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

I'm under 150 songs to review. I may actually get through this.

Ranking has been a slow process, but I'll definitely get a ballot in.

I'm down to about 130. But then I gotta rank them all...

i prefer ranked ballots because i think it makes the process more interesting and makes the results reflect people's passions more accurately, but if all you can do is an unranked ballot i'll accept it.

I won't accept it. Send me all unranked ballots and I'll rank them for you, then submit.

I think I can rank everything pretty quickly. It won't be perfect, but it will generally reflect my preferences/passions.

Can i make a last minute push for "Centerfield" in the 'worst' category? Soooooo tinny, tacky and awful, so obviously pitching to be used as soundtrack music on sports broadcasts but sounding more like a test-drive for the America's Funniest Home Videos theme... those wretched little digital claps, and the general rinky-dink atmosphere - and "new grass on the field"??! GROSS GROSS GROSS. Also, easily the biggest drop here from someone's 'classic' work to their late work, it almost justifies the mummification of the playlists: can't let anything else like THIS get through!

agree
that song sucks and i have always hated it at least as much as i hated playing sports

It's bad. But not as bad as American Pie.

i have a fondness for that song simply because when i was a kid my cousin Matthew misunderstood the lyric "put me in coach" as being sung from the perspective of an airplane passenger

omg, i might actually have this done. some dude, is it easier to compile text lists or spreadsheets?

I actually just cut American Pie from my worst list (or rather, bumped it down to #15). I've always been bored by it, and I bet if I heard it right now I'd remember how long it is and hate it more. But there are shittier songs.

"Centerfield" is the worst of the singles from the Centerfield album for sure. "The Old Man Down the Road" and "Rock and Roll Girls" should definitely be the CR staples instead.

hahaha, i have always preferred "Centerfield" as a pitch for an airline ad!

I love baseball but pretty much hate that song. It wasn't dud enough to make my Wurst-list though.

I also associate it very much with a friend of mine in Georgia having it stuck in her head for something like two weeks straight, it was relentless. "Cat Scratch Fever" ultimately defeated it, but man, that was a rough time for her.

I mean...I'm not wrong that it's supposed to be a really labored innuendo right?

Q-107 will still occasionally surprise me. Today they played "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" (Tonight's the Night version) on "Psychedelic Sundays." Not especially psychedelic, I know. The DJ even recited some of the lyrics afterwards.

some dude, is it easier to compile text lists or spreadsheets?

i prefer just text, i count it all up in a spreadsheet but anything sent to me in a spreadsheet is just going to be extracted into a word doc where i keep all the ballots.

uggghhh. some last-minute trigger-pulling down here at #100. sending 'er off - thanks again to some dude for the work on what is bound to be one of the most epic rollouts of all time! I suspect the results are going to end up being pretty weird - realizing how many arbitrary, vote-splitting decisions I made in the course of this thing, and how many things I just decided early on were top twenty, no discussion to be had. I think those decisions are true to how I relate to the songs but man...it's a weird-looking ballot is all I can say.

Bonus thanks to fact checking cuz and crew - in the end I added THREE songs that I did not know before the poll. They're low, on principle (gotta go with the lifelong barbecue playlist) but they're there!

moving in stereo - the cars

i would like to put in a last minute pitch for this one, the most classic rock track in the cars' catalog for my money. evocatively weird lyrics ("life's the same except for my shoes / life's the same, you're shaking like tremolo") and a great (and heavily processed) benjamin orr vocal that straddles an ever-shifting line between empathy and menace. and then that epic synth-and-guitar instrumental.

Bonus thanks to fact checking cuz and crew - in the end I added THREE songs that I did not know before the poll. They're low, on principle (gotta go with the lifelong barbecue playlist) but they're there!

so happy to hear that! and total respect to the lifelong-barbecue-playlist principle, which is, yeah, pretty much the essence of all of this.

