CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS

I voted for the Move's Do Ya. Not super familiar with either of them, but when checking through all the noms for new stuff I found that one and liked it. It sounded vaguely familiar, maybe I had once mistaken for a late 60s Who track or something? At the same time, I skipped over all the ELO stuff because I've never really dug ELO all that much, so I didn't even know about that version. I still think the o.g. version is good in a charming, late 60s early 70s kinda imitation Who kinda way.

none of the Trower pick hits sound familiar to me, although he certain has the most classic rock voice ever.

Definitely in to vote for AM Gold, someone should put their name down! And not just in the hopes that it will draw out previously unknown ilxor Brandy to share smooth sunny good-time anecdotes of goofing off in the studio with Rickie Lee Jones, cutting up on the road with Bread, and sharing tender moments at sunset with James Taylor. Yes, this music just makes you feel good... and with this new ballot poll, you can find it all in one place, without all the hassle, and the expense! Isn't that right, Captain?

Am also seriously considering putting my quarter down for Alternative Rock (and keeping it there this time, dangit) but there may be some other claimants to that one.

Yes plz AM gold poll!!!!!!

Brandy? Is she a fine girl?

I definitely want to sign up for another poll in the queue but I don't know what yet. Obviously anything will seem easy after this one, and I'd have plenty of time to recharge. Wouldn't wanna do AM Gold -- maybe a new wave poll would be fun, although it would be even harder to police the boundaries than it was with this one. Not many bands that showed up in this poll that haven't already been polled or put in the queue that would be good candidates. Would love to do a Thin Lizzy or Little Feat poll if there were enough voters to make it interesting.

I dream of a boc ballot poll. Would totally run one.

yeah it certainly seems like the love for them here is strong enough to make that work. Heart's peak era catalog probably not big enough to make a poll worthwhile, though, i guess.

I only know peak-era Heart from the three monster singles that placed in this ballot. Are the albums worth checking out?

Dreamboat Annie, for sure.

hi all - long time lurker, short time poster a few years back. spent a nice sunday morning perusing this thread and the spotify playlist.

some questions that came to mind:

1. how many voters play guitar? if you are among them, did you vote for deep purple?? most Classic Rock band missing from the list for me. i wonder how dependent this is on your guitar teacher's taste... side note: voodoo child is my absolute favorite recording of an electric guitar performance ever.

2. i thought steely dan was ilm's favorite band... were they not deemed to be Classic Rock enough? if so, i get that, but then again i didn't get into them until my CRR-listening years were over, and i'm not sure how much airplay they get on CRR, though i know "ricki," "reelin'," "do it again," and "my old school" have made different sorts of imprints on my mind than other sd songs. i think that must be due to the radio. in an ideal world, surely "my old school" in particular would be part of CRR canon?? unbelievable guitars...

3. some interesting regional differences in US stations have come up... how far back do the accessible collated data go (re: mentioned top 500 lists, airplay, etc.)? is CR the genre of recorded music where the established canon was most influenced by the radio format?

i grew up on 98 rock in baltimore county, which i believe must have also been an influence on our poll-runner... "war pigs" kicked off the bumper i remember the most. would have been a contender for my #1 if i had voted. might be the funnest song to play on guitar ever. that or black dog.. or maybe highway star...

honorable mention: best bridge to "unchained." "ONE BREAK, COMIN' UP!!!" followed by another chorus...

yeah, i definitely grew up on 98 Rock too. i think of that as much more of a hard rock station than a classic rock station, though -- i didn't nominate stuff like Ozzy or Judas Priest unless i heard it on full-on classic rock stations too.

i think Steely Dan shook out much like Bowie per discussions upthread -- so many people here know and love the artist's whole catalog and might love the singles but don't necessarily hold them up as their absolute best work, so it made more sense to focus on bands known just by their singles like .38 Special or whatever. Zep or the Stones are way too central to classic rock radio to be left out of the top 100, but Steely Dan have always been kind of 2nd or 3rd tier in terms of airplay.

i've only collected airplay data from the last 5 years or so btw.

