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

[Orbert]

The guitar solo at the end is what makes the song for me.  Up until that point, yeah it's a good song, but I'm not a huge Mac fan.

[jingle.boy]

Great tune. One of my faves from FM.  Love how the rhythm section is on a totally different page than the melodies during the verses. So many tiny little nuances that make this a fantastic song.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

The thing I always noted about this song was the emotion in LB's voice.  This was made abundantly more clear in the isolated vocals thread I started, where I posted the vocal track from this song.  Especially in the chorus, you can feel the emotion.  You can hear in his voice that he's angry at Stevie Nicks.  It's pretty amazing.  Oh to have been a fly on the wall for those recording sessions.  That HAD to be tense.

[King Postwhore]

The passion in this song is unreal.  To have 2 couples breaking up and to pour your heartache into the music made this song and this album a top 10 album for me of all time.

[KevShmev]

Three Dog Night - Joy to the World

Is there anyone who doesn't sing the first line of this song at full volume every time they hear it?  If so, stand up and be counted.

Good, classic song.

[masterthes]

Go Your Own Way is probably my favorite FM song or easily top 5

Yeah, I belt out Jeremiah was a bullfrog and I am not ashamed about it

[Orbert]

Great song, great band, great harmonies.  Nothin' but love for this one.

[7deg_inner_happiness]

I agree completely with the last 3 posts.

The passion in this song is unreal.

Agreed!

Rumours and FM's preceding album are outstanding classics.  And as for Three Dog Night, who can resist singing along to Shambala as well.  I'm unashamed to admit I do!

[Jaq]

Three Dog Night - Joy to the World

Is there anyone who doesn't sing the first line of this song at full volume every time they hear it?  If so, stand up and be counted.

Good, classic song.

My dad is not a fan of rock music at all. You can get him to listen to country and folky stuff, but he's basically into Broadway and classical.

And he belts out the first line of that song. Sometimes without the song actually playing. 

[KevShmev]

Boston - Don't Look Back

This song pretty much picks up where the first album left out, kicking complete and total ass while being rocking, catchy, and featuring the classic Boston sound.  As samey as much of Boston's material is, this is the non-debut album song that would have fitted the best on the debut album, and not coincidentally, it's the best Boston song that is not on the first album.  Great song in every way possible.

[jingle.boy]

Boston - Don't Look Back

it's the best Boston song that is not on the first album.  Great song in every way possible.

That about sums it up for me.

[Orbert]

When the first Boston came out, it was groundbreaking in many ways (which I won't repeat here because everyone's heard the stories) and was just an all-around excellent album.  I love that first album, and still play it.

When the second album came out, titled "Don't Look Back" yet sounding exactly the same as the first album, I actually laughed out loud at the irony.  The title track was even the first single!  Don't look back, because if you do, you'll realize that this is exactly the same thing you've heard before.  I listened to it once at a friend's house.  I never heard anything that didn't sound exactly like it could have been on the first album (regardless of quality).

If you loved the first album and wanted more of the same, here it is.  If you loved the first album and wanted to see where they'd go from there... well, we're all still waiting.  As far as I can tell, Boston never did anything that didn't sound like their first album.  I never bought the second or third albums.  Nothing I heard on the radio inspired me to dig any deeper.

This is a good song, but wow, I don't think there has ever been a better example of unintended irony in the title of a song or album.

[KevShmev]

Heh, it is hard to argue with most of that.  However, I do love the 2nd Boston album a lot.  Sure, it sounds just like the first, but the songs are all still really good.  The third album is where the real drop-off began, although that one and the fourth both have some really good stuff as well.

[King Postwhore]

If I remember, the record label force them to get another album out quick and we know Tom Schultz does no move fast when it comes to recording.

[7deg_inner_happiness]

Great song.  The second album was pretty good.  The third was...okay...and so on.

However, the first album was absolutely awesome.  First, I had a copy on 8 track, then cassette, then vinyl, and finally CD.  Yeah, I'm old...but that's a different thread.

