Classic Rock Appreciation

[ed2962]

Probably my fifth favorite rock n roll movie



Gerald Scarfe who did the animation for this film also did the animation for the Sex Pistol's Great Rock n Roll Swindle movie.

[ed2962]

This is the version with Randy Rhoades

[seismic-2]

Any Classic Rock compilation has to contain this song - LA Woman by The Doors (1971)

[macattack]

Speaking of moody, surreal classic rock, this song (one of two massive US hits by the underrated Golden Earring) is a must-have for your collection as well.

[ed2962]

Here's the concept video for the Golden Earring song. It makes me think of that old show "The Prisoner"

[macattack]

Here's the concept video for the Golden Earring song. It makes me think of that old show "The Prisoner"

This is one of my favorite classic music videos. An astounding achievement especially considering the era it was recorded in.

[WillieMorgan]

Although it barely made a dent in the commercial fortunes of the 'dinosaur' bands that it sneered at and attempted to supplant, punk rock's stripped-down approach certainly left an impression on many artists both at the time and beyond. It inspired Bruce Springsteen to adopt a leaner, more direct approach for his fourth album 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town'. It also made a lot of bands re-evaluate their own ways of working, convincing them to reign in some of their more excessive musical tendencies. We saw bands like ELP, Yes and Genesis all release albums that contained shorter, less expansive songs in an attempt to feel more 'relevant'. Yes even managed a top 10 hit here in the UK with the track 'Wonderous Stories', something they probably would have considered to be beneath them 5 years earlier!

Jethro Tull? Not so much. Their rather obstinate reply to punk was a folk-rock album trilogy that ushered in one of the artistic peaks of their entire career. The first of these was 1977's 'Songs From The Wood', one of my favourite Tull records.



Directly inspired by pagan legends and customs, this album was chock full of tales of the pre-industrial, medieval cycle of life here in a wilder and untamed Britain. An advertisement for the album described it thus - "Jethro Tull proudly present 'Songs From The Wood'. A new album of Old Magic. Songs From The Wood. It's inspired by the thought that perhaps nature isn't as gentle as we'd like to believe. And it takes as its theme the natural and supernatural inhabitants of the woodlands of old England. Warm and friendly, harsh and bitter by turns, it includes 'Ring Out Solstice Bells' as well as Tull's new single 'The Whistler' and seven other songs. Find a quiet spot and listen to it soon.".

Ring Out Those Solstice Bells!

[WillieMorgan]

I've had this cracking little number stuck in my head for weeks. One of the catchiest Southern Rock songs ever written in my opinion:



Lovely stuff.

[seismic-2]

We are nearing 7000 views in this Classic Rock Appreciation thread (yes!), so what better way to reach that milestone than with a clip that pretty much shows just what "classic rock" was all about: The Grateful Dead playing in Golden Gate Park in the summer of 1967, with a rendition of Viola Lee Blues (a Delta blues tune from the 1920s). Freak out, man!

[WillieMorgan]

7000 views eh? I'll celebrate that milestone with my favourite Small Faces song. Wonderful vocals all round and a magical stop/start section just after the first chorus on 'Tin Soldier':

[WillieMorgan]

An early belter from one of the all-time greats of rock. This is the wonderful 'Dance The Night Away' from the Van Halen II album (1979):

[WillieMorgan]

In the immortal words of one of the UK's all-time greatest radio DJ's and television presenters (and undoubted National Treasure) Alan Partridge:

'Pray silence please, for the Electric Light Orchestra'.

[seismic-2]

Steppenwolf was a late 1960s rock band with a hard-driving sound, and in fact they helped christen that whole musical genre with their memorable lyric "heavy metal thunder" from their motorcycle anthem Born to Be Wild. Instead of that song, though, I want to post a different one (that didn't get as much air play on commercial radio, on account of its excessive use of the word "Goddamn"): "The Pusher", which you may remember as the tune that was used as background music for the scene near the start of Easy Rider in which Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper execute their drug deal with Phil Spector.

[ed2962]

This song came out in 1968 but it always makes me think of my early childhood in the mid-70's.

[ed2962]