the 11 most important songs in the rock era.... (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

I always associated this song more with Carl Perkins. For Presley, I would go with "Jailhouse Rock", since it represents both the rock and roll Elvis and the movie star Elvis.

 

[Jeff_CusBlues]

I don't have to imagine....

 

[LarryDavenport]

There were plenty of punk bands before the Ramones. The Modern Lovers, Flamin' Groovies, The Monks, The Sonics, etc. The Ramones were good, but let's not give them more credit than they deserve.

Ditto Black Sabbath (what about Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf, The Who?)

 

[David Hobbes]

but none of them made the sound that black sabbath came out with that led to heavy metal as we know it....

ditto with the ramones..

that's why they are influential and important...

 

[Phil_DC]

Besides that rap is NOT music anyway it is basically talking to a beat, and even though some rappers leached on to some 70's 80's rock songs to enhance their rap none of it is in the class of what is being discussed here. I mean putting Run DMC, Public Enemy in the same league as The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix is committing rock sacrilege.

 

[LarryDavenport]

We'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[Alex-C]

What !!! No WHAM !!!!!

 

[LarryDavenport]

And no glam? What about Space Oddity by David Bowie?

 

[David Hobbes]

if you want glam how about ride a white swan ?

 

[LarryDavenport]

Space Oddity came out in 69, Ride a White Swan was 70.

 

[David Hobbes]

i was just naming a favorite glam tune of mine

 

[Rachael B]

David, my list isn't on the beam either. However, as Jean points you can't get this down to 11 songs. I do know that the 50's artists are the most important ones, no doubt. For the 50's you've got Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Elvis just for starters. The 50's people cast the die. Rock fizzled for awhile because of a McCarthy-ish backlash against it.

Then you've got wave 2 when rock started up again in the 60's. The Kalafonie surf sound and more impotantly the English version of rock led by the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five.

I'd argue that Dylan's The Times They Are A'Changin' is the focal point of the 60's. I do not remember a pop song before or since that caused as much stir. It was discussed on the evening news, on talk shows, in the newspapers, in every barber shop and beauty salon. I loved the reaction to the song way more than the song itself. It terriied the adults!

I couldn't get a credible list down to 11 artists, much less songs! The people posting mostly are not appreciating the 50's enough, IMO!!! What might the Beatles have turned out like without Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly's influence??? Skiffle-meisters...?

The Meters is the most important black act of the 60's and 70's despite most people being rather unaware of them to much of an extent. The Red Hot Chili Peppers couldn't have existed without the funky rythmns developed by The Meters Inc! The Meters might be the most studied band ever...?

Sly Stone opened up a new can of worms too, but as has been said before, his superior, imitators put him out of business. James Brown is an institution unto music. Hendrix and Clapton are the 60's guitar gurus. So, they should get songs, right. What about Donovan and the Zombies? They'd deserve songs, right?

What about The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Love, Link Ray, The Ventures, Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, Clarence Carter, Otis Redding, Led Zepplin, Flying Burrito Brothers, Allman Brothers, The Band, Blues Project, Geore Clinton and his many variations of Parli-Delic????

Zappa put fusion rock on the map with Peaches En Regalia. Herbie Hancock just defined funk with Chameleon. Average White Band made it cool and alright for white people to listen to R & B. They should get a song, right?

What am I up to already, 30+, 40+ artists who deserve a song....? Without gettng to the 80' or 90's even??? The Clash, ect.....

11 songs, no, you can't fit the ocean in a backyard pool. Buddy Holly's best 11 songs are proably, ultimately, the most influental, IMO.

 

[Phil_DC]

Maybe you should break it up to 11 per decade because I can think of a few more, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Moody blues, and of course Janis Joplin.

 

[Chris Farmer]

And don't forget Marty McFly's Johnny B. Good, he gave Chuck that new sound he was looking for.

 

[Brent Bridgeman]

No, the Sex Pistols and the Clash were not inspired by the Ramones, they broke about the same time. However, Joe Strummer was influenced by seeing the Sex Pistols live, but The Clash just took that whole genre to a new, higher level. Best "punk" band ever, and I think that "London's Burning" should be on this list. It was a wakeup call for the future of music in the time of disco. "London's burning with boredom now!" indeed.

 

[John Kotches]

Leaving Jimi Hendrix off is a bit of an oversight. He was influential on at least two generations of guitarists and songwriters (or is it 3 now? )

Cheers,

 

[Don Giro]

I'm not up to putting together a list together, but two songs I see as important and influential (not necessarily GOOD)are Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "My Sharona" by The Knack.

Nirvana's angst-anthem certainly ushered in the stupidly-named "grunge" era, but more importantly, it signaled the death knell for 80's hair metal (anyone remember that VH1 special where some dude in Warrant said he knew they were in trouble when they visited their label's offices and saw their poster had been replaced by ALICE IN CHAINS ?). Plus, I enjoyed the song the first 20,000 times I heard it.

A decade or so earlier, "My Sharona" was everywhere and helped usher in the stupidly-named "New Wave" era. This led to the death of disco. And I thought the song was pretty good for about five minutes until I discovered Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, BOC, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC).

The songs that most shaped my own listening habits are probably:

"You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC - New York radio NEVER played anything this heavy before this

"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen - I knew "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," but when I worked my way back through their catalog and heard THIS...

"Breaking the Law" by Judas Priest - saw the video on Rockline (I think) LATE one Saturday night, and I haven't been the same since.

"Prowler" by Iron Maiden - Raw (badly recorded, actually), loud, catchy as hell, and completely different than anything I'd heard up to that point...it's my "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?" moment in life; I remember EXACTLY where I was the first time I heard this song.

 

[Rachael B]

Ya'all aren't looking far enough back people! The cherries are mostly in the 50's and 60's...

 

[Robert Powers]

Iron Butterfly: "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"

I think this was the first ever Heavy Metal song recorded.

I don't know but it seems like the music from the 80's until now doesn't seem to be as influential as say music from the 50's to 70's. I'm not saying that I don't like any of this music because there is alot of music from the 80's that I liked, a little from the 90's, and not much in this decade that I care for. But that's beside the point.

It's amazing looking back at how people reacted to bands like Elvis, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and a few others. I just don't know of any recent bands that would cause that much commotion now days. Did these bands have so much fan reaction because they brought out rock n roll or was it because they were so much better than most bands?

 

[Brent Bridgeman]

"New Wave" pretty much ran parallel to disco. The Clash came in at a right angle and lopped off disco's head!