Make Your Own Classic Rock Station!

Variety

I've been paying attention for the past 33 years, and I'm pretty sure if I was to visit any "classic rock" station I would find a shelf with these CDs, and very few others:

That there is just about all you need to run your own Classic Rock (!!!!) radio station.

Some of those, like .38 Special and Molly Hatchet, would only be needed for a single song (ex. "Hold On Loosely", "Flirting With Disaster"); and most of the others would only use a small handful of songs.

I grit my teeth and curse my rotten life every time I Turn It Up!, but I can't help it - now that our local NPR station is into their 1/4ly fundrasier, I have to listen to something else and I'd rather listen to the same 100 20-year-old songs on our local Home of Classic Rock than sit through even a minute of any of the rest of the crap I can find on my car radio: teeny-bopper dance stuff or country ballads.

Today someone called to request Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog". Uh... Duh? ... of course they're gonna play that. If you know enough to know which station would honor that request, you have to know that they play once it every fuckin 2 hours. People amaze me.

"Hey, could you guys play a really loud ad for a local car dealer ?"
"Right on, man! We'll get that right up for you. Who plays the best Classic Rock and Car Dealer ads?"
"Rock 69!"
"Rock on!"

6 thoughts on “Make Your Own Classic Rock Station!”

  1. vanya

    You are off on the Stones – it would probably be” sucking in the 70s”and they would need a copy of Tatoo you for “start me up” otherwise this is perfect.

  2. John

    Ditto to Vanya on the Stones – you’d need a collection encompassing their work up through Start Me Up (and perhaps “Waiting on a Friend”) – the new greatest hits collection, Forty Licks, probably serves well enough. I think Tull is off, too – the title track is the only one that comes up regularly on radio. You’d need “Living in the Past,” too, which has “Teacher” and “Living in the Past” and “Song for Jeffrey.” You might also just get the 1993 best of.

    Other omissions:

    *Deep Purple (greatest hits, probably, to cover “Hush” and “Smoke on the Water”).
    *Peter Gabriel (at least the greatest hits, to cover “Solsbury Hill.” Strangely, the greatest hits doesn’t include “In Your Eyes,” but that’s more of a “mix” station number than classic rock.)
    *Van Morrison, “Greatest Hits” (that gives you your “Brown-Eyed Girl” and your “Moondance”, plus your occasional “Wild Night” or “Domino”.)
    *Yes, (“Seen All Good People” shows up a lot)
    *Supertramp, “Breakfast in America”
    *Free, something to give you “All Right Now”
    *ELO, something or other – ELO definitely shows up on classic rock radio, but I’m completely unfamiliar with them.
    *Meat Loaf, “Bat out of Hell”

    I’m sure there’s some other stuff I’m missing, but yeah, classic rock stations have a fucking limited playlist. Although they have much larger libraries, because occasionally someone requests something obscure-ish.

    While writing this post I turned on our classic rock radio station, and except for the ELO song that just finished, everything else has been on your list. So kudos.

  3. cleek

    Stones – yeah, Hot Rocks doesn’t get enough of the late 70’s/early 80’s stuff that needs to be there.

    Yes, Deep Purple, Free – glaring omissions on my part. ouch!

    ELO, Supertramp – yeah, probably. maybe some Toto, too.

    Meat Loaf, Gabriel, Van – i don’t recall hearing a lot of them on the Classic Rock stations i’ve known.

  4. John

    The DC classic rock station definitely played all three (Loaf, Gabriel, Morrison) on occasion, before it transformed itself into “the Globe” (whatever the hell that is). “Solsbury Hill” particularly comes to mind, and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” might appear late at night. The Philly classic rock station I haven’t listened to as much, but quite possibly

    I now realize that I forgot Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak, which is necessary in order to get “The Boys are Back in Town.” Also Steppenwolf, Greatest Hits, to get “Magic Carpet Ride” (currently playing on the WMGK Philly) and (to a lesser extent) “Born to be Wild”

  5. John

    The DC classic rock station would also occasionally play Talking Heads.

    Another clear omission is BTO, Greatest Hits, or whatever – you’ve got your TCB, your “You Ain’t See Nothing Yet,” and your “Let It Ride.”

  6. cleek

    BTO, Thin Lizzy, Steppenwolf: check.

    the local CR station here in Raleigh plays U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from time to time, which baffles me, given how far apart U2 and arena rock were, back when War came out. my CR station would not play U2, nor Meat Loaf, or Van. i could probably allow some Gabriel, given his authentic prog-rock roots.

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