[jjrock88]

This is a good one.  I dont think I've heard a Boston song that I didn't enjoy.

[Jaq]

If I remember, the record label force them to get another album out quick and we know Tom Schultz does no move fast when it comes to recording.

Scholz said in the liner notes of the remaster that it was released minus one song-he always considered it one song short, though what song that is, I don't know. Always loved this song, though the debut is untouchable for how good it was.

[KevShmev]

Time for back-to-back week!  Songs that are always played back-to-back by classic rock radio.

Queen - We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions

I probably can't say much about these songs that hasn't been said many times.  Yes, both songs are overplayed like crazy, but both are still pretty great.  There is a reason they are so popular and overplayed.

[masterthes]

Great one-two punch by one of my favorite bands

[Orbert]

Great twofer by Queen.   Nothing but love here.  Yep, overplayed like hell but yep, still great songs.

I love the way he delivers the line "You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it... I thank you all."  That little pause is perfect, like he's honestly singing what he's thinking and after rushing through some of the words, he needs just a second to collect himself.

What's weird is that when I play the album, there's a longer pause between the two songs than you usually hear on the radio.  As well as they go together, they are still two separate songs and separate tracks on the CD.  Radio station edits usually have "We are the Champions" start immediately after "We Will Rock You" when I think it actually sounds a bit better with a slight breathing space in between.

[Jaq]

Yeah, there is a discernible gap between the two songs on albums and CDs, yet radio plays them with no gap at all.  I believe the songs were released as a double A-side single-I actually owned it back in the day, with one song on each side-which is what prompted radio to play them together. There is probably somewhere out there a "radio edit" that blends the songs together closer.

Goes without saying that they're classics. A hundred years from now, the beat from We Will Rock You will still be playing played at sporting events.

[JayOctavarium]

Wasn't it released with We Will Rock You as the B side but re-released as a double A after they both became popular?


IDK


So overplayed but


 I DON'T CARE! I LOVE IT

[7deg_inner_happiness]

Time for back-to-back week!  Songs that are always played back-to-back by classic rock radio.

Queen - We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions

I probably can't say much about these songs that hasn't been said many times.  Yes, both songs are overplayed like crazy, but both are still pretty great.  There is a reason they are so popular and overplayed.

Agreed.  Queen happens to be my wife's all-time favorite band.  I was fortunate enough to see them live in 1980!  Freddie Mercury had the audience mesmerized, clapping, fist-pumping and singing along...What a performer!

Great twofer by Queen.   Nothing but love here.  Yep, overplayed like hell but yep, still great songs.

I love the way he delivers the line "You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it... I thank you all."

Yes, nothing but love here as well.  I love the unorthodox phrasing of that line, too.

A hundred years from now, the beat from We Will Rock You will still be playing played at sporting events.

No doubt about that.

[7deg_inner_happiness]

 Accidentally double-posted. 

[King Postwhore]

You cannot help yourself but hand clap on the steering wheel of sing out loud while driving hearing these 2 songs.  Masterpieces.

[KevShmev]

Van Halen - Eruption / You Really Got Me

These two songs have always gotten played together, even though they have nothing to do with one another, mainly because Eruption was too awesome and ground-breaking to not get played on the radio, but also probably too short to play by itself, and You Really Got Me followed it, so it was natural to play them together. 

But anyway, the awesomeness of Eruption speaks for itself, and You Really Got Me is a very cool cover of a Kinks tune.  I can only imagine what the collective rock world thought when they first heard Eruption. 

[Orbert]

Most of the collective rock world (myself included) had never heard hammer-on style guitar playing before "Eruption" so it was pretty mind-blowing.  Eddie was the first mainstream rocker to do it.

Trivia:  Eddie cites Steve Hackett of Genesis as his inspiration.  The intro to "Return of the Giant Hogweed" has guitar and keyboard in harmony, with the guitar hammering-on.  Genesis was still a few years away from their big breakthrough, but Eddie caught an early Genesis concert and saw Steve doing it, decided to try it out himself, and the rest is history.

