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

Is Beck even on For Your Love? I always thought that was where Clapton got pushed one step too far. Not that the guitaring on it is at all of note.

For me Jeff Beck basically existed as this name that would constantly get in the way when browsing for Beck.

That's interesting, Tarfumes - so the idea was basically to sell to people who had actually seen the guy in concert? This was the golden age for huge double live albums, I feel like (At Budokan, Over America, etc. etc.) - dunno if that has to do with recording equipment, or actually just the size and scale of the concerts, with better speakers and shit, to where you would really believe you'd missed something by not hearing the live versions. I mean they existed before, but I don't feel like they were as much of a "thing" before the mid-70s, though I'm probably missing some huge obvious examples.

That's interesting, Tarfumes - so the idea was basically to sell to people who had actually seen the guy in concert?

I think it was partly that, and partly to capitalize on whatever word-of-mouth was generated by those who'd seen him. He kept putting out studio records while he toured, and each charted higher than the last, but nothing sold anywhere near what Comes Alive! did -- his previous record topped out at #32.

(Also, At Budokan was a single LP, and originally intended for release only in Japan; when CBS saw how well import copies were selling, they released it in the US.)

I love Show Me The Way, could give a shit about Frampton otherwise though

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, July 4, 2014 4:02 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this

If I could include 500 tracks, none of them would stillbe frampton

Painfully purged a bunch of stuff as just "not classic rock enough." I've heard all or most of these songs - some of which are some of my favorite in the noms list - on classic rock at some point, and as some have pointed out, some of these 80s acts were welcomed into the fold early as tokens. But, without trying to draw the boundaries too tightly, I gotta limit this thing somehow and there are things that probably just cross the line too far in one direction or the other. It's arbitrary - I'm sure classic rock still plays "Satisfaction" and "Somebody To Love" (Jefferson Airplane, I mean) - but I'm not sure they ever took on the Kinks and Spencer Davis Group, somehow having decided those could be left to be the toughest things played on 'oldies.' Or am I just delusional?

purged as too 60s/mod/garage

Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Lovin'
The Beatles - Paperback Writer
The Kinks - All Day and All Of The Night
The Troggs - Wild Thing
Them - Gloria
Tommy James - Draggin' the Line

(still waffling on "My Sharona" - I think I'll keep it)

purged as too AM gold/bubblegum/billboard rock

Gary Wright - Dream Weaver
Nick Gilder - Hot Child in the City
Orleans - Still The One

(I'm'a keepin' "What A Fool Believes")

purged as too 80s, too punk, too New Wave, etc.

Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love
The Cars - Let's Go
The Cars - Just What I Needed
The Clash - Train in Vain
The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another
The Kings - This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide
The Police - Message in A Bottle
Toto - Rosanna
Toto - Africa

At this point, I'm in striking distance of a pretty good 150-song ballot. Might now switch to putting the bottom 75 in order and just see what falls off, rather than just trying to cut things. Shit's getting real.

Am finding Zep to be the hardest band to trim down to representative songs for some reason, maybe they exactly ride this line between shit I'm glad to hear on the radio and shit I'm glad to hear on the album. Alternately, I basically just never intend to put Zoso on ever again and have become happy to think of "When The Levee Breaks," "Rock & Roll," etc. as non-album singles or something.

Campaign mode: "Running On Empty" is such essential classic rock: a quarter-life crisis as road epic. So windswept and searching, a hollow man at a ragged moment, the clear goals of a decade earlier having faded. His friends are facing the same challenges, but is this a comfort, or can they only nod at each other sadly, across the painted lane dividers? The live recording is crucial to the effect: some tuning, some isolated shouts in the cold desert, then the band, pounding in, raising the temperature, fighting against an audibly big space. Players, Browne and backing vocalists work to fill the emptiness with warmth and heart: gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive. There's provisional hope, the journey will go on, but I don't even know what I'm hopin' to find - thank god, he hasn't found pat answers or an anthem to deliver.

I kept Spencer Davis Group, because I've heard it a ton on classic rock radio. Didn't realize it was so old.

Hard for me to not vote for every queen song.

Also key IMO, fitting with my insistence that classic rock, bikers aside, still has a lot to do with wide-eyed (but now world-wearier) visions of something bigger out there: ELO's version of "Do Ya": blowsy, sexed-up and hairy Lynne, egged on by his raging guitar hard-on - - - but the sweetness of the strings! Secret weapon: the late chorus where it skips straight from "never seen nothin' like you" to DO YA DO YA WANT MY LOVE!? WOM-AN! It's this careful little wrapped up package of the caveman beating inside the chest of this rainbow-tripping wizard who can see through unstated dreams and untold things - babies dancing in the midnight sun? Old men crying at their own gravesides?! But that's not his project right now: sure, he's seen lovers flying through the air hand in hand, but as of right now, well, I THINK YOU KNOWWHATIM TRYIN TO SAY WOMAN!! Fucking great.

totally got your back on "running on empty" and making a lot of similar cuts for similar reasons. down to about 160 now.

jackson brown can eat me

somebodys baby is the only song of his that i like

"somebody's baby" is fantastic.

