Best Music Ever Made - Rock 101

Best In Show

People love lists. They just relish the thought of counting out the top to the bottom or the best of the year. We love to hand out power rankings and I fall into that group with pride.

 Music has always been a contest of biggest selling, highest attendance or loudest amps, and so it should be. Most aficionados will have a favorite song, but that can change more often than a woman’s mind. To give people something to talk about and keep the women out there flip flopping, here we go…..

Best Group In History (Rock  Division)

This is a tough one to say the least, but it is easily transcribed due to the fact that there really hasn’t been much music made since the early 80’s.

1.    Led Zeppelin                                

2.    Pink Floyd                                     

3.    Eagles                                              

4.    Steely Dan                                     

5.    Deep Purple

6.    Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

7.    Rush

8.    AC/DC

9.    Tom Petty

10. Yes

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re muttering. “No Beatles? No Rolling Stones?” I’m sorry, but I consider a lot of the Beatles recordings as pop music. At least the first several years were. The later stuff like the White Album changed things, but a little too late. Can I be as bold as to say the drug use changed them. For the better. Face it, if MTV were around when the Beatles were rollin’, they would have been like Michael Jackson. The Rolling Stones would have the following of Duran Duran.

You have to throw in a few honorable mentions, because the 70’s takes up a lot of space and it is accepted world wide that the 70’s was the greatest decade for music. Plus, I needed more space in my list…

 Honorable Mention

1. Boston
2. Foghat
3. Lynyrd Skynyrd
4. Marshall Tucker Band
5. Van Halen
6. ZZ Top
7. Doobie Brothers
8. The Byrds
9. Allman Brothers Band
10. Grand Funk

                                                           

I am sure a good portion of you are already saying ,“Tim! Buddy! Are you inhaling?”  THIS IS MY LIST. Go get your own damn list.

The next list is Best Guitar Solo’s or just plain old good guitar licks. Through my infinite musical prowess, I have made a management decision that a person or group can make the list even if they do not make the “Best Group” list. Once again, my list. Deal with it…

            

 Best Guitar Solo’s or Riff’s

1.    Stevie Ray Vaughn- “Tightrope”, “Couldn’t Stand the Weather”, plus any other damn thing he played.

2.    Pink Floyd-“Comfortably Numb”- David Gilmour. Not a fast heavy tune, but more of a flowing river.

3.    Eagles- “Hotel California” Joe Walsh and Don Felder. Eagles at their best.

4.    Boston- “Hitch a Ride”-Just take a listen. Pretty good stuff…

5.    Steely Dan-“My Old School”. Not the kind of group you think of for guitar licks, but pretty good stuff, none the less.

6.    Montrose- “Space Station #5- Ronnie Montrose deserves a spot.

7.    Van Halen-“Eruption” and “Unchained” – Eddie’s a man…

8.    AC/DC-“Get It Hot”, “Back In Black”- Early stuff and the later stuff for Angus Young. Malcolm Young deserves a nod too.

9.    Led Zeppelin- “The Ocean, Rock N Roll, Moby Dick, Kashmir” Jimmy Page is so complex. Best stuff was in the studio

10. Almann Brothers Band- “Jessica”, “One Way Out”, “Whipping Post”- Dickie Betts and Duane Almann are southern rock at the top.

Honorable Mention

           1. Foghat- "Stone Blue”

           2. Grand Funk-“American Band

           3. Joe Walsh-“Rocky Mountain Way”

           4. Fabulous Thunderbirds-“Look At That”

           5. ZZ Top-“La Grange”, “Thunderbird”,

6. Crosby, Stills and Nash- “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”

7. Cream-“Sunshine of My Love”

8. Edgar Winter Band-“Frankenstein”

9. Jimmy Hendrix-“Purple Haze”

10. Metallica-“Enter Sandman”

                 

This was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be to put together. I bet I made 20 changes to it in 3-4 different amendments. I would hear a song on the radio or be listen to a song on You-Tube and have to go back and re-arrange. Before I started my list, I bounced ideas and notions off of people. A California friend of mine asked me, “Fabulous Thunderbirds? Who the hell are they?” What do you do with that kind of response.? You enlighten the un-enlightened. A co-worker of mine who is a bit younger than me asked me about Rage Against The Machine. You know hard it is to keep from rolling your eyes at a clearly un-informed and sheltered child of the 90’s?

I am so glad I grew up when I did. Except for disco and new wave (even though some of it was a little bit of a toe-tapper), the music of my peeps was everlasting. We got to hear rock music mold itself to songs that never get old. We witnessed “progressive” and “cosmic” country develop into genres that easily wafted back and forth like that wave of pot smoke that we will never admit to.

I hope these two lists take you back a way’s and inspire you to come up with your own list. Maybe we can have a list of singers, male and/or female or one for each gender. Hey, there’s no rules in this game. No list is 100% accurate and people will find faults. Hey, it’s the American way. Rock on dude.

Okay Jerry. Enough's, enough...

Alright Jerry. Enough’s enough….

Jerry Jones was interviewed a few weeks ago by Bob Costas and asked if he would fire himself as the general manager of the Cowboys. Jerry replied that he was the one that had to look himself in the mirror each day and live with any shortcomings. Apparently Jerry’s vision is a little off or he can’t see through the fog.

The Cowboy’s have become the whipping boy of the NFL. Alright, they’re really not that bad; the problem is they are not that good.  Who else besides me is tired of buying Cowboy gear, supporting Jerry and his overpaid “players”? We buy the t-shirts and shoes. We eat the pizza and drink the soft drinks, but in the end, what do we get in return? The Cowboy’s charge $29.95 to stand in the end zone and $50.00 to park.

Jerry used to come out to the field at the end of the game, glad-handing and slapping people on the back. He thought he was the brains and the reason for the limited success. I’ve noticed lately he don’t come aroun’ no mo’. Heat in the kitchen getting’ a little to hot for you Jerr??? Of course, he’ll blame it on someone else and hire another head coach.  But he won’t fire the general manager. Hell, even George Steinbrenner, the pain in the ass he was, had the smarts to hire someone to run the Yankee’s. 

Unfortunately Jerry Jones is just another example of “Since I got all the money, I got all the answers.” See George Steinbrenner. I’ve seen way to many people like this in my years to buy this act.  Jerry was a big fish in a small pond in his younger days, made a few good business decisions and now he thinks he’s a “football guy.” Bill Parcell’s could have saved this team if Jerry would have let him, but alas, Jerry’s ego took over. How many owners in the NFL have the same problem Jerry has? Ask the Patriot’s and Robert Kraft. Don’t ask the Raiders and the former Al Davis, may he rest in peace. 

Maybe Jerry’s kids (no pun intended, but kind of funny anyway..) will use a more common sense approach when Daddy gives them the keys.  Maybe the mistakes of the past will become the lessons of the future for the Jone’s clan.