CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS

You're not shy, you get around
You wanna fly, don't want your feet on the ground
You stay up, you won't come down
You wanna live, you wanna move to the sound

Got fire in your veins
Burnin' hot but you don't feel the pain
Your desire is insane
You can't stop until you do it again

But sometimes I wonder as I look in your eyes
Maybe you're thinking of some other guy
But I know, yes I know, how to treat you right
That's why you call me in the middle of the night

You say it's urgent
So urgent, so oh oh urgent
Just wait and see
How urgent my love can be
It's urgent

You play tricks on my mind
You're everywhere but you're so hard to find
You're not warm or sentimental
You're so extreme, you can be so temperamental

But I'm not looking for a love that will last
I know what I need and I need it fast
Yeah, there's one thing in common that we both share
That's a need for for each other anytime, anywhere

It gets so urgent
So urgent
You know it's urgent
I wanna tell you it's the same for me
So oh oh urgent
Just you wait and see
How urgent our love can be
It's urgent

You say it's urgent
Make it fast, make it urgent
Do it quick, do it urgent
Gotta rush, make it urgent
Want it quick
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
So urgent, emergency
Emer... emer... emer...
It's urgent

i just feel like you could sub those words for much better words and it would be a better song

Foreigner have really started growing on me, if you tune out everything but the broadest gist of the lyrics and just let that singer and those hooks sell that affect to you they're pretty stirring. Plus they really love their synths way more than journey.

i can't help it -- i fault them for lacking imagination!

yeah the lyrics are what turned me off about them for so long

just pretend they're actual foreigners and that their command of English is actually impressive given that it's not their native tongue

lol

given my line of work (ESL writing teacher) i'm gonna veto that idea but i get your point

All lyrics are stupid anyway. Words in the face of music are always a farce.

FEELS LIKE THE VERRY FIRST TIIIME

if they are a farce, choose a more amusing farcical concept than URGENT URGENT EMERGENCY unless you're trying to teach ppl the difference between 911 and 311 and in that case carry on

i like how they kind of botched "Feels Like The First Time" by making it their actual first single.

The lessons I learned from that song have helped free up valuable emergency operator capacity!

fervent
fervent
insurgency

Tbrr, I basically wish Marc Bolan could have somehow written the lyrics for every song by every band ever. He knew how to own the innate stupidity of song lyrics.

otm. It's not that Foreigner's lyrics are stupid, it's that they're just kind of boneheaded. There's nothing gloriously stupid about them, it's just some lunk singing cliches and awkward rhymes at you.

You play tricks on my mind
You're everywhere but you're so hard to find
You're not warm or sentimental
You're so extreme, you can be so temperamental

Classic example.

and i know it's the man in you
that brings out the woman in me

hee hee

agree
anyone who understands that the words just have to sound cool and not mean anything is ok
lou gramm didn't seem to get that so i feel that he lacks imagination

He's a dumb guy feeling big things, like those moments that used to happen in every Harvey kietel movie where he would be naked and just sort of moaning.

lol
poor fella

you're everywhere

but you're so hard to find

would really love an AM Gold poll at some point

just walked out of "guardians of the galaxy," which is a very very AM-gold-friendly.

right!?

Thread just took any ugly turn while I was away.

I'll just be over here listening to Urgent by myself with the most kickass sax solo in all of classic rock.

<3

tbh I did stick Double Vision near the bottom of my ballot because it felt weird to have a classic rock poll without putting some Foreigner on there, even if I hate them. So I just went with the most tolerable of their songs.

I just realized how much I like "Cold as Ice" sometime in the last year or so.

It's really virtuosic.

this should amuse y'all

literally an ad for "beer in cans"

http://youtu.be/8mFmP-78f1Q

lol at extended Foreigner diversion

my hatred of them has been well documented so I'll stay out of this

I was happy that they got shut out

Lou Gramm's voice is what makes me be ok with a lot of Foreigner songs.
If Midnight Blue had been eligible it would have been in my top ten.

literally an ad for "beer in cans"

http://youtu.be/8mFmP-78f1Q

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgzl1g6din1qc1snw.jpg

OMG, ILM HATES THESE FOREIGNER SONGS.

I like the dumbness of their premises but not the dumbness of the detailing - sorta like how Seger lets me down on ''Old Time Rock and Roll'' - just spend a little more time on these things, man. Foreigner's always give the sense of a rough draft, just teenage garage band stuff that fits the syllables and marks the time, but without wit or subtlety. Maybe that's what they mean by 'feels like the first time' (though actually I think that song totally works and had it in my ballot til maybe the third or fourth round of cuts). My complaints with UHRgent have been marked elsewhere - it's got some cool ideas sound-wise, just lacking IMO in songcraft, needed a strong producer to muscle the band and demand some changes in the arrangement or something. But since being forced to pay more attention to it I can say it's not the dullest thing in the world.

