CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS

really? I feel like it's become a real staple over time

yeah I'm talking about back in the day (meaning mid 80s to early 90s) ; haven't listened to much classic rock radio since then

ah yeah. a lot of early/mid 80s stuff has entered the canon in the last decade or so.

"Eminence Front" was #19 on our The Who tracks poll. I promise you there are not 18 more Who songs in this countdown.

yeah I didn't vote for any Who tracks in this; they just weren't an integral part of my classic rock experience. same for lots of the bands for whom we have separate polls. it was more fun to vote for the "Lunatic Fringe"s of the list (ahem)

It's kind of funny to see how people talk about Tom Cochrane/Red Rider on these threads since they were far from a fringe one-hit wonder up here. Several songs are in rotation. I like "White Hot" as much as "Lunatic Fringe".

Woohoo! I also did not grow up with this on CR - it was one of my last-minute adds based on hype on the poll threads and particularly the fcc-curated Casino listening thread. Love the change of sound for them, the stiff Who-like attempt at funk and the vague Reagan-era cocktail party dread washing around the lyrics: a personal front of pretension and deceit? A storm gathering? Or the battle lines in an icy, looming war? The thing has got great atmosphere. People forget...

"Reagan era cocktail party dread"

Whoa yeah that's apt as heck.

OK, will drop one more song before I head out and will let gr80 post some whenever he feels like it. this would've been a good song to START the countdown with, but still applies:

http://i.imgur.com/KS0ZMxB.jpg

98. Bachman-Turner Overdrive – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
826 points, 13 votes

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Eff the haters! This song is just so joyous. Essential summer jam - BOMP BOMP! Bu-bu-bu-baby!

While I spent a ridiculous amount of time getting my 100 and 10 worst just right, at the end of that I just threw 5 records out that I love. Which is a way of apologizing for the dullness of said list.
It does seem to me that CR is, if not the creator, then the natural home of live records. so that rule bums me out. Would probably have voted in Lynyrd Skynyrd's Second Helping and Houses of the Holy in place of the 2 disqualifications.

1. Aerosmith Toys In The Attic
2. The Who Who's Next
3. Kiss Alive II
4. Journey Greatest Hits
5. Pink Floyd The Wall

distressed that i will likely be too busy at work today to follow this appropriately : /

so glad i voted for eminence front!! that is one of my most cherished "WHAT IS THIS SONG" jams from youth

tbrr i still go nuts when i hear it in the car

Eminence Front was probably one of the last cuts from my ballot. I dig the song deeply. Took me a long time to figure out who it was because I thought they were singing "livin' in a front". I dunno.

Hasn't been mentioned yet, but I've got a real good feeling about gr8080s pic selection here.

I don't think I hear this very much. I like the synths and that first solo.

They were playing this on a PA the other day and I was talking to my 4 year old about it and singing along with the chorus and she was like "Daddy I have seen a LOT of things!"

mentioned this on the nomination and/or voting thread but eminence front is one of the only tracks i can think of that sits comfortably in both the CR and balearic canons

Eminence Front dropped off my ballot at the last minute too.

I voted the BTO song really high -- it's one of my favorite examples of '70s blue-collar boogie, just a great rhythm section in that band.

Certainly a heavy one. (Get it?)

btw are these photos all ship/8080 family shots or stuff from the k-hole?

ALBUMS:

1. The Who - Live at Leeds
2. The Who - My Generation
3. The Who - Who's Next
4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?
5. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

WORST:

1. Meat Loaf – Paradise By The Dashboard Light
2. Billy Joel – Piano Man
3. George Thorogood – Bad To The Bone
4. Jimmy Buffett – Margaritaville
5. The Doors – Peace Frog
6. Crosby, Still, Nash & Young-Teach Your Children
7. Jethro Tull -- Thick as a Brick
8. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Our House
9. Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression, Part II)
10. George Thorogood – Who Do You Love

btw are these photos all ship/8080 family shots or stuff from the k-hole?

― mookieproof, Monday, July 28, 2014 8:42 AM (2 seconds ago)

i'll just let that remain a mystery for now. http://i.imgur.com/rDVfRb2.gif

ugh, i had "our house" on my most hated list too
does anyone like that song?!

the stiff Who-like attempt at funk

I dunno, I think they pull if off reasonably well. Moon couldn't have done it (he sort of tried on "The Relay," which wasn't stiff, but wasn't particularly funky, either), and Zak Starkey can't sit in that groove either. It's probably their only post-Moon song that really allowed Kenney Jones to do what he does best (maybe "Another Tricky Day," too).

