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

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.

'sylvia's mother' is cool but feels like it's never going to end, the angst is so overcooked

but i love dr hook

Jesus, the video for "Fantasy" is str8 bonkers: bit.ly/1pYpaie

Did Alllman Bros 'Blue Sky' not make it? Gonna write in for that one and hope everyone else does too!

Somewhere in western PA there is still a solid, honest-to-god oldies station that plays legit 50s greats, like Clarence Frogman Henry and I don't know what. I may have hallucinated this while moving from Columbus to New York, driving a U-Haul through a torrential rainstorm, my second time behind the wheel in seven years, but I swear it's there. Or was, this was two years ago.

There was a shortlived 50's/60's station in Sac for abt 5 years from 2000 to 2006. Turned into a country station. And my oldies station turned into AOR, and they don't even do "Saturday at the Seventies" anymore which was my housecleaning music :(
I miss the 50's station the most

I've rambled about this before, but Atlanta's fifties station (Oldies Lake 102) was so crucial to my musical upbringing. My mom didn't have a big record collection but she had a great memory for and love of music she'd heard throughout her life, and would get so excited when songs came on, sometimes things she hadn't heard in thirty years. It wasn't even that they played crazy obscurities constantly, I'm sure most of it was general purpose oldies, but it was such nice music to hear driving around in a Ford Aerostar, running errands in the suburbs.

ultimately, as the 5/38 article sez, classic rock is mutable. Metallica, RHCP, Nirvana, U2, PJ, STP, REM, Green Day are CR now

also mutable in the sense that -- as we have learned throughout this thread -- classic rock in central pennsylvana is not the same as classic rock in central tennessee, which is not the same as classic rock in central arizona. in los angeles, as i think i mentioned somewhere uptread, kings of leon are classic rock now. as time continues to collapse on itself, i can imagine classic rock stations someday breaking bands that "new rock" stations won't touch. "straight to classic rock" can be the new "straight to video."

Not that the poll needs more CCR but I'm kinda thinking about switching up my token vote to a write-in for Up Around The Bend. Maybe not their 'best' song, but the one of their classic rock standbys that I hear the least, am least worn out on, and would be most likely to actually turn up the radio on. It's been a long time since I could hear the freshness of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" or the real fire in "Fortunate Son."

You aren't hallucinating about that Western Pennsylvania station, and I'm pretty sure it still exists, out around Jeannette or Greensburg (about an hour east of Pittsburgh). Heavy on the deep R'n'B 50s stuff like Huey "Piano" Smith.

Up Around the Bend is one of my fave CCR songs, I love the riff

Didn't realize how much I liked that Boz Scaggs track, Lido Shuffle.

― campreverb

Lido Shuffle is THE BEST.

^^A bit awkward to do on karaoke tho (I ended up singing along to the synth solo)

i've enjoyed "Lido Shuffle" for years without knowing what it was called or who it was by (i think i vaguely thought it might be Van Morrison) and finally looked it up just before the poll started when it was on an episode of Halt And Catch Fire. definitely voting for it.

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.

Probably because it was sung by Steve Gaines, not Ronnie Van Zant. Great, great fucking song.

Want to put a quick word in for "Life's Been Good," sure it's interminable but it's also legitimately funny.

A bit awkward to do on karaoke tho (I ended up singing along to the synth solo)

I've been wanting to do this in karaoke for years! It's #2 on my ballot.

It's fun to do at karaoke! Agreed, you kinda have to fill some time with the solo but that goes for many things. When I did it, the karaoke guy was like "oh, THAT song!" It may get that reaction more than any other song.

keyboard solo = drink time!

xxpost Bill Magill: there's an alternate version of 'You Got That Right' on the 2001 re-release of Street Survivors that is even better than the original imo

Want to put a quick word in for "Life's Been Good," sure it's interminable but it's also legitimately funny.

will be high on my ballot.