CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS

BRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCE!!

xpost GROSZ!

DBMD is such a great, alien combination of sounds: that pounding of drums, the high vocals, the synths, and the wall-of-sound delivery of I TELL YOU ONCE MORE! It's so danceable and sing-a-longable that it's easy for me to forget how weird and cool and spacey it sounded when I first heard it.

http://images.comiccollectorlive.com/covers/7d9/7d9e7d50-20d1-415c-81e2-7ed33bbe95e2.jpg

re: (the) faces, here's a lil something from our man tyler

http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/69608307073/country-comforts-there-have-been-rumors-of-a

I would love to be partying with all the people in these pictures.

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

67. Led Zeppelin – Ramble On
937 points, 13 votes

That Faces show tylerw posted is totally brilliant.

And their boxed set (Five Guys Walk Into A Bar... -- best box title ever) is endlessly thrilling. Easily one of the best boxes ever.

Yesssssssssssss

TOO LOW

I can see arguments for a number of Zep songs being their "most classic rock" - Euler and rogermexico pointed up "Hey Hey What Can I Do," and I totally hear that, but somehow this is it for me: adventure, dynamic range, romance, escape, whip-crack drums, and - - - RAMBUHLIN!

Definitely one of the five greatest songs to mention the word "Mordor"

"Ramble On" may be the Zep staple I'm least likely to ever tire of. Awesome kick drum action.

dr casino otm

my fave Zep CR tune

i was one of the two #1's for "sweet home alabama," which is on one hand a way more complicated song than it's generally given credit for being (see also: randy newman) and on the other hand such a tight and punchy, perfectly executed rock and roll number, with the best fucking guitar sound ever put on record. i don't think it's a song about waving the confederate flag so much as it's a song about challenging the outside world's assumptions about who these people are who are waving confederate flags. it's very self-aware, and it's begging to be unpacked and repacked ("in birmingham they love the governor / BOO HOO HOO"). it's a celebration of southern music and a counterpoint to two of neil young's worst songs, one of which unfortunately was at the time turning into one of neil young's most overplayed songs. it's merry fucking clayton on backing vocals, and her story in "20 feet from stardom" about absolutely not wanting to sing a fucking song celebrating alafuckingbama but then deciding to register her own protest by singing the fucking hell out of it is one of my favorite stories about the multitudes upon multitudes contained within these four minutes. it's a song about being in love with american music, an art form that itself is full of 200 years of pain and joy and tension and release and... i don't know, maybe i'm totally wrong about all this. i'm not from the south, and have spent very little time there. i love tahis song though.

and speaking of skynyrd and neil young, i cited this wikifact about "sweet home alabama" in the doctor casino listening thread:

There is a semi-hidden vocal line in the second verse after the "Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her" line. In the left channel, you can hear the phrase "Southern Man" being sung lightly (at approximately 0:55). This was producer Al Kooper doing a Neil Young impression ... According to Leon Wilkeson, it was Kooper's idea to continue and echo the lines from "Southern Man" after each of Van Zant's lines. "Better...keep your head"..."Don't forget what your / good book says", etc. But Van Zant insisted that Kooper remove it, not wanting to plagiarize or upset Young. Kooper left the one line barely audible in the left channel.

what i have discovered since then is that while by all indications the original version of skynyrd didn't do any such young-mocking in their live shows, the current skynyrd lineup has made it a standard part of the song.

johnny van zant: "well i heard mr. young sing about us"
backup singers: "southern man better..."
johnny: "well i heard old neil put her down"
backups: "...keep your head" (one backup singer pats her head)

at 1:08 here, for example:

youtu.be/1h6KLmLSSb8

xpost Great post, fcc. If I wasn't from the south, I think I might be able to hear the song that way and it would have shot up into my top twenty. It really is a hell of a composition/performance/recording. Some things are just hard to disentangle.

(xp) aargh, i mean at 1:08 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h6KLmLSSb8

Some things are just hard to disentangle.

totally agreed and totally understood.

it's a song about challenging the outside world's assumptions about who these people are who are waving confederate flags

Yeah, and as such it is not really any more convincing than "Accidental Racist." (Though it is a much better song, obv. -- I'm not disputing its massive hooks.)

Anyway, hooray for Marshall Tucker placing!

I stand with fcc!

in re complexity/simplicity, if this is "just that endless loop of three chords" then I'm sure it's no big deal for Shakey to tell us all what key it's in.

;-)

I like the font.

http://imgick.al.com/home/bama-media/pgmain/img/alphotos/photo/2013/08/-87095eb60b96bfcf.jpg

plate number otm "ooo ooo ooo"

lol

Just grabbed lunch and they're playing "Life's Been Good" in this place

it sure has, Joe, it sure has

That plate was the last generation of Alabama plate to feature the slogan "Heart of Dixie," which was only phased out in January of THIS year.

The other major association I have with the phrase "sweet home" is the bad teenage comedy anime DNA ^2. That doesn't help either.

it's in D

xxp

Robert Plant might not have taken us all the way to the darkest depths of Mordor, but one thing's for sure.... we're not in Kansas anymore

Being from the south and hearing it all the time, I hated Sweet Home Alabama for a long time, but have come to terms with it. I quite enjoy it now, and put it at number 64.

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

66. Toto – Hold The Line
944 points, 15 votes

First appearance of the dink-dink-dink piano!

The other major association I have with the phrase "sweet home" is the bad teenage comedy anime DNA ^2. That doesn't help either.

my other major association starts with motley and ends with crue.

Haha I was literally just sitting here wondering if gr80 was going to make the same dad joke I would've

First appearance of the dink-dink-dink piano!

please please please tell me there are more to come.

Dude is totally holding the line in that pic.

xxxxxpost you're sure it's not G?

note: this is an old joke. "sweet home alabama" is in either G or D but it's unresolvable and better theory-heads than myself have gone to war on both sides of the question.

here's a representative thread on the subject. it's currently at 40 pages:
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=845618

Hold the Line also on my most-hated list.

better theory-heads than myself have gone to war on both sides of the question

which side is robert e. lee on?

No one in Alabama cares about what some dead old Virginian thinks.

High 5 fcc! Good analysis of the complexities and simplicities of "Sweet Home Alabama," mine was the other #1 vote

LIE YINE! BOW DU DU DU!

Song rules, Toto rules. Took me a long time, and Yacht Rock to come around to these facts. Didn't vote for the Toto IV megahits (which would have sat way at the top of my ballot, but felt way too 80s), but "Hold the Line" is great crunchy melodrama out of the mouths of studio nerds, which is a big part of this format for me.

"I'll Supply The Love" is the other amaaaazing track from this record, those clean bursts of muscley lead guitar announcing the arrival of the song (bit of a lift from "Do Ya" I guess), the beautifully stupid chorus/premise, and then the showoffy workout at the end. BUMP BUH BUM! Love it.

particularly enjoy fez's rendition of 'hold the line' on that 70s show

The thingsthatyousaythatyou do

Hold the line!

I didn't order a lime! No no no.

(xp) thanks brad! (my #1 vote, however, is now contingent on the song being in G. if it's in D, that changes everything.)

lol

"I'll Supply The Love" is the other amaaaazing track from this record, those clean bursts of muscley lead guitar announcing the arrival of the song (bit of a lift from "Do Ya" I guess)

otm

heard it in a love song > can't u see

"hold the line" is the rockinest toto but lol at it placing over AC/DC, Skynyrd and Zep. bodes well for "never been any reason"!