For me it’s the Cars, Supertramp, & REO, mainly because of the glass-shattering, hound dog traumatizing whiny-voiced tenors who front said bands. If I am stuck in a setting (restaurant) where I have no control over the knob, I pray and hope that none of these hacks come on while I am eating, or I typically will lose my appetite.
I’ve been trying to get our local station that brags about their variety, to start a blacklist of songs but not artists to get them to play other songs besides the hits and to introduce more music to their fans. The listeners could even nominate and vote on songs!
For example, AC/DC ==> ban “Shook Me All Night Long”, but play “Let’s Get it Up”
ban “Highway to Hell”, but “Jailbreak '74” is OK
Or say Van Halen ==> ban “Eruption/You Really Got Me” but “Little Guitars” good tune!
ban “Hot for Teacher” but “Drop Dead Legs” isunderappreciate.
The list goes on and on.
Unfortunately, as much as I love Zeppelin, all their songs are overplayed on the radio these days.
Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison.
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd
I realize that this may cut some bar-bands’ set-lists in half, but seriously, we never need to hear these again. And we certainly never need to hear a bunch of half-drunk idiots singing along at 12:30 in the morning. And no, Mr. Mullett, the band will NOT play Bohemian Rhapsody, because there’s no piano and only one singer and he’s a f*4king baritone.
Oh good, they’ve started “Some Kind Of Wonderful”. I’m outta here.
thwartme
I’ve been saying the same thing for years. They don’t even have to play obscure songs. Just lesser-known ones.
Jethro Tull–> ban Locomotive Breath. Play Hymn 43.
The Who–> Ban Baba O’Reilly. Play Trick of the Light.
The Rolling Stones–>Ban Brown Sugar. Play Sway.
And why the hell don’t American stations play Slade?
Hey, I even sent an email to the program director at the classic rock station here in Ottawa proposing that they should stray from the standard play list from time to time. Here’s his response:
Cxxx - Name changed to protect, umm, well you never know.
Wow, 25 posts and I’m the first to say Margaritaville? It instantly makes me think of a fat, drunk middle aged guy in a Hawaiian shirt and a bald ponytail.
The live version is way better than the one you hear on the radio.
Thanks for posting that, Leaffan. On one hand, we all probably already knew why the playlists are the way that they are. On the other hand, it was really interesting to see it articulated by the guy who actually makes the decisions. And it’s nice to see that he’s thoughtful about the tradeoffs that he’s making and willing to discuss it. You can sense a certain level of frustration there.
There is one station around here that makes a big deal about playing “deep cuts.” In other words, they play supposedly lesser-known songs from the usual gang of artists. And that’s exactly what I’m saying they should do, right? But the songs that they are claiming are “deep cuts” are songs that were standard fare just a few years ago! I don’t remember any particular ones for certain, but it was on the level of playing Tull’s “Bungle in the Jungle.”
BUT–I will take this opportunity to brag on New Jersey’s own WDHA. It’s pretty damn awesome. I’m not claiming they have a perfect playlist or anything, and they do play a lot of the same old boring stuff, but mixed in there are plenty of lesser known tracks AND new-ish songs too! Plus they play a lot more stuff from the '90s than most “classic rock” stations do. Sadly, stations like this are few and far between.
I think everything by Bob Seeger should be scrapped. There’s already been 2 requests…if this thread gets long I’m sure we’ll cover them all. Let’s just cut it off at the pass!
I also could live without everything by the Cars (already mentioned).
I only listen to the classic rock station in the morning when I wake up. Around the time my alarm goes off, they are playing a “Beatles Twin Spin” in which they will play anything from the catalog. I actually did wake up to Hey Bulldog the other day. Rock!
I think the only reason I manage to get up out of bed in the morning is because they eventually play some Cars or Eagles and it’s just too much. I have to get up so to escape the classic rock crappitude.
Lots of good candidates for removal from the standard classic rock playlist have been mentioned, so I will avoid repeating them. Here are some my additions:
[ul]
[li]Layla- Derek and the Dominoes[/li][li]Jet Airliner- Steve Miller Band (Let’s add “The Joker” while I’m at it-- Good God, does that song ever annoy me.)[/li][li]Life’s Been Good to Me So Far- Joe Walsh (I like long songs, but this one just “moves” too slowly for me)[/li][li]Taking Care of Business- Bachman Turner Overdrive[/li][li]Born to Run- Bruce Springsteen[/li][/ul]
In general I find the whole “classic rock” format to be tiresome because of what it seems to be limited to. There are lots of great songs out there that a lot of people would remember and appreciate that seldom if ever see the light of day over the airwaves. I suspect a lot of songs mentioned in this thread could probably be spared if it weren’t for the advertising industry exploiting these songs because of their familiarty.
on 104.3 in ny they do “off the back wall” songs thinking they are playing some obscure music when its schools out by alice cooper for example.
Here’s a concept for the Clear Channel Borg Stations[sup]TM[/sup]: Since all of you do “Two Fer Tuesdays” why not play the hideously flogged to death song by an artist that you think we lurve, and then play whatever is on the current album by that artist or one of its members. So, we could hear the Beatles Back in the USSR followed by whatever Paul’s just put out. (Yes, I realize that in the case of McCartney, its probably dreck [the man is hugely talented, but just has poor taste in much of his post-Wings material], but its better than hearing the same shit over and over again.) Hell, music sales might even increase because people would realize that their favorite artists are still recording!
