While driving around in the snow and listening to one of the greatest rock and roll stations in the country, WPLR-FM New Haven, I heard a promo for the BIG 12.
Hmm. BIG 12? Yale is not a BIG 12 team and honestly, who cares about the BIG 12 anyway? It’s the SEC or nothing I always say. I digress.
No the BIG 12 they are talking about is the 12 best Rock and Roll bands of the last 50 years and the fact that they were only going to play cuts from those 12 bands (artists) for the entire weekend.
Got me to thinking, always a dangerous thing, and I decided I would do a column on something similar.
What this column is about is simple. I am going to pick 12 artists that I believe have a strong and deep enough catalog that I could put those 12 artist in rotation at home and not get tired and want to hear some Vanilla Fudge.
The thing about my list is that you may not feel a certain artist should be included because they weren’t considered legendary. These artists just have a catalog of songs that I can find dozens of B-sides that would not make me cringe.
The first five or six bands are pretty easy. These are not in any particular order and remember this is a macro sized look at Rock and Roll bands and while there are plenty of songs that would come up that I would love to skip, there is enough in each ban’s collection that would keep me involved.
#1- The Beatles. This is an easy one of course. The Beatles released 12 actual studio albums in the US and if you throw in compilations, remastered records, outtakes and so on, you probably wouldn’t need any other artists on this list. I don’t need to go on and on about The Beatles, everyone gets it but their last five albums are probably the five greatest albums released in a row by any one artist. That should say it all.
#2-The Rolling Stones. Another easy one. Just put “Sympathy for the Devil” on any playlist and it is the best playlist you will ever hear. However, dig deeper into The Stones catalog and their are dozens of gems in their. From Rockabilly, Country, blues and even a couple of Soul songs, the breadth of The Stones catalog is second to none. Granted, after releasing at least 30 studio albums there is a lot of filler material in there but I challenge anyone to open their minds up, erase who they are and then listen to a song like “When The Whip Comes Down” or “2000 Light Years From Home” and tell me they aren’t The Greatest Rock and Roll Band In The World.
#3-Led Zeppelin. Again, easy. Zeppelin is a little different because I cringe at listening to certain albums later on in their career. Houses of The Holy for one. I know, beat me with a staff but for one of the greatest, most talented rock bands ever to include “The Crunge” on a record is a sin. There are a couple of keepers on the album and some filler. Sorry, Zep fanatics, it’s how I feel. That being said though looking at their total body of work, it is spectacular and I know there are few of you that will argue that the first five albums by Led Zeppelin are equal if not better than the last five by the Beatles. Just remember, House of The Holy was their fifth album so I rest my case.
#4-The Who. Maybe you argue with me here but just remember that I am looking at the span of an artist’s work. The Who produced three maybe four exceptional albums (two of those were double albums) and even the lesser loved vinyls still stack up pretty well. You need 100 songs to fill the void, I can get you there with The Who.
#5-Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Coming from the New York metropolitan area it could be Bruce or Billy Joel and I picked Bruce. No specific reason here but the first four albums Springsteen and his band produced were incredible. I take a tumble after that sorry. Nebraska, ugh. The River, eh. Born In The USA, maybe but do another listen and it’s not up to the same standard as Darkness or Born to Run. Plus side for Bruce is that he is an incredible performer and I have a few bootleg albums that don’t do him justice but they are still great. Minus side is that on this long weekend, Springsteen has a lot of songs I might skip past.
#6-Pink Floyd. I get Floyd may not be everyones cup of tea and there is a lot of stuff in their catalog that is beyond comprehension, but the stuff that is good is great. Having released maybe 12 albums I can honestly say that 8 of them are not listenable unless you are a totally devoted fan, which I am not. Yet, the four that are approachable are cathartic listening. Nothing you will ever hear will compare to the complexity of those four records. Production, instrumentation, themes, you name it, they have it. Long weekend you just hope they put something from Atom Heart Mother on at 3:34am.
#7-The Grateful Dead- Speaking of 3:34am, The Dead could play any number of boogie jams through the wee hours and everyone would still be dancing. Talk about output. I don’t know how many actual albums are out there but it has to be over 100. Does everyone want to hear a 37 minute rendition of “Morning Dew”, probably not but the Dead has an extremely deep catalog of originals and their cover versions are generally better than the original so including them was easy.
#8- The Doors- You can disagree with this selection as well and I would love to hear why but for my money The Doors, pound for pound, may have been one of the best, true Rock and Roll bands ever. The pound for pound exhortation is simple, they only released six real studio albums and each one was either great or very good. Even LA Woman, which was released two months before Jim Morrison’s death was a superb, mature album and it never seemed like a swan song. Hard to find that many songs on any of their albums, that set apart, could not stand alone. That is the true mark of a deep catalogue.
#9-The Allman Brothers Band- Not sure anyone could disagree here and let me be honest, I am not the biggest Allman Brothers fan. I have been given multiple opportunities to see them at their annual residence at the Beacon Theater in New York and turned each invitation down. Who needs to hear Jessica for 1,000,000th time? Or God forbid “Rambling Man”. Anyway. They, like the Grateful Dead have an incredibly deep and varied back catalog with plenty of great bootlegs that you really can not get tired of. I think the main reason I would put them in my rotation is because you can never get tired of listening to Duane Allman playing slide guitar.
#10-Creedence Clearwater Revival-An easy one for me but some not agree. CCR was one of the most influential bands in history and they remind me of Sandy Koufax. Their career was short but during that career there was no one better, no one even close. In a span of 15 months they released four studio albums! I don’t think any artist of any era did anything even close. Even with compilations and live albums thrown in, no one has ever done it and no one ever will. The bigger fact is that every one of those four albums was great. The sad fact is that they released Cosmo’s Factory, which will always stand as one the greatest albums ever recorded, and then they released Pendulum five months later and the magic was gone. Pendulum was not a bad album by any means but it just could not match the previous four.
#11-Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers- This is a tough call for me because I was never really a Petty fan when he was alive but after he passed I began to realize how good he was. All you need to do is get the The Live Anthology Album and you will see why. Maybe one of the best live albums ever and it explores all of the different influences that Petty had. Guy was a national treasure and we never did see it.
#12-Tie- Sorry, but it’s either AC/DC or Lynyrd Skynyrd. Can’t decide, so I will split my playlist up and I will be very happy. This is where I can actually cull some of the songs that have been overplayed and enjoy the better parts of both catalogues.
Let me be blunt here because I know a few people will wonder what happened to the likes of Fleetwood Mac. Never gonna happen. maybe some of the Peter Green influenced stuff but the Stevie Nicks nonsense will stay in my deleted file. The Eagles? Yeah, you could make a case for them. Same with the Beach Boys but when I think of the Beach Boys I think of “Kokomo” and I want to vomit. One artist I might sneak in is Van Morrison but again, a lot of his stuff is out of reach for me so it would be limited, besides I saw him live with my kids and we were thoroughly disappointed, so he is out.
You saw Van Morrison live and he was "Meh"? Now that it a story I'd like to hear.