Well, this time around we’re asking you to Vote The Rock …
By naming your all-time favorite Classic Rock Tracks.
And the immediate response has been very good …
Just over 12,000 votes came in this weekend …
So not a bad start to this at all.
But the concept has also spurred a few questions that
we’ll try to clarify here today.
(Hopefully this will help some of you to select your own favorites!)
In the meantime, keep the votes coming, folks … we’re just getting
started … and, in order to do this right, we’ve got to bring other partners on
board in order to reach the largest possible audience of Classic Rock Music
Fans.
So be patient … and, like ALL elections held here in
Chicago, Vote Often!!!
Some of your Comments and Questions so far ...
It begins and ends
with "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones.
End of discussion.
Pete Adler
I’ll chime in with my songs later but where were “Layla” and
“Jessica” and “Ramblin’ Man?” They are all worthy.
This list was compiled by people who love metal and very
hard rock.
Also, where was “Smoke On The Water?”
Charlie Ricci
The very first vote we received was for “Layla” … it came in at #3 on The Sirius / XM List … VERY
worthy … right behind “A Day In The Life” (#2) and “Stairway To Heaven” (#1)
and just ahead of the Jimi Hendrix version of “All Along The Watchtower (#4) and “Knocking On Heaven’s Door
(#5).
As for your other queries, “Jessica”
came in at #209, “Ramblin’ Man” (a Classic Rock Favorite) at #255, another one
that makes absolutely NO sense at all in their tally. In what world does “Ramblin’ Man” finish
lower on the list than “Jessica”? And,
quite honestly, how does “Rambin’ Man” NOT make The Top 25???
As for “Smoke On The Water,” it came
in at #121, probably a bit lower than it deserves to be, too. (See … this is why we need YOUR votes!!! To make things right!) kk
Kent,
You
have opened up a can of worms.
I've
thought about such a list many times in the past, but never got past what to me
is Classic Rock, as opposed to Oldies?
Is
Satisfaction classic rock, or oldies? How about Hey Jude? Should the song be
uptempo? After all, isn't that what rock is all about?
Can
stuff bordering on MOR (half the Beatles catalog) be included?
The
definition of classic would refer to something that happened in the past.
Now
read the title of today's posting ... The Greatest Classic Rock Tracks Of All
Time. Should that even include any song that was issued commercially on 45 RPM?
For
that matter, what time period are we talking about?
I,
too, am opening up a can of worms here, but to me, classic rock is pretty much
a specific 18 year time period from 1972 - 1989, give or take a year on either
end. That means the entire Beatles catalog is eliminated, as is much of the
Rolling Stones.
On
the other end it eliminates Nirvana, Pearl Jam and most alternative
music.
Now
define the term greatest? Are we talking in terms of sales? Are we talking the
contribution the song made to the art form of rock? If it's an open ended time
period, then any rock and roll song is fair game.
Rock
is rock. Most of it is the same three chord structure.
Is
who singing it important? I'll take Goodbye To Love, over half the songs on any
classic rock list. Same goes for a couple Abba songs. Neither act comes to mind
when discussing classic rock (nor should they). But there are hundreds of one
off songs like that, by acts that aren't considered rock acts, classic or
otherwise. Should they be included? Just looking for some clarifications before
I start my list.
Finally,
how many songs should be on this list? If everyone sends you 1,000, you'll need
to hire a secretary. I would think just a random list of a few songs would
suffice, with one song - one vote, being the determining factor. Then the
"winner" is the song receiving the most mentions. However, I don't
want to make assumptions.
Jack
I’ll address as many of your points as
I can here in this posting … and will continue to clarify as other questions
come up moving forward … but as to my take and intentions on of all of this, here goes.
Yes, I thought long and hard about
what I was opening myself up to by presenting such an opportunity to vote for
the best … but the more I listened to the Sirius Countdown, the more aggravated
I got … and just knew I had to do something to make things right.