''I Want To Know What Love Is'' is another animal entirely but I excluded it as Not Classic Rock.

Hey, here's an average AOR/Classic Rock song that's nothing much except for the BLISTERING RED HOT SAXOPHONE SOLO THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN AMBULANCE SIREN PERFORMED BY THE GUY WHO DID 'SHOTGUN', but yeah, I guess it's just some cold crap that doesn't come close to Boys of Summer.

It definitely rocks wayyyy more than Boys of Summer, which IMO had no business being here at all but whattayagonnado.

thompeckham3 days ago

Well, Neil Young sang, "...rock and roll will never die," but it appears it has. Today we have a house beat and undifferentiated warbling. Where is the inventiveness of America, the Doobies, Eagles, CSN, Bob Seger and dozens more ??
Reply · 1

I like the dumbness of their premises but not the dumbness of the detailing - sorta like how Seger lets me down on ''Old Time Rock and Roll'' - just spend a little more time on these things, man. Foreigner's always give the sense of a rough draft, just teenage garage band stuff that fits the syllables and marks the time, but without wit or subtlety.
like i said, they lack imagination! if you want to write a song about a sex-crazed woman who is so hungry for your lovin that she calls you in the middle of the night, that is a-ok but try to not be such a fucking dolt about it

fervent
fervent
insurgency

lol

I think Foreigner 4 is a classic rock titan and they got shafted!

What do fucking .38 Special have that Foreigner don't?

a 38 cent breakfast special

Lou Gramm is fantastic. "I Wanna Know What Love Is"! I want him to show me!

"Hold on Loosely"!? LOOSELY? what imagination! what an ear for the vital rhythms of the American vernacular!

dude, I'm slipping! grab my hand--no, not like that, a little more loosely.....

What do fucking .38 Special have that Foreigner don't?

At least 2 good songs

.38 Special is a good case in point, in that they're mining similar territory. "Rocking into the Night" is exactly the type of gloriously dumb song that Foreigner doesn't pull off.

At least 2 good songs

Three, even!

However, Foreigner has about 15 or 20 (and one REALLY terrible one called "Dirty White Boy").

If it weren't for "Hot Blooded," we'd have no "Funky Cold Medina".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LrHfxW4XOg

(and one REALLY terrible one called "Dirty White Boy").

Oh man, I'd forgotten about that one. Yeah, fuck Foreigner.

At least 2 good songs

Three, even!

However, Foreigner has about 15 or 20

Must be deep cuts.

here's some more fun with stats

Artist Point Totals (and total songs voted for)

Led Zeppelin
11602 points, 27 songs

Rolling Stones
9850 points, 21 songs

Fleetwood Mac
7995 points, 15 songs

The Who
6975 points, 15 songs

Heart
6402 points, 3 top 100

Tom Petty
6138 points, 10 votes

Jimi Hendrix
5784 points, 10 songs

Creedence Clearwater Revival
5961 points, 11 songs

David Bowie
5785 points, 12 songs

Queen
5579 points, 9 songs

Boston
5263 points, 8 votes songs

AC/DC
5182 points, 10 songs

Van Halen
5115 points, 15 songs

Blue Oyster Cult
5092 points, 3 voted

Lynrd Skynyrd
4964 points, 11 songs

The Cars
4339 points, 8 songs

Aerosmith
4034 points, 8 songs, 1 top 100

The Allman Brothers Band
4003 points, 7 songs

Steely Dan
3988 points, 7 songs

Pink Floyd
3805 points, 12 songs

ZZ Top
3739 points, 9 songs

Neil Young
3673 points, 9 songs

Beatles
3461 points, 13 songs, 0 top 100

The Doobie Brothers
3350 points, 7 songs

Rod Stewart
3289 points, 7 songs

Journey
3232 points, 8 songs, 1 top 100

Electric Light Orchestra
3182 points, 8 songs

Foreigner
2702 points, 11 songs, 1 top 100

Thin Lizzy
2678, 3 songs

Elton John
2599 points, 7 songs

Eagles
2595 points, 13 songs

John Mellencamp
2549 points, 9 songs

Black Sabbath
2538 points, 3 songs

Pretenders
2459 points, 4 songs

Cheap Trick
2341 points, 3 songs

.38 Special
2307 points, 4 songs

Stevie Nicks
2305 points, 3 songs

The Police
2303 points, 9 songs

James Gang
1957 points, 2 songs

Paul McCartney & Wings
1699 points, 6 songs

Billy Squier
1585 points, 5 songs

Bad Company
1547 points, 6 songs

Alice Cooper
1546 points, 3 songs

Don Henley
1505 points, 3 songs