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

[SomeoneLikeHim]

2112 was my first prog epic. It will always be very special to me.

[Orbert]

The first epic by a power trio, as far as I know, and still one of my favorites.  Sure, bands like Yes and Genesis had been doing epics for a while, but they were five-piece bands with keyboards and stuff, and were full-on prog bands.  Rush always kept one foot in rock and roll, but also took the opportunity once in a while to show us that there was more to them than that.

I picked up the 5.1 Blu-ray of 2112 recently (same time I got the remastered Aqualung) but haven't had a chance to check it out yet.  I have to wait until everyone else is out of the house so I can crank it.  It will be worth the wait.  Meanwhile, the remastered stereo version is kicking my butt.  I think I've listened to it four or five times already in three days.

[Lucien]

Well, the first epic (over 10 minutes) by Rush was The Fountain of Lamneth.

[masterthes]

2112 is just so awesome!

[Cool Chris]

I hadn't heard any of the songs for the past page and a half. Then 2112 comes along. Comfortably Numb was the first song I remember hearing that stretched the boundaries of the 3-4 minute verse/chorus/solo rock song. 2112 was the first song I heard that put no limits on boundaries, structure, or length. I had never heard a song over 10 minutes before that. I couldn't believe something that long could be that diverse, powerful, and awesome (TWSS). It was these 2 songs that opened the doors to a whole new musical world for me that I am still exploring today.

[Orbert]

Well, the first epic (over 10 minutes) by Rush was The Fountain of Lamneth.

The Fountain of Lamneth, to me, is far too clearly a number of shorter pieces stuck together to form something bigger.  2112 is just as clearly a cohesive work in several movements.  Yeah, technically The Fountain is an epic, and it did come first, but I didn't pick up Caress of Steel until after 2112, so it was still the first one, as far as I knew.

[KevShmev]

A lot of great stories here, fellas.  Props.

[KevShmev]

Elton John - Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

I cannot remember the exact day I heard this song for the first time, but I know that it was in the early 90s, and I know it was on a night when my buddies Matt and Eric and I were cruising around, as we did so often in those days.  I think they both knew the song already, but I didn't, and I was utterly blown away by the Funeral for a Friend section.  By the time it got to Love Lies Bleeding, I was completely sucked in, and it was not long after that that I ran out and bought the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road CD.  I never became a huge Elton John fan at all, but this song is still a favorite of mine, and it goes without saying that I was thrilled to death when I got Dream Theater's A Change of Seasons EP and saw that they had covered it (damn good cover, too).   

[Jaq]

I think a great many people's reaction to hearing these two songs, especially Funeral for a Friend, is "that's Elton John?!" 

I bought Goodbye Yellow Brick road when I went out of town for a day with my best friend, who was in the school chorus and went to a competition at James Madison University. He'd offered the use of his car to carry the some of the stuff the band that played with the chorus used-I mainly recall a bass amp being in the back seat. I went along as the roadie. Everyone went to a local mall for lunch, and at the record store there, I saw Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and I'd been meaning to buy it for a while, since hearing Funeral/Love on the radio a few months earlier, so I said, what the hell, and bought it.

The rest of the trip was memorable because damn near every girl in the chorus chatted with me at one point. See, the chorus was broken up into guy/girl partners, and this being high school, every damn guy had a crush or interest in his partner. I was a safe zone that deflected away the crowd of crushing, hormonal young men...which meant I got to spend a day chatting up really pretty girls who could sing and dance like mad. I had a BLAST.

[Orbert]

One of my best friends was a huge Elton John fan.  Junior high, we were all getting into rock and roll, and Jim was into the rock as well (he's also the one who got me into Rush), but I remember sitting around listening to his Elton John albums.  Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was Elton's first double, and of course "Funeral for a Friend" and "Love Lies Bleeding" are the opening tracks.  I like the idea of an instrumental leading into the first song as a way to start off the album, but in this case, the instrumental is what grabbed me.

From reading the credits on other Elton John albums, I knew that Elton was not a keyboardist, but a pianist.  That's not a knock on him -- he plays the piano like nobody else -- just a clarification.  Any time you hear synthesizers or Hammond or any other keyboards on an Elton John album, it's not him.  I checked the credits here, and yep, that's David Hentschel on synths.  Maybe that's why a lot of people who hear this track are so amazed that it's Elton.  Well, he wrote it, and there's piano in there, but the wall of ARPs is David, one of Elton's longtime producers and collaborators.

