Every year around July 4th Boston's "Classic Rock" radio station plays a countdown of 400 songs, which they advertise as "the top Classic Rock songs" and are supposedly selected by the station's fans. I've never participated in the voting myself, but after the event I discovered the webpage where I could make my selection by entering my name plus the song and the artist. I don't know if there's any further filtering of the votes either through the radio station's producers (who in theory could veto any picks that didn't fit their ideal) or MAYBE by controlling for ballot-stuffers who might vote for the same song hundreds of times. In any case however it was ultimately constructed, the final listing is a decent selection of 400 generic "classic rock" tunes that play regularly on the US airwaves.
There are plenty of things to quibble over. The most blatantly obvious complaint with the list is the dearth of female artists included in the so-called 400 top classic rock songs. I did a quick count and only discovered 10 songs by female artists. That count includes songs by Fleetwood Mac, a band that was often led by Lindsey Buckingham, who despite evidence to the contrary (which amounts to his first name) is not actually female. It's a shame that fans of classic rock radio can't find more great songs sung by women. Very clear omissions in this category are "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" by Jefferson Airplane, or perhaps "Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin.
My next criticism deals with including 90s-era bands among classic rock's best music. I don't really have a direct problem with this approach to classic rock. When bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden started showing up on WZLX a few years ago I initially balked at the idea. Not that such bands or their contemporaries couldn't make good music, more just that 90s bands couldn't possibly fit in with the concept of "classic" rock music. It had nothing to do with me suddenly feeling old.
I have since softened my stance on 90s bands appearing on classic rock. For one, there was certainly a massive shift in sound and style that occurred in rock music with the advent of bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc. and grunge is a distinct style that deserves representation. Plus if bands like .38 Special or Bon Jovi can make the list by virtue of writing massive and lasting hits that weren't really revolutionary it's hard to argue against 90s bands doing the same thing, especially with Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Even if Weird Al's version of that song rocks way harder "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is absolutely a classic rock song from the 90s.
What really bothers me is the over-weighted influence of the wrong bands, and Pearl Jam is at the top of the list. I get that Pearl Jam is probably the most popular rock group to survive the 90s, but do they really deserve 8 of the top 400 classic rock songs? I realize that this is ultimately a popularity contest, but the amount of cred that Pearl Jam gets annoys me. Granted I've never done a deep dive on Pearl Jam or most other bands from the 90s, so maybe it's justified and I just can't understand. Maybe I'm just annoyed that Pearl Jam was so heavily acknowledged while one of my favorite bands, Stone Temple Pilots, was somewhat ignored.
Back to a previous point I made, the 90s also had a ton of great women artists that received zero recognition. I'm not a fan of Melissa Etheridge, Tori Amos, or Alanis Morissette but I'm shocked that none of them could make the list. And if you choose to argue that those artists aren't "rock" enough for you (which is wrong), certainly bands like Garbage or No Doubt fit the mold but are still absent. Has everyone simply forgotten how huge Tragic Kingdom, specifically "Don't Speak," was in the mid 90s?
Anyhoo, there is one band that is criminally under-represented on the Firecracker 400. I bet you thought I was gonna say Led Zeppelin, and while that's true... LOL, it's totally not true, but we'll talk about that later. I'm actually talking about The Beatles. It probably confuses my readers why I'd ever say The Beatles are being underappreciated when I've previously said they're overrated (sorta). However in choosing the top 400 classic rock songs it strikes me as odd that The Beatles, one of the most acclaimed and popular bands of all time would only appear on the list 4 times. Technically you could argue they made the list 6 times, because "With A Little Help From My Friends" was played in sequence after "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", as was "A Day In The Life" played after the Sgt. Pepper reprise. In any case it simply feels like this list is lacking a decent number of Beatles songs, particularly when their immediate contemporary, The Rolling Stones, made the list 12 times.
Speaking of The Rolling Stones... well, not The Rolling Stones exactly, but it's really a shame how many bands have an outweighted impact on the list. For instance, 9 bands made the list at least 10 times, and put together those 9 bands take up 32% (nearly one third) of the countdown. Granted certain bands have a much bigger impact in popular music so you'd expect them to appear a lot. And of those 9 bands I have a hard time arguing that Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, U2 and Queen didn't have massive influences on the nature of rock music in their eras. The most egregious error I can see in this group is Tom Petty. I get it, the man has made some good music and is super popular. But is he really all that influential compared to Pink Floyd and Queen? Did he really make 14 of the 400 greatest classic rock songs? I doubt it. Same with Aerosmith, Van Halen, AC/DC, and The Rolling Stones. Great bands but certainly over-represented.
