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

my dad was a bit of a jazzbo -- he saw coltrane in '63 -- and otherwise into classical, such that i attended the symphony as a kid (tympani rule iirc) and have vivid memories of listening to shostakovich while playing yahtzee

so he didn't really get into classic rock until i did, which happened because school + pittsburgh. at some point he heard something on the radio that he liked and called the station to find out what it was, and wdve's herschel told him, with no condescension, that it was 'sympathy for the devil'

i think his first CR album was 'get yer ya-ya's out' on cassette, but ultimately ac/dc became his favorite. he appreciates absurd over-the-top lyrics. pretty sure he heard 'thunderstruck' before i did

i love that

tympani rule iirc

hell yeah. tympani are basically the classic rock section of an orchestra.

Not huge into Allmans but I would've considered "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" for a write-in.

I love that your story involves Herschel! Herschel was awesome!

all of you who think Ride Like The Wind doesn't belong on your lists are wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0HzWMqLeiE&feature=kp

just cooked up some early polling data to help gr80 get started on the graphics and wow u early voters have great taste

:D

all of you who think Ride Like The Wind doesn't belong on your lists are wrong

The parts where the arrangement blows up and the backing vox go BA DA DA DUP! DUP DUP DUP DUUUUP! And cross goes RIIIIDE! make me feel super insane. Those bits really feel like he is being driven before a cavalry of demons.

xp I'm just glad I'm finally being recognized for it

It's funny xp, I was reading the backstory where he had the idea of a man on the run, then dropped acid and sat down and wrote it, and I was all 'pah this is no acid song, it's hardly the Green Manalishi'. But you make a convincing case.

Whoa, that is pretty good. never heard this before. dismissed christopher cross out of hand during my pre-ballot listening. I think I might have confused him with someone else.

No, you didn't. Ride Like the Wind is kind of an anomaly.

yeah, lol, listening to Sailing right now.

What is that classic rock song that references Sgt Pepper's Band playing? is that Spinning Wheel? Man I hate that song so much.
Didn't realize how much I liked that Boz Scaggs track, Lido Shuffle.

'High on PCP, Cross claimed he felt the oppressive weight of moving to New York was crushing him, and his only escape was to stand on his rooftop, with the full moon beckoning him ever closer to the precipitous edge. As he was coming down he took to the piano to write what would ultimately romantic ballad rather than the intense psych voyage he had believed he was working on.

"Summer Rain," Johnny Rivers?

What is that classic rock song that references Sgt Pepper's Band playing? is that Spinning Wheel? Man I hate that song so much.
Didn't realize how much I liked that Boz Scaggs track, Lido Shuffle.

He wrote it on acid? Good to know!

Green manalishi into RLTW is a good covers medley idea

Oh pcp lol xpost

Ride Like The Wind has a cool mini-epic intensity, only partially deflated by my being unable to picture it without the SCTV clip as posted above, god that shit is hilarious. I also totally rep for Sailing, different kinda song but man: Just a dream of wind to CARRY me!, never before has a bourgeois leisure activity been rendered so transcendent. TBH I don't hear either of them as "classic rock" at all, either sonically or in terms of airplay.

Wow, I always forget "Summer Rain" exists, yeah, that's a little...much. Nice atmosphere in the verses, knockoff Mamas & the Papas sixties emo thing, but Johnny Rivers has a unique knack for overdoing it on every damned recording. His "Memphis" is a travesty, "Secret Agent Man" is at best okay-ish but would still be way better with almost anybody singing on it.

my childhood marked by the unfortunate mishearing of SE-CRET ASIAN MAN!

Johnny Rivers, in at #3 with his emotive tribute to the pointless, awful yellowface digression in You Only Live Twice.

Thanks Riot. Summer Rain-that's it. Which is not terrible.
Somehow I conflated that in my mind with the BS&T song, and they share nothing in common. Spinning Wheel is like clown paintings to me, completely disturbing.

Speaking of disturbing, my first write-in is Lyin' Eyes by The Eagles.

Green manalishi into RLTW is a good covers medley idea

When I'm singing to myself I always do a segue from Ride Like The Wind into Ain't No Mountain High Enough, the Inner Life disco classic version. I think hearing that for real would be amazing.

some dude, save the current list for after poll reference cause i'm intrigued.

Cross into Inner Life is an amazing idea!

sure. I'm curious what will change from here, because right now some really huge and uncontroversially well regarded songs are out in the cold. Make NO assumptions about anything being "safe."

Wouldn't count anything out yet IMO - lot of us ballot-agonizers still in play here, plus the inevitable rush in the last day or two of any such poll.

Oddly, the second GIS result for "silent majority rock" is the sleeve for "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me"

How many ballots in so far?

Whatever I said yesterday, 14? Still that.

I don't think I had heard "Ride Like the Wind" before last week (via the spotify playlist), my lord what a silly fun song. Cross' voice is just ridiculous to me, for some reason (in a good way). one of the hardest i've ever laughed was when i heard "sailing" for the first time. When that first chorus came on, i just completely lost it.

