CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL parking lot tailgate pre-party -- nominations, discussions, parameters, etc.

contendo u mad

ship u otm

(xp) taio cruz's "dynamite" is great, and his "break your heart" has been covered by borderline (mentioned once in this thread, now twice) classic rockers blondie.

I know, I guess I was just excited to see something not-overwhelmingly-predictable on my station's playlist.

xxp

xp yeah, taio got 1 of those 1.5 points (other half went to naked eyes)

"Don't get me wrong" rules

^^^

on lunch run, i switched to another station: TOS "the mountain of pure rock" (delivered in comically badass softspoken he-main voice). not CR as such, a more general hard rock format. was not aware such a thing existed:

"California" - Alice In Chains <- so awesome to actually hear this on the radio
"Night Train" - Guns 'n Roses
"Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" - ZZ Top
"Weak" - Seether
"Painkiller" - Three Days Grace
"Girls Girls Girls" - Motley Crue

Nice to see the fourth most famous song on Tres Hombres get some radio shine.

also lol at "the mountain of pure rock"

yeah the country stations i listen to are like 95% recent stuff, 5% Toby Keith and Brad Paisley songs that are 10+ years old

My local country station throws in 90s-early 00s stuff by Strait, Garth, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Sara Evans, Shania etc. like every other song

a more general hard rock format. was not aware such a thing existed.

This is this format, right?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_rock

Our active rock station very recently switched to a 'non-stop hits' format.

yeah, that sounds about right. otoh, the wiki page for WTOS doesn't mention "active rock", instead describing the programming as "album-oriented rock", like back in the old days. listened for a while this morning:

Foxy Lady - Hendrix
Something Beautiful - Needtobreathe
Immigrant Song - Zep
Battle Born - Five Finger Death Punch
Free for All - Ted Nugent
Guilty All the Same - Linkin Park
Silent Lucidity - Queensryche <- barf
Outshined - Soundgarden
Face to the Floor - Chevelle
Layla - Derek & the Dominos
This Is the Time (Ballast) - Nothing More

interesting mix. seems p democratically split between 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s, with more willingness to go for deep cuts in all eras than most CR stations. also closer in spirit to my longhaired, deep toking, headbanging ideal. that said, it's pretty damn douchey (in inevitable corollary, perhaps), a point driven home by the horrible morning show jocks, who seem to have been hired on the basis of their ability to wax obliviously gross and stupid. jokes today about having big dicks and lol casey casem is dead. suppose this is the format that will hallow tomorrow's classic rock staples, "outshined" being the most recent shoo-in from the list above, tho i have to admit i did kind of like the nothing more track.

Active rock?

sounds like something you listen to on the toilet

I don't think Toronto has one. My impression is that in most of the country, active rock stations (usually named "The Bear", "The Wolf", or "The Fox") and JACK/BOB-FM stations are becoming more common than faith-keeping Q107-style CR stations.

Ha, I enjoyed blowing students' minds in the Prairies by explaining that Toronto has no country station.

C&P from last year's thread:

After spending the last three days driving across the Upper Midwest and Northern Ontario, I am feeling qualified to speak on FM rock radio formats in this stretch of mostly small-town North America. I am wondering if this might help clarify some of the discussions/arguments earlier.

So:

i) Proper bona fide classic rock stations that e.g. play Styx or Kansas on the hour and play nothing since the mid-80s and are well-described by this thread are still a staple pretty much everywhere in the US along this stretch. I don't think I actually came across one along this stretch in Ontario. They seem to have largely been phased out in favour of either a) stations named after carnivorous mammals (wolf, fox, or bear) that play Rush alongside Sam Roberts or the Tragically Hip or the Black Keys or b) stations named after monosyllabic male first names that play Golden Earring alongside Abba and Kool and the Gang.

The Wikipedia list of radio stations in Ontario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_Ontario) lists 5 classic rock stations but 16 'classic hits' stations, 18 'active rock' stations, and 16 'adult hits' stations. Of those classic rock stations, I know that at least the Ottawa one plays plenty of 90s and 00s music as well. On the other hand, this list lists 22 classic rock stations, 32 classic hits stations, 7 adult hits stations, and 4 active rock stations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_Michigan

ii) In the same way that a St Louis accent sounds more 'neutral' to me than my own, your classic rock format seems more 'normal' to me on some level. (Your classical music stations are kind of lame though.)

iii) I am a little intrigued as to whether this difference is indicative of a trend that will eventually spread to the US or whether it is due to the fact that Canadian stations have to play a quota of Canadian music, which didn't really come into its own until after rock's classic period.