What makes our brand new tally so important and significant is the fact that this won’t be a list of MY favorites
(although a good number of them will appear) … and it won’t be a list of YOUR
favorites (although if most of us are like-minded, I think you’ll be happy at
which of your choices made the final tally.)
This list will represent the consensus of ALL of Classic Rock Listeners from coast to coast. (Actually, around the world ... that very first vote we received for "Layla" came from The UK!!!)
Should 200 Beatles songs be on the
list? Of course not. But I’ll betcha 50 of them will be. Same with The Stones.
The Beatles covered SO many different
genres of music during the course of their career that we can't possibly limit it to any one category.
Think about it … I probably hear “Eleanor
Rigby” (a string ballad), “Drive My Car” (an album cut rocker) and “I Saw Her
Standing There” (a rocker written by a fourteen year old kid that only achieved
B-Side status here in The States … and didn’t even get THAT kind of treatment back home in the
UK) as much as any of their so-called Greatest Hits. (You rarely hear “I Want To Hold Your Hand”
or “She Loves You” on the Classic Rock stations … in fact, I’ll betcha that for
every time I hear “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” I hear “I Saw Her Standing There" at least
300 times … yet it was “Hand” and “She Loves You” that broke the band here in
America … but those songs rarely get played anymore. “Drive My Car” airs on virtually EVERY radio
station (Classic Rock or otherwise) these days as a lead-in the each hour’s
traffic report … it’s become the universal theme for this daily function and,
as such, has become one of their most popular and easily recognizable tunes.
And The Rolling Stones have long
been billed as The World’s Greatest Rock And Roll Band … how can they NOT be well represented on
the list? (They led the Sirius chart
with 36 tunes.)
It’s true, I drawing a definite line
between Classic Rock and Oldies … but some will cross over. “Born To Be Wild” will make this list … odds
are records like “Wild Thing” and “Bang A Gong” and “Amie” by The Pure Prairie
League, another track you hear daily on these stations, will, too.
But there’s really no place on this
particular list for artists like Dion or The Four Seasons or Bobby Darin … they belong on
ANOTHER list … but not this one … and I don’t care HOW many weeks these records
spent at #1, you’re not likely to find “Sugar Sugar,” “Physical,” “Theme from
‘A Summer Place,’” “Endless Love” or “Bette Davis Eyes” here either. (Sadly, your Carpenters track probably won’t
make the cut either!) kk
Here's my advise to EVERYONE voting …
Look at Classic Rock as a GENRE of
music … put the oldies connection out of your minds for this one … because a
song like “All Right Now” by Free absolutely belongs on this list. So does “Walk On The Wild Side” by Lou Reed …
because Classic Rock Radio has embraced these tunes … and so many others like
them. (“Spirit In The Sky,” “One Thing
Leads To Another,” “Hello, It’s Me,” the Rare Earth version of “Get Ready,”
"Stuck In The Middle With You," etc.)
Try this approach … you’ve just been
hired to program your city’s Classic Rock Station. You already know who and what they’re
playing. Use that as your starting point. Now, how much of that do you agree
with? And what would you change?
I have to believe on a list that
contains 3333 titles, there is most certainly a spot for “Bo Diddley” … and
probably at least three for four spots for Chuck Berry … because without Bo
Diddley and Chuck Berry, there are no Rolling Stones.
Motown stuff? Some of it … if The Stones’ version of “Ain't
Too Proud To Beg” can make the list, certainly there must be room for The
Temptations’ original version. Ditto for
other great Motown tracks like “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” and Marvin Gaye’s version of “I Heard It Through The
Grapevine.” (The Creedence version made
the Sirius list … and it doesn’t even come close to doing the song justice …
but if fits the mold.)
Consider the usual suspects when it
comes to Classic Rock Artists: The
Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, The Doors,
The Eagles, AC/DC, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen,
John Mellencamp, Eric Clapton, Journey, The Doobie Brothers, Aerosmith, Jimi
Hendrix, U2, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Queen, Foreigner, Boston, Steely
Dan, Heart, ELO, Styx, Cream, The Moody Blues, The Kinks, Santana, Yes, Foghat,
Kansas, Asia ... does that help you narrow down the list a little bit?
