CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL: THE RESULTS

They're definitely stretching the format. I guess it makes sense though, a lot of those bands definitely fall into the late 80s and 90s equivalent of classic rock and lots of people who are into those bands also listen to Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

They also do a "90s at 9" (in the 90s, they did "70s at 7")

when will they play the aughts, when it comes around to that?

I guess it makes sense though, a lot of those bands definitely fall into the late 80s and 90s equivalent of classic rock and lots of people who are into those bands also listen to Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

I could see it with Manson and NIN. Depeche Mode/New Order, though = is nothing sacred?

They also do a "90s at 9" (in the 90s, they did "70s at 7")

when will they play the aughts, when it comes around to that?

Well, I figure that starting in 2030, we're getting the "10s at 10", so it's probably going to be "00s at 9:30"

iirc radio slang for the 00s was always "Today," as in "playing your favorite songs from the 80s, 90s, and Today!" so... "Today at Today!"

Classic Rock is going through what "Oldies" radio did in the late '90s/early '00s as they phased out pre-Beatle music in favor of '70s hits up to and including Disco. I assume in many cases the situation is like it is in Houston, where the FM "Oldies" station gradually turned into a full-on Classic Rock station.

That Oldies transition wiped out a lot of huge, smash-hit artists - I've lamented before the disappearance of Three Dog Night from the airwaves. Who are the casualties of the current wave? Are they really just adding Bon Jovi and Nine Inch Nails (?!) without displacing something?

I just found out out local NPR affiliate is going to host a 1 hour classic rock throwback program dedicated to the old Sacramento station KZAP (long defunct)

starting in a couple of weeks on Sat nites :D

apparently some of their old djs are going to spin some tunes

sounds kinda cool

*our

I just checked out the Recently Played list on Q104.3 and nestled inbetween the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin there was "Blitzkreig Bop."
Have the Ramones officially become Classic Rock or is this just a NYC thing?

Who are the casualties of the current wave? Are they really just adding Bon Jovi and Nine Inch Nails (?!) without displacing something

Just spitballing here, as I haven't really listened to the local station in a while, but I think what happens is they drop the oldest stuff bar some really big songs ("Satisfaction", "Somebody to Love", "Proud Mary", stuff like that) and narrow the number of songs they play from staple artists (fewer Zep, Skynyrd, Floyd album cuts).

Ramones definitely falling into classic rock territory these days

they probably sound less out of place alongside the Nirvana songs

I still find Sex Pistols quite odd in a classic rock context. Clash much less so.

here in la, the classic rock station's afternoon dj is an actual sex pistol. he talks a lot.

Yeah in my childhood, "Oldies" was Johnny Mathis, Platters, Fats Domino, Dion, Four Seasons, Petula Clark, Beach Boys. "Classic Rock" was Zep, Who, Floyd, Hendrix, Janis, BTO, ELO, Heart, Fleetwood Mac.

Nowadays "Classic Rock" is Zep/Who/Floyd/Hendrix plus the Clash, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers. This honestly doesn't surprise me one bit, demographically speaking.

In the late 80s, my friends and I dug "Classic Rock" (Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, the Doors) PLUS what was called "College Rock" or "Alternative" or "Modern Rock" (Pixies, REM, the Cure, the Smiths, REM, OMD, Depeche Mode). Both streams of music were seen in opposition to pop and "Top 40" (which I guess was presumed to be Paula Abdul and Roxette and N'Sync or whatever).

The "best mix of the 80s, 90s, and today!" stations hadn't happened yet.

So it follows that if in 1989 you liked The Who about as much as you liked The Church, then you're a reachable demographic. You might want a radio station that plays "More than a Feeling" and then "Head Like a Hole." But you don't especially want to hear "Cold-Hearted Snake" or "Shoop."

I'm trying to think of what used to be played but isn't any more but can't think of anything specific. It definitely feels like there is less variety in the 70s music that is played these days. Still plenty of Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and (probably because this Canada) Rush though. They've probably dropped some not quite as famous stuff that would be less missed by listeners.

The other day I heard "Freebird" and felt like I hadn't heard that song in a long time.

Even though the Ramones, in 1976, were the diametrical opposite of classic-rock (and would make that clear in interviews), having them brought under the umbrella 40 years later makes some sense insofar as a) they spent the bulk of their career going on about "real" rock and roll, and how everyone had forget it except them (the one thing about them I found tiresome), and b) they revealed, in their covers album and in interviews, that their own influences included a lot of classic-rock.