But of course, if I'm gonna complain that Aerosmith is over-represented I must address the elephant in the room. It's one that I really have trouble arguing against, but then again I'm massively biased. In any case Led Zeppelin is by far the band with the most appearances in the WZLX 2017 Firecracker 400 with a whopping 23 songs in the countdown, beating out second place Pink Floyd who appear a mere 15 times. Technically Led Zeppelin had 24 songs on the list, since every classic rock station assumes "Heartbreaker" and "Livin' Lovin' Maid" are one song.
Now personally I don't see much of a problem with this, even beyond the fact that I am a major Led Zeppelin fan. Even still if you're a person who questions Led Zeppelin's massive impact and influence on rock music especially in the early 70s you are very wrong. Then again The Beatles had an even bigger impact in the 60s and here are very underappreciated. My guess is when most people these days think "rock music" they imagine something a little harder than "Love Me Do" or "Hold My Hand" and that's why The Beatles are near absent from the countdown save for a handful of their later songs. Not that Led Zeppelin didn't make softer songs, but even their softest songs in the countdown, "The Rain Song" and "All My Love", feature very heavy drum parts. But I do feel a bit guilty that Led Zeppelin's soft stuff makes the cut while The Beatles harder stuff, like "I Saw Her Standing There" or "A Hard Day's Night" or "Taxman" are left off. (As an aside, fuck "Helter Skelter")
I was also surprised at first to hear "Stairway To Heaven" at the number 1 spot because I thought that song had been retired from competition due to winning it every year. I can't remember where I read that but it's obviously not true. In fact I checked out a previous version of the countdown, in this case the WZLX 2015 Firecracker 500, and saw "Stairway To Heaven" listed at number 20. So it was obviously in the running that year too. Oddly enough the number one song that year was "Kashmir" which I could never argue with.
Anyhoo, those are my major thoughts that I can put into a flowing narrative. Some additional thoughts:
- I enjoy the band Boston and their debut album Boston, which has nothing to do with me being from the city named Boston. It's just a good album. I would never go so far as to say 7 of the album's 8 songs belong in the top 400 classic rock songs of all time (along with an eighth song from one of their other albums). Seems a little self-indulgent of my home city.
- I like Bob Seger, but I've never been a big fan of his song "Turn The Page". Nevertheless it's wildly popular so having it in the countdown at 228 makes sense. What doesn't make sense is not only including Metallica's cover of "Turn The Page" on the list but allowing it to reach number 37. Someone should get fired for that (no one should get fired for that).
- Other than the amount of Tom Petty in the countdown, I am somewhat perturbed by the amount of Journey that has cropped up in recent years as supposedly great classic rock. When "Don't Stop Believin'" started becoming popular when I was in college I always assumed it was a joke. There's no way anyone earnestly loved that song, is there? Maybe there is, because Journey makes the list 8 times this year, including this really awful "Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin" song I just discovered I hate. I'm gonna blame former Pats quarterback Scott Zolack for this, because he's the only one I can think of when I hear Journey music.
- Thinking back to how the 90s were represented, where the hell is Smashing Pumpkins? I can't go off on this tangent though, because I'm sure a dozen bands that should be here but aren't will come to mind. This is ultimately the problem with any popularity contest though- actually deserving candidates will get left off.
- On that same vein Sublime was also left off the countdown. Although their commercial impact didn't match a band like Smashing Pumpkins their cultural impact might have been more lasting. How many lame lazy reggae/hip-hop bands tried to follow in the wake of Sublime? How many shitty local cover bands still want to be Sublime? It probably nerfs their appeal a bit in that their biggest hits contain some highly explicit lyrics. Maybe in this case WZLX made an executive decision to keep them off? That's just a thought, it's probably not true.
- I also just noticed that Bob Marley is not present. Maybe Sublime is left off because too many people refuse to recognize reggae as a form of rock?
- Since I mentioned STP, I'm befuddled that most people only ever want to recognize their first 2 albums and ignore the rest of their catalog. "Plush" was a massive hit and has a solid riff so probably belongs, but I think it's overrated as the band's best work. Same with their number 2 big hit "Interstate Love Song". Their other mention on the list is "Vasoline" which is a good song, but I'm surprised it made the cut. No "Big Empty"? And nothing from Tiny Music... or No. 4? Maybe we all just need more time to recognize they were a great band, certainly better than Pearl Jam, though 20 years is a long time to wait.
- Somebody from management should have made an executive decision and removed Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" from consideration. Green Day deserves representation but they made potentially millions of better songs than that derivative turd. Why not "Basket Case"? That song was a huge hit and is infinitely better. What's wrong with people?
Anyway, that's my commentary. In the end these lists don't matter, especially since they're gonna come out with a new "Greatest Classic Rock Songs of All Time" list next year. Actually, someone's probably churned out one or two since I started writing this...
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