This is a new, hopefully recurring feature of alannoah.com, where I will feature a few songs that I love in specific categories. Hopefully these lists will encourage some debate in the comments (if, you know, you guys actually comment on them…) I tried to stay away from overly obvious songs that *everyone* knows and loves, like “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Dream On” or “Freebird.” You can find my picks on classic rock radio if you listen long enough, but I’ve included the tracks here too for your listening convenience. So now, without further ado, here are five amazing 70’s classic rock songs that I love.
Bad Company – Shooting Star
This song makes me think of Cornell, for two main reasons. One, it was played on heavy rotation on Ithaca’s classic rock radio station, I-100. And secondly, it was a song that Clint and I frequently sang with slightly modified lyrics. See, there was a girl on campus who walked around with big, curly, 80’s-esque hair, and she was sort of a special creature. She existed in her own world; for example, she walked around with headphones on at all times, and keep in mind, this is the pre-Ipod era, when people who were constantly listening to music were considered odd. Anyway, everyone on campus had a nickname for this girl, we affectionately referred to her as Superstar. So naturally, Shooting Star, with the title changed, became her theme, and the song became ingrained in my memory.
I realize the track wouldn’t be considered by most to be especially amazing – it’s just a rock song about a boy named Johnny who rose to great heights before meeting an untimely death. “If you listen to the wind / you can still hear him play” may be a cheesy line, but what can I say – I scream along to it every time.
The Guess Who – No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature
The Guess Who are, in my mind, an underrated band (maybe because they’re from Canada?), but they have a lot of great tracks besides their hit “American Woman” – “These Eyes” (Michael Cera’s rendition in Superbad was fantastic,) “Laughing,” “Undun,” “Share the Land,” and my personal favorite, “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature.” It’s a mash-up of two similar-sounding songs, one about a fella who has fallen out of grace with his gal, and the second about a severely dysfunctional relationship, epitomized by the line “She hasn’t got the faith or the guts to leave him / When they’re standin’ in each other’s way.” I will always love the “dam-do-da-dowmp-damp-a-do-dow” bit at the end. Courtney and I actually stumbled on a concert by the band on our 2006 trip to Disney World, and when I heard them playing this song from across Epcot Center, I got downright giddy. (Ironically, they were *not* playing in the Canada section of the World Showcase.)
Squeeze – Up the Junction
Squeeze is another band that falls into the underrated category. Sure, everyone knows their big 80’s hit “Tempted,” and I’m partial to many of their other songs like “Black Coffee in Bed” and “If I Didn’t Love You,” but this tune is just great story telling in song. Listen for the way he tells you that his girlfriend is pregnant. I just think it’s brilliant; it condenses a whole love and loss story into three minutes, and even though it goes by fast, you just actually care about the people in the song, and feel bad for everyone involved. (Or maybe that’s just me…)
Pure Prairie League – Amie
A soft-rocking country-ish tune about an off-and-on couple. It’s a great song that shows a lot of frustration, but is still somewhat optimistic and upbeat. Plus, it’s got a great chorus that’s catchy and easy to sing along too.
Led Zeppelin – Over The Hills and Far Away
Everyone knows the bigger Zeppelin songs, and while this particular tune has its share of fans, I’ve always felt that it gets overlooked by the other gigantically famous songs in the Zeppelin catalog. Personally, this may be my favorite Led Zeppelin song, which is somewhat of an accomplishment. I just love the nice acoustic guitar intro, and then the quick shift into ass-kicking hard Zeppelin rock. Then after all that hard rocking, the song mellows up for a soothing outro. Great stuff.
2 users commented in " Songs I Love: 70’s Classic Rock Edition "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThanks for the mention! I am unable to suppress musical opinions, so here I go in no particular order:
1) Over the Hills and Far Away- Al mentioned it as his favorite song, and it is probably my favorite song overall. But how do I keep it that way? By not listening to it. If it comes on the radio I rock out, but that’s it. I never play it myself, out of fear that it will lose its effect and then sadly I might even get a little sick of it. I need at least one song that will always rock so perfectly I get goose bumps.
2) If you can handle falsetto, go with Canned Heat’s ‘Going Up the Country.’ It was played live at Woodstock in 1969. If you want more, go with their ‘On the Road Again’ (it’s own song, not a cover of Woody Nelson).
3) Musta Got Lost by J. Geils Band. This band had two similar halves- a frat rock/blues 70’s side from which this song and another great ‘Give it to Me’ come, and the later frat rock/pop 80’s half which was also great giving us Freeze Frame, Centerfold, and the hilarious Love Stinks.
4) Living in the Past by Jethro Tull. Technically what I’m doing as I type, technically late 60’s I believe, but in the search for semi-forgotten hits, check this one out if your not familiar (but not if you don’t want it stuck in your head all day).
5) Get some Bruce in your life. Assuming you know the mega-hits like Born to Run, Born in the USA, etc., check out Badlands, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, and Hungry Heart and other stuff that is by no means hiding from you, but may still have been missed. Don’t take it superficially either or you may find Glory Days cheesy. Try to follow him and look for lines like ‘it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive’ (Badlands) that can express a desperation and self-doubt we all have but are so used to living with that we haven’t listened to it properly or even given it a voice. He’s Bruce for a reason, in his own category and still burning as he says.
“Living in the Past” is all right, but not my favorite J-Tull song, I think that would probably be “Bungle in the Jungle.”
And funny you mention Bruce, because “Atlantic City” has kept popping up lately on my random playlists, and damn, that’s a great song. Of course it wasn’t eligible for this list, since it was released in 1982.
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