Ruh roh! Also, rawk on!

Posted: January 6, 2009 in blogkeeping, Music, Video

1icontehinterwebLooks like LiveJournal users have a reason to be concerned.

Might I recommend WordPress to those LiveJournal friends who are looking for a new home? I’ve been here for a year almost exactly, and have very little to complain about. YMMV, of course.

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So last week, Calvin and I spent several hours of our lives that we’ll never get back watching VH1’s “Top 100 Hard Rock Songs of All Time”. This is the whole list, scammed from VH1’s forum:

100) Sammy Hagar – I can’t drive 55
99) Grand Funk Railroad – We’re an American Band
98 ) Buckcherry – Lit up
97) Edgar Winter’s group – Frankenstien
96) Kansas – Carry on Wayward son
95) Creed – Higher
94) The Darkness – I believe in a thing called Love
93) Autograph – Turn up the radio
92) Night Ranger – Don’t tell me you love me
91) Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with Butterfly wings
90) Jethro Tull – Aqualung
89) Andrew W. K. – Party hard
88 ) Alice in Chains – Would?
87) Winger – Seventeen
86) Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
85) Velvet Revolver – Slither
84) W.A.S.P. – I wanna be somebody
83) Evanescense – Bring me to Life
82) Rainbow – Since you’ve been gone
81) Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell
80) Journey – Any way you want it
79) Billy Idol – Rebel yell
78 ) Bad Company – Feel like making love
77) Soundgarden – Black hole sun
76) Lita Ford – Kiss me deadly
75) White Stripes – Seven nation Army
74) The Cult – Love removal machine
73) Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak
72) Pat Benetar – Heartbreaker
71) Jane’s Addiction – Mountain song
70) Foreigner – Hot Blooded
69) Living Colour – Cult of personality
68 ) White Zombie – More human than human
67) ZZ Top – Tush
66) Europe – The Final countdown
65) MC5 – Kick out the Jams
64) Rollins Band – Liar
63) Survivor – Eye of the Tiger
62) Dokken – Breaking the Chains
61) Ratt – Round and Round
60) Skid Row – 18 and life
59) Billy Squier – the Stroke
58 ) Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love song
57) The Kinks – You really got me
56) Warrant – Cherry Pie
55) Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t fear the reaper
54) Faith No More – Epic
53) Steppenwolf – Born to be wild
52) The Runaways – Cherry Bomb
51) Megadeth – Peace Sells
50) Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give it away
49) Iggy Pop and the Stooges – Search and Destroy
48 ) Korn – Freak on a leash
47) Kid Rock – Bawditida (sp?)
46) Anthrax – Madhouse
45) Foghat – Slow ride
44) Cream – Sunshine of your love
43) Dio – Holy Diver
42) The Clash – Should I stay or should I go
41) Quiet Riot – *** on feel the noise
40) Poison – Talk dirty to me
39) Boston – More than a feeling
38 ) Queen – Stone cold crazy
37) The Who – My generation
36) Van Halen – hot for teacher
35) Alice Cooper – School’s out
34) Heart – Barracuda
33) Greenday – Basket Case
32) Ted Nugent – Cat scratch fever
31) AC/DC – Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
30) Pearl Jam – Evenflow
29) Joan Jett – bad reputation
28 ) Foo Fighters – Everlong
27) Whitesnake – Still of the Night
26) Lynyrd Skynyrd – Freebird
25) The Ramones – Blitzkreig Bop
24) Iron Butterfly – In-a-gadda-da-vida
23) Ozzy Ozbourne – Crazy train
22) The Jimi Hendrix Experience – hey Joe
21) Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
20) Bon Jovi – You give love a bad name
19) Rush – Tom Sawyer
18 ) Scorpions – Rock you like a hurricane
17) Twisted Sister – I wanna rock
16) Kiss – Rock and roll all nite
15) Motley Crue – Dr. Feelgood
14) Iron Maiden – Run to the hills
13) Def Leppard – Photograph
12) Judas Priest – Breaking the law
11) Deep Purple – Smoke on the water
10) Motorhead – Ace of spades
9) Van Halen – Running with the devil
8 ) Aerosmith – Walk this way
7) Nirvana – Smells like teen spirit
6) The Who – Won’t get fooled again
5) Metallica – Enter sandman
4) Black Sabbath – Paranoid
3) Led Zeppelin – Whole lotta love
2) AC/DC – Back in black
1) Guns N’ Roses – Welcome to the Jungle

To my fellow hard rock fans out there (TB and Miss Bratty, I’m looking at YOU), what are your thoughts? Disagree with a ranking? Think a song’s on there that shouldn’t be? Think a song isn’t on there that SHOULD be? Think the band is right, but the song is wrong? Anything that makes you go, “WTF?”

Here are some of my (not all inclusive) opinions:

#80 – As much as I love ’em, Journey should NOT be on this list. Sorry, but no. Much as Neil Schon would like to deny it, his band does not qualify has “hard”.

#64 – Heck YEAH, Rollin’s band!

#78 – Not sure this is the right BadCo song for this list, but what the heck.

#71 – I would have gone with a different Jane’s Addiction song, too. Like, “Just Because”.

#9 – While I agree with VH’s placement, I would have gone with “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”, or “Panama” instead of “Running With the Devil”. That’s just me, though. (“Eruption” doesn’t count as a separate song, otherwise I’d root for that.)

#13 – Again, agree with Def Lep’s placement, but I would have gone with “Rock of Ages” or “Hysteria”.

#31 – Okay, so it makes sense that “Back in Black” is on the list at #2, but I think “Dirty Deeds” should be replaced by “Shook Me All Night Long”???