Who are the casualties of the current wave? Are they really just adding Bon Jovi and Nine Inch Nails (?!) without displacing something

I also don't listen enough at the moment to say for sure, but I'm guessing a band like Cream might be an example. They seem rooted in a particular moment that's slipping (or has already slipped) away.

the doors seem like another one

As of a few years ago they were still playing Dobie Gray, but I can't speak to the status of Dobie now.

drifted away iirc

(sorry)

as of a few days ago I was still playing Dobie Gray

Glad someone is doing so. But then, in my hearing, very few Classic Rock stations ever gave all that much airtime to any vintage soul/R&B/Motown. Temptations/Marvin/Stevie/Otis/Bill Withers were almost absent from the dial, even in the late 80s.

In my experience, much of the displaced second-tier Classic Rock seems to be stuff like Badfinger, Monkees, BTO, ELO, much of Chicago, most of Doobies, Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, Small Faces, Yardbirds, Animals, America, Loggins & Messina.

Currently, Classic Rock seems to be a white-male-dominated sausagefest; one can listen for weeks without hearing the Pretenders or Blondie or Pat Benatar, let alone James Brown. But you'll hear plenty of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

are there still teenagers who are obsessed with Jim Morrison/The Doors these days? I'm guessing probably not that many (there were plenty when I was a teenager in the 90s)

I still hear L.A. Woman on the radio pretty regularly, the other songs, not very often.

Kim Mitchell of Max Webster--if you're not Canadian, you may not know them--had a show on Q-107 for a few years and played lots of '60s Motown. It came and went with him.

years ago when I drove through Indianapolis I was surprised/delighted to hear their classic rock station play "Rubberband Man" by the Spinners

based on this poll, dobie drifted off to where the waves grow sweet long ago - i was stunned that song didn't place but a lot of people just didn't think of it as a CR staple the way i did.

re: sausagefest: feel like Heart was and remains the token here. the forward shift in time means joan jett should probably get at least a little bit of airtime but probably not much beyond "i love rock 'n' roll."

the idea of thinning out 60s songs makes sense... but i think that's actually long been accomplished? we talked about this recently with regard to the beatles i think, where you really would not tune into a CR station expecting to hear anything earlier than the white album (except on "breakfast with the beatles" which will go up to magical mystery tour). and i can't remember ever hearing badfinger, yardbirds, or small faces on classic rock radio. do you really hear much 60s stones BESIDES satisfaction and maybe jumpin' jack flash/street fighting man? CCR are safe on this count, at least for a while, as all their late 60s hits kinda feel more like early 70s and i still hear 'em all.

the animals makes sense to cut though along with the doors - stuff that sounded really heavy and profound and dark when it came out and now just sounds transparently like some high school kids trying to sound heavy and profound and dark. i hear "break on through" and "LA woman" still, i think, but "light my fire" and "hello i love you" have faded (thank god). maybe just in my own head or wishful thinking, but i feel like i hear "spill the wine" out in the world wayyyy more than "house of the rising sun" and i can't remember the last time i heard "we gotta get out of this place" or "don't let me be misunderstood. i'd totally buy that cream is going/gone. tbh even in the late 90s they really didn't seem like a Big Deal. maybe that was partly because i found their songs totally boring and draggy. good call also on thinning out led zep deep cuts and stuff. i've been hearing "in the evening" lately more than i'd expect but i could see that kind of thing getting the axe while "black dog" lives on.

there's some stuff that really will die with the people who connected to it as teenagers - that's life. i don't expect future teens to be much interested in third-tier 90s alt-rock hits but i'll be enjoying them when i'm 75 probably. i don't expect present-day teens to be much interested in the narratives of "THE SIXTIES" that granted stuff like the Doors an aura of importance and epochal soundtracking to my 90s-teen peers. maybe the culture machine has been effective and they are. but i meet people in their twenties who express fascination that i was around for "THE NINETIES" and all the great music there was then, not like now, and i'm just staggered.

Doc if I'm not mistaken I think I put it as my #2. I wouldn't want my CR Radio without it.

dobie that is

much of the displaced second-tier Classic Rock seems to be stuff like Badfinger, Monkees, BTO, ELO, much of Chicago, most of Doobies, Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, Small Faces, Yardbirds, Animals, America, Loggins & Messina

wait, skynyrd? they're still getting lots of play here. doors, too.

the kinks have gone completely missing. then again, they only graced the lower edge of our own poll, so maybe they were already missing.

the fascination with the "60s narrative" migrated wholly to the world of visual art where it will live for another 2 decades I reckon

The doors had dark songs and light songs

I almost included "Light My Fire" in my list of token '60s songs. Always felt one thing that helped the Doors stay on Classic Rock radio is that they had a number of short 2-3 minute songs that could fill out hours in a "We Play The Most Music!" way.

Kinks are weird because their initial big hits in the states were all in '64-'66, then you move to '70 for "Lola", which I feel is still a pretty big radio song, and "You Really Got Me" is another token '60s song. Moving on, they had a number of big radio songs during their Arista period, but those songs are pretty much all forgotten now.

do you really hear much 60s stones BESIDES satisfaction and maybe jumpin' jack flash/street fighting man?

