CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL voting thread -- deadline July 15 -- VOTING CLOSED

just to join the "fuck the seger bashing" crowd. night moves moves just as well as thunder road or sweet thing. it's more modest but it's just as beautiful

Can we just send in an unranked list and split the points evenly?
― clemenza, Wednesday, July 2, 2014 12:42 PM (6 hours ago)

Re-posting this before it gets buried. If I knew how the points were assigned, I'd go ahead and do the math.

― clemenza, Wednesday, July 2, 2014 7:42 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i really just kinda hate the idea of unranked ballots in principle (and, when i'm the pollrunner, in practice as well). but since i already screwed up by not asking only for ranked ballots in the OP, and 2 of the 5 ballots i've gotten so far were in alphabetical order, i'm guessing that sticking to my guns is going to become untenable and i'm going to have to count a bunch of unranked ballots w/ all songs getting equal points whether i like it or not.

I always rank ballots, it's just that this one is so large. I could single out my 25 or so favourite, but after that you're looking at increasingly tiny micro-distinctions. I'll send it along as is--if you change your mind, post an alert and I'll try my best.

I decided to stop myself at top 50 because of those micro distinctions between 51 and 301

50 was about where I typed out too, as far as being serous about splitting hairs and strategic voting etc. But I still did a 100 song ballot.

i don't know how you guys can resist voting for as many songs that you like as possible. so many of your favs are gonna land below songs you don't like as much by, like, a point. it always happens.

feeling a little bad about cutting Triumph but man, getting this down to 100 is brutal

first pass = 300

ugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

is this what ranking your children feels like? ;_;

I DUNNO WHAT YOU'RE DOIN HERE BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL CUT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saKRZEMqdis

i think i could pick a favorite child if one of them could perform "Radar Love" and the others couldn't

lool

My high school garage band used to do "Radar Love," but we didn't really know what the words were, so on the part where he says "Don't need a phone at all" the singer would just go something like "DUBBITAbabyWAAAAAAAAAA."

Man, these early Doobie Brothers singles are so fucking good.

such a strong rhythm section

the shit i'm cutting it's just criminal and i'm not even down to 250 yet

real question is can i get down to 5 Foreigner tracks

i love the shit out of "eye in the sky" and "i wouldn't wanna be like you" but it just feels wrong putting them on my ballot here

yeah probably gonna haveta nix "hold your head up" and "ride captain ride" to make more room for THE GUESS WHO

F BTO tho

feel like there's a solid "quien es mas classic rock" side poll of bands in here. i mean i don't even like the guess who but damn if they won't have three tracks on my ballot because they are so damn classic rock.

"don't bring me down" is high on my ballot xp

ugh it really fuckin hurt to cut burdon & war, but as long as burdon is somewhere in my ballot, i think I'm okay.

I'm justifying most of my cuts as 'okay well see this one song I'm keeping is going to be representative of these 5 other songs that I've cut, yeah that'll work'

but it's getting down to 'fuck this song, it's too goddamn repetitive' THAT MEANS YOU DAVID ESSEX

LOW

RIDE

ER

ok I'm done

someone hold me

I got you. it really is exhausting. the "one song I'm keeping is going to be representative of these 5 other songs" principle is the only way to do it without going completely insane imo. the two exceptions were Rod Stewart and the Stones cause they are simply above the rest imo

yes, I'm very opinionated

KEEP ON ROLLIN

KEEP ON ROLLIN

WOOO

OOOO

OOO

Found this "gem" combing through my Random CanCon shelves trawling for obscurities to DJ on Canada Day. Can't quite tell if it's a semi-loving coke-fuelled tribute to or a full-on coke-fuelled pisstake of his former bandmate. Cummings did have a fantastic voice, though.

http://youtu.be/dEjwrDBrlzU

lol gr80

Down to 150 ... nothing but muscle and bone left and still I've got to cut. Cruel cruel cruel.

Jane has been my biggest "ohhhh THAT song!" so far

Yes, it's the song that opens Wet Hot American Summer iirc

Also on the list from WHAS is Love Is Alright Tonite by Rick Springfield, which is a total fucking jam.

It's a shame Ridin' the Storm Out didn't make the list. pre-Cronin REO is definitely more "classic rock" classic rock.

Yeah, but the version of "Ridin'" heard on cr radio is the live version with Cronin singing. Poor pre-Cronin dude couldn't catch a break.

I actually looked up REO's bio yesterday. First album had a singer, second album had a new singer (Kevin Cronin), third album had a new singer who wasn't the original dude or Cronin, and then I think Cronin became the permanent singer by the time of the fourth album. Do your auditions before recording and releasing albums, REO!

probably gonna haveta nix "hold your head up"

ha, I was just thinking this morning that that's a likely top 10 for me. Like a lot of what I'll be voting for, it's a song that to me exists only and entirely within the confines of Classic Rock. An indigenous species. I think I'll end up cutting lots of things that I love but that to me have their own separate lives outside of CR -- like, I won't vote for much Stones, but I will vote for lots of Zep.

Was Mr. Blue Sky disallowed for any reason?

― Jeff, Tuesday, July 1, 2014 4:49 PM (2 days ago)

Mr Blue Sky is a classic rock staple

not gonna vote for it but

― Euler, Tuesday, July 1, 2014 6:21 PM (2 days ago)

i never heard "Mr. Blue Sky" on the radio before it appeared in a bunch of commercials and movie trailers about a decade ago and only a few times since then

― some dude, Tuesday, July 1, 2014 6:22 PM (2 days ago)

Does this mean it remains disallowed? That would've been my most-obvious ELO pick.

I remember when "Take It On the Run" appeared in the top 40 and Casey Kasem said that REO were a band that young people lo9ved but if you were over 25 you'd probably never heard of them.

No, you can vote off-list. xp

I cut my list down to 100, haven't ranked them yet. First cut was "Do I even like this song?", second cut was "Have I heard this song on the radio?", third cut was "OK, how excited am I when I hear this song on the radio?" and when that still wasn't enough I had to limit myself to two songs per artist.

Oh and I wasn't gonna vote for "Breakin' the Law," but then I remembered Beavis and Butthead.

a song that to me exists only and entirely within the confines of Classic Rock. An indigenous species

yes!!! this is the most classic rock of all classic rock species. "hold your head up" is a perfect example of this. also, the collected works of foghat, rainbow, uriah heep and iron butterfly.

The first several million times I heard Hold Your Head Up, it was in the context of Phish, as the intro music to the part of their set where the drummer comes to the front of the stage and did various cheeky, horribly-rendered cover songs (Syd Barrett's Terrapin, Purple Rain, and Sexual Healing were common). I finally heard the original version years later on classic rock radio in a van on a field trip to Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in college. To be honest, I've only recently started to get over the Phish stigma attached to this song.

I first heard it through Girl Talk if that makes you feel better...

first cut 483!
i'm feeling compelled to make sure i have enough tempo variety in my list -- if every song is "smoke on the water" then the jams don't sound quite as sweet

Almost! xp

i had never heard the argent version til this poll

only version I knew was by aussie rock 'supergroup' The Party Boys :D

argent's other big moment, a one-time rock staple that apparently didn't survive the transition to classic rock: "god gave rock n roll to you."

^^ Unrest do a great cover of that

emil.y, join me in the voting for Mr. Blue Sky club. I'll also support Blue Sky those those affected by that injustice.

It might get a vote from me too. I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio but it epitomizes some elements of classic rock for me (fussy arrangement, Wurlitzer (I think), laidback guitar solo)