There are a lot of sterile, chilly albums in that list. Cold, you know? Maybe some people think it's cool to be cold. I enjoyed a lot of those in my youth.



NP: ZZ Top: FANDANGO!

where the hell is london calling???

In these parts, they play "Train in Vain" on the classic rock station.

These two played back to back is awesome. B&AS is like the weird little brother of RiL.

Graham Parker & XTC are the only ones I consistently go back to. The others I have issues with-

GLAD HE DIDN'T START WITH

Prince, "Around the World in a Day" (1985) Better than "Sgt. Pepper's,"

or I might have stopped reading. I don't know what is more surprising, saying it's better than SPLHCB or the sheer pick of THAT Prince album out of all the rest. Through his method of 'casual interviews with music fans' he must have happened upon the one Prince fan in a thousand who would say that album. It's like saying Steel Wheels or Jamming With Edward is the best Stones album.

Comparing musical acts from different eras is kind of like comparing athletes from different eras. It's almost futile. I ask if an artist is among the absolute very best of their time. By that standard, David Bowie, Prince, and Talking Heads are pretty huge and thus deserve to be thrown into the ring with the best of the best from any era IMO.

Bee said:
Echo and the Bunnymen, Kraftwerk, Kate Bush, Talking Heads and The The, are just as good as said bands.

If you mean beatles and stones, like i said i'd put Talking Heads close to the same league (the highest echelon) with Kraftwerk in the next group. Kate Bush maybe 1 more level down from there.

U2 is a hard group to place. They are obviously 'big' and have lasted. I respect that and think it counts for something but how much ? In a way they are super overrated but I can't dismiss them altogether as easily as a lot of people. It's like Pete Rose got a lot of hits and played forever but lacked power and was never the best player on The Big Red Machine.

Those aren't as "new" as I had expected, but those are pretty much all solid classics.

While I like/own many of those albums, and I realize this is a spec type o' fantasy writing piece, does anyone here actually think that those people who tune into "classic rock" stations would seriously consider some of the picks off of those albums? Obvious singles aside, most classic rock stations in my area sponsor monster truck or nascar events, or drinking at "Cancun Cantina". It doesn't exactly seem like the crowd that would be riled up about hearing a Graham Parker tune come on. In the instance that a "new" format was created, which isn't really an issue as most "modern rock" stations play a healthy dose of older singles ranging from Talking Heads, U2, Simple Minds, Bowie, etc, I'm sure it'd fill its playlists with the likes of grunge, Sublime, and other such diddies.

Cancun Cantina. :lol:

I agree with you on this. These are labled "Classic" because of wide-ranging appeal to a lot of people, particularly at a certain point of time in their lives. Those people are mostly Baby Boomers, and there's an assload of them. Classic rock is not the arena to hear new music, it's a place to relive the old familiar songs.

Those of us who gripe and even throw tantrums because our music tastes don't get proper recognition and admiration have very selective memories. We like to discuss how particular songs and albums got us through a rough patch our lives, or how it was the perfect soundtrack to an incredible evening. That's exactly what these classic songs are—only to millions of people, rather than a couple dozen Kraftwerk fans.

It's not just the song itself, but all the memories and emotional attachments built up around the song over years. It's brand loyalty. Hell, just a few days ago, I was driving back from 7-11, and ol' Alice In Chains popped up on the radio with "Would?" as I was driving past my high school. It was like I had been transported back to 17 years old. So turned that shit up and enjoyed the nostalgia. It was great.

That's why the songs are classics. 90% of the music buying public is perfectly satisfied with what they get from the radio. That doesn't mean they have bad taste, it just means that they aren't interested in digging in the used vinyl bins at Goodwill just to find something most other people don't care about. Same could be said for movies, television, books, hell, just about anything.

Awesome, Fu. It sums up perfectly why I've been accused of listening to crap and having suspect taste in music. Nostalgia, and memories of people I don't see very often, is strongly linked to music. A lot songs are like classically conditioned responses.

Yes, nostalgia clearly affects one's assessment. And right on about the social grand canyon between a zonked purely hard rock mentality and the kind of person who worships Kraftwerk. You put those two factors together and it makes sense that adding Soundgarden and Pearl Jam to the format is about as big a step as they feel safe taking.