another rock n roll rant

Sometimes I'll poke around message boards with lists of the 100 Greatest Rock n Roll songs, or something to that effect. Something about these boards had always bothered me. I finally figured out what it is: they demonstrate just how stuffy and orthodox classic rock fans have become. Basically, you are allowed to choose your top five bands (and songs) from a set of the following:

Led Zeppelin (must be number 1)
The Rolling Stones
Lynyrd Skynyrd
AC/DC
The Beatles
Aerosmith
Van Halen
Queen
The Who
The Doors
Eric Clapton

Never mind that this is just a bunch of shit culled from classic rock radio. The worst part is that you know exactly what the comments replying to anybody who posts a top ten songs post is going to be. If they put Freebird (a good but not great song) anywhere below #3, people will bitch and moan and stomp their feet about that. Most of the commentary will be fucking idiots who think that their garbage pet band (AC/DC, Van Halen, REO Speeedwagon) should have been included in the list.

Classic rock radio has exercised such mind control over people's memories that there is now a very narrow group of bands that it is acceptable to say are great. Never mind that the Allman Brothers and CCR were better in every concievable way than Lynyrd Skynyrd; Skynyrd wrote a cookie cutter ballad. All the Allman Brothers did was CREATE LYNYRD SKYNYRD'S GENRE. Not too much. And their best songs are live, so they're a little too long for radio play. Plus, Lynyrd Skynyrd told that fucking liberal Neil Young who's boss. Hey, NY even said that "Sweet Home Alabama" was better than "Southern Man." It doesn't matter that "Sweet Home Alabama" is Skynyrd's best song by two fold, while "Southern Man" is just one of perhaps sixty great songs penned by Neil Young.

Oh, I may hate those lists, but that didn't stop me from making my own.

1) Powderfinger
2) Cortez the Killer
3) Heart of Gold
4) Helpless
5) Ohio
6) My My Hey Hey
7) Cripple Creek Ferry
8) After the Gold Rush
9) Cinnamon Girl
10) Needle and the Damage Done