Add to that "Honky Tonk Women", "Sympathy For The Devil", "Get Off My Cloud", "Under My Thumb", "Paint It, Black", and "The Last Time". There are still probably more heavily played '60s Stones songs than there are in the whole careers of some fairly big '70s-'80s bands.

The Velvet Underground's relationship with CR is, uh, interesting--I think it begins and ends with "Sweet Jane." (I might have heard "Rock and Roll," too.)

Whatever happened to Sandy and all his great stories?

(xp) and "gimme shelter"

re the velvet underground: that matches exactly what fm radio played back in the day, so that makes perfect classic rock sense.

i heard "she's so cold" the other day on the classic rock station (only the last 1/3 unfortunately)

i'm sure i hear "she's so cold" more often on CR than any of the ones Grisso just highlighted. "the last time" i've very VERY rarely ever heard and "under my thumb" and "honky tonk women" have both SLIGHTLY faded i think. hard to measure obviously.

i heard Queen Bee the other day & felt like I finally kinda “got” Grand Funk Railroad. I enjoyed it

this video sold me on Grand Funk forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL4rXHt0_GI

i legit only knew them from The Simpsons for most of my life

Tuned into the big local CR station for the first time in a long time during my work commute this evening--they apparently have been doing Pat Benatar blocks all day in honor for birthday (caught "Heartbreaker" & her version of "I Need A Lover"). Last thing I heard was "Unskinny Bop", and "Welcome To The Machine" was the earliest song.

Kinks are weird because their initial big hits in the states were all in '64-'66, then you move to '70 for "Lola", which I feel is still a pretty big radio song, and "You Really Got Me" is another token '60s song. Moving on, they had a number of big radio songs during their Arista period, but those songs are pretty much all forgotten now.

― Never Learn To Mike Love (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, January 10, 2018 6:37 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i feel like i hear "come dancing" more than any other kinks song. and van halen's (truly awful) cover of "you really got me" more than that

looking it up now, "come dancing" was their highest charting single in the US (#6), tied with "tired of waiting" but ahead of all the others

the fascination with the "60s narrative" migrated wholly to the world of visual art where it will live for another 2 decades I reckon

― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, January 10, 2018 6:15 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also this is so otm

The classic rock station I grew up with still had weekly jazz and blues programmes until the mid-90s and still gave some DJs enough freedom that I heard Frank Zappa and Babe Ruth commonly enough on Sundays and was pretty familiar with Focus's "Hocus Pocus" and "Inna Gadda da Vida" (alongside stuff like Midnight Oil album tracks) by middle school. Those things have all definitely become casualties. (The last five songs they played were "Call Me the Breeze", "Mr. Jones", "Sultans of Swing", Robbie Robertson's "He Don't Live Here No More", and "Jesus Just Left Chicago".) Cream, the Kinks, and the Animals are other good example of things you don't hear as much anymore. Something like Deep Purple's "Hush"?

"Come Dancing" is one of my very favorite songs, but I don't remember hearing it on classic rock radio in the late 80s or 90s. I had to rediscover it in the Napster/Mp3 era.

What I do remember is hearing it on top 40 radio circa 1982-3.

As an aside: That was a great couple of years for eclecticism in pop, by the way. You would hear "Rock the Casbah" and then "Borderline" and then "Beat It" and then "Pass the Dutchie" and then "Rio" and then "Come on Eileen" and then "99 Red Balloons." You'd hear "Everyday I Write the Book" and then "All Night Long" and then "Time After Time" and then "Thriller" or "Shock the Monkey" or "Little Red Corvette."

Everybody thinks the music of their own youth is the best music that ever musicked, I know. But it does seem like punk and new wave and pop and R&B coexisted in Casey's weekly top 40 to a remarkable extent. I feel privileged to have been a tween with a radio during that time.

4 Observations from the Ride Home

--Other Lady Guest @ The Sausagefest: Pat Benatar. Caught another twofer block of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "Promises In The Dark". Seems like she'd do well on a more '80s-centric playing field.

--The only two '60s songs were "Satisfaction" and "Magic Carpet Ride", which reminds me that Steppenwolf are quite lucky because both "MCR" and "Born To Be Wild" will still be in heavy rotation until doomsday.

--Newest track was "You Could Me Mine" by G'n'R, which perfectly ties into the coronation of AxL & Co. as the "Last Great Classic Rock Band" and why the format had to stretch in to the '90s to include them.

--Heard a commercial for a law firm that only represents men in divorce cases--Welcome To The Land Of Who Still Listens To Terrestrial Classic Rock Radio!