Greatest Rock Song of All Time
- Thread starter ISUCY23
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- Mar 27, 2006
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The Ocean also beats Stairway.
as well as "How Many More Times" "Your Time is Gonna Come" and "Hey Hey, what can I do?
Having grown up in the era, Beatles and Beach Boys music were considered to be "not rock" by most of my peers.
Rock had it's resurgence in the 1970s, more or less.
Frankly, you had to be there, or have studied the era to really "get it".
Rock had it's resurgence in the 1970s, more or less.
Frankly, you had to be there, or have studied the era to really "get it".
The only songs that can rival Stairway as their best song are Kashmir, and Achilles Last Stand.
Actually, lots of rock music fans hated them as well.
The hair was a big reason older people didn't like them.
Most rock music fans that I know that don't like the Beatles lump them in with The Beach Boys, and dislike hippies as well.
There is a cultural divide there. The anti-hippy rock crowd tend to not consider The Beatles to be a rock band.
There are about a billion people who also grew up in the '60's who would disagree with you, however. I know both of my parents would have notably different opinions than you, and they were certainly never hippies. I've also studied the era - and nobody can listen to "Helter Skelter" and not call it rock.
I would never presume to do that. :wink: (Just kidding.) I just know that almost every rock critic ever sees them as a rock band - including those who were around at the time.
There's a whole lotta Led Zep love goin' on in this thread (which I don't understand). I'll go an entirely different direction with a Nirvana contemporary:
Soul Asylum - Gravedancer's Union, Black Gold or Runaway Train...
Soul Asylum - Gravedancer's Union, Black Gold or Runaway Train...
Still of the Night- Whitesnake
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AduBWI0BWSQ]YouTube - Whitesnake - Still Of The Night[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AduBWI0BWSQ]YouTube - Whitesnake - Still Of The Night[/ame]
The video of Runaway Train is probably one of the most heartbreaking music videos I've ever seen.
Which is why Leif Garrett, Shaun Cassidy and the Bay City Rollers all have their own Sirius station.
I think that our current culture assumes a) The Beatles were universally loved, and b) That they are considered a rock band.
I'm just pointing out that a significant portion of the contemporary rock music fans did not particularly like them, and considered that they were a departure from "real" rock and roll.
I think it's an understudied phenomenon. Not all people who liked the beatles were hippies, but I'd venture that the anti-Beatles folks saw them as first, beatniks, and then, hippies.
Vocal and instrumental quality of the Stones? They sound like they are all playing different tunes. I have to acknowledge their popularity, but quality? No way.
I don't think that anyone who actually knows anything about music assumes anything. First of all, obviously they weren't universally loved - just as many thought that Elvis ripped off the "black" rock music, a subset of people thought that the Beatles weren't quality musicians.
My point is that, just because you don't like something, you can't just universally discount it. I don't like peas (similar to a significant portion of the population who also despise them), but that doesn't mean they're not a vegetable. Just because a genre or style of music is distasteful to you doesn't make it invalid.
You also need to be looking at the times of release. You're trying to compare The Beatles with hard rock in the vein of the '70's - well, it was a different time. You held up Buddy Holly earlier as a "rock" musician (which I would absolutely agree is true) - please show me three of his songs that hold up as "harder" rock than "Revolution," "Back in the U.S.S.R.," and "Helter Skelter." (I really can just keep picking stuff from The White Album.) You can't, because he performed a different genre of music primarily at a time when the musical landscape was different. It's like comparing apples to oranges. You're also looking at a group that were primarily overseas, and I suspect you're largely only looking at their early career - if you compare them with their British contemporaries of the psychadelic rock movement, you'll find that they were often more "hard rock" than their rivals. A song like "Come Together" sounds a lot harder than "Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procul Harum, or even some of The Who's early forays into psychadelia, such as "I Can See For Miles." There are obvious exceptions to this, but The Beatles were, in every sense of the word, a "rock band" of the time.
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ROCK AND ROLL
n.
A form of popular music arising from and incorporating a variety of musical styles, especially rhythm and blues, country music, and gospel. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it is characterized by electronically amplified instrumentation, a heavily accented beat, and relatively simple phrase structure.
I think the Beatles fit this definition.
n.
A form of popular music arising from and incorporating a variety of musical styles, especially rhythm and blues, country music, and gospel. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it is characterized by electronically amplified instrumentation, a heavily accented beat, and relatively simple phrase structure.
I think the Beatles fit this definition.
They clearly do, dukeebear. Anyone who wouldn't consider the Beatles one of the most influential (if not THE most influential) group of the rock era simply doesn't understand rock music. There were a variety of veins of rock music and quite honestly, the Beatles were able to capitalize on many of them.
That having been said, for the record, my all-time favorite Beatles album was "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." An absolute classic! Not much from it hit the charts, but what an array of incredible music. The title track, which led into Ringo Starr's tremendous rendition of "With a Little Help From My Friends" are truly the headliners from the album. But I always liked McCartney's "Getting Better," and his "Fixing a Hole" was just a neat little tune, as was "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite." "She's Leaving Home" was a tear jerker-type song (should probably be included in the CF Tear Jerker thread), and, as I get older, I am starting to relate to McCartney's "When I'm 64." A true Beatle classic!
Not to dredge this back up, but just so that everybody is clear - Phaedrus, you've said that you're 46, right? That means that you were 4 years old when "Sgt. Pepper" came out. I'm not picking on you, but that doesn't really support the attitude of "you had to be there to get it."