I'm treating it like I moved to a new town - there's a few new tracks that are in the standard rotation round these parts, the locals are all sick of them but to me it creates the illusion that I've got a really dynamic, unpredictable station on my hands, and I'm excited about those tracks.

an ever-shifting line between empathy and menace
part of what i love about the cars!

someone to feed
someone to bleeeeeed

Voted.

down to, um, 400 tracks.

track that hurt to cut today but that i cut nonetheless: chicago "25 or 6 to 4." an all-time fuzz riff, obviously, but i couldn't shake the feeling that the whole thing is more am gold than fm rock. i've successfully done a lot of cutting that way. boz scaggs, i fear you may be next.

track that i realized i'm not at all sick of and needs to be top 25-ish: the who "behind blue eyes." who's next is probably the album that has always best defined classic rock for me. but whereas the album's two overplayed synth epics seem to be consciously aiming for the iconic, generational-anthem status that they achieved, "behind blue eyes" sounds much more personal and organic and lived-in. it's also prettier and rocks harder. it belongs to classic rock more exclusively than the other two, and it belongs to me in a way they never could.

i turned on the local classic rock station the other day and heard "25 or 6 to 4" and it just sounded incredible to me, like it does every single time.

fcc, dig this at 1:50:
http://youtu.be/GhxqdhFpk2E

that's awesome, tarfumes. thanks!

25 or 6 to 4 is probably their most CR-sounding song IMO, though Saturday In The Park (which sonically could slot in with the Turtles or Lovin Spoonful) is more key to a CR afternoon vibe.

i agree it's their most cr-sounding, but it still isn't enough cr-sounding for my ears. or, rather, it's borderline, and when your list still has 400 tracks on it two days before ballots are due, borderline tracks are not going to be treated kindly!

This would only make sense to a Torontonian my age, but I've always thought of "25 or 6 to 4" as the definitive CNE song. (The CNE, or "Ex," was the Six-Flags-type carnival I grew up with.) Whenever I think of going to the Ex as a kid in '70 or '71, and think of the rides and the crooked games and the sea of people wandering around, "25 or 6 to 4" is the soundtrack.

As always, someone's posted my memory on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx_HP2PgqTs

speaking of borderline songs, i've been wanting to write in david bowie's "life on mars?" but i just checked and noticed it hasn't been mentioned even once on either this thread or the nominations thread. i've always thought of it as a late-bloomer that eventually became a classic rock standard, but my mind may be playing tricks on me, and maybe i only hear it on noncommercial dad-rock stations that act sort of like classic rock but aren't (kcsn in northridge, ca., i'm talking to you).

does anyone's classic rock station actually play it?

I didn't hear Life on Mars until college at least - first clear memory is of people doing it at karaoke. The cool new girl in town did a great version of it (she kinda ruled at everything she sang) but balls also raised the roof, I remember being in the audience with cool new girl, coming up with interpretive dances (mainly for the 'fighting in the dance hall' bit). I imagine for UK audiences it's much more ubiquitous...?

I think I'd only heard it a couple of times before the Bowie ballot poll, and never on the radio.

Songs that referenced drugs were given a priority on my ballot, so 25 or 6 to 4 made the cut.

Ballot in. Had to just code my eyes and pull the trigger, knowing that I'll immediately think of 15 things I should have added, pulled, moved up, moved down. Whatever. It's all classic. This rollout is going to rule.

er, close my eyes. hate u so much autocorrect.

I was just browsing around the nominations Spotify playlist, and had a couple of semi-panicked "oh crap, I hope I voted for that" moments. They turned out to be my #10 and #11.

if i code my eyes forever

One of the highlights of my weekend: I inadvertently deeply insulted a passionate fan of "Wonderful Tonight" at a shitty brewery.

Still have a lot of work to do to get this damn ballot in order...

I looked out this morning, my ballot was done
Turned on some music to start my day
Realized I had to vote for a familiar tune
I code my eyes, and it slipped awayyyyyy

25 or 6 to 4 has one of the all time great guitar solos. Beginnings and Make Me Smile also great CR tunes. Later stuff is AM gold

making one last campaigning post for BOC's "GODZILLA" since i just noticed it was left off the official noms

Voted!

Godzilla is totally on the official list

some dude, you want me to change the thread title to "CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL voting thread -- deadline July 15 -- POLL CLOSES TOMORROW" or something?

sure, that would be great!

obv you'd have to change it on Tuesday to "TODAY" if you did it like that, but whatever works.

"new grass on the field"??! GROSS GROSS GROSS.

oh come the fuck on!