Mad thread.
No cheesy ballad is going to be the best rock song. Something by Creedence, QOTSA, Sabbath or Clutch would probably get my vote.
I’ll see your Pixies and raise you Sonic Youth
And here's Sonic Youth's best song...
(I do mean this.)
Anyway, having spent far too long learning to play STH in my teens, decades before YouTube tutorials when you just had to work stuff out, I just want to say that yes, Heart do capture the plodding dirgey essence of this plodding dirge. It's like the answer to the question "what's the opposite of funky?"
(STH) It’s like the answer to the question “what’s the opposite of funky?”
🤣🤣
That would be ‘Kashmir’ . The ploddiest plodfest, plodding plodfully through a thick field of plod.
(Until decades later when Page/Plant enlisted that Moroccan orchestra to spice it up at the end)
Mad thread
I see potential for a series!
Baggy Trousers
When I was in my teens and twenties this was widely touted as the greatest rhythm and blues record of all time . In the last 30+ years has anything come along to knock it off its perch ?
(Cue lots of recommendations for Clutch, Tool and some 90s strumgaze )
No! Here’s Sonic Youth’s best
I see potential for a series!
How you can take it remotely seriously, I just don’t know! 😂
I see potential for a series!
How you can take it remotely seriously, I just don’t know! 😂
To be fair you've just reminded me that I consistently fail at mixing what I hope is clear satire with ‘wait, someone’s wrong on the internet!’
You Really Got Me by The Kinks is the greatest rock and roll song, and it only takes 2 minutes 15 seconds to achieve this, none of that poncing about you get on Stairway ...
Misty Mountain Hop is the best Zep song.
Oops, I take it all back - I'd forgotten about Warrior of Genghis Khan
anything by Pixies, the band that inspired all the bands you’ve subsequently heard of from that genre.
And where would the Pixies be without Husker Du?
Did someone really not get the Bad News quote??? 😂😂
anything by Pixies
Pixies ruined their legacy by coming back as a pointless, bland imitation of what they once were.
That's the kind of thing I take seriously. Very seriously indeed.
You Really Got Me by The Kinks is the greatest rock and roll song,
+1. It is great. It is Rock and Roll. It has ‘roll’ (swing) and it makes you want to dance. Try dancing to Stairway without it looking like a stilted contemporary LOTR does ballet improv. It is the anti-dance. It kills hips.
If there’s no swing - then it’s only rock with no roll.
*EDIT - BY THE SWORD OF PERCIVAL! Remind me again what is the penultimate lyric of Stairway?
Evidence is in. STH is not Rock and Roll. That’s as far from the ‘greatest Rock and Roll song record*’ as can be.
(Some kids dancing to rock and roll earlier:)
* 😎
STH is not Rock and Roll. That’s as far from the ‘greatest Rock and Roll song’ as can be
Well, there's also the word "song". So if we say it's not actually a song, and its really not that [i]great[/i]. Then it definitely is as far as possible from winning the aforementioned category.
😎 correct and corrected. And tbf there usually is an (almost imperceptible) swing in Bonham’s drumming. Doesn’t necessarily make people want to dance - but I feel bad dissing such a drumgod. This thread has made want to go and create ‘Stairway To Zeppelin’. It’ll be a rock opera/musical that starts with the 50s dancing and milkshakes and driving boat-sized cars and shanking rival gang-members with stilettos and smoking straights and hanging commies and black people and stuff, but then MC5 come down in a flying saucer made entirely of denim. They jump out of the saucer and blast all the kidz with sexyguns, hammer-ons and drum-blasts in order to make way for Plan 69 from Outer Space. The cops arrive and pile them all into a van and we think that it’s over.
Meanwhile, in Stourbridge, England...
...some longhairs are cooking up something old and lacing it with Tolkienistic sex and are about to invade the USA. The police (ironically) are required to release the MC5 as they are the only band strong enough to fight the incoming Zeppelin that is again threatening to debauch America’s youth. But the MC5 have other ideas. They used their spacetech to see into the 80s and the many Jams that would kill the soul out of everything. Which leaves The Zeppelin completely free to attack the US of A and rip also the funk out of it.
It ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the sequel* open. Won’t spoilt it/say too much about that except for ‘Roger Troutman’.
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jekkyl
SubscriberI like all the symbolism in Zepplin’s music, ‘spring clean for the may queen!’ and all the lord of the rings stuff, it’s great, even if it was just for effect.
anyway,, here’s my submission, is it better than stairway? no but it’s up there.
this song is just the epitome of cool and rock n’ roll.
“Are you gonna go my way” is a great song but it takes very heavily from Jimi Hendrix “Crosstown Traffic “
Well, there’s also the word “song”. So if we say it’s not actually a song, and its really not that great. Then it definitely is as far as
To be fair my OP deliberately left out the word song
Stairways has sung lyrics. It is a song.