For the most part, though, I agree with the top 20, songs and placement.

Okay, discuss!

Comments
  1. Calvin says:

    “Running With the Devil” was the 1st VH track they played on the radio when that record came out, yes I said record.
    “Dirty Deeds” well cuz Bon Scott.
    Hard to get on board with any “Hard Rock” list that has Winger on it.

    21) Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
    20) Bon Jovi – You give love a bad name
    Really???

  2. kimmothy69 says:

    In the same vein, I’m not sure Free Bird should count as “hard” either. As with a few other songs on the list. If Free Bird came out now, it would be considered country, as would many Eagles songs.
    Holy shit, Pat Benetar, really?
    I still say “album” as well.
    The sad part is, Vh1 is aimed at our demographic now. The REALLY sad part? Vh1 Classic is what I identify with even more!

  3. The whole list is really junk. Just look at the top ten and of those bands, AC/DC is probably the only one whose best song is even in the top 10. That can be said if you look throught the whole thing.

    But this list is more of the “air play” list I guess.

    I am impressed with The Ramones and Anthrax making the list, but Pat Benatar and Journey?

  4. Taoist Biker says:

    There are several definitions of “hard rock” reflected in that list, and all are incredibly subjective. Is it hard rock? Punk? Metal? blah blah blah.

    I’d bet that if you got Heather and I together in a bar we could agree on 80 and get into a fistfight about the last 20, especially the ranking thereof. (But it would be a hell of a lot of fun.)

    I’ll put a little thought into this and see if I can come up with my own list, though. WTF?

  5. Dyskinesia says:

    +1 to all of the above.

    And when it comes to subjective, is there anything worse than the word “Best” ??? As MTAE said, what’s the standard? Billboard rankings? Cultural impact? Musical impact? Pretty much any song in the Top 30 there had serious musical and/or cultural impact, but so did several others (hello, Cult of Personality, I’m looking at you)– which would bolster the inclusion of Benatar’s Heartbreaker, btw. And then we have to factor in the musical stage at the time that song came out as to what defined ‘hard’, as Kim mentioned.

    All that said: Bwahahahahahahahahahaha – Winger.

  6. Laura says:

    Calvin – I agree with all that. Especially the placement of Kashmir.

    Kim – I kind of agree, though Freebird is iconic in its own right. Perhaps not for a “Hard Rock” song, but they were also including songs that had an influence on hard rock. And since inevitably **someone** yells out “Freebird!” at every concert everywhere, ever, hence the inclusion.

    MTAE – Pat Benetar rocks the party that rocks the party. Listen to her stuff again, some if it really *is* hard.

    TB – Sorry, kid, but my money’s on Heather. 😀

    Dys – It was based on votes on the VH1 website, so it probably was heavily influenced by today’s pop culture tweenies. And yes, what is considered “hard” today is certainly not the same standard as what was considered “hard” back when The Kinks were around.

  7. […] Damn you, Laura.  You know damn well I can’t pass up a direct challenge. […]

  8. Heather says:

    We kinda went through this when there was a pop song list too and I had to put my personal feelings aside and really just think of what makes a good pop song.

    This list is good for what it is, but there are quite a few bands on it that I just cannot stand. At least Enuff Znuff isn’t on the list, thank goodness. ::shivers::

    I only made a quick pass over this and I’m at work and can’t spend too awful much time on it:

    #95 Creed?!?!?! Puhleeze.
    #94 The Darknes? On a list with “OF ALL TIME” in the title? No.
    #84 WASP, I agree, but I might have chosen ‘Wild Child’ instead.
    #83 Evanescense? I believe Pat Benatar totally belongs on the list, but this band? Maybe they could be in a category with The Smashing Pumpkins called The Top 100 Whiniest Bands That Ever Lived.
    #71 Janes Addiction – I like choice of ‘The Mountain Song’ but if I were making the list I would have chosen ‘Go’.
    #64 The Rollins Band – ‘Liar’ is probably my least favorite song, but it was the most popular on that particular album.
    #27 Whitesnake – I would have chosen ‘Slow an Easy’
    #13 Def Leppard – I’d agree with ‘Rock of Ages’ but absolutely nothing after Pyromania.

    And I gotta say that if a hard rock list can have Poison and Journey on it, there’s room for Winger. 😉

    That’s my quick pass.

  9. kimmothy69 says:

    I love Pat Benetar.
    I think she could be considered Hard Pop, but not Hard Rock.
    But what do I know.

  10. LL Cool Joe says:

    This list kind of reminds me why I love Hip hop and Rap. 😀

  11. Laura says:

    Heather – Enuff Znuff = BWA!!! And, yeah, this whole list is fraught with opportunity to disagree.

    Kim – You know lots of things. Like, tons. And stuff.

    LL Cool Joe – So what would your top 25 rap/hip hop songs be?

  12. LL Cool Joe says:

    Oh cool question. I have a gig tomorrow, but I’ll give it some thought after that and let you know! That would be a cool thing to add to my blog too. Thanks. I’ll be back! 😀

  13. Taoist Biker says:

    I just realized that I never said that I also LOATHE Enuff Z’Nuff. About the only band I hated as much was Danger Danger. “Naughty Naughty?” Hey, Danger Danger! Fuck fuck you you!

  14. Laura says:

    Joe – Cool, I look forward to it!

    TB TB – Har har!

  15. […] Life and other states of existence   So, for those of you who missed those episodes, first Laura posted the VH1 Top 100 Hard Rock Songs and asked for comments (calling me out by name, heh).  Then I […]

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