It's interesting how these issues were discussed, particularly around which songs were the "most CR" for artists with canonized catalogues. It's how you get "Rebel Rebel" as the highest placing Bowie song, I think.

Based on that criteria, I thought that maybe "Reeling in the Years" might have a shot at the top 100, as it's the Steely Dan I've heard most in the CR format.

agreed on "reelin'." sd and bowie are both definitely different things than CR in my mind as well, understood.

thanks for the reply some dude. is there a different station that shaped your idea of Classic Rock more than 97.9? 101.1 or 100.7? those two came later in my mind. class of 2001 here.

i would be happy to play with some data that's in an excel-friendly format.

i lived all over Virginia and Delaware and Maryland growing up, so several different past and present stations around the region influenced my idea of CR radio.

i have all the points data together in one big messy Excel file, it's kinda for my eyes only but if someone else is really interested to see it i might share.

My highest Chicago was 86, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is. Then Saturday in the Park at 89.

is CR the genre of recorded music where the established canon was most influenced by the radio format?

Does CR as a concept really exist outside of the AOR/Classic Rock radio format? And to what extent? Do rock listeners who grew up without CR radio conceive of a classic rock era that starts around 1967?

It seems that most other conceptions of rock heritage - for example, what you see in Mojo magazine - stress the continuities going back through the '60s, '50s, and even back to precursor forms. I know there's also a magazine called Classic Rock, but according to wikipedia it's "dedicated to the radio format of classic rock."

This point reminds me of something else I wanted to ask. Was there ever any rival rock radio format that was at all commercially successful during the heyday of Lee Abrams-style AOR radio, say 1972 to 1987 or so? Such as a format that would embrace stuff like The Stooges, NY Dolls, more than 2-3 Black Sabbath cuts, etc.?

yeah, I think if someone grew up just reading Rolling Stone and other mainstream magazines and record guides without any exposure to FM radio, they'd probably assume that 'classic rock' is very heavily defined by '64 era British Invasion stuff, maybe even early rock before that. the schism between traditional critical narratives about rock and radio playlists seems like kind of an inside joke that almost everybody i've ever known has intuitively been in on. are there people who consider Foreigner and Styx 'important' bands because of their radio ubiquity? the early '80s slant of rock radio has definitely helped along the canonization of "Don't Stop Believin'," but even that seems kind of knowing and anti-rockist, raising a Journey song to the platform of a timeless classic.

I know it made at least one voter unhappy, but I was thrilled that Foreigner didn't make the top 100. The sheer quantity of Foreigner songs in CR rotation is astounding to me; the only group I can think of that rivals them in terms of "tons of classic rock staples, all of which are awful" is Bad Company.

"double vision" really the most earnest ode to inebriation to ever get radio play

i like Foreigner in small doses, but it just seems like the consensus about any one of their singles is not as strong as "Believin'" is with Journey -- Johnny Fever kept championing "Urgent," but that one bores me, I like "Feels Like The First Time" and "Juke Box Hero," and I'm sure someone else has a different favorite entirely.

(To some dude's previous post) Right, and though I've known countless rock fans in my lifetime it's difficult to imagine any of them at any point saying, "Hey, let's go listen to some classic rock!" Unless they meant it as an ironic reference to the radio format. It's like when people say "Is that Freedom Rock?! Turn it up, man!" - they're jokingly referring to the old TV ad with no acknowledgement that they personally sort music into a Freedom Rock category, which they probably don't.

the consensus about any one of their singles is not as strong as "Believin'" is with Journey

Yeah, it actually feels like the late 70s/early 80s bands Foreigner gets lumped in with each have at least one consensus song, be it "Don't Stop Believing," "Dust in the Wind," or "Come Sail Away." I don't think Foreigner has an equivalent track in their catalogue.

playlist data suggests that the top 3 is Cold As Ice / Juke Box Hero / Double Vision but they're all pretty close in spins and which gets the most varies from year to year.

