Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Looks like I owe some apologies here.
Apologies to: Tons of bands; from Abba to ZZ Top, and a few other very
important songs like:
Children of the Sun-Billy Thorpe, Feels Like the First Time-Foreigner,
Need a Lover-John
Cougar, Hold your Head up-Argent, Stranger-Jefferson Starship, Voices-
Russ Ballard, Rock
and Roll Hoochie Koo-Rick Derringer, Low Rider-War, Surrender-Cheap
Trick, and more will
surely follow. I am definitely a child of 70's radio.
People ask me how I have almost no songs from the 80's or 90's on my
favorite song list.
Others find it odd that no songs I have played on the radio made my
favorite song list. But to
me, favorite songs of all time are songs from your childhood that
made a permanent
impression. Any song that didn't come out until your last 2 years of
high school, or in college,
or adulthood, simply cannot have the influence of a song you have
known your whole life.
And then the exceptions to my own rules start to surface...And all my
party buddies from high
school want to know why there's no Zeppelin or Skynyrd on my list. My
best friends even want
to debate Rush and Starship tunes. These are valid points;
especially the Rush debate.
Perhaps I will explain; later.
The Rush Debate:
What a band! Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart: the 3 Canadian
Wizards. Rush is my second favorite band--
right behind Pink Floyd. I can relate with Rush a little bit better time-
wise because they started in
1973-1974. So; what exactly is the debate?
I actually have 3 favorite Rush songs: Working Man-1974, Spirit of Radio-
1980, and Subdivisions-1982.
It is a tough call to put any one above the other two, but when pressured I
do choose Working Man
because it has been around the longest. (Perhaps you have noticed the
importance I place on early
works, first albums, breakout materials, etc.) Spirit of Radio is an
excellent song about the importance
of radio songs in our lives, and Subdivisions is a lyrical and musical
masterpiece about teenage life.
Working Man is far less: it's only 6, 8, or 10 lines of words (depending on
how you measure) mixed with very 70's-ish guitar and
drum-based rock and roll. However, part of the appeal of Working Man IS its
overall simplicity; and that
it is over 7 minutes long. Plus, it was on the first Rush album. Working Man
was the introduction
of Rush to the world; the slap, spank, and kick hello that began the
onslaught. And because it was the
first of many, that is why I give it top-billing.
I do so enjoy those trips back through the earlier days...
In this paragraph, the list of songs will be ones from the 90's
(mostly) that are quite good
enough to be 'reference songs' for an entire lifetime (oh by the
way, I probably played all of
these on the radio). My classic rock roots will always be close:
Mayonaise-Smashing
Pumpkins, 3 Strange Days-School of Fish, Fascination Street-The Cure,
In Your Eyes-Peter
Gabriel, Enjoy the Silence-Depeche Mode, In a Daydream-Freddy Jones
Band, Right Here,
Right Now-Jesus Jones...more to follow...Upon
further review, there are far too many styles and ranges after 1980 (and
through present-day) that dictate far too many variations to pick out
individual songs as reference songs for a lifetime. This is a nice and
diplomatic way of saying that although there are a few outstanding musicians
and bands after 1980, the overall texture of music has become less important
and the craft itself has become more temporary.
INSTRUMENTALS!
TPG and I came up with another idea (okay, okay, HE came up with it), think of the best instrumental songs ever. And it's a really tough call, because "instrumentals" can cross any boundaries; even classical. So let me begin the qualifying by calling them 'Radio-friendly pop/rock' instrumentals, and my guess is that they will all be from the 70's and early 80's (gee, imagine). I still haven't decided if intro's are going to count; like Steve Miller's "Threshold", Van Halen's "Intruder", Boston's "Foreplay", or even Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend"--because those songs were never played alone. Hmmm. The stipulation for these songs MUST be that they are played on the radio by themselves. Yes. With that in mind, let's begin the list:
#1 Fire on High-ELO (Possibly the most controversial instrumental ever. The long version has back-masking in the front that scares little kids, and back-masking is always taboo with religious freaks. The extremely popular short version of this song gets played at almost every race track--as well as all classic rock radio stations. Still, I bet that less than 30% of people know either the name of the song or the artist.)
#2 Fanfare for the Common Man-Emerson, Lake and Palmer (By all accounts, "Fanfare" must be the most popular instrumental ever. But this list isn't about the most popular thing ever; this list is MY favorites, and MY favorites are supposed to make you think of your favorites. You HAVE heard this song, but probably not on the radio. It was the theme for ABC's Wide World of Sports back in the 70's, and it has been used as an American Olympic Anthem at least twice. However, this composition was never presented as a radio song.)
#3 Frankenstein-Edgar Winter Group (THE rock instrumental for Halloween, and this "haunting" bassline is a top 10 of all time.)
#4 One of These Days-Pink Floyd (The one garbled line in the middle "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" is a statement--NOT a lyric, so this classic pot-smoking song definitely qualifies as a great instrumental.)
#5 YYZ-Rush (This instrumental got as much radio airplay as any instrumental ever did. The collection of short solos and statements contained within this punching ballad will actually make you forget that the song has no words.)
#6 Bron-Yr-Aur--Led Zeppelin (This is the little guitar interlude in between "In the Light" and "Down by the Seaside" on side 3 of Physical Graffiti. Jimmy Page had ideas for many instrumentals that his "New Yardbirds" would play; but those plans changed slightly after experiencing the vocal talents of Robert Plant.)