[nicmos]

Single best Elton John song.  I actually wasn't aware of it before Dream Theater came out with it.  I think Elton's version is better.  I don't think there is a single other song in the rock cannon that sounds like this one, and it's too bad.  I'd probably put it in my top 10 all time.

[jjrock88]

Not even remotely a fan of Elton John.  But this song stood out to me big time on Change of Seasons and I was surprised to learn it was his song.  Was so impressed with the song I went out of my way to hear John's version; gotta say, its pretty good.

[masterthes]

Great opener to an incredible album. Elton John is one of my favorites and this just might be his masterpiece

[KevShmev]

Kansas - Song for America

This got classic rock radio airplay for a long time, although the shortened edit was played sometimes, but back in the day, this was played in full all of the time on rock stations.  And for good reason; it is an awesome song.  Kansas has been a longtime favorite of mine, and aside from the obvious hits from the 70s, this song was integral in getting me into the band in the first place (and then I eventually heard all of Leftoverture, which obliterated me and it was all over ).  Love the extended intro, and when the vocals finally kick in, I still goosebumps every single time.  This song is a masterpiece.

[Orbert]

Great song, one of my favorite Kansas songs!

[hefdaddy42]

Great song, I love Kansas.

Sorry for not following the thread until now, it looks like it's right up my alley.  I usually forget about this whole subforum. 

[Lowdz]

Not even remotely a fan of Elton John.  But this song stood out to me big time on Change of Seasons and I was surprised to learn it was his song.  Was so impressed with the song I went out of my way to hear John's version; gotta say, its pretty good.

Same for me. I'll take Dt's version but the original is excellent- just a bit too 70s.

[Jaq]

My second favorite Kansas song, behind Icarus-Borne on Wings of Steel. For years all I had ever heard was the shorter version on the live album, so when I finally heard it in full when I bought Song for America I was awed, to say the least. Great song, wish local radio played even the edit though.

If the through line in this thread for me isn't obvious, it's "LOCAL CLASSIC ROCK RADIO SUCKS." 

[KevShmev]

 

Speaking of which, maybe I should save this story for when I feature this song, but it is relevant to the topic at hand...

I have mentioned how the local station KSHE-95 does a Rock & Roll 500 every Memorial Day weekend.  Well, the one year, Locomotive Breath was number one, and I swear to God, when they played it, they skipped over the first 40 seconds or so, and started it where the piano gets fast.  I remember thinking, "It's your number 1 song, and you can't even play the whole thing even though it is less than five minutes?"

[KevShmev]

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Pride and Joy

The guitar playing in this song is pretty much .  I don't listen to SRV that much, simply because I have to be in just the right mood for bluesy-type stuff, but when I do, it always sounds great, and Pride and Joy has always been one of my favorites by him.  Probably one of the few artists that didn't hit the scene till the 80s that can truly be called classic rock.

[Jaq]

I'm biased here, massively, since Stevie Ray Vaughn is my favorite guitar player of all time, so of course anything by him, even his more "commercial" songs like this and Love Struck Baby, will get nothing but love from me. Nothing but love.

[hefdaddy42]

I absolutely love SRV, but I would hesitate to call him "classic rock."

No denying how awesome this song is, though.

[KevShmev]

Featuring this song did get me to listen to all of Texas Flood for the first time in years, and I have to say, that album is still absolutely dynamite.  Like I said earlier, blues rock is not something I want to listen to on any kind of regular basis, but when I do, it doesn't get much better than that.

[nicmos]

There is something about SRV's playing that is unmatched by anyone else.  I don't really consider myself a guitar-player snob.  I couldn't even tell you the names of all the techniques people use.  pull-off?  I have no idea what that is.  But this song demonstrates an amazing mastery of how to play an instrument.  There is nothing like it, except other SRV.  I think I actually like another song of his, Crossfire better overall, but the playing isn't as mesmerizing.

[hefdaddy42]

I've always felt that no guitarist could communicate through his instrument as well as SRV.

