Forget peak oil! We have an even bigger crisis: Peak Rock! (the musical kind of rock)

Anyone casually paging through the list would notice that the bulk of the list was comprised of songs from the 60’s and 70’s, just like the music snobs always say.

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I disagree. Us musical snobs tend to look down our noses at "Classic Rock." While I do agree with many of those selections, I'm sure that if you tried to make a list of the 500 worst songs of all time, you'd find many of the same artists.

I remember when SPIN had a list of the 100 most important people in music, and the morning DJ's on this crappy 80's station went ballistic. "Who the hell is Jarvis Cocker?" It was hilarious!

I'd like to see the age distribution of the Rolling Stone selectors. I have a feeling most of them hit 17 somewhere between 1965 and 1970.

Priene said:

I'd like to see the age distribution of the Rolling Stone selectors. I have a feeling most of them hit 17 somewhere between 1965 and 1970.

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What do you expect from a magazine called Rolling Stone?

Now don't get me wrong, that band was magical once. I am listening to them right now.

BUT...I just realized that Foreigners, "I Want To Know What Love Is" is on this list. That rather invalidates it, IMHO. (I can't find a barfing smiley)

Then again, there actually was a time when the magazine Rolling Stone was worth reading and quoting.

Now? It's become the very mainstream it once rallied against.

They must be from an alternate universe. The people I know really like rock music from the 90s to present. Of course, most of them don't read Rolling Stone, either.

I think the bigger issue, if we want to find it, is that music, no matter the genre, changes considerably over time.

But everybody has their own taste, and in point of fact, it often leads to greater variety.

Celia Cyanide said:

I disagree. Us musical snobs tend to look down our noses at "Classic Rock." !

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If you look down at classic rock it just means you have no clue, that's all.

Good music is good music regardless of the generation it came from.

But to be honest, even as someone who grew up in the 70s and loves that music, that Rolling Stones list BLOWS!!!

The first David Bowie song on the list is HEROES? Give me a break!

In their Top 100, I think I own a handful of those songs.

Shadow_Ferret said:

If you look down at classic rock it just means you have no clue, that's all.

Good music is good music regardless of the generation it came from.

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Yes, but a lot of what is now defined as "Classic Rock" is not good music, and that's the problem with it. It's defined by when it was recorded, and not that it is actually a "classic," which would mean timeless and still relevant today.

...what a drag it is getting old...

Celia Cyanide said:

Yes, but a lot of what is now defined as "Classic Rock" is not good music, and that's the problem with it. It's defined by when it was recorded, and not that it is actually a "classic," which would mean timeless and still relevant today.

...what a drag it is getting old...

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Honestly, I'll agree with you. I can't stand listening to the Classic Rock stations because they mostly play the same awful mainstream artists over and over and rarely play anything thay might have been outside of the mainstream and edgy back then.

Shadow_Ferret said:

The first David Bowie song on the list is HEROES? Give me a break!

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Too true. Laughing Gnome kicks its arse.

I've always been a big fan of "I'm afraid of Americans." But that's probably too new to count.

You young folks will feel the same way about your oldies some day as we do about ours. I listen to new music and I see the greatness of it, but you'll never deny the awesomeness of having lived during the times of the beatles and the stones and elvis and diana ross and gladys knight, pink floyd and carol king, and so on and so on.

No matter what your generation will do, our times were great, and were a big influence for you.

I'm jealous of the Carole King thing, I'll admit.

I went to see her in a small club in long island.

On November 11th, 1964, the Rolling Stones first performed in Wisconsin, to a crowd of 1,274 fans at Milwaukee Auditorium. Although Brian Jones remained in a Chicago hospital with a high fever, the rest of the band performed. According to a dubious reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, "Chances are, few in the audience missed his [Jones'] wailing harmonica. Screams from a thousand throats drowned out all but the most insistent electronic cacaphony and the two-fisted smashes of drummer Charlie Watts." The reporter continued, "Unless someone teaches guitar chords to chimpanzees, the visual ultimate has been reached in the Rolling Stones. With shoulder length hair and high heeled boots, they seemed more feminine than their fans. The Stones make the Beatles look like clean cut kids. You think it must be some kind of parody - but the little girls in front paid $5.50 a seat."

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Brilliant.

Except I notice that everyone is commenting on the list of songs and not the clever juxtaposition of good rock ''n' roll and the oil market. Again, you guys are missing the point.

My comment on the songs: Where is 'Over the Rainbow' and 'As Time Goes By'? The list said 500 best songs, not 500 best rock songs. Feh!