And then you’ve got to add in some of the second and third
tier artists like Eddie Money, Heart, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple,
Supertramp, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and The Guess Who, Dylan, Billy Idol,
Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special, Genesis, The Police and The Cars … the list of
potential artists goes on and on. (Cheap
Trick, Blondie, Alice Cooper, Peter Frampton … you get the idea!)
And don’t forget the one-offs like
Thunderclap Newman and Molly Hatchett and Nazareth … Thin Lizzy, The James
Gang, Blue Oyster Cult, Blind Faith, Toto, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and The
Traveling Wilburys … not to mention John, Paul, George and Ringo’s solo work. Bet you can come up with a thousands tracks
just using this list above with virtually no effort at all.
As for how many to send? That’s up to you … right now we’re just
building the list. Once we’ve done that,
we’ll begin presenting the final ballot for the votes that really matter. However, if you feel that a particular song
or artist belongs on this list, NOW is the time to nominate them … because not
everybody’s going to make the final cut.
Better to plant the seed NOW and see if we can get other Classic Rock
Music Fan onboard with these choices before we start the final voting.
(kk)
Kent,
A list of "Classic Rock" as defined by FM today
or even in the 70's when it began being an alternate oldies format is hard to
make.
To me, these songs cannot include 60's because no one considers
them "Classic Rock" but does consider them "oldies."
"Classic Rock" to me is likely late 70's and onward to
the 90's, ending there somewhere.
I really don't like categorizing songs that way because it
usually means heavy guitar work when there are SOOOO many songs that are just
great rock songs that don't fit.
I would NOT consider "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You"
or "WOLD" or "I Dreamed Last Night" or "Fox on the
Run" or "Listen to What the Man Said," "Magic" (Pilot)
or "Wall Street Shuffle" or "Sugar Baby Love" or "Bad
Time" or "I'm on Fire" or ANY Bee Gees song as classic rock, but
they ARE rock and classics and faves and from that period.
I consider "Classic Rock" as "Dream On,"
"Fantasy Girl," "Rock On," "Cocaine,"
"Midnight Rider," "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" "Never Been
Any Reason" or ANY Eagles song as this genre.
It's a pretty weird classification, IMO, usually leaving out
almost ANY soul artists, too. I just like what I like and hate calling
"Satisfaction" an oldie instead of classic rock, or "Eye Of The
Tiger" as classic rock instead of an oldie or "Show And Tell" as
either or as a soul record -- I just wanna call them top 40 -- THAT is MY
format of choice!!!
WLSClark
I
think the strongest music from the ‘60’s has held its own in the Classic Rock
Format. That’s why you still hear songs
like “House Of The Rising Sun” by The Animals and “For What It’s Worth” by
Buffalo Springfield and “Somebody To Love” and “White Rabbit” by Jefferson
Airplane (alongside their ‘70’s Starship stuff.)
I
agree that “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” does not belong on this list … but
“Green Eyed Lady” sure does! So does “I
Got A Line On You” by Spirit. (And,
believe it or not, I did get one vote for WOLD this weekend!!!)
When
we do our Top 40 List, ALL of these songs that you mentioned (and so many more)
will be represented … but for the purposes of THIS list, we need you guys to focus on
those tracks that “sound right” and “fit” within the context of Classic Rock
programming. So today, set aside the
“Satisfaction” / oldie connection and just agree that “Satisfaction” is a great
song that has stood the test of time and absolutely belongs as part of today’s
programming on a multitude of radio platforms.
“Eye
Of The Tiger” absolutely belongs here, too … as do several other Survivor songs
that continue to live thru this format.
And you can’t leave out “Vehicle”!!!
Maybe
for the purposes of making this list successful we have to do the exact
opposite of what we’ve always instructed radio programmers to do … this time,
put ON the blinders … and only focus on the genre that fits … and I promise
you, we will come up with the ULTIMATE list of music for Classic Rock
Programming.
