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

[jingle.boy]

It's good for an early Rush tune

Exactly.

Precisely

[jjrock88]

It's good for an early Rush tune

Exactly.

Precisely

Definitely

[DebraKadabra]

 

[KevShmev]

Focus - Hocus Pocus

I can still remember being blown to shreds the first time I heard this song.  Everything about it was so awesome: that riff, the yodeling. the whistling, the accordion, the flute, everything. I still think the song rules almost as much as any rock song from the 70s that was played on the radio.  This is a  song in every way imaginable.

[Jaq]

That song is so batshit insane it shouldn't work, and yet it kicks ass up one side and down the other. It's kind of a shame that, if you know Focus for anything, it's that one song-they did a ton of albums with a lot of kick ass material on them. 

[Orbert]

Focus were awesome.  "Hocus Pocus" is a pretty unusual song for them; it's not like every song of theirs rocks out and has yodeling.  They were really more of a jazz/fusion group for most of their run.  Great stuff, though.

I like "Hocus Pocus" but the long version is actually a bit too long for me, and I rarely say that about a song I like.  They keep coming back and repeating sections just a few more times than necessary.  Yeah, the yodeling is cool.  Then it comes back.  Then it comes back again.  The guitar riff is cool, then it comes back, then it comes again...

[DebraKadabra]

That song is so batshit insane it shouldn't work, and yet it kicks ass up one side and down the other.

Pretty much this, yeah.

[Big Hath]

It's good for an early Rush tune

Exactly.

Precisely

Definitely

Indubitably

[Cool Chris]

That song is so batshit insane it shouldn't work, and yet it kicks ass up one side and down the other.

I have never heard another song of theirs.

[ColdFireYYZ]

I love Hocus Pocus. I have two of their albums, Hamburger Concerto and Moving Waves. Both are awesome and essential prog albums, imo.

[KevShmev]

In honor of the passing of Ray Manzarek...

The Doors - Riders on the Storm

Ironically, it is raining pretty good here in St. Louis right now, so this really is the perfect time for me to feature this song.  This is a song I loved immediately when I first heard it back in the early 90s, and while I don't listen to it that much anymore, whenever I do, it still sounds as incredible as ever.  Unbelievable atmosphere in this song.

[DebraKadabra]

There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirming like a toad

Just two of the MANY lines that spoke to me when I first heard this - I was much younger, of course.  But - this is, without a doubt, my favorite Doors song of all time.

RIP Ray... you will be missed.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

What still amazes me about that song is how Ray plays that descending line against the sounds of rain at around 30 seconds and the shimmering tone and the way the notes ring out over each other has always (for me) represented what rain would sound like if you tried to reproduce its sound via a musical instrument.

That was a bit of a wonky description, but I couldn't think of a better way to word it.

[Orbert]

I know exactly what you mean.  I saw a band cover "Riders on the Storm" one time, and the keyboard player did it perfectly.  It was great.  Also, it was only a two-piece band.  The one guy played keys (including keyboard bass a la Manzarek) and sang, the other guy played drums and did some backgrounds.  They made a lot of music for just two guys.

[Cool Chris]

Not very high on my list of Doors tunes, but I think I just burned out on it, seems like it gets heavy rotation on the classic rock station I always listened to. Great song though.

[DebraKadabra]

What still amazes me about that song is how Ray plays that descending line against the sounds of rain at around 30 seconds and the shimmering tone and the way the notes ring out over each other has always (for me) represented what rain would sound like if you tried to reproduce its sound via a musical instrument.

That was a bit of a wonky description, but I couldn't think of a better way to word it.

No, that was a PERFECT way to describe it.

[KevShmev]

Yep, I agree, too. Perfect way to put it, Cozmo.

[KevShmev]

Free - All Right Now

Free is basically known for two things: 1) Being Paul Rodgers first band, and 2) this song.  A classic rock staple, it is interesting to note that it was actually a pretty big hit on the pop charts back in 1970, going all the way to number 4.  I like the song; it's a good, solid tune. 

