A Few More Rules

With less than a week to go before I begin my millennial countdown, (I hope you're as exkited as I am) I wanted to clarify a few things about the list.

First, again, this is a list of favorite rock songs, not necessarily the best songs. I know a little bit about music but not nearly enough to attempt any kind of listing like that. In fact, I would confess that my scope is even a bit limited, relatively speaking. On the one hand, it’s limited mostly to songs or albums that I bought, which means that a few groups tend to dominate the proceedings.

On the other hand, when you think about it, that’s not a bad thing. If you like a song or an album enough to pay money to own it and then play it as many times as you want, that’s a signal that maybe those songs should rate above others that you like enough when they come on the radio that you don’t switch the channel. And consequently, those are the songs that tend to stand out in the memory banks when you look back on your life. So I make no apologies if it seems as if every other song is by Rush, Pearl Jam or Led Zeppelin. I’m male and I’m going to be 50 in less than 3 years. You were expecting, maybe, The Carpenters?

Second, I wanted to talk a little bit about what actually will be included.

Like Justice Potter Stewart and his views on pornography, I just go by judgment: I know it when I see it.  In other words, a rock song is a rock song because I said so. And, I’m no expert. I know more than some and less than a lot of others, but you’re here, so you just have to trust me on this.

And in my judgment this means no jazz, no classical and no New Age. Acts, that is, not necessarily music. I suppose if you’re mostly classified as a jazz player, for example, you’re not eligible for this here list. Yes, I know that Miles Davis is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But just because the folks controlling inductions don’t have a clue about what they’re doing doesn’t mean I have to blindly follow along. I yield to no one in my respect and admiration for Miles Davis, and, yes, I have heard Bitches Brew, many times, even while sober, thank you very much. But Miles Davis is no more a rock act than Stevie Ray Vaughan is a jazzman because he recorded Chitlins Con Carne. (Check it out if you haven’t heard it.) Everything else, within reason, is eligible.

One of my favorite songs of any genre is Winter in America by the late, great Gil Scott-Heron. You could make a very persuasive argument that this song should be on the list, and I might be inclined to agree … except it doesn’t really fit with what I think of as a rock song.

However, Emerson, Lake & Palmer can faithfully record Fanfare for a Common Man by Aaron Copland, and it might find a place on the list. (That’s called foreshadowing, kids.)

OK, so it doesn’t make total sense. But as the stern, seemingly clueless but ultimately wise father in Risky Business once famously said: ‘My house, my rules.”