You know, when I hear good rap, it seems to me a throwback to the fifties beatnick days of stand-up poetry integrated with punctuating instrumentals.

I don't know why I posted this. I suppose I'm saying that even new music has its heart in tradition, just like even new oil has its heart in old geological pockets. . . .

poetinahat said:

RE: Rolling Stone - Eh, every generation produces fantastic music, and every generation produces crap. And the patina of nostalgia sometimes makes us revere old things more than we should.

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...which is why I still listen when Teen Angel, One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple People Eater and Itsy-Bitsy, Teeny-Weeny, Yellow, Polka-Dot Bikini come on the radio. It may be crap, but, dammit, it's my generation's crap

Now, get off my lawn.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll will never die

Rock 'n roll is here to stay,
it will never die
It was meant to be that way,
though I don't know why
I don't care what people say,
rock 'n roll is here to stay

(We don't care what people say, rock 'n roll is here to stay)

Rock 'n roll will always be
our ticket to the end
It will go down in history,
just you wait, my friend
Rock 'n roll will always be,
it'll go down in history

(Rock 'n roll will always be, it'll go down in history)

So come on,
everybody rock,
everybody rock,
everybody rock,
everybody rock
Everybody rock

Now everybody rock 'n roll,
everybody rock 'n roll,
everybody rock 'n roll
Everybody rock 'n roll,
everybody rock 'n roll

Rock 'n roll will always be
our ticket to the end
It will go down in history,
just you wait, my friend
Rock 'n roll will always be,
it'll go down in history
If you don't like rock 'n roll,
think what you've been missin'
But if you like to bop and strawl,
come on down and listen
Let's all start to have a ball,
everybody rock 'n roll

Ah, oh baby, ah, oh baby, ah, oh baby, ah, oh baby, rock!
-Danny and the Juniors

9. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana
17. Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix
20. Let It Be, The Beatles
27. Layla, Derek and the Dominos
31. Stairway To Heaven, Led Zeppelin
32. Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones
44. Georgia on My Mind, Ray Charles
49. Hotel California, The Eagles
57. Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum
101. Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Jimi Hendrix
124. Jumpin' Jack Flash, The Rolling Stones
163. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
169. Losing My Religion, R.E.M.
172. Dream On, Aerosmith
180. Hey Ya!, Outkast
183. The Thrill Is Gone, B.B. King
187. Back in Black, AC/DC
200. Loser, Beck
225. Hoochie Coochie Man, Muddy Waters
226. Moondance, Van Morrison
243. Love Shack, The B-52's
254. Highway to Hell, AC/DC
259. Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley
314. Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd316. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd
317. Many Rivers to Cross, Jimmy Cliff
357. Little Wing, Jimi Hendrix
368. Personal Jesus, Depeche Mode
375. Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Pink Floyd
377. Hit the Road Jack, Ray Charles
388. Roxanne, The Police
397. (Don't Fear) the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult *More Cowbell*
453. Paradise City, Guns n' Roses
475. Sabotage, Beastie Boys
478. White Rabbit, Jefferson Airplane
479. Lady Marmalade, Labelle
488. Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win), Fleetwood Mac


These are the main ones I agree with. Some I was "meh", and others, I just thought, "Wtf?"

Personal favorites are bolded.

Wayne K said:

You young folks will feel the same way about your oldies some day as we do about ours. I listen to new music and I see the greatness of it, but you'll never deny the awesomeness of having lived during the times of the beatles and the stones and elvis and diana ross and gladys knight, pink floyd and carol king, and so on and so on.

No matter what your generation will do, our times were great, and were a big influence for you.

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Oh, I agree. Truly. The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and many others were classics. I loved them growing up, and I wasn't even born in the 60's.

But come on. Foreigner? "I Wanna Know What Love Is"? When I take it upon myself to decide what are the 500 Greatest Songs of all time based on my generational bias, I'm going to leave out "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats.


Rock is dead they say,
Long live rock.

Long live rock, I need it every night,
Long live rock, come on and join the line,
Long live rock, be it dead or alive.

StephanieFox said:

Brilliant.

Except I notice that everyone is commenting on the list of songs and not the clever juxtaposition of good rock ''n' roll and the oil market. Again, you guys are missing the point.

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I'm not missing the point. I'm just believe there is always good music and always crap. You just have to look for it. You can romanticize any era, but there was bad music in the 60's, too.

Most of those songs were recorded before I was even born. So, as you can imagine, I've completely missed the importance of many of them. And yeah, I grew up hearing them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Don't like. Thanks.

That said, the observation of similarity between the graphs is amusing enough.

I'm glad Nirvana is on there.