More to follow...
In fact, the very term "Instrumentals" creates its own footnotes and exceptions. In this world of remakes and remixes, the time frame becomes clouded, and picking instrumentals becomes an incredibly personal and individualized effort. Wasn't there a Foreigner song, "Tramontane", that was not only great--but also the theme for the radio show "Rockline" (with Bob Coburn)? Unless you heard me on the radio, you've probably never heard the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song "Greyhound Part 1" (1995), but you'd love it if you did. Where would you rate a Ween song, like "A Tear for Eddie" (1994) against a bluesy tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn, like Buddy Guy's "Rememberin' Stevie" (1991)? And any amount of research I might do to find some obscure (but still memorable) 70's instrumental (like Hocus Pocus-"Focus") could be in vain (if YOU'VE never heard of it). And there's 60's bands, like the Ventures, who played only excellent instrumentals. Does the song "Tequilla" qualify as an instrumental? I have questions...
The 70's have many instrumental elements, many of which I'll never have time or space to get to. Do you remember the themes to any tv shows; like "The Rockford Files"? THAT song was all over the radio, but the theme to "Hawaii Five-O" (a better song) was not. The Who's rock opera/movie/album "Tommy" spawned both "Overture" and "Underture"; amazing instrumentals, occaisionally on the radio. In the era of disco, some band did a pop version of "A Fifth of Beethoven", and it was actually very good; where does it rank?
You will need to refer to your own memory banks to find out which kinds of instrumentals were very important to you, or at least which ones SHOULD have been important to you. In the 90's and today, many songs come with different versions; how does that affect the listings?
Let's do decade tributes; that should stir up some playful
conversation:
Decade Tributes!
1960's: the Beatles (now in my opinion, these 4 English bowlheads
are entirely over-rated;
but the big rock bands of the later 60's [ the Who, the Stones,
Zeppelin, and the first
incarnation of Pink Floyd ] all pay tribute to the Liverpoolboys).
Personally, I'd rather listen to
Elvis, or even hear Vanilla Fudge trash pop songs than the Beatles
White album. But then
again, I was only 4 when this decade ended. Bite me.
1970's: Pink Floyd (second incarnation; Waters, Gilmour, Mason,
Wright) Hold on; the most
potent band of the 70's was Led Zeppelin--we all know this. But while
Zeppelin was laying the
groundwork for the future sound of guitar rock, Pink Floyd was doing
things like taking the live
performance of music a bit further than the standard strobes and
dry ice. Floyd used
psychedelic light shows, flying objects, active film screens,
multiple explosions, etc. This live
creativity was accomplished along with worldwide acclaim for their
impressive expansion of
drug rock, all while suffering through inner turmoil (plus, Roger
Waters invented the 'concept
album' in 1973). I would never take anything away from the
accomplishments of Led Zeppelin.
But during the exact same decade, Pink Floyd was inventing,
creating, and innovating--all
while in the throes of an internal, double-genius band conflict.
Led Zeppelin were (pretty
much) just 4 party guys who rocked hard. See?
1980's: Rush. Period. I know that U2 got rolling in the 80's. I know
about Peter Gabriel and
Journey, too. Good news in the 80's: ZZ Top ruled almost 3 full
years of this decade. Bad
news in the 80's: MTV. But overall, start to finish, the 80's were
owned by the 3 Canadian
wizards; thank goodness.
1990's: Smashing Pumpkins. Billy Corgan has done (did) more in 7 years
than anybody else in
music history; and he did it in the most pathetic decade of short
attention spans (yet). Kudos to
the soft-spoken Chicago boy.
HEY!
Here's a new edition: Out here in desert-land, the better of the 2
alternative music
stations is having an intriguing contest thingie. Check it out; name
your favorite alternative rock song of all time. Can you do it quickly? I
thought that
I could, considering my personal history in it and all. Folks, this is a
tough one.
Regardless of your (or my) personal favorites, there is a tribute that must
be addressed
here. Everything in alternative rock has some kind of roots in music from
the 80's
or early 90's; from roughly 3 specific albums--and one earlier band. I'll
explain:
NIN "Pretty Hate Machine", Pearl Jam's "10", Nirvana's "Nevermind", and one
of 3 or 4 different
Cure albums forms the outlining structure of alternative music. I give the
Cure alot of
respect and credit because they were an established band--doing alternative
music 10 years
before the "alternative" tag. In fact, the Cure may have actually invented
the
word, and the style "alternative"...Here is my point: do you have a favorite
alternative
rock song? Probably. It may or may not be from one of the 4 bands mentioned
here (mine
isn't). To be fair, you should have a favorite song from "Pretty Hate
Machine", a favorite from
"10", a favorite from "Nevermind", and a favorite Cure song. Then, and only
then, can you
move into the world OF "alternative rock"--where you may have a completely
unrelated
favorite song. Does that make any sense at all? Okay...
Narul already has Tool's "Sober" in his top 10 songs of all time. Static
Girl will have
a Garbage song in her top slot; probably "Temptation Waits". I'll hear from
Dax V later.
For me, the list goes like this:
THE OVERNIGHT GUY'S FAVORITE ALTERNATIVE ROCK SONG LIST:
1. Filter: "Hey Man Nice Shot"
2. Radiohead: "Creep"
3 Tool: "Sober"
Grand Poobah Reference Historical Slot:
the Cure: "Fascination Street"
You are finished with W C's musical section. Are you inspired to do one of your own now?
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