Classic Rock Song of the Day (Deep Cuts now being featured!!)

[Orbert]

Ah, you're right.  The three are the main riff of the song itself plus the other two.  ♫♫

[Jaq]

Finally got around to listening to Move Like This by the Cars, btw, and it's pretty much what I expected: an entire album of Ric Ocasek sung songs. There's a few occasions where the song just screams "I wish Ben Orr could sing this"-Keep On Knocking comes to mind off the top of my head-but it's a solid album, and Ocasek hasn't lost the knack for writing slightly off-center pop songs. Thanks for pointing me at it, Orbert.

[Orbert]

[KevShmev]

Hmmm, I've never caught the Satisfaction riff in this April Wine song... *goes to listen to it again*

[KevShmev]

Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way

Classic rock radio loves to play the ever-living crap out of this song, so maybe it got on my nerves hearing it so much, or maybe, just maybe, it was never a song that appealed to me.  I think I am gonna go with the latter.  Joe Walsh songs can usually be hit or miss for me, and this is one that misses.  Sure, the main riff is cool, but I guess it just sounds too vanilla compared to so many other rock songs from that era.  For whatever reason, I am not a fan of it.  I don't hate it or anything, but it simply does nada for me.

[hefdaddy42]

Which means, of course, that you finally got to one that I like 

I've always liked Walsh as a songwriter, I love a lot of his solo stuff.  This is one of his most popular (along with, I suppose, Life's Been Good), but he has a lot of cool songs.

[Orbert]

I like this one a lot.  We're doing it in the band; lots of keys, good fun.  Also, some great slide work and talkbox.

[KevShmev]

I was typing that write-up while listening to the song and finished about halfway through it.  Oddly, the instrumental section was better than I remembered, so maybe I dislike it less than I thought.   I just think this is one of those songs where his voice kind of annoys me, but musically it is good.  That seems like a good middle ground for me to settle on.

[Orbert]

It's good that you have seen the light.

[Podaar]

I really like this song and love the cover of it by Triumph even more. I'll admit to being a fan of Joe Walsh in general. His party-hearty vibe always resonated with me...even though it probably wasn't very good for him! 

[DebraKadabra]

Jonathan Edwards - Shanty

Wut?  Never heard of it.

Steely Dan - Deacon Blues

Good song, but not one of my SD favorites.

The Cars - Since You've Been Gone

You sure you don't mean Since You're Gone?  If that's the one you mean, good song but... The Cars had better tunes.  Not unlistenable though.

Molly Hatchet - Flirtin' with Disaster

Ugh.  That got WAY overplayed on classic rock radio/FM radio down in Houston and here in Austin.  They always struck me as a poor man's Lynyrd Skynyrd.

April Wine - I Like to Rock

Had to YouTube this one - don't think I ever heard it back in the day.  Kinda generic if you ask me.

Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way

Yes, it's overplayed but the instrumental part is still pretty kick ass.  That, and Joe has always been my favorite Eagle.  RMW, however, does not come close to being the best of his solo stuff though.

[KevShmev]

Wow, I did screw up that Cars song title.  Badly.  I am surprised no one else caught that.  D'oh!

It's good that you have seen the light.

I still don't like it that much; I just should have waited till the song was over to post my write-up, since I will usually write the post when listening to the song of the day, and sometimes I'll think something is better or worse than I remembered, and I'll edit and tweak it as I go along, but this was one of the times that I finished it quickly and hit "post" before letting the song finish.  Figures.

[hefdaddy42]

One of Walsh's more tasteful songs is I.L.B.T.'s.

[Orbert]

And by "taste" you mean...   

[KevShmev]

Pink Floyd - Run Like Hell

I am a big fan of this song, but the odd thing is that I still consider the studio version to be a slight disappointment.  I got to know the song from seeing The Wall movie, and it is edited down to around two minutes, to where it moves at a furious pace the entire time, and having the keyboard solo moved to underneath the 2nd verse was pure genius.  The studio version seems a bit too slow at times compared to the frantic nature of the film edit.  The live versions with the extended intro were always bad ass, although Guy Pratt doing half of the lead vocals was not always kind to the ears.   Great song, for sure, but I don't think we've ever gotten that one perfect version of it. 

[hefdaddy42]

Great song, but definitely comes most alive in a live setting.

[masterthes]

Like Comfortably Numb (and 90% of Floyd's catalog) the live version kicks the studio's ass! Such a great rocker. Definitely in my PF top 10

[Podaar]

I'm always struck by Pink Floyd's ability to take simple song ideas--maybe even repetitious--and make them feel complex and epic. This song may be the epitome of that particular aesthetic.   

[Cool Chris]

...although Guy Pratt doing half of the lead vocals was not always kind to the ears.