I didn't participate in this poll – fatigue, sorry! – but will follow closely. And, yeah, I hear "Eminence Front" more than "You Better You Bet" these days.

*dons headphones*
*adjusts chair*
*pulls microphone in close*

well its a beautiful Monday morning here at The Aorta, and its my pleasure to fill in for some dude today. i'll be with you over the next couple hours as we take you through the rest of our bottom twenty...

anywho, i'll shut up now and just ask you to listen....

listen to the wind blow....

http://i.imgur.com/SiNpBpZ.jpg

97. Fleetwood Mac – The Chain
832 points, 13 votes

This song is the ne plus ultra of instrumental and vocal interplay.

A CR station named "The Chain" would be cool.

... fuck ...

re: Eminence Front, nah, yeah, they do pull off what they're doing fine, I was more trying to express that I like the interaction between their baseline approach and the funkier thing they're attempting here, it makes for a cool sound.

Just heard "Our House" for the first time recently and I thought it was pretty but can tooooootally understand why it would be hated as proto-twee hippie self-celebration. Would have been interesting if CSNY had all got laryngitis and had to focus instead on shopping these songs around to passing bubblegum acts - a little faster and a little punchier and this would be a forgettable rain-on-the-windowpane number. It seems like a good song for kids and probably even written with kids in the room - the very-very-very fine house is the kind of thing I'd have enjoyed singing at age 7 or something.

It's also not so loud that it will wake up the other kid that you've just lullabyed, or get in the way of the conversation about Watergate while you're doing the dishes. In a pre-Raffi universe, with a whole lot of boomers starting little families, these were probably a pretty big selling point to this (and a lot of other AM gold), and may also relate to why this stuff has been purged from the macho and individualist Classic Rock universe.

kids who like schlocky songs maybe

• Eminence Front an awesome song to play around with the crossfades, for the beginner. They did a lot of good stuff with Kenny.

• A common re-written lyric to be sung in junior high was "she looked at me with her one brown eye and said...."

• I've got this memory of crossing the Mississippi late at night into St. Louis and hearing The Chain on KDHX. When I played bass in the second band, the drummer and I would just play that final riff over and over, and with no one there to finally go CHHAAAAAIIIIN, we'd just keep going up and up into the air until we turned into butter.

proto-twee hippie self-celebration.

That's otm, and pretty much why I hate it. It feels like, "Remember that counterculture stuff we used to be into? What was THAT about? This is so much nicer! With two cats in the yard, oh shit, did the cats get out again?"

But I also hate everything else CSN and sometimes Y ever did (except for "Ohio").

Ooh Cooper Black, excellent - my favourite font.

Nash wrote "Our House" about Joni Mitchell and she dumped him like a week later. Critics.

So many great things about The Chain, especially that final section with the awesome bass riff, and "RUNNING IN THE SHADOWs!"

It feels like, "Remember that counterculture stuff we used to be into? What was THAT about? This is so much nicer! With two cats in the yard, oh shit, did the cats get out again?"

Huh, yeah, that's pretty hate-able - I read it as much more like hippies coupling up in a shabby old hippie house, walls leaning, "If it's yellow, let it mellow" in the bathroom, etc. The fact that they are yard cats seems key here, also note that all their amenities are nature-driven: flowers, sun through windows. Still totally self-satisfied and ex-activist, but closer to McCartney or even the bohemian urbanites in "I Do It For Your Love" than sneering ex-hippie "yeah, money rules!" anthems.

(Two cats may also indicate two couples: this may not look like a family to anybody else, but our house is a very fine house.)

Loving the photos.

(Sorry, I have nothing to say about "The Chain" - always enjoy it when it's on, nicely shaded, cool opening, just never connected with me beyond that.)

http://i.imgur.com/M7P2uWl.jpg

96. The Kinks – Lola
833 points, 15 votes

So many great things about The Chain, especially that final section with the awesome bass riff, and "RUNNING IN THE SHADOWs!"

THIS

I heard "Yoda" before I ever heard "Lola," and therefore always consider it sort of a novelty song...despite a deep and abiding love for all things Kinks.

i first heard about 'lola' on 'family ties,' so

I read it as much more like hippies coupling up in a shabby old hippie house, walls leaning, "If it's yellow, let it mellow" in the bathroom, etc.

haha, yeah, I never thought of it like that, but that totally makes sense.

at some point in the last few years "Gypsy" became my go-to FMac radio jam, but for a number of years "The Chain" was my shit, glad it made the cut.

on the cassette of it's hard that i had, the end of eminence front was abruptly cut off

scarred me for lyfe

love the chain but kinda wish the bass/runnin in the shadows part rocked harder

i'm 0/5 so far