I used to be kind of meh about Foreigner but I could only stay immune to the power of Lou for so long. FEEEEELS LIIIIKE THE VEEEERRRY FIRST TIME

urgent! urgent! emergency!

urgent!urgent!urgent!
eMERRRgency

that's the song that made me go wait a second, seriously foreigner? and then i thought about all their other songs and it all kinda made sense. they are gross and unimaginative when it comes to lyrics.

imo
although cold as ice is ok

very proud of this thread: JUKEBOX HERO POLL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfzJtKZUCw8

that's the song that made me go wait a second, seriously foreigner? and then i thought about all their other songs and it all kinda made sense. they are gross and unimaginative when it comes to lyrics.

"Hot Blooded" the best/worst Foreigner lyrics for sheer boneheadedness

Whenever I hear "Hot Blooded" on the radio, I respond literally. You have a fever of 103? You should really go to the emergency room immediately. Do I do more than dance? No, absolutely nothing; I have no other interests, nor am I capable of any movements that are not a direct response to whatever music may be playing at any given moment.

You're not shy, you get around
You wanna fly, don't want your feet on the ground
You stay up, you won't come down
You wanna live, you wanna move to the sound

Got fire in your veins
Burnin' hot but you don't feel the pain
Your desire is insane
You can't stop until you do it again

But sometimes I wonder as I look in your eyes
Maybe you're thinking of some other guy
But I know, yes I know, how to treat you right
That's why you call me in the middle of the night

You say it's urgent
So urgent, so oh oh urgent
Just wait and see
How urgent my love can be
It's urgent

You play tricks on my mind
You're everywhere but you're so hard to find
You're not warm or sentimental
You're so extreme, you can be so temperamental

But I'm not looking for a love that will last
I know what I need and I need it fast
Yeah, there's one thing in common that we both share
That's a need for for each other anytime, anywhere

It gets so urgent
So urgent
You know it's urgent
I wanna tell you it's the same for me
So oh oh urgent
Just you wait and see
How urgent our love can be
It's urgent

You say it's urgent
Make it fast, make it urgent
Do it quick, do it urgent
Gotta rush, make it urgent
Want it quick
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
So urgent, emergency
Emer... emer... emer...
It's urgent

i just feel like you could sub those words for much better words and it would be a better song

Foreigner have really started growing on me, if you tune out everything but the broadest gist of the lyrics and just let that singer and those hooks sell that affect to you they're pretty stirring. Plus they really love their synths way more than journey.

i can't help it -- i fault them for lacking imagination!

yeah the lyrics are what turned me off about them for so long

just pretend they're actual foreigners and that their command of English is actually impressive given that it's not their native tongue

lol

given my line of work (ESL writing teacher) i'm gonna veto that idea but i get your point

All lyrics are stupid anyway. Words in the face of music are always a farce.

FEELS LIKE THE VERRY FIRST TIIIME

if they are a farce, choose a more amusing farcical concept than URGENT URGENT EMERGENCY unless you're trying to teach ppl the difference between 911 and 311 and in that case carry on

i like how they kind of botched "Feels Like The First Time" by making it their actual first single.

The lessons I learned from that song have helped free up valuable emergency operator capacity!

fervent
fervent
insurgency

Tbrr, I basically wish Marc Bolan could have somehow written the lyrics for every song by every band ever. He knew how to own the innate stupidity of song lyrics.

otm. It's not that Foreigner's lyrics are stupid, it's that they're just kind of boneheaded. There's nothing gloriously stupid about them, it's just some lunk singing cliches and awkward rhymes at you.

You play tricks on my mind
You're everywhere but you're so hard to find
You're not warm or sentimental
You're so extreme, you can be so temperamental

Classic example.

and i know it's the man in you
that brings out the woman in me

hee hee