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

For every band I've been in that does any kind of classic rock, I pretty much made the band learn this song.  It is must be in the set somewhere.  Everybody loves this song, and it will always get women on the dance floor.  Despite being a badass song in its own right, Rodger's vocals are excellent.  I love how he starts out a little subdued and by the end he's in full on "You can't deny how awesome I am" mode.

[masterthes]

Riders on the Storm - one of my favorite Doors tunes

All Right Now might be a tad overplayed, but it's still a great song

[Jaq]

Did Free actually DO another song?  I mean, yeah, I know they did, but wow, music history pretty much treats them as a band that put out this song, and apparently as a one sided single. Pretty much a requirement for a band that plays classic rock is knowing this song; I had some friends who had a cover band way back in the days of my adventures and this was one of their standards.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Did Free actually DO another song?

They did Mr. Big, the inspiration for the band of the same name (they covered the Free tune on the Bump Ahead album):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSkmK1RXWZs

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Well, that killed the thread pretty quickly.

[masterthes]

Wishing Well is another song that's fairly well known

[KevShmev]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Wishing Well.  That got decent airplay around here, too.

Montrose - Bad Motor Scooter

Really cool song, one that got a ton of airplay here in St. Louis (like pretty much all things Sammy Hagar ).  I think, for some, this is Hagar's forgotten project, but it put him on the map in 1973.  Anyway, the slide guitar doing the motorcycle noise thing, played by Ronnie Montrose, is pretty neat. 

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Great tune.  Excellent guitar work all over it and a really great vocal.  This was a karaoke staple for me on Thirsty Thursdays. 

[Orbert]

I forgot about Wishing Well, too.  I was even in a band that played that song, although I don't remember if I even knew that it was Free, since I'd never actually heard the song before.

Bad Motor Scooter is great.  I don't consider this Hagar's forgotten project; I consider it Ronnie's first album.  Hagar was just the singer.  Ronnie Montrose went on to do some really cool stuff, some of it rather proggy.

[Jaq]

Montrose, as far as I can recall, never got much airplay around these parts, which is a shame, because people here missed out on one of the best hard rock albums ever. Oddly enough, Montrose's next band project, Gamma, did get a lot of airplay around here, despite being nowhere near as good or enduring creatively. I'm starting to wonder what the local program directors were on back then.

[DebraKadabra]

Free - All Right Now

Overplayed, but so what?

Montrose - Bad Motor Scooter

 

[KevShmev]

Eagles - Life in the Fast Lane

This is one of those songs that I've always thought was pretty good, but not nearly good enough to warrant the constant play it got on classic rock radio.  There are a bunch of Eagles songs I find to be much better, yet this is probably their 2nd or 3rd most played song on the radio.  In fact, my best association with this song is it being played by the band at the dance near the end of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

In fact, my best association with this song is it being played by the band at the dance near the end of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Fun fact:  The band was called "Reeves Nevo and the Cinch".

[nicmos]

Not an awesome song, but you have to admit it is one of the catchiest.  Everything about it is catchy.

It gets overplayed on the local station here.  But hearing it once in a while is enjoyable.

Oh, I would probably like it even more if Glen sang it instead of Don.  oh well.

[Jaq]

It gets near endless airplay because it popularized the phrase that is the title, but it isn't even one of the top songs on Hotel California, let alone their career. It is catchy as all hell though, I'll give it that.

[KevShmev]

Eric Clapton - Cocaine

I swear, back in the early to mid 90s here in St. Louis, you couldn't go two hours without hearing this on classic rock radio; it was played non-stop for years.  I guess it's a good song, but me never being a big Clapton fan combined with the overplaying made hearing this song something that I didn't look forward to it.  Years later, it being a bit more fresh now, like I said before, it sounds like a pretty good song. but I would still never go out of my way to hear it or turn it on.

[JayOctavarium]

Great song to BLAST in the car!


One of my favourite memories during my teenage years = Driving up the coast to Santa Barbara with my mom and blasting this (along side a couple Zep tunes) in her 93 Explorer