Classic Rock?

As I get older, I find myself listening to more of this than usual -- not all of it, by any stretch, but 20 years ago, I would never have considered owning a Pink Floyd album besides Piper, and now I'm thinking about picking up Wish You Were Here and Dark Side. It's possible that it's because I can contextualize them better, knowing one's specifically about Syd Barret, someone I enjoy a lot. So my question is this: Which so-called classic Rock bands do you think are worth the moniker?

Off the top of my head:

The Who (though I wish classic rock radio would remember that they recorded more than three songs)
CCR
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Kinks
Lynyrd Skynyrd (ditto)
Buffalo Springfield
Neil Young
Black Sabbath
Free
Mott the Hoople
David Bowie
Yes
King Crimson (not that I've actually ever heard them on a classic rock radio station)
The Move (ditto)
E.L.O. (see notes by the Who and Skynyrd)
Kansas (admittedly, I'm probably alone in that assessment)
The Faces
Rod Stewart (pre-L.A.)
Motorhead (OK, to me they're a classic rock band)
U2
R.E.M.
Queen
Thin Lizzy
Soundgarden
Alice in Chains (in small doses)
Guns 'N Roses (ditto)
Cream (double ditto)
Derek & the Dominoes
The Yardbirds
Rush
Genesis (pre-Collins - though "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is pretty much the only thing that gets classic rock radio play)
Peter Gabriel
Sweet
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

I'm with you on the Floyd. I used to listen to them fairly frequently, got sick to hell of everything but Piper, and am now slowly coming back around, at least to WYWH and Dark Side.

My problem with "classic rock" (besides the semantics - I mean, if "classic" denotes holding up over time, Echo & the Bunnymen and the Velvets are classic rock, but no one I know would claim such) isn't so much the music itself, as its representation on radio. Our local classic rock station used to have the (clearly dubious) tagline "Because it's the best music ever made." Then they'd play something by Bad Company, Grand Funk or fucking Bachman-Turner Overdrive, or some dreadful Clapton soft pop song. That was directly responsible for me tuning out for good.

I also tend to like a lot of what I call the neo-classic rock bands, a la the Hellacopters, Bigelf, Bible of the Devil, Lions in the Street, Diamond Dogs, etc. One might even argue that Porcupine Tree fits under that banner. (Of course, one could also argue that the gawdawful Nickelback and its many clones do as well, but in my happy place those bands don't exist.) That's the kind of music that tends to grab my attention quicker than the latest indie rock wunderkind. Which says a lot more about me than it does about music.

Many of the artists listed didn't fit my preconceptions of what "Classic Rock" was, so I checked Wikipedia for a little elucidation:

Classic rock formats typically include selections from British hard rock and progressive rock bands, American 1970s rock bands and solo artists, and some material from late-1960s rock acts. In many areas, southern rock acts form a significant subset of classic rock playlists as well.

Some classic rock playlists also include some of the hard-rock and heavy metal bands of the 1970s and 80's and some amount of new wave selections.

That is what I think of when I think of "Classic Rock." Overt machismo, "blues-"based rawk. Basically, bands who lie, and claim to be the bastard children of Led Zepplin and the 68-70 Stones. Greater bands [CCR, Neil, Bowie] are only appropriated through their handful of songs that can be slipped into that "Classic Rock" sound.

Today's more inclusive (read: revisionist) Classic Rock playlists might have a little more breadth.

I think you've got it right.

If you've found a "revisionist/inclusive" classic rock station, I'd love to know who it is. For such a music-oriented town, we have an amazingly conservative classic rock station. Though, to their credit, they do work in a lot of local artists when they can.

I always though it was about money. I assumed it was cheaper to play Bad Company and Foghat on heavy rotation then to play Bowie or the Beatles.

if you go by radio formats, which i have some experience in, the wikipedia definition is woefully off base, ignoring as it does the dedication of the format to the '60s, beginning with the Beatles, who have never fallen from grace.

ira wrote:

> if you go by radio formats, which i have some experience in,
> the wikipedia definition is woefully off base, ignoring as it
> does the dedication of the format to the '60s, beginning with
> the Beatles, who have never fallen from grace.

I agree, although I believe that The Beach Boys are both classic rock *and* their U.S. music releases slightly predate The Beatles releases. For all practical purposes they were contemporaries. Without a doubt The Beatles overwhelming success and the combined impact of the "British Invasion" contributes to their significance.

The Wikipedia isn't that far off base if you make the distinction between an Oldies format and the Classic Rock one.

Of the stations I grew up with, the Oldies covered rock and roll from Bill Haley to the end of the Beatles, with exceptions for 70s soft rock.

So the Who may be a classic rock band. But Bachman Turner Overdrive are a greater Classic Rock band.

'you' might Opine jstoned,

Bachman Turner Overdrive are a greater Classic Rock band.

then i remember geddy lee, in some interview renaming BTO (when the band got all fat) Bachman Turner Overweight.

all joking aside and no matter however top 'evy bto appears in the rear window they could never "see for miles" like pete townshend.

