Summers over and I'm still in quarantine but it gave me an opportunity to make a compilation of 1500 Classic Rock and Roll songs and I just finished putting them on discs. I'm not sure today's rock isn't the beginning of the end. I like Imagine Dragons and some Shinedown but I wouldn't go pay to see them. Anyways I thought maybe let me find out what inspires Forum Members and get a list of what they like. If I get enough response over the next month I'll print out a list. This is harder than you think but here's my list of favorites. Top songs 1. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody 2. The Who - Baba O'Reilly 3. Led Zeppelin - Kashmir 4. Bob Dylan - Hurricane 5. AC/DC - Thunderstruck 6. Savoy Brown - Hell bound Train 7. Golden Earing - Twilight Zone 8. The Doors - L.A. Woman 9. Dire Straits - Sultan of Swing 10. Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way Top Rock Bands 1. Pink Floyd 2. .Queen 3.Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 4. AC/DC 5. The Who 6.Led Zeppelin 7. Rolling Stones 8. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band 9. Creedence Clearwater Revival 10. Foreigner Top Single Artist 1. Rod Stewart 2. Eric Clapton 3. John Mellencamp 4. Bob Dylan 5. Joan Jett 6.Stevie Nicks 7. Elton John 8. Pat Benetar 9. John Lennon 10.Neil Diamond and remember:
Seth you have no idea how many times I changed my list as I went through the songs . I made 22 Cd's with 320 BPM for best quality and then to make sure no two were alike. I could make a few more but I thought I'd take a break. I have a lot of ZZ and the Eagles and Stevie Nicks was my secret sweetheart. I spent some time in Jacksonville, Fla. so of course Lynyrd Skynyrd were on and off the list.
I have had the pleasure of seeing Fleetwood Mac, The Doobies, James Taylor, and The Eagles live in concert. Wonderful music and consummate professionals.
The only music I don't like is rap. I grew up on MoTown and love it dearly still. But I also was exposed to such a wide range of seriously good music at a young age, I carried that my whole life. Orchestral. Mantovani. Later on, Andre Rieu and pure classical. Adrian Bolt's version of English Folk Song Suite is dy-no-mite. Another genre that got to me. Broadway tunes. Straight white guys aren't supposed to like Broadways tunes. Can't speak highly enough of "O What a Wonderful War!" or "Billy Bishop Goes to War" or the American classics, "The Music Man," "Funny Girl" (and "Funny Lady"), "Cabaret"...and that's just one genre. Rock? I'm a fiend for it. Limited at first to Detroit-area choices of national artists but later the biggies up to and stopping at the real headbangers. I have LedZep4 and that's enough. Aside from the skullcrusher tunes though I'm open to almost anything. Country? I'm beyond way open to them too. Here at PF, lately, I've been posting what I rashly consider to be a continuous-play set of three tunes in a common or complimentary genre. I see I get scant replies to country tunes but will still pop a set in if I find three good ones to do it with. Foreign music's got my attention lately. Gypsy klezmer stuff. Sometimes 600-year-old songs in a modern irresistable way. And gorgeous women in the videos. But there ain't nothin' like the blues.
I'm from Detroit and as a kid I use to go fishing in the canal that runs behind where Motown got started. I have every Billboard Top 40 Hit from 1955 - 2000. My passion is music. I love making disk sets for people . Classic Rock, Country, Motown, oldies, etc. I too love blues and beach music. I have a lot of stuff after 2000 but I too quit really collecting it all after rap took over. The last Rock Band I have liked is Imagine Dragons and some Three Days Grace. Hit me up in the private chat if your interested in any lists.
@Oh Yeah I was looking at your Top Ten Songs, and it struck me on a couple of levels. One is how hard it is to select a Top Ten. The other thing is how we are all a little different, and songs hit us differently. They can strike a chord with our past or present experiences and the things that mean a lot to us. As just some examples, Don Henley's "The Heart of the Matter" still always gets to me. The Eagles' "Desperado" and "Life in the Fast Lane". Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" and John Lennon's "Imagine" still resonate, all these decades later. Boston's "The Man I'll Never Be" and "Amanda". Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" and "Wonderful Tonight". All great songs, and there are so many more. Seth
Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" and "Wonderful Tonight" are two of my favorite Clapton song's and would be on most peoples list. You are right Seth it is very hard to select any Top 10. Even after making some Cd's with over 1400 songs I'm still coming across songs and saying "Wow! How did I miss that one". Talk about remembering the past, my sisters wanted some 50's and 60's with Motown mixed in and one sister love's Country so I've really been down memory lane. I loved the late 50's and 60's for romantic songs and most 80's music.
It is impossible. Hell, I can't even get past Led Zeppelin for most of my top ten songs. Stairway Whole Lotta Love Over the Hills and Far Away Achilles Last Stand Since I've Been Loving You Kashmir Custard Pie The Rover The Rain Song No Quarter Babe I'm Gonna Leave You Gallows Pole Bring it on Home Down by the Seaside Boogie with Stu Fool in the Rain The Battle of Evermore Trampled Underfoot .... How am I then supposed to squeeze in Garth Brooks? The Dance Thunder Rolls Friends in Low Places Papa Loved Mama If Tomorrow Never Comes Not Counting You .... George Benson's Breezin' Chicago 25 or 6 to 4. The Eagles Hotel California Try and Love Again - Man how much I love this song Every song on their Greatest Hits LP The Hollywood tunes from the Long Run: The Disco Strangler King of Hollywood Those Shoes I Can't Tell You Why, T.B. Schmit's one hit wonder. New York Minute Boys of Summer Pink Floyd! Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun!? Who writes a tune like this? WTF? Ugh... I can't even keep going. I have about 10,000 songs on my phone. I have one playlist that has 141 songs and is 10h43m long. It's like trying to list the stars in the Heavens... Song 2 by Blur, randomly featured in a Guy Ritchie short film promoting BMW 20 years ago.