Let’s
face it … this music isn’t going anywhere anytime soon … so let’s give them the
very best of what we’ve got to offer.
And by
the way, from your list of “ineligibles,” “Listen To What The Man Said” placed
at #680. I’m not sure that I feel this
one belongs on the list … but tracks like “Another Day” (#183) and “Uncle Albert
/ Admiral Halsey” (#167) DEFINITELY don’t fit the Classic Rock mold in my
mind and they made the Sirius / XM list, too. Yet you HAVE to include things
like “Jet” and “Band On The Run” (already reaching over-played status) and
“Helen Wheels” and “Junior’s Farm,” “Live And Let Die” and “Hi Hi Hi” among
Paul’s best rockers. (Even “Too Many
People” made the Sirius list, coming in way down at #992!) kk
And,
since it’s on my mind, we are going to restrict the final countdown to only one
version of the same song by the same artist.
For example, for “Maybe I’m Amazed” (which is certain to make the list),
we will feature the STUDIO version and not the live version. On the other hand, it’ll be the live version
of “Free Bird” that will be counted down (since that’s the one that got the most airplay), as will the live version of Cheap Trick's “I Want You To
Want Me” and all of the Peter Frampton “comes alive” stuff.
We’re
already getting votes for different versions of the same song, recorded by
different artists. (Our suggestions
above would indicate that this will quickly happen with “I Heard It Through The
Grapevine” and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”!)
This we will allow … but keep in mind that by “splitting the vote,” you
may actually weaken the position of BOTH tracks, depending on where they fall
during the final tally. (More rules and
clarifications as necessary as we go on.) kk
Of course Sirius /
XM’s Channel 30's "Top 1000 Classic Rock Songs Of All Time" is sheer
subjective nonsense -- reflecting only the personal opinion(s) of whomever
assembled it. Anyone can make up their own list of equal validity.
I chafe at the term
"classic rock." "Classic" by what and whose definition?
Chuck Berry's
"Johnny B Goode" is a rock 'n' roll classic. Is it not
"classic rock"? How about Danny and the Juniors' "At The
Hop"? Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues"? Jerry Lee
Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"? Wynonie Harris'
"Good Rockin' Tonight"? Bill Haley and his Comets' "Rock
Around The Clock"?
The phrase
"classic rock" evolved out of what was called "progressive
rock" in the late '60s -- a loosely defined category of recordings made by
acts lauded by Rolling Stone and other youth culture elites as superior to Top
40 music (even though a lot of them were also Top 40 hits). The output of
acts like The Beatles, The Stones, Jefferson Airplane, etc. were hailed as
"progressive rock" and featured on "progressive" FM
stations -- while equally rocking tracks by other artists not among the
selected elite were ignored as insufficiently hip and thus heard only on Top 40
radio.
Among the rock acts
shunned by Rolling Stone and progressive rock radio was a band from Boise,
Idaho, which had committed the unpardonable sin of recording, in 1965, an
anti-drug abuse song ("Kicks"). Well! In mid-'60s hippie
culture, to come out against mind-altering substances was simply unforgivable
-- and therefore this band's records, no matter how hard 'n' heavy they might
be, were considered too darn square to ever air on progressive / classic rock
radio.
But then -- in 1969 --
a mysterious new group appeared: Pink Puzz. Rolling Stone and FM rock
radio loved their album --and gave heavy support to such rockin' tracks as
"Let Me." Well, they did at first -- until it was
revealed that Pink Puzz was really -- oh my God! -- Paul Revere & the
Raiders (!) -- those same guys who had recorded "Kicks."
Suddenly "Let Me": and the other Pink Puzz tracks vanished from
progressive / classic rock radio.
Was that because the
audio content of those tracks has suddenly deteriorated?
No, they remained
exactly the same.
But what Paul Revere
& the Raiders had done was unmask the pretentious snobbery inherent in the
category known as progressive / classic rock.
