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

[KevShmev]

Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein

Since we're hovering around the song, why not make it the next?! Another fabulous classic rock instrumental, and by far the most well known song by Edgar Winter Group.  I've never really looked much into this band - I couldn't tell you the name of any other member, and Free Ride is the only song by them I know - but it seems odds that a band that had the talent to pull off a song like this never did much else that was noteworthy, at least in the sense of being known. 

[Pols Voice]

Freakin' awesome and fun song. The fact it became a radio hit just shows how different things were back then.

[DebraKadabra]

The Allman Brothers Band - Jessica

IMO, this is THE definitive classic rock radio instrumental.  Great, great song, and is still one that I never turn off if it comes on.

Wonderful song, and one that I haven't gotten tired of (given how many times I've heard it).  They Might Be Giants did an outstanding cover of it, too.

Frankenstein and Fire On High, both of which WILL be featured in this thread, are the other instrumentals I thought of when the phrase "THE definitive classic rock radio instrumental" popped into my head.

Fire On High is superb.    But...

Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein

Yeah.  There's really nothing more to say about this other than

[Orbert]

Frankenstein is awesome.

By the way, that's Rick Derringer on guitar.  "Rock and Roll, Hootchie Koo".  He plays in Weird Al's band now.  There was a point several albums back when Weird Al's parodies took a huge step up in quality.  That's when Derringer joined the band.

[Unlegit]

School, Jessica, and Frankenstein are amazing. Purple Haze is overrated.

[ColdFireYYZ]

I love Frankenstein and Jessica. Both are classics.

[Jaq]

I remember hearing Frankenstein on the radio countless times growing up, and thinking to myself as a smart assed youth "it's the Edgar Winter Group, I bet he played all the solos, even the drums." I don't even know why, but I did.

Flash forward many years. VH 1 was playing classic rock videos, most of them live performances, and on comes Frankenstein.

And wouldn't you know it...Edgar Winter played EVERY SOLO. He played the saxophone. He played keyboards. He even joined in on percussion for the drum solo. It's the one singular case in my listening to music where I made a smartassed comment that turned out to be RIGHT. 

I've already expressed what I think of the song and its place in rock history, though. This IS the classic rock instrumental.

[lonestar]

So, when I was about 15, my father bought a high end stereo system. This was about a year or so after the CD came out. The speakers were some sweet ass Polk Audios that cost a ton, and sounded so fucking sweet compared to anything else we had had before. They had an automatic turn off to prevent blowing them out at loud volumes, so of course my brother and I would test their limits. Frankenstein was our favorite song to do this with, the low bass always made them kick out. One day we pushed them a little too much though, and though they kicked out, it wasn't before we blew out the tiny little coil tweeters.

[masterthes]

Frankenstein is simply the tits!

[wkiml]

Overkill's cover of Frankenstein slays.....


Than again the entire cOverkill album does

opps actually they covered the song on Horrorscope...but the coverkill album still kicks ass

[KevShmev]

Simon & Garfunkel - Cecilia

Want the dance floor at a wedding reception to fill up quickly?  Play this song.  Works like a charm every single time.  Not my favorite song by Simon & Garfunkel, but still a terrific song, and helluva lotta fun to dance to with a group of friends and family.

[lonestar]

I'm totally cool with almost anything by S&G.

[DebraKadabra]

I agree with loney, especially since that song helped inspire a DTFer's middle name and online handle.

[JayOctavarium]

meh

[masterthes]

It's a fun song. Can't help singing to it

[El Barto]

Love S&G. Hate that song. :shrug

[Jaq]

S&G aren't my thing. The fact that my parents had an eight track tape player in their car, and would only play one of two albums they owned in that format-a greatest hits album by S&G and the soundtrack to The Spy Who Loved Me-on long trips while they owned that car-might have something to do with that. A little bit.

[Pols Voice]

Love S&G. Hate that song. :shrug

Yeah, I like a lot of S&G songs, but not that one.

[KevShmev]

Crosby, Stills & Nash - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

Another fantastic song that I loved immediately the first time I heard it.  Granted, I had no idea what the name of it was for a while when I first heard it (it wasn't as easy to find out such things in the late 80s/early 90s, with what no internet yet, at least for me or anyone I knew), but I loved it.  The end of the song immediately struck me as one of those iconic moments that defined classic rock.  And I still think that.

[Orbert]

Great song!  This is another "sing along in the car, in harmony" songs.  It's even cooler if there's a third person with us who can hang, but that's pretty rare.

[KevShmev]

Heh, that would not be easy, especially as we get older and less people know such classic tunes.

[Orbert]

Yeah, it's been a while.  But it just takes one more person our age.

[King Postwhore]

Two outstanding tunes Kev.  I just love and harmonies that CS&N do.

[Pols Voice]

I find CSN/Y to be kind of patchy, but this song is really good.

[lonestar]

Almost a perfect song.

[masterthes]

Another killer classic

[Zydar]

Gotta love CSN.

[Unlegit]

Not a big fan of the last two songs.

[DebraKadabra]

I find CSN/Y to be kind of patchy, but this song is really good.

Agreed.

[KevShmev]

Moxy - Sail On Sail Away

I am not sure how popular this song is in other parts of the country, but I know it is a KSHE classic here in St. Louis, and a very good one at that.  I can't name any other song by this band, but this is a helluva good tune.

[Implode]

I should've followed this thread sooner! Tons of songs I need to educate myself on.

[Jaq]

This thread is reminding me-since I've never even HEARD of the band Moxy, let alone the song in question-of how regional the music industry used to be. You didn't have corporations owning all the radio stations and demanding playlist uniformity; you had program directors and DJs who, if they found a song they liked and pushed it hard enough, turned it into a local hit. The story of how Rush took off in the US is one that happened to TONS of bands. It didn't even have to be a current song, as the example of Styx's Lady becoming a hit a few years after it came out on the strength of a DJ discovering it in Chicago. It was a time where a band could make a living selling out arenas across the Midwest but were total unknowns in New York and LA. It's like when REO Speedwagon broke big with Hi Infidelity; I remember as a kid they were headlining concerts in Charleston, West Virginia. (If my childish memory is correct, in the same month in 1978, Boston and Kansas also headlined there. GOOD GOD.)

One of the joys of 70s rock is that you can find a lot of gems out there that were only successful regionally, but were just as good, if not better, than the nationally and internationally known band.

[KevShmev]

Excellent post, Jaq.   I wasn't sure how well-known that Moxy song would be, so here is something a little more familiar...

Yes - Roundabout

This song is a great example of how different the musical landscape back then.  This song, clocking in at a little over 8 1/2 minutes, was played in full on the radio, and still is on classic rock radio, but if it came out nowadays, it would either have no chance at being played or would be chopped down to around 4 minutes.  But anyway, I loved this song the first time I heard it, and despite having heard it hundreds of times over the years, I still do. I think many Yes fans tend to dismiss it now as their overplayed 70s hit, but this is still one of the best rock radio songs of the early 70s.

[theseoafs]

Roundabout is wonderful. That bass, man.

[Pols Voice]

Even though a lot of Yes fans feel burned out on it, I still think it's one of the band's best. One of my favorite songs of all time.