[BlobVanDam]

As awesome and influential as Eruption is, I can't listen to it any more. It just breaks up the flow of the album for me.
You Really Got Me is great though, and one of VH's best covers. Eddie really added his own style to it without taking anything away from the original song's appeal.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I missed the Queen one, so I'll address that one by bringing up its place in Revenge of the Nerds.  We Are the Champions has a great effect in that scene.  The song starts all meek and quiet when Betty runs from the rest of the cheerleaders and joins Lewis on the field.  Think about it for a second - We Are the Champions starts with a display that Lewis just stole the quarterback's cheerleader girlfriend.  Champion, indeed.  Then Judy comes to join Gilbert.  Then as the short verse continues and starts to build, the rest of the nerds come join them.  Then it happens.

RIGHT when the rest of the band kicks in, in bombastic contrast to the soft verse, everybody starts pouring out of the bleachers to join the nerds on the field.  It's a hair raiser for me every single time I see it.  The very dramatic effect that it creates right at that moment is just amazing.

As far as it back to back with We Will Rock You, yeah, cool, but I can leave WWRY, honestly.  Then guitar tone on that one is awesome, but it's Brian May.  Expect nothing less than the greatest guitar tones ever.

Speacking of guitar tones, VH1 had some of the greatest tones ever commited to tape.  For me it hardly gets better than the guitar tone on Runnin' With the Devil.  Eruption and You Really Got Me are no different.  Ridiculous tone.  Eruption is excellent, and I'll still break out the ending tapped part at a gig, if someone's yelling for it (which does sometimes happen).  I love You Really Got Me though.  Now when I hear the Kinks' version I'm like "Yeah, it's good, but it isn't VH". 

Orbert, that's interesting, because I'd read in a guitar magazine that Eddie was listening to Zep's Heartbreaker and wanted to see if he could recreate those opening pull-offs in the solo elsewhere on the guitar.  It's a pull-off from 5th fret to 2nd fret to open string on the G.  So he says if I move that down to the D string, it's 10th fret-7th fret-5th fret.  Given that it's too far of a strech for one hand to do that, he figured out to fret the 7th and 5th frets, then use his right hand to "fret" the 10th fret.  Maybe he saw Steve Hackett do it, then tried to replicate that same thing on the Heartbreaker lick.  Interesting.

[KevShmev]

I thought Dancing with the Moonlit Knight was the first sign of Hackett tapping.  Hmmmm, I guess I was misinformed.

But it goes without saying that EVH took it to another level.  I remember reading that when Van Halen would tour prior to their first album, he would turn his back to the crowd when tapping so no one would see what he was doing, that way another guitarist wouldn't ape it from him and put it on record before he could.

And yeah, his brown sound was totally awesome.  You'd be hard-pressed to find many guitar tones better than the one he achieved on that first album.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

My understanding is that a very integral part of that sound was the use of a variac, which by my very layman's understanding of it, allows the manipulation of the output voltage of whatever's plugged into it.  In this case a tube amp.  This way he could run all his levels on the amp at full bore and use the variac as a volume control of sorts.  Kinda similar to what a power attenuator does, albeit way more risky.  I guess power attenuators weren't a very common luxury for guitarists back then.

[KevShmev]

All of that technical jargon makes me feel like:



 

[bl5150]

The variac/light dimmer thing was a bit of a myth

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/classic_van_halen_myth_explained.html

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Outstanding.  It certainly seemed like a plausible idea, to the layman, so I can see why so many people tried it.

[jingle.boy]

Undeniably some of the greatest guitar sounds came from VH debut, all kicking off with Eruption/YRGM.  I love DLR's little wail's in YRGM, which became his vocal signature.

WWRY/WATC... can't say much more.  Overplayed?  Yes.  But hell, it's Queen... fantastic writing; flawless delivery.