[KevShmev]

America - A Horse with No Name

A highly enjoyable song; some delicious melodies, too.  This tends to not get played on the rock stations that focus more on hard rock, but it's a classic rock staple for sure.

[Orbert]

I always liked this song.  It's catchy and tells a story of a journey, even if the lyrics are silly and don't always make sense.

In the desert, you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

As many here know, I do most of my playing these days in our church band, and about half of our music is stuff we've picked and the rest is stuff we're "asked" to play.  And sometimes it's somewhere in between.  The theme was wandering in the desert, searching for the Promised Land, so we figured this would be a good one.  Acoustic, pretty chill, nice harmonies.

I was completely blindsided by how much resistance we ran into.  They didn't like how the story ended.  They didn't like the word "ain't".  And the one I really wasn't ready for: This song was banned from some radio stations in the 70's because it was supposedly about taking a drug trip.  Are you kidding me?  There are no references, either direct or indirect, to taking anything mind-altering.  He never actually mentions eating or drinking during the entire journey.  "Well you know, Bob, 'horse' is a slang term for heroin."  Yes, I knew that, but really, are you kidding me?

So my one guitarist refused to play the song because 40 years ago some idiots thought it was about a drug trip, evidenced by the fact that the journey is on a horse, and "horse" is slang for heroin (a drug which is not a psychedelic, by the way).  I Googled the song, and sure enough, that was all supposedly true.

I eventually convinced our pastor that the song had nothing to do with drugs, and that the only people who might think so are probably on drugs themselves.  I printed out the lyrics and showed them to her.  She agreed, and let us do the song.  It would've been nice to have two guitars, but whatever, we did it with a guitar, piano, and a guy playing a djembe drum.

[Podaar]

I always dug America for the harmonies and summery feel of their music. Great song but not my favorite from them.

Orbert, my wife recently nominated this song for the worst lyrics ever.  We were listening to the radio on our way to a weekend of hiking (in the desert no less) when the song came on. She rolled her eyes and said, "The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz?!"  So I pointed out that Shakespere never wrote anything that would top, "The heat was hot."

[Orbert]

Oh yeah, Dewey Bunnell wrote some of the worst lyrics known to man.

[KevShmev]

Orbert, that is too funny.

The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes

The Doobies took on a more soulful approach when Michael McDonald joined the band, and a good indicator of this is this song.  I know a few people who didn't like the Doobies as much then, as they liked the earlier stuff better when they more rock, and while I generally agree, I do like this song quite a bit.  It is helped by the fact that there are a handful of songs that remind me of a place we used to go for family reunions all of the time when I was a kid.  I have no clue if any of those songs actually relate to them, but for whatever reason they remind me of them.  This is one of those songs.

[senecadawg2]

A Horse With No Name is incredibly hard to get unstuck from my head, once it's there. Not too familiar with the Doobie Bros

[Orbert]

I didn't get into The Doobie Brothers until a little later; I'm not sure why.  I had "Best of the Doobies" because it was a cheapo from the record club, and it's good.  So I knew that there were the Patrick Simmons rockers and the Michael McDonald tunes which were a little more mellow or R&B or something, but that can happen when you have more than one writer in the band.  Sometimes it's pretty obvious that which songs were written by whom, and the band has something of a split personality.  Didn't matter to me; I liked both sides of their sound.  I didn't know the history of the band, though, didn't realize that the two eras didn't really overlap much.

Anyway, this is one of my less-favored "later" Doobie Brothers tunes.  Just a little too poppy for me, and that one synth sound is kinda silly.  And of course "later" is relative since all of this stuff is 30 or 40 years old now.

[nicmos]

I have an emotional reaction to Michael McDonald DBs and him in general.  I change the station.  I don't find it enjoyable at all.  But this song is probably not as bad as the others from his era in the band.

[masterthes]

It's definitely one of the better songs with him in it. That being said, Michael McDonald really ruined the band, maybe even more so than Peter Cetera with Chicago

[Jaq]

Even in a decade where a band could evolve so far from their original sound as to be a completely different band (see: Fleetwood Mac), the change in the Doobie Brothers when Michael McDonald joined was so huge, I still go "what the fuck?" when I hear songs from this era of the band. It really wasn't the same band anymore.