluva playlist!

    ReplyDelete