…my history of rock music class. It has to be the best damned class I’ve ever taken(even the four page paper looks interesting for me, although it’s going to be a liiiittle difficult depending on who I go see). We finally got the list of songs that he’s going to play throughout the semester to supplement the social context of what was going on in that era (in rock music and out). Not only that, but we’re going to look at a lot of the things that spawned off of rock music. Hoorah!
Oh- if anybody can find “Meningitis Blues” or “Sweet Fern” please tell me. I can’t.
And before anybody puts a value judgement on any of this music- the professor has already told us all that he certainly doesn’t like all the music on this list. He does think that each song on this list DOES represent the era of music that it was made in and is a good representative of it’s genre/social context. That explains “Nookie.”
HISTORY OF ROCK MUSIC: SONG CHECKLIST
(Note, not all of these are rock songs- especially the first couple… but we’re also exploring the roots of rock. So there you go. Also note that due to the nature of the course, my poor prof can’t cover every single rock movement. In order for him to do that, we’d need a uh… very, very long course. It’s going fairly quickly, and things like gothic rock and heavy metal are largely glossed over in the music list here [but they ARE in the course curriculum- you can’t avoid heavy metal in the 80s and late 70s… luckily we DO get the roots.] Also, he couldn’t fit some of his favorite bands, like Pink Floyd and King Crimson in there due to time constraints :-P.)
“Meningitis Blues” Ethel McCoy 1929
“Sweet Fern” the Carter Family 1929
“Hello Central” Sam “Lightnin” Hopkins 1950
“I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” Muddy Waters 1952
“Good Rockin’ Tonight” Wynonie Harris 1947
“Shake, Rattle and Roll” Joe Turner 1954
“Rock Around the Clock” Haley and the Comets 1955
“Till Then” the Classics 1957
“Maybellene” Chuck Berry 1955
“Tutti Frutti” Little Richard 1955
“Heartbreak Hotel” Elvis Presley 1956
“Splish Splash” Bobby Darin 1958
“Yakety Yak” the Coasters 1958
“Peggy Sue” Buddy Holly and the Crickets 1957
“Wake Up Little Suzy” the Everly Brothers 1957
“The Twist” Chubby Checker 1960
“Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” the Shirelles 1960
“Up On The Roof” the Drifters 1962
“On Broadway” the Drifters 1963
“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” the Righteous Brothers 1964
“Fun, Fun, Fun” the Beach Boys 1964
“The Times They Are A-Changin’” Bob Dylan 1964
“Please Please Me” the Beatles 1963
“A Hard Day’s Night” the Beatles 1964
“You Really Got Me” the Kinks 1964
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” the Rolling Stones 1965
“It’s The Same Old Song” the Four Tops 1965
“My Girl” the Temptations 1965
“The Tracks Of My Tears” Smokey Robinson and the Miracles 1965
“Stop! In The Name Of Love” the Supremes 1965
“I Got You (I Feel Good)” James Brown 1965
“I’m A Loser” the Beatles 1965
“Ticket To Ride” the Beatles 1965
“Mr. Tambourine Man” the Byrds 1965
“Like A Rolling Stone” Bob Dylan 1965
“Wild Thing” the Troggs 1966
“My Generation” the Who 1966
“Eight Miles High” the Byrds 1966
"California Dreamin’ the Mamas and the Papas 1966
“Somebody to Love” Jefferson Airplane 1967
“Good Vibrations” the Beach Boys 1967
“Ruby Tuesday” the Rolling Stones 1967
“For What It’s Worth” Buffalo Springfield 1967
“Light My Fire” the Doors 1967
“Strawberry Fields Forever” the Beatles 1967
“Purple Haze” Jimi Hendrix 1967
“Respect” Aretha Franklin 1967
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” the Band 1969
“Street Fighting Men” the Rolling Stones 1968
“Love Child” the Supremes 1968
“Cloud 9” the Temptations 1968
“Long Time Gone” Crosby, Stills, and Nash 1969
“I Had A King” Joni Mitchell 1968
“Good Times Bad Times” Led Zeppelin 1969
“Cross-Eyed Mary” Jethro Tull 1971
“Stairway To Heaven” Led Zeppelin 1971
“Lola” the Kinks 1970
“You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” Stevie Wonder 1972
“That’s The Way Of The World” Earth Wind and Fire 1975
“Go Your Own Way” Fleetwood Mac 1977
“FM” Steely Dan 1979
“That’s The Way (I Like It)” K.C. and the Sunshine Band 1975
“The Hustle” Van McCoy 1975
“Stayin’ Alive” the Bee Gees 1977
“YMCA” the Village People 1978
“Flashlight” Parliament 1977
“Get Up, Stand Up” Bob Marley and the Wailers 1973
“Roxanne” the Police 1978
“The Tide Is High” Blondie 1980
“Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment” the Ramones 1976
“Anarchy In The U.K.” the Sex Pistols 1978
“Take Me Away” Judge 1984 (?)