Delicate Sound of thunder was my first experience with this song, so hearing Roger do all the verses sounded weird after that. And incidentally, that was what got Guy the spot on tour. He came in to audition, took out his bass, and David said "I know you can play the parts, I want to hear you sing." Not being a singer, that took Guy quite by surprise.

Anyhoo... rarely listen to this song off the album any more. But as awesome as a finisher for DG/Floyd shows as can be.

[Orbert]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but that's not unusual.  I of course grew up with the original version from The Wall, so to my ears that will always be the "right" way to do the song.  The various live versions I've heard, even by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters, just don't capture the same vibe to me.

[KevShmev]

I see what you mean, and let me point out that while I said the studio version was a slight disappointment, it is still pretty great; I just loved the frantic nature of the edit in the film.

I remember hearing that about Pratt before, Chris.  IIRC, he sounded better on the Division Bell tour than he did on the AMLOR tour, so maybe he practiced over the years and got better.

Podaar, I agree!

[JayOctavarium]

Love love love Run Like Hell.

And I think PF's live versions w/ Pratt trumps all other versions. Especially on P*U*L*S*E

[jjrock88]

Besides material from Animals, Run Like Hell would be my favorite from Pink Floyd

[El Barto]

...although Guy Pratt doing half of the lead vocals was not always kind to the ears.

Delicate Sound of thunder was my first experience with this song, so hearing Roger do all the verses sounded weird after that. And incidentally, that was what got Guy the spot on tour. He came in to audition, took out his bass, and David said "I know you can play the parts, I want to hear you sing." Not being a singer, that took Guy quite by surprise.

Being Rick Wright's son in law probably didn't hurt his cause any.

Actually never cared for any of this album outside of the live setting. That's unique among the Gilmour era material. Mostly it's the other way around.

[KevShmev]

Billy Joel - Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

This was played more by the softer classic rock stations than the harder ones, but despite never being a single, it was played on the radio quite a bit, at least in my area.  I have great love for this song.  Pretty much everything about it is great, from the various musical themes to Joel's storytelling.  The Stranger was definitely Joel's greatest achievement from a full album standpoint, and Scenes from an Italian Restaurant is arguably the best song on that record.  It's a magnificent song. 

[hefdaddy42]

One of my favorite artists.  Fantastic song.  Easy peasy.

[Orbert]

Billy Joel has always been great, but around The Stranger and 52nd Street he was just amazing.  "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" was so epic to our impressionable junior high minds.  We didn't know pop stars even did epics.

[Podaar]

I couldn't remember it so I had to go to YT. I know I've heard at least the intro before but everything else sounded new to me. Cool song!

[KevShmev]

Cheap Trick - Surrender

Just like The Dream Police, it's hard for me to hear this song without thinking of Damone humming a portion of the lyrics of this in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  Good song, and I remember years ago VH1 playing a live version of it and I was pretty impressed by how great Robin Zander's vocals were.  They were more impassioned than on the original.  I have no idea what year that live clip was from and where it was from, but I just remember taking way more notice of the song after seeing it.

[hefdaddy42]

Never been a fan of Cheap Trick.  I've often been amazed they were ever popular.  But hey, whatever.

[King Postwhore]

Opposite for me with Cheap Trick, I love this tune and never get sick of it and I love their albums.  They put on a very good live show.

[KevShmev]

They only have a handful of songs I like, and all of them I like a lot, but I've never even thought of digging into them anymore.  Not sure why, but I guess I've never had anyone pimp their stuff at all for me to even be curious about their deeper cuts.

[Jaq]

The best single concert I've ever been to, in terms of the quality of the sets played by the opener and the headliner, was seeing REO Speedwagon and Cheap Trick back around 1985. Both bands were barnstorming Midwestern bands that grew up on the road, and both were pure masters of owning an audience. Cheap Trick is, admittedly, these days defined by their two best known songs in Surrender and I Want You To Want Me, and they rarely caught the lightning in a bottle that they were live (which is why it took a live album to break them) in the studio, but lord, they were a kick ass band.

They had one of the earliest concerts played on MTV, and as I recall the version of Surrender from it was pretty good. Surely that wasn't the one VH1 played, that was back in 1981!

[Orbert]

They only have a handful of songs I like, and all of them I like a lot, but I've never even thought of digging into them anymore.  Not sure why, but I guess I've never had anyone pimp their stuff at all for me to even be curious about their deeper cuts.

[KevShmev]

Montrose - Rock Candy

Pretty good song, catchy enough, and with some good riffage, but it was never one I was wild about.  Even when I went through my big Montrose/Hagar phase for a brief bit in the mid 90s, I liked the majority of the songs from that Montrose album more than this one.  It's easy to see why it was fairly popular, regardless.