Appreciating classic rock bands.

[Urmi]

Hi,

I'm currently 21 years old, so all the classic rock bands such as 'Led Zeppelin,' The Eagles, The Who, etc had their hey days well before I was born. However, upon suggestion from my friend, I started listening to classic rock music and I really love most of the stuff I've heard so far.

However, I find that I like/dislike a band mainly based upon the music they use in their songs. I prefer songs with a fast tempo. I somehow feel that this is a naive way to analyse songs. For example, I love 'Whole Lotta Love' by Led Zeppelin becoz of the outstanding music (mainly the guitar) but I don't like 'Baba O'riley' by the Who,becoz I don't like the weird rock-folk music that they use.

Could someone tell me how to truly and fairly analyse a classic rock band? What are the factors I should look out for?

I've just started to listen to classic rock and I think its amazing.....very much different from modern bands...I'd really like to know more about it!!

 

[Nololob]

It's always good to watch the documentaries about bands and genres to see how things started and developed over the years. Not only you may find more bands, but also gives you an idea why things happened that way.

 

[LG]

Find a good local "Classic Rock" station and just listen. Personally I like all the different kinds of rock music. As far as a "true and fair analysis"...the only thing I would recommend is listening to a song or album more than once before dismissing it. Music is like art, so there is no way to really measure it other than by what you like or dislike.

Your musical taste should change as you grow older, but it's nice to see another youngster digging into the old music.

 

[2LITTLETIME]

Start with the best first

 

[Aero]

You're 21 so it makes sense that you'd prefer the faster tempo stuff. As you get older, that will change.

I'm curious, can you not appreciate any of the slower tempo songs, even by Zeppelin. What do you think of something like, 'Going To California'?

 

[Urmi]

It's always good to watch the documentaries about bands and genres to see how things started and developed over the years. Not only you may find more bands, but also gives you an idea why things happened that way.

Great Idea! In fact I was just thinking the same thing....only trouble is that I live in hostel and there are very few channels on the TV here, so I think I need to hunt for documentaries on youtube....lemme know if you know any other online sources!

 

[Urmi]

Find a good local "Classic Rock" station and just listen.

I've got a whole collection of classic rock songs from a friend! I hope to learn more by listening and then finding out more about the lyrics of songs I like and then about the bands that created them....lol I've kinda developed a study plan for this

 

[electric funeral]

Just browse through the 60's and 70's section of this forum. Use the official list thread to find many many great bands.

 

[Urmi]

You're 21 so it makes sense that you'd prefer the faster tempo stuff. As you get older, that will change.

I'm curious, can you not appreciate any of the slower tempo songs, even by Zeppelin. What do you think of something like, 'Going To California'?

Thanks for your reply! I've heard 'Going To California' and I feel its a very touching song and I do appreciate it.

You see, I've come to believe that respect/ admiration for a rock band comes two-fold:
1. admiration of what comes straight at you (the music, their stage performance and their overall appearance e.g I love the way young Robert Plant looked with his flaming red hair)

2. Appreciation of the thoughts that went into the lyrics and the profoundness of the meaning.

So given that I'm almost always engaged in some kind of college work, I find myself flitting through the playlist on my ipod and stop whenever I find something pleasing to the ear, irrespective of the depth of meaning.

On the other hand, during the holidays, I usually find time to look through the lyrics and some of the background of the song and only then do I get to completely appreciate the song in its entirety.

This is what happened with 'Stairway to Heaven'. In the beginning, the music is slow, so I never really realized how great the song is until just a few days ago when I heard the whole thing through, learnt its meaning and the stuff about the 'back-masking' added to the appeal of the song. Now I can't stay without listening to it at least five times a day

Its due to this that I find it very difficult to appreciate why The Beatles became so revolutionary. In order to realize that, I'd have to go through the lyrics carefully......Though I do like some of the songs like 'Eleanor Rigby.'

I also find 'Pink Floyd' a bit ***** and I think I'll probably enjoy it when I'm older. I also heard of 'The Grateful Dead' and they sound like a group of ghosts singing.

One more thing I find is that the sound of any classic rock band is totally unique to themselves and no modern day band can reproduce their songs even if they tried. I find this remarkable!

At the same time, I feel that people in the 60s and 70s had a lot less formal training (especially the vocalists) than they do today. I mean though I love Brian Johnson in AC/DC and I prefer him to Bon Scott, I really don't think he'd had a lot of formal training with that characteristic squeaky voice of his.

My intention of writing all this was to explain my analysis...please forgive me if I've offended anyone....I probably need some help with this!

 

[Big Ears]

You've confused me with your comparison, as I would say The Who are fast paced and Led Zeppelin are folk inspired, but the questions of 'how to analyse' and 'what to listen out for' are good ones. I do not know the answer, although some people just seem to have a good ear for a song and you can pick up on their suggestions.

In my case, I listened to the radio, read the music papers, shared my friends' music collection, browsed record shops, watched bands on TV, went to see bands live and so on. Not all of these are as easy today, but you do have the internet. It will sound mad, but I used to buy albums on the strength of photos, album cover designs or band names and it rarely let me down!

Nowadays, I trawl the forums, watch youtube, read Classic Rock & Fireworks magazines, listen to the radio and watch documentaries on TV (which are on YouTube). In the end, people can suggest things, but you intuitively know what you like.

If you like Led Zeppelin, I would say go for the copyists like Montrose, Beckett, Budgie, Black Sabbath, Kingdom Come, Black Country Communion, Lucifer's Friend, Deep Purple and others. There are also their blues-rock contemporaries like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck Group, Free, Cream and Mountain. I would also say give The Who another chance!