Just submtitted my ballot - I voted an almost entirely sentimental ticket. Some of my votes surprised me - I didn't expect to see 2 Eddie Moneys or any Foreigners at all, but I listened to my heart.

Got foreigner's best of off my boss yesterday. Psyched.

My first cut got me down to 331. I had no idea how much I loved Urgent by Foreigner, but that song rips.
Wrote in 'Shadows of the Night' over 'Love is a Battlefield'.

I had no idea how much I loved Urgent by Foreigner, but that song rips.

YES, IT DOES

wow, there's going to be a lot of Foreigner in the countdown, isn't there?

If you want to feel really super gross, sing a Foreigner song at a karaoke bar.

I voted for two Foreigner songs, but I don't feel like any one Foreigner song has an edge on all the others as far as voting goes. Every one nominated might make it in.

wow, there's going to be a lot of Foreigner in the countdown, isn't there?

I sure hope not, indefensible band imo

^^^ otm

Your face is indefensible! >:P

Do any of the bands here feature a member who wears a badass eyepatch besides Kansas?

Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show not here?

Got foreigner's best of off my boss yesterday. Psyched.

― Neil Sekada (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, July 8, 2014 4:17 PM (1 hour ago)

I'd thought about nomming "The Cover of Rolling Stone," but forgot. I see they had a fella with an eyepatch, though!

"Syviia's Mother" by the same band and songwriter is good too.

"Sylvia's Mother" even

to them what been at $2 draft nights at Paddy o Furnitures with Schmucky and Fuckface from Assholes in the AM on WSUX…you guys have been going great guns on this shit for weeks when I can only intermittently join in…but I wanted to mention this…

My wife and I drove to and from Louisville Ky/NYC in the past five days. She grew up in Albany, late 80s/early 90s, and is puzzled when I get so upset listening to CR radio, and so when she was tired of listening to Richard Thompson/ Roxy Music/ St Vincent or KP's "Birthday," "fancy" "Tre Songz "Na Na," or many many songs referencing trucks on the country stations, I thought of you guys, bit the bullet and agreed to check in on "central Pa's best rock station." PENNSYLVANIA NEVER FUCKING ENDS, btw.

1. per the 5/38 article, Poison's "Something to Believe In" (I.e."we care about the homeless and Viet Nam vets, not just Sunset strip skanks") makes the cut on that station. I chalk this up to awareness of Poison's origins in the state.

2. I never heard Lynnyrd Skynnyrd's "You got that Right" in my entire life until this trip. Thought it was Blackfoot or some shit until she shazamed it.

3. also per 5/38, Bush's "Comedown" and Candlebox's "far behind," two of the songs I disliked the most in the mid 90s, make the cut. advertisers in C PA want listeners, dads I guess, who remember that fare fondly. If there is no Nickleback, there will be soon. No way will any of those be played on the present WXAQ in NYC, the most infuriating station I've ever encountered.

4. marginally refreshing to drive into Columbus, a big college town, and my own hometown Louisville, a burgeoning town that beardo parents have come to be attracted to, and to hear "new Rock" stations. this tends to mean LOTS AND LOTS OF BLACK KEYS (obv, there's some Ohio pride re: Columbus and the Keys), some Vampire Weekend, 90s bubblegrunge like Third Eye Blind, and Pearl Jam, of course. No paramore or Lana Del Rey, tho. that's pop shit, apparently.

still, listening to pop/r&b/hip-hop of 2014 was satisfying if repetitive…although the song where the guy is taunting his future father in law is annoying…good conceit for a tune, tho.

ultimately, as the 5/38 article sez, classic rock is mutable. Metallica, RHCP, Nirvana, U2, PJ, STP, REM, Green Day are CR now. In context, any of those feeding into "rocky Mountain Way" or "Have a Cigar" or "cocaine" or "Train in Vain" becomes deeply deeply irritating. On the initial thread, I said something like CR is the sound of the overclass, which someone rightly ridiculed me for going all adorno or some shit. but what I meant was that rock tunes are robbed of potency when part of a deeply stultifying canon. It's the status quo (yeah yeah, down down down, etc etc). it's boring as fuck. if its becomes classic rock, then it sucks.

oddly, very end of the trip, Carol Miller or some leathery DJ lady was hosting "get the led out" for Bonzo's birthday. Showcasing his funk/r&b chops: Purdie shuffle on "Fool in the Rain," Clyde Stubblefield vai "the Crunge," the Meters via the presence tunes. The drummer from Clutch talked about how those tunes made him want to learn about african american drummers, who listeners will never ever hear on CR (Purdie is on S. Dan tunes, tho).

Listening to the youtubes on Dr Casino's thread has made me realize I need to listen to every. damn. nom. because there's tons of shit I didn't know I knew (and love), so voting by memory/title is not gonna work.

shitshitshit.

Will write in for "Fox on the Run," FWIW.