iv) The White Stripes and Black Keys have a remarkable ability to blend in so well on the a) sort of station that until the obvious hook enters, I sometimes can't tell whether I'm hearing a 70s song or a recent one.

v) Most interestingly, oldies stations that plays 50s and 60s pop are still a real thing on FM radio in the US. I haven't come across one in Canada in 20 years, I don't think. (According to Wiki, they still exist on the AM dial.) Some stations CALL themselves oldies stations but are basically in this format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_hits

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 26 August 2013 15:07 (9 months ago) Permalink

Two late additions to the master list:

Deep Purple - Fireball (best organ solo ever?)
Golden Earring - When the Lady Smiles

So are we doing the Made in Japan version of Highway Star or the album version? Live Highway Star is a prime contender for my number one spot, but the album version might not make my ballot.

I think I've only ever heard the studio version on the radio

me too

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (1000 of them)

what? you think this thread has "run its course"?

nope, not at all. in fact if this thread is already 1000 posts the actual results thread will be massive, as it should.

So are we doing the Made in Japan version of Highway Star or the album version? Live Highway Star is a prime contender for my number one spot, but the album version might not make my ballot.

― voodoo chili, Sunday, June 22, 2014 4:06 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Made in Japan by far the best version but I've never heard it on radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bINvvAwE5mM&feature=kp

better version

On the aforementioned Psychedelic Sundays yesterday, the DJ said he was coming back after the break with the first #1 from a group that would have two more, and that this song came out in the spring of '66. I started guessing, trying to figure out who it was. Thought about the Monkees, but I figured they had more than three. Then the Byrds, but I knew that was earlier and that they only had a couple. Settled on Simon & Garfunkel, figurng "Sounds of Silence," "Mrs. Robinson," and "Bridge Over Troubled Water." As odd as it sounds, they'll get played on Psychedelic Sundays.

Wasn't them, but I was close: all three were #1, but the first was '65, not '66. It was the (Young) Rascals.

the Rascals are to me one of pop/rock's great lost bands, like I can never see them being "in" again, but their discography is so great

listened to hell summer rock-blocks on WLUP this weekend

hella*

same but on WZBA

ts:

Block Party Weekend vs. Twofer Tuesday

Get The Led Out vs. Rock-It to ZepTune

#1 in both cases, easy

Memory's blurry here - does CR have any use for "The Heat Is On" or was that abandoned to stations that play Huey Lewis and 80s Loggins early on?

(70s Loggins really should be in the CR universe - "Vahevala" has the right pedigree as a bottom-up college hit with a convincingly live/rough sound to it - but clearly these stations can smell the AM smoothness and 80s soundtrack on him.)

KSEG has lunchtime 'Cafe Rock' complete with restaurant chatter & kitchen sounds & a 'Blue Plate Special' :/

ts: breakfast with the beatles v. get the led out

breakfast with the beatles, more of a rarity the rest of the week

Get The Led Out vs. Rock-It to ZepTune

Never heard anyone say "Rock-It to ZepTune" in my life. Is that really a thing?

no clue. never heard it either

I'm told that it is, in Grand Rapids, MI.

Block Party Weekend vs. Twofer Tuesday

twofer tuesday, because if you run into a block of a band you hate on a block party weekend, that means you can potentially be locked out for 20 minutes or more, whereas on twofer tuesday you can live for the hope that something better will come along in only seven or eight minutes.

on the other hand, if it's a block party weekend, then it's ... the weekend. so there's that.

i like the a-z countdowns, those are fun

yes!!!

76. "Roll The Bones" weekends (DJ "throws" the "dice", number that comes up is how many tunes by whatever band gets played. Funny how when it's Blue Oyster Cult it's always a "1" but when it's Pink Floyd or The Who it's generally a "6".)

― henry s, Sunday, August 11, 2013 3:07 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ painfully OTM post on the "On Every AOR classic rock station ever" thread. I feel the same way about twofers and rock blocks, they're precalibrated to which bands the station is prepared to play two versus five songs of. If they actually did rock blocks for bands where you're used to only ever hearing one song, these stations would be so much better.

Being a classic rock deejay, if you're lucky enough to even still have a live-in-the-booth job, has got to be one of the most soul crushing jobs around. You probably like a great deal of music, but you have to play the same three Boston songs every three hours or else people will complain.

don't wanna play a Boston song
been doing this too long
AMANDA

haha

Never gets old...

Worst song!

:(