Was going to write-in for Cocaine, 'til I listened to it again. Classic Rock it is not.

may or may not be classic rock but fwiw it's already on the list

I'm sure classic rock still plays "Satisfaction" and "Somebody To Love" (Jefferson Airplane, I mean) - but I'm not sure they ever took on the Kinks...?

― Doctor Casino, Friday, July 4, 2014

nah "Lola," "Destroyer" and "Come Dancing" is a totally legit rock block. sub in "all day and all of the night" or "you really got me" if feeling ROCK.

ha if "destroyer" had made the list i mighta wrote it in. that + "lola" is like the most Classic Rock Radio kinks.

lola def

xps I meant Jackson Browne's Cocaine. Clapton's might be more CR, but it is also awful.

f y'all's i ELP's "lucky man" is a jam

I would probably also vote for ''Destroyer,'' definitely would with a longer ballot. I was thinking more of the mid-sixties rockers, I love ''All Day'' etc. I guess I have to try and remember classic rock as it once was, not only in terms of songs they play now but would never have back then, but also the other way round. Not that this makes balloting any easier...

I've got my hundred, just need to order them now. Last cut: The Faces - Stay With Me. My list is now Rodless.

the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" is definitely getting a lofty position on my ballot.

also just a reminder to the thread that no song hammers as much rock 'n' roll into your ears as "Satisfaction" does

still have 40 to cut. this is horrific. the remaining survivors just had to eat quarterflash.

You'll have to harden your heart and swallow your tears.

god this is hard to watch. now they're burning robert plant's solo career to keep the wolves away for one more night.

lord of the flies

(pause for crotch pun)

I got it down to 100, although I'll probably let it marinate before sending it. I dropped some Zep/Yes/Rush to make room for more diversity, even though I probably do like "Whole Lotta Love" more than "Hot Child in the City".

I'm a little surprised that the Cars don't seem classic rock enough for some people. (I mean, I get it but.) "Just What I Needed" might actually seem like the most typique song for my local classic rock station these days!

we're voting for favorite/best, not 'song that most embodies the CR aesthetic', right

we're voting for favorite/best, not 'song that most embodies the CR aesthetic', right

― mookieproof, Saturday, July 5, 2014 1:18 AM (1 minute ago)

Different people always tackle these things differently. I use a combination of those factors. As I said a while ago, I think 'Good Vibrations' pisses over the majority of these songs, but it isn't "classic rock" as I understand/experience it, so it won't make my ballot. The Stones will definitely make my ballot, but I'm more likely to vote for 'Gimme Shelter' than 'Paint It Black', because though I prefer the latter the former seems more apt.

A mix of both approaches for me, like 85/15 or so. xp

Hrm, if others are voting for Hot Child in the City, maybe I should go for it...

Hard for me to not vote for every queen song.

― Jeff

This is my dilemma as well. Also, Tom Petty. I think I finally have them pared down to three songs each.

^^^better be voting for donnie iris

"waiting for a girl like you" is one of my favorite songs ever but to me it's more "adult contemporary" than "classic rock"

yeah foreigner is mad classic rock but 4 isn't. juke box hero would have made my list of 130 anyway.

listen you guys, hair of the dog is bitchin and all but let's be real: love hurts is the business

fuckin looooooove it

I KNOOOOOW IT ISNT TRUUUUUE

^^^better be voting for donnie iris

― mookieproof, Friday, July 4, 2014 10:36 PM (Yesterday)

Of course I am! And then I'm gonna eat a Primanti's sandwich to seal the deal!

Also: VegemiteGrrl otm about Love Hurts, I will likely wind up with both Nazareth songs on my list.

Anybody have anything nice to say about Steve Forbert? Is Adam Duritz a fan?

I tossed out a few limp words upthread. That's a nice song. Adam Duritz is plausible. I somehow recall that Ben Folds is a big fan of Dean Friedman ("Ariel") so, sure.

First cut I was merciless and I still ended up with 178. FUCK!

Even less mercy took me down to 100 (including two write-ins). Now how the hell am I going to rank these?

Also surprising (well not really in this context, but I wasn't expecting it), the only artist with three entries on my ballot is The Doobies.

we're voting for favorite/best, not 'song that most embodies the CR aesthetic', right

I'm approaching it this way, yeah - as a britisher I've never really experienced CR radio and while there's a lot of stuff on the noms list I definitely wouldn't normally think of as classic rock I'm just accepting that the CR format has its quirks.

Even less mercy took me down to 100 (including two write-ins). Now how the hell am I going to rank these?

WmC had a good technique he explained somewhere upthread. Basically go through and pull out your absolute favorites, rank them. Then go through and pull out the ones that barely made the cut, rank them. Then do whatever with the leftovers.

yeah i started my ballot from the top down

Did "Radioactive" by the Firm even make the nominations list? Cuz that's a likely write-in for me.

It's on the list.

I remember reading somewhere (Hammer of the Gods?) about how post-Zep Page had come up with Stairway II, and was rumoured for ages to be possibly even more amazing, but never managed to put together properly; then when it was released, I'm pretty sure by The Firm, sunk without trace. What song was it?