Great list, M. Toland!

* Led Zeppelin: Any song, any time is OK with me.
* Elton John: though song selection is key here. I loathe The Bitch Is Back and Saturday Night's Allright For Fighting which always get played.
* Jimi
* Rod Stewart (solo): Anyone remember how great his first 4 records were?
* Randy Newman: Almost never heard on classic rock, but he should be.
* The Doors
* J. Geils
* Byrds
* The Band: Would love to hear more songs from the eponymous album played
* Steely Dan, Hall and Oates, Fleetwood Mac: Sorry, I like them! I have a soft-rock weakness.
* Bowie: Something other than Suffragette City would be nice once in a while.
* Cream
* Bruce Springsteen

I knew I'd forget some people: the Byrds, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Hendrix (shame on me) and, even though I'm not much of a fan, Zep.

I dig the Dan and Hall & Oates, too. Our local classic rock station doesn't play either, but our local triple-A station has always programmed Steely Dan. If I want a H&O fix, I have to go to my compilation CD.

You know, considering that "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah" get rotation on CRR, you could argue the Clash is classic rock, too. Strummer would rise seething from the grave if we did, though.

There's a great radio show on our local college/NPR station. The show is called "Vintage Voltage." Its host, G.T., plays a lot of the oldies and gems that most classic rock or oldies radio stations don't include on their playlists.

If this sounds worth checking out (and you have no bigger plans for Saturday night), you can stream it. The show airs every Saturday, 8 to 10 PM U.S. Mountain time.

The classic rock format was heavily programmed back in the 80s and early 90s. The problem with the format was it seemed each classic rock artist was only worthy of two or three songs for their rotation. Such a narrow view deserves the label Assic Rock

My college station, WXPN, does it right. They mix in obscure stuff AND well-known stuff from classic artists and swirl it around with the indie contemporaries of today. Have a taste!

Also, I find it's neat that people here can appreciate the post-Barrett Pink Floyd. I don't think I'll ever get tired of them, although Roger Water's war fixations and heavy-handed political prattle can be tiring.

Well, for me the foundation of my music taste was 60s classic Rock :

Mid-Period Beatles

Stones 64-72

Who (especially the 60s singles / Meaty, Beaty stuff)

Kinks (mostly singles all the way through Lola ; + the Arthur album, damn that's a great record)

Dylan

Then the Faces and .....well Big Star who sort of bridge the gap into the other stuff I like. I still play all the above regularly, probably always will.

The real problem with the old Classic Rock radio format of course is it would encourage false connections between bands simply by lumping them under the same banner.....and even worse, leave potential connections out by default since artists were excluded.

That and also reducing artist catalogs to 4 or 5 tunes (if you're lucky). ......the Kinks and the Who always got screwed by the format I thought.



Post Edited (09-26-09 10:26)

Classic rock? May you always have other options, my friends.

It's pretty much a barren wasteland littered with burned out muscle cars, empty beer cans, and the carcasses of countless eight-track tapes.

"Here Be Frampton!"

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No one above mentioned Bolan. Classic rock can vaguely recall that he recorded one song, at least ... so it must have a brain cell or two left. I can (and do) dig Steely Dan. Given the context, they sound positively exotic.

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I'd give a lot to hear Bob Marley's version of "I Shot The Sheriff" once in a blue moon but it's always Clapton's palsied cover. Same goes for any tune by John Lee Hooker ... instead of ZZ Top's minstrel-show regurgitations.

"Bo Diddley? Sure! We got us a George Thorogood CD around here somewhere!

More blues-based noise than you can shake a stick at, and it's all white dudes! The Jimi Hendrix Defence holds no water as far as I'm concerned.

It's impossible not to recall the video for "Bad To The Bone" where Thorogood beats Bo at pool ... and the end of the first "Back To The Future" movie, where Marty "invents" rock and roll. Really perverted stuff.

But then again, I spent the morning listening to a Louis Jordan comp called "Rock & Roll." Maybe my orbit has been perturbed?

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Why are Guns N' Roses, The Black Crowes and Soundgarden all given a free pass in the front door, while the rest of the modern world is left out in the cold? Oh yeah ... I also occasionally hear Nirvana on the local Clear Channel affiliate. Cobain's ghost is wailing in misery somewhere.

"Ya'll forgot the Georgia Satellites! We play their song!"

Sorry. My bad. I guess that you've got punk covered as well, seeing how you've got those two Clash tunes in rotation?

"Yup."

:::cue Nth spin through "Kashmir":::



Post Edited (09-30-09 17:32)

ira,
maybe i shouldn't be the one to comment on twenty first ettiquete but i thought wikipedia welcomed well supported criticism.

so i say, please submit anything you might have written/are writing about the beatles to wiki. heck, it don't cost nuthin.

and if you really think about it, no one wants to run out of tp.