Classic Rock Song Wars - Part II

[WildRanger]

I know I'm in the minority - and fair play, Whiskey In The Jar and Emerald are EXCELLENT.

Emerald can be their finest tune, esp. Live and Dangerous version. Plus one very important thing about that tune: most songs in the 80's Iron Maiden catalog would barely exist if not for Emerald.

[KevShmev]

TAC as much as I appreciate a friend introducing me to new music, I wouldn't spend too much time on this for my sake

Kev, I count maybe 6-7 songs that are the respective artists' either greatest hit or most well known song. Was that intentional in this round? You usually don't seem to pick the band's most identifiable hit.

It was, yes. With doing 15 songs per round, the classic rock song wars could go on for a while since there are a zillion good classic rock tunes, especially since classic rock now encompasses a lot of 80's stuff as well, instead of just being the late 60's through the very early 80's like it used to, but I wanted to kick these off with a lot of the big dogs. 

[pg1067]

Jail Break - 1.5

Jail Break is one of the lyrically dumbest songs of all time:  "Tonight there's gonna be a jail break somewhere in this town."  Yeah, I'm really not sure where the jail break might occur.  Maybe at Macy's?  Maybe at the VFW hall?  Gosh, I just don't know!  And no, a "town" is not going to have more than one jail.  That said, it's one of the few tolerable Thin Lizzy songs.

It seems Thin Lizzy is really underappreciated in your book.
I know you are a Maiden fan, but I have to tell you this: most songs in the 80's Iron Maiden catalog would barely exist if not for Thin Lizzy's Emerald.

I can't say that I've spent a significant amount of time listening to Thin Lizzy, but I think the band is exactly as appreciated by me as it should be.

The "Band X wouldn't exist but for Band Y argument; therefore, if you like Band X, you should like Band Y" argument doesn't fly with me.  I like lots of bands that were influenced by bands I don't like or don't care for.  What matters is how Band X took its influences and molded them into something special.  One thing that Maiden had that Thin Lizzy didn't have was good singers.  That said, since two people whose tastes seem similar to mine have mentioned it, I'll give Emerald a listen later today.

[pg1067]

That said, since two people whose tastes seem similar to mine have mentioned it, I'll give Emerald a listen later today.

I listened to "Emerald" toward the end of last week.  It's decent, but nothing special.  Just a standard hard rock song in 12/8 or 6/8.  There was a riff toward the end that was pretty good, but it didn't repeat enough to be too memorable.  I think the notion that "most songs in the 80's Iron Maiden catalog would barely exist if not for" this song is, at best, specious.  I didn't hear anything in "Emerald" that I haven't heard in a bunch of Black Sabbath songs.  And, of course, the biggest negative is the singer.

[WildRanger]

That said, since two people whose tastes seem similar to mine have mentioned it, I'll give Emerald a listen later today.

I listened to "Emerald" toward the end of last week.  It's decent, but nothing special.  Just a standard hard rock song in 12/8 or 6/8.  There was a riff toward the end that was pretty good, but it didn't repeat enough to be too memorable.  I think the notion that "most songs in the 80's Iron Maiden catalog would barely exist if not for" this song is, at best, specious.  I didn't hear anything in "Emerald" that I haven't heard in a bunch of Black Sabbath songs.  And, of course, the biggest negative is the singer.

Which version did you listen? From Jailbreak or Live and Dangerous?

[pg1067]

That said, since two people whose tastes seem similar to mine have mentioned it, I'll give Emerald a listen later today.

I listened to "Emerald" toward the end of last week.  It's decent, but nothing special.  Just a standard hard rock song in 12/8 or 6/8.  There was a riff toward the end that was pretty good, but it didn't repeat enough to be too memorable.  I think the notion that "most songs in the 80's Iron Maiden catalog would barely exist if not for" this song is, at best, specious.  I didn't hear anything in "Emerald" that I haven't heard in a bunch of Black Sabbath songs.  And, of course, the biggest negative is the singer.

Which version did you listen? From Jailbreak or Live and Dangerous?

Beats me...a studio version that was at the top when I searched on YouTube.

[hefdaddy42]

Grouping # 4, for sure