The ultimate critic
remains you the listener. You know better than anyone else what moves you
and speaks to and for your heart. It doesn't matter one whit what any
published or broadcast opinion maker writes or says in attempting to make your
mind up for you. You know what YOUR "Top 1000" is.
Enjoy every track.
Gary Theroux
"The History of
Rock 'n' Roll"
Well said … now SHARE that list of Top 1000 Favorites with
US so that we can determine the ULTIMATE list determined by the ONLY people who
matter … the listeners! (Not the
programmers … not the know-it-all consultants … YOU GUYS!!!)
We want to hear from YOU so that we
can assemble a list that tells THEM what people REALLY wanna hear! (kk)
Like you and others, I
find myself agreeing to disagree with these numberless lists. It is their
opinion … or maybe it is their set lists from a new channel or an upcoming
program. They are just prepping you to say, “Wow! They are playing the greatest
rock tracks of all time on this station!”
Shelley J Sweet-Tufano
Hi Kent,
Of course, this is intellectually an impossible task.
First, you have to identify what "classic rock"
means … and then ask if you are looking for most influential or most rocking'
songs.
That said, here is my first batch of votes for
consideration with hopefully many more to go:
No particular order meant here: Satisfaction, Yesterday,
For What It's Worth, My Generation, Light My Fire, Purple Haze, The Weight,
Respect, Hotel California, Whole Lotta Love, Sunshine of Your Love.
Yes, sort of all over the place.
Some based on influence and some based on setting the stage
for further development of music.
For example, which Yardbirds song really set the table for
Led Zep ? I'm A Man ? Over, Under, Sideways, Down? Just not sure.
Roundabout ? Absolutely ...
So many ways to go.
Thanks for taking this on. It's going to be a monumental
undertaking.
Jim Hill
I can already see that! I can’t even begin to guess how many hours I
spent working on this over the weekend … and we’re just getting started!!!
So let's break it down again ... to ALL of you out there …
Think of Classic Rock as a GENRE …
and figure out what belongs.
You’re programming your own Classic
Rock Radio Station.
What is your recipe for success?
What songs HAVE to be there to draw
in listenership?
What songs would you like to add as
“Wow Factor” songs?
How are you going to keep the
advertisers happy by playing the right mix of music to keep folks tuned in and
hearing about what they have to sell?
(This might mean you have to feature some music that you yourself are
not particularly fond of … yet acknowledge as fitting the criteria of what
belongs on a Classic Rock Radio Station.
Tougher than you thought, isn’t
it? And a bit of compromising, too.
To build a data base, I first
started with all one thousand songs that made the Sirius / XM list, whether I agreed with them or not … but then
reset their counts to zero, so as to eliminate any rank influence from their
chart to ours.
I next added every new nomination
that our readers sent in … easily HUNDREDS more than what made the Sirius list
(yet surprisingly not one single vote for an Ozzy Osbourne or Black Sabbath
song came in all weekend long. Gee, what a
shocker!)
Next, I’ve been tediously going thru
the Joel Whitburn books to see what else might belong … also giving
consideration to my OWN Classic Rock Radio Station were I to build one.
I believe that several months from
now we will have the ULTIMATE Play List for this genre of music.
Yes, MOST of it will be obvious …
because there are just certain songs that are “locked in” to the mix.
But you’ll also see these songs
ranked the way the listeners REALLY want to hear them … and again, I cannot
believe that we will find a single Ozzy song in The Top100, much less The Top
500 or 1000.
Our list will represent Classic Rock
the way it SHOULD be … and my hope is that some of the radio stations will
respond as our method of research will poll a FAR larger audience than anything they’ve
attempted to date.
Stay tuned, folks … this is gonna be
a good one!!! (kk)
REMINDER: We have set up a special email address to accomodate all of the votes coming in ...
Please send your responses to ClassicRockVote@yahoo.com. Thank you!
REMINDER: We have set up a special email address to accomodate all of the votes coming in ...
Please send your responses to ClassicRockVote@yahoo.com. Thank you!