“Alison” Elvis Costello 1977
“Let’s Go” the Cars 1979
“Heartbreaker” Pat Benetar 1979
“Billie Jean” Michael Jackson 1982
“The Message” Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five 1981 (I’m not fixing this row, I’ve done it enough)
“Colors” Ice-T 1988
“Material Girl” Madonna 1984
“Wrapped Around Your Finger” the Police 1983
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” Nirvana 1991
“Nookie” Limp Bizkit 1999
man, the only metal related thing on that is Led Zeppelin, and that’s only metal related, they’re just hard rock. There should be Judas Priest and Iron Maiden up there! And no Pink Floyd… that sucks. That teacher should get an F. But other than the last two songs, it’s an ok list, I guess they can’t cover everything in a 4 month long course.
Yeah, that’s the problem: the time limit. He said that he’d love to cover the span of rock history more thoroughly, but he said that a YEAR long course wouldn’t be enough. Personally, he told me this: “If it doesn’t bore me, I usually like it.”
The last two songs aren’t his favorite either, but one would argue that both Nirvana and Limp Bizkit did revolutionary things for the face of rock and roll. Whether these are positive things or not (and I think they are not) is up to opinion.
I dunno much about the history of music. But there’s this show on a local radio station every wednesday at 11:00 PM and Sunda 6:00 PM pacific time that is called the “History of modern rock” it’s quite interesting. It’s covered the history of recorded music, the history of britpop, the history of fashion in rock, the best rock drummer and so on and so forth. It’s quite interesting, if y’wanna hear it you can listen online at cfox.com
I don’t know exactly WHY your post reminds me, Jango, but I wanted to tell you all something.
Johnny Ace… any Johnny Ace fans in here? Oh. None? Well, I’d guess that would be because none of you GOT to be Johnny Ace fans.
It’s his first concert, and he’s a cocky bastard. He wants everyone to remember… Johnny Ace! pose
Well, basically, he takes out a revolver… he spins the uh… thing that holds the bullets. You know what I’m talking about. Anyway- he points the gun at his head and says “I am Johnny Ace!.” clickspin "I am the greatest! clickspin “I am invincible” BANG!
To the person questioning the last two selcections, Nirvana is HORRIBLY overrated (they’re good, but not the best band, or even best grunge band, ever), but they’re still extremely influential. Limp Bizkit I guess is influential (in a much more negative way), but they’re not as influential to Nu Metal as KoRn. He should have used A.D.I.D.A.S. or something instead of Nookie.
And there’s really no metal in that class at all (unless you count “Nu Metal”). I’m actually surprised by the lack of it.
Anyway, here’s a small sample of some songs that should be in your class (Not necessarily my personal preference and in no particular order):
Cream - Sunshine of your Love OR White Room
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
Derek & the Dominoes - Layla
Billy Joel - Piano Man
Aerosmith - Dream On
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Maggie May - Rod Stewart
Janis Joplin - Piece of My Heart
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 OR Comfortably Numb
Peter, Paul and Mary - Leaving on a Jet Plane
Elton John - Rocket Man
Dusty Springield - Son of a Preacher Man
The Clash - London Calling
Simon & Garfunkel - Sound of Silence
Neil Young - Rockin’ in the Free World
Meatloaf - Paradise by the Dashboard Light
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama
Guns ‘N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
George Thorogood - Bad to the Bone
John Lennon - Imagine
The Eagles - Hotel California
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
AC/DC - Dirty Deeds
Supertramp - The Logical Song
Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin’ Man
Zombies - Time of the Season
Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Just so you could waste 17 minutes of class time =D)
And lots others… Your guy really has a lot of significant omissions! Tell him that we all know that the Beatles were hella influential, but you don’t need FIVE Beatles songs.
Also, The Twist was performed by Chubby Checker, not Chuck Berry.
I hate to double post, but I talked to my prof, and the reason he can’t get a lot of these songs is that he has to:
A. Obtain all of these songs legally.
B. Also maintain a library of just about every style of music, since he teaches classical, baroque, folk, et cetera.
He says that it is a travesty that he doesn’t have a lot of these, but he has to work with what he can work with. shrugs
If I were him I’d replace half the songs with stuff by Megadeth and Iron Maiden. And Judas Priest, Venom, Bathory etc… haha I’d probably turn it into a metal history class.
Choir is actually pretty fun. I love to vocalize in just about any style there is, from choral singing to death metal growls. My throat doesn’t like it if I growl though, especially now (it feels raw… I love this time of year).
Pieces like “The Hallelujah Chorus” by Handel are pretty damned intense.