Oh man! How did I forget Chicago? "25 or 6 to 4" and "Colour My World" And yes, Schmit's "I Can't Tell You Why" And Pink Floyd! The Dark Side of the Moon album.
@Oh Yeah @quiller @Grey Matter @ToddWB Like a lot of us, I've been housebound due to the friggin plague other than when I go to work. I've had a lot of time to just peruse YouTube listening to music. For some reason I looked up Tommy James and the Shondells and listened to some old songs, and when I heard "Crystal Blue Persuasion" I decided to find out what that meant. So I looked around on the internet and found out that it's a biblical reference to the presence of God. In light of all of the anger and strife in this country, that meaning and the lyrics made me feel sad. And yet, hopeful too, that perhaps, somehow, we can return to a day in the future when we set all of this division and anger aside.... and I'm not even a religious guy. Anyways, it's a great song. Here it is ...
@Oh Yeah Your thread title asks the question, "Is Rock and Roll Dead?" I don't know. Does anyone make good original rock n' roll anymore? About 5 years ago I was cruising down the freeway with my son. A millennial, he was born in the mid-80s. I slipped an Eagles Live CD into the player, and after a while he said to me, "Geez, they just don't make music like that anymore." True story.
My 18 year old knows the lyrics to almost every song played on classic rock stations. He played alto sax in high school, so he is also into jazz. Any classic rock with horns is on his playlist. Huey Lewis, Chicago, Doobie Brothers, Supertramp, Golden Earring, Junior Walker, The Coasters, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, ....... He loves it all. He used to have a girlfriend in junior high who's grandfather recorded with The Jackson 5, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones on his saxophone. The grandfather was impressed that he knew all of their music. He hardly listens to new music.
Bobby Keys man, that jam he lays down on Can't You Hear Me Knockin' is possibly the best Rock Sax ever made. What are his favorite sax tunes? Caribbean Queen has a nice sax on it. Careless Whisper sax is excellent as well.
He's not home to ask. My favorite is Edgar Winter in a 1973 live version of Frankenstein. The sax solo comes in around the 2 minute mark.
You know, it seems we all have moments, that present an opportunity to refocus our lives. In 1982 I had hit rock bottom after socially dedicating my body to the effects of liquid fermentation and chemical engineering. I joined a couple 12 step programs and started the healing process. I went to a couple social functions and knew these people needed an upgrade in entertainment. I'm 41 and I always wanted to be a DJ. I finally offered my services for free to the frozen chosen to let me try and do a dance. One thing I knew was they liked the word free. They agreed and we set a date, got a church to volunteer a hall, and I went out and rented speakers and bought a cheap mixer. Lucky for me it was a success and for 10 years I pretty much did all the Conventions and packed the house every week at the Club. The greatest reward was people coming up to me and telling me that they didn't realize they could have fun without mind altering drugs. Even the young kids one day came up and asked me to do their dances and do a 50's dance for them. Had another group, who didn't finish high school and missed their prom, could I do a dance for them. It was really neat to see them show up in prom dresses and suits. Like all things, the music changes, and you turn things over to the young 'uns. I still play around doing mixes for fun. The other day one of my son's friend walked in and I was trying to mix a song and he asked " do you listen to Shinedown" ? I smiled, "I listen to everything".?
Would have been a great song to play at my brothers wedding when my dad found out the new in-laws were really outlaws stealing the liquor and he closed up the bar.
The Stones have always had superb back-up people and yes, Bobby Keys is right there among the saxophone greats. Several guest vocalists have come in, as well. Here's my favorite back-up singer for my favorite Rolling Stones song.
@Oh Yeah @Texan @Grey Matter I never really cared for heavy metal much, but there were a few exceptions. 3 Doors Down - "When I'm Gone" and "Here Without You" (both from 2003) really spoke to me as the parent of a son who went off to war, just as those songs spoke to that generation. Another heavy metal "war song" that I like a lot was the re-do of "Bad Company" (2009) by Five Finger Death Punch. And there was a heavy metal band called Theory of a Deadman that departed from its decidedly heavy metal genre to produce this beautiful love song, "Wait For Me" in 2008. I first heard the song while watching some of the many "Welcome Home" videos people were making for our troops. My son was in Afghanistan at the time. A beautiful young lady and her friends made this video as her Marine returned home from deployment, and this song was used as a background. It was the perfect backdrop for her joy which you just have to see because I cannot adequately describe it. And here is the official version .... All of these songs I've mentioned now seem like a "brief shining moment" when our country didn't hate itself ... *sigh* Seth
There's a story there I reckon.... Reminds me a bit of the story I heard from a guy I worked with on St. Croix who had once been married and lived in a spot back deep on a Louisiana bayou. His wife called him at home from a bar she was at on the bayou one night around 2 am and told him to get all the guns and come quick. Warren, a 'Nam vet, grabbed all the guns and hauled ass to the bar. When he got there it was all over and a dozen people were laying around dead or close to dead. His wife ran out from the trees she'd been hiding in and they went back to the house. He never had to fire a shot and he got there and back out before the police even knew it was a crime scene. Shortly thereafter he divorced her and moved to St. Croix and bought a sweet sailboat that he lived on.