Paveway To Pedantry
The best Zep version of Stairway is this live one 7 months before the album was released. You can actually hear the song as the audience doesn’t go crazy after hearing the opening arpeggio.
👆That Heart version of Stairway' is epic👌. And I didn't even know Ricky Gervais played the drums
This is why we had punk; bloody hippies.
Stairways has sung lyrics. It is a song.
The serious is strong with this one.
Talking of serious, people took Heart? serious? as a musical band? I honestly never knew this. I’m serious.
Talking of serious, people took Heart? serious? as a musical band?
Wow you've just reminded me of a killer version of a killer rock and roll song! You must have been thinking of Slade 😉
Malvernrider,
I think you've succumbed to the kind of madness DezB was warning about. But I'm all up for a bit of music history revisionism.
Has anybody checked out any of those YouTube music reaction channels where (often) hip-hop heads do reactions to tunes they've never heard before that have been suggested by their followers?
The Sabbath and Pink Floyd reactions in particular are priceless. Two of the most memorable responses were in reactions to 'War Pigs':
'I didn't know music could sound this good......WITH INSTRUMENTS!'
And 'You can get down on a Soul Train vibe whilst learning about the atrocities of war at the same time'
It says sausages up there.
Lost in Vegas is the best reaction channel in my opinion. They love Sabbath and Tool. I never really got Zep to be honest, the cheese a just too strong with them for my tastes. As for Heart, just no, so much no 😂
Lost in Vegas are excellent, their format has evolved such that it's like a radio 6 show or something.
They're like a high-brow Beavis and Butthead.
The thing I really like about those channels is that they represent the complete opposite of the usually divisive social media narrative. They actively ask to be challenged with new perspectives. They also give you a good feel for America as a whole, seeing that most of the channels seem to come out of the South or the Mid West rather than NY and LA.
I discovered Jason Isbell, Colter Wall and Tyler Childers through watching them. Been hooked on them since. Seem like genuine guys too. Highbrow Beavis & Butthead is a great way of describing them. I love watching their reactions to War Pigs and Pneuma.
Music threads here are always entertaining.
Some folk take themselves so seriously.
Yeah. The best rock band ever are AC/DC anyway.
^
Love AC/DC. But I still yet wish they could rock half as hard as DMBQ. Would have made for a facemelting double bill/playoff
Has anybody checked out any of those YouTube music reaction channels where (often) hip-hop heads do reactions to tunes they’ve never heard before that have been suggested by their followers?
I hate them by and large due to the massive overacting.
I do like this lass though as a) I’ve discovered some stuff I’d never have heard of otherwise, and b) I think I’m in love.
Eddiebaby don't be such a Victor Meldrew. Yeah there's a lot of fakery and overreaction but there's so much that it more genuine than you'll ever see on conventional media. A lot of reviewers are trying to make a business of themselves, trying to get ahead in the gig economy or make a few extra bucks when they get home from work, I cant be too cynical about that.
Anyhow, like funkmasterp I'm prepared to sift through the dross to get to the nuggets and its my primary source of music exploration these days. It's how I discovered Aitch, the Manchester rapper who's blowing up right now. I first saw him on a US reaction video and it was that reaction that sent Aitch into the stratosphere. UK grime artists have been trying to get a platform in the US for 15 years, then a kid from Manny cracks it because a couple of reactors in North Carolina listen to it with an open mind. It was those reactions that made the London music scene take notice of what was happening beyond the M25.
Sorry to derail the thread from the rock & roll theme, but if there's ever going to be a rock revival it'll happen on you tube first. Those reactors are doing a better job of reappraising rock music and music history in general than we are managing to achieve on here anyhow!
YouTube is currently sending me down an Elvis rabbit hole. Shan't link to it on here because it's the gospel Elvis, not the rock & roll Elvis but his 68 comeback performance of 'If I can dream' is bodying it right now!
Eddiebaby don’t be such a Victor Meldrew.
Hey, I like some, even including the one I posted that may be not quite as ‘first view’ as would be suggested. But some are massively ott. And that’s why I don’t watch them much.
If it encourages people to find new music then fantastic. As I said I’ve found vocalists I’ve not heard of before. I suspect the next led Zeppelin cover band gig I go to won’t be full of rap fans who saw an influencer doing a reaction to Stairway.
We shall see.
The Kinks is a good shout but I'll throw this one into the mix. Pays homage to Chuck Berry, the originator of rock & roll whilst introducing the sparse, minimalistic production template that would go on to shape hip-hop via the production duties of Rick Rubin at Def Jam. Back in black's got it boxed n' locked. Still sounds bang up to date.
if there’s ever going to be a rock revival it’ll happen on you tube first
Lordy, I can think of 2 good reasons I’ll be glad to miss that! 🤪
