Apr 26, 2009
The death of rock-n-roll
What happened to rock music? Does anyone make it anymore? When I turn the radio on to our local alternative rock station, 75% of what I hear is weak and depressing, full of minor chords, angst, and grown men singing in a key they should have left behind with puberty. Why did the lead guitar solo disappear? It’s as if someone passed a law banning prominent guitar playing. Perhaps it’s the local Milwaukee radio market, but I don’t think so.
Here’s a list of 50 songs today’s musicians need to take inspiration from:
- Aerosmith before they kicked smack: Last Child
- Early ZZ Top–Tush, La Grange
- Any popular Tom Petty song, for example, Mary Jane’s Last Dance
- The Black Crowes, Remedy
- The White Stripes, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
- CCR, Heard It Through the Grapevine
- Jimi Hendrix, Manic Depression
- Social Distortion, Ring of Fire
- Presidents of the USA, Lump
- Gov’t Mule, 30 Days in the Hole, aka Hempilation
- AC/DC, Night Prowler
- Bad Company, Shooting Star
- Beck, Loser
- Bruce Springsteen, Rosalita
- Bush, Glycerine
- The Clash, Should I Stay or Should I Go?
- Joe Walsh, The Confessor
- Anything by George Thorogood
- Green Day, Brain Stew
- Guns-n-Roses, Mr. Brownstone
- Jet, Are You Gonna Be My Girl
- Jethro Tull, Cross-eyed Mary (pardon the flute)
- Kid Rock, Cowboy
- Living Colour, Cult of Personality
- The Outlaws, Green Grass and High Tides
- Nirvana, All Apologies
- Papa Roach, Last Resort
- Monster Magnet, Space Lord
- Rolling Stones, Brown Sugar
- Rush, Working Man
- Soundgarden, Burden In My Hand
- Stevie Ray Vaughn, Voodoo Chile
- Toadies, Possum Kingdom
- The Wallflowers, Sixth Avenue Heartache
- Alice Cooper, Eighteen
- Bob Seger, Her Strut
- Deep Purple, Smoke on the Water
- Foreigner, Juke Box Hero
- Head East, Never Been Any Reason
- Jane’s Addiction, Mountain Song
- Led Zeppelin, Black Dog
- Lynyrd Skynrd, Gimme Back My Bullets
- Mountain, Mississippi Queen
- Rage Against the Machine, Killing In The Name Of
- Robert Palmer, Addicted To Love
- Scorpions, The Zoo
- Ted Nugent, Stranglehold
- Spin Doctors, Two Princes
- Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak
I’d love to see a list of hits from anywhere in the last three or so years that rock like these songs did. I’m not talking about metal or screamo, just good ol’ fashioned hard rock. Is it really that out of style?