Also, we need to ban the whole “Its 8 o’clock, time for Stairway to Heaven (or whatever).” shit. I do not want to be able to set my watch based on what the radio station is playing. Its bad enough that you only play a half dozen different songs, but to play them at the same time every day isn’t merely adding insult to injury, its also nursing you back to health simply so you can do it over and over again.
The sad thing is it’s really not that hard to come up with a playlist that is fairly recognisable and still doesn’t cover the same old ground. This took about fifteen minutes and could easily fill three hours:
B B King - Why I Sing The Blues 8:38
Stephen Stills (Manassas) - How Far 2:53
Cry Of Love - Bad Thing 3:07
Tom Petty - So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star 3:36
Kenny Wayne Shepherd - Riverside 3:45
Zero - Ermaline 6:03
Tommy Bolin - The Grind 3:29
Frank Zappa - The Torture Never Stops 5:20
Deep Purple - Stormbringer 4:04
Gov’t Mule - Trane 7:27
Jimi Hendrix - Earth Blues 4:21
Little Feat - Mercenary Territory 4:24
Nuclear Valdez - Eve 3:33
Screaming Cheetah Wheelies - Hello From Venus 6:07
Robin Trower - Caledonia 3:34
Guess Who - Rain Dance 2:48
Yes - Then 5:49
Neil Young - Transformer Man 3:19
Santana/Buddy Miles - Marbles 4:18
Alan Parsons Project - Secret Garden 4:42
Gypsy - Crusader 3:10
ZZ Top - Sheik 4:04
Freddy Jones Band - In A Daydream 5:28
Allman Brothers Band - Pegasus 7:31
Grand Funk Railroad - Gimme Shelter 6:17
Black Sabbath - Fairies Wear Boots 6:16
Dire Straits - Ride Across The River 6:58
Rush - Ghost Of A Chance 5:18
Wishbone Ash - Blowin’ Free 5:31
Traffic - Love 3:15
Any songs here you’ve heard too much lately?
Maybe that’s what I’m thinking when I said “deep cuts.” I’m pretty sure some station around here plays “deep cuts,” but I’m also pretty sure I was talking about 104.3 before.
Ironically, one of the examples that I was going to use for “instead of this, they should play that” post was “Joan Jett–>ban I Love Rock’n’Roll. Play Do You Wanna Touch Me?” And when I flipped on the radio today, guess what they were playing? 
But it was part of one of those “workforce block” thingies, so they really did have to play some additional Joan Jett songs.
tattman40: Whereabouts do you live?
Not going to C&P that list but I’d say “fairly recognisable” is quite a stretch.
I am in Ottawa as well, but the station I have been petitioning is BOB-FM since they seem to pride themselves in playing more variety.
I have a couple of friends who are radio personalities and they swear that even when they open up the phone lines to requests they can predict the songs people will ask to hear.
So, it’s back to Sweet Home Alabama, Back in Black, Rock and Roll All Nite, Welcome to the Jungle, Whole Lotta Love, etc…
U2 is a great band but it is sickening how often you hear them. My wife, who’s a huge U2 fan, will even change the channel!
I have to admit I’ve gone to internet radio at work and am considering satellite radio.
You mean they play the exact same song at the exact same time? Not like DHA’s 8:00 Hair Club or Scott Muni’s lunchtime Beatles block. The same exact song? Good Og, that must be annoying.
Sure. And I could come up with a similar list. Any classic rock fan who’s listened to more than the radio could. The difficulty is balancing the listener’s desire for the familiar with their desire for something a little different. Your list is too obscure for a commercial rock station. Maybe all of those songs could (and should) be played on a commercial station, but not all in a row like that.
(which doesn’t mean that I’m not going to totally load that playlist onto the 'pod! Thanks!)
You have no idea. At a couple of jobs I’ve had, they insisted on playing the classic rock station, and I knew it was time for lunch when Stairway to Heaven came on (I worked nightshift, BTW, so this wasn’t some kind of “Led Zepplin Lunch” nonsense). People wondered why I was always cranky at work, and failed to comprehend when I pointed out that the music selection process used by the radio station was akin to the Chinese water torture. Frankly, I think I’d rather be waterboarded than have to go through that again.
I don’t know what Cars singer you’re referring to, but if it’s Ric Ocasek, you don’t know what you are talking about. He is far from a whiny-voiced tenor, and the lead singer of one of the greatest bands in rock/pop, ever.
But that’s exactly my point. The major complaint about “classic rock radio” has always been they play the same music over and over and over. Everyone I know has commented on it at one time or aanother. I’ve never heard the opposite complaint.
As for the list, I’ll give you that a few of them are always going to be obscure, but most are obscure and unfamiliar because they don’t get played. And they don’t get played because they are obscure and unfamiliar. But look again at the band names. How many of them are unknown?
(And I hope you’ll like them, but I didn’t mean for that to be an actual playlist. It was a real quick and dirty process.)
And Alan Bird, “recognisable” was probably a poor choice of words. What I meant was none of them would be out of place on a classic rock format station. IMO
I think every song from “Brothers in Arms” was getting a lot of airplay the last time I listened to the radio. In all fairness, it IS a great CD. 
Maybe “Skateaway” or “Industrial Disease” instead?
Hey, some love for the Wheelies! Saw them open for Meat Loaf (Don’t judge me!) on the Bat Out of Hell 2 tour. I had never heard of them, but they put on a great show. I think Mike Farris (the lead singer) is performing around Nashville a lot now, primarily gospel music.