In Which Doctor Casino Listens to Classic Rock Classics for the First Time

doctor casino is a classic rock fan who has never heard (or at least is not aware of having heard) any of the following songs:

AC/DC – Have A Drink On Me
AC/DC – It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)
AC/DC – Rock ‘n’ Roll AIn’t Noise Pollution
AC/DC – Shoot To Thrill
Aerosmith – Train Kept A-Rollin’
Alice Cooper – No More Mr. Nice Guy
Autograph – Turn Up The Radio
Bad Company – Burnin’ Sky
Bad Company – Ready For Love
Billy Squier – Everybody Wants You
Billy Squier – My Kinda Lover
Bob Seger – Against The Wind
Bob Seger – Fire Down Below
Bob Seger – Her Strut
Bob Seger – Hollywood Nights
Bob Seger – Rock & Roll Never Forgets
Boston – Feelin’ Satisfied
Bruce Springsteen – Badlands
Bruce Springsteen – The River
Bruce Springsteen – Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Bruce Springsteen – Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Bryan Adams – Cuts Like A Knife
Bryan Adams – Run To You
The Cars – Bye Bye Love
The Doors – Peace Frog
The Doors – Roadhouse Blues
The Doors – Touch Me
The Eagles – Heartache Tonight
Eddie Money – Shakin’
Electric Light Orchestra – Fire On High
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression, Part II)
Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight
Focus – Hocus Pocus
Foreigner – Blue Morning, Blue Day
Foreigner – Long, Long Way From Home
Foreigner - Urgent
George Thorogood – I Drink Alone
George Thorogood – Move It On Over
George Thorogood – One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
George Thorogood – Who Do You Love
Grateful Dead – Casey Jones
Jackson Browne – The Load-Out / Stay (Live)
Jackson Browne – The Pretender
Jackson Browne – Stay
Jefferson Starship – Jane
Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath
Joe Walsh – All Night Long
Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way
Journey – Lights
Journey – Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
Journey – Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Journey – Stone In Love
Judas Priest – You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
Kiss – Shout It Out Loud
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Call Me The Breeze
Marshall Tucker Band – Can’t You See
Molly Hatchet – Flirtin’ with Disaster
Nazareth – Love Hurts
Neil Young – Southern Man
Outfield – Your Love
Ozzy Osbourne – Over The Mountain
Pete Townshend – Let My Love Open The Door
The Pretenders – Don’t Get Me Wrong
The Pretenders – Middle Of The Road
Ratt – Round And Round
REO Speedwagon – Time For Me To Fly
Rush – Closer To The Heart
Rush – Fly By Night
Rush - Freewill
Rush – Limelight
Rush – Spirit Of Radio
Rush - Subdivisions
The Scorpions – No One Like You
Steely Dan – Deacon Blues
Stevie Nicks – Stand Back
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Crossfire
Stevie Ray Vaughan – Pride And Joy
Styx – Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)
Styx – Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
Styx – Renegade
Styx – Too Much Time On My Hands
Talking Heads – Life During Wartime
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Here Comes My Girl
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – You Got Lucky
Van Halen – I’ll Wait
Van Halen – (Oh) Pretty Woman
Van Halen - Unchained
The Who – Eminence Front
The Who – Love Reign O’er Me
Yes - Roundabout
ZZ Top – Give Me All Your Lovin’
ZZ Top – Got Me Under Pressure
ZZ Top – I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
ZZ Top – I Thank You

even accounting for regional and generational differences, i have no idea how this is possible, but i am fascinated by the idea that it IS possible. i'm also fascinated by the science experiment this makes possible: what exactly is it like to hear each of these songs for the first time? in lieu of a proper laboratory setting with wires and machines and doctors in lab coats, i am offering this thread, in which we will force the good doctor to listen to one song per day, in random order, and record his responses.

i'll start with what i thought, until just now, was one of the most classicrock of these classicrock songs:

the doors - roadhouse blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pEMd1SdkAE

Most of these are terrible tbh apart from ZZ Top.

And Lovin Touchin Squeezin

And the Townshend and Who tunes. And "Southern Man."

i have no idea how this is possible

^^^

and Hocus Pocus by Focus.

I had a serious Peace Frog fixation in junior high.

this list is 80% gold

Marshall Tucker Band – Can’t You See

I thought this was by Grand Funk until today.

Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding. Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile egg-shell mind!

to be fair those Bob Seger songs are pretty obscure

Not on my classic rock station!

Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding. Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile egg-shell mind!

would've been a good thread title.

(except doctor casino wouldn't have recognized it and wouldn't have known he should open the door and come in.)

yeah, those seger songs were, and still are, huge where i come from. especially the 1st, 4th and 5th songs.

"Against the Wind" def not obscure. I'll admit to not knowing the other Seger songs.

Come on guys. I mean, "Against the Wind"? "Rock'n'Roll Never Forgets"? Probably some deep cuts or b-sides.

Hipster stuff

those seger songs are hella not obscure. "hollywood nights" rules. but then most of thise list rules and shakey has gone off the deep end.

"Stone in Love" - Classic or Greatest 4:25 In The History Of The Bay Area?

Lol, Pres. Keyes.

People forgetting "Rock & Roll Never Forgets".

Dark days.

come back, baby

http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mBj0NzvEUT0-ykJrTzx_now.jpg

haha.

paging doctor casino: keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel, please. we're gonna have a real good time.

Fire Down Below, Hollywood Nights and Rock & Roll Never Forgets all awesome

I love Hocus Pocus, but I don't think I've heard it on Classic Rock radio. That one I discovered through other means like Eminem mashups.

Doctor Casino, one of the Thorogood soba is a Bo Diddly cover and another one is a John Lee Hooker cover, if that helps at all

Songs, not soba.

and one is a hank williams cover.

People forgetting "Rock & Roll Never Forgets".

Dark days.

― Brio2, Thursday, June 19, 2014 3:23 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, I just checked my local classic rock station's recently played tracks, and this was on an hour ago.

it's possible Doctor Casino has just been subject to a string of really weird luck

hard to believe these would be unfamiliar to anyone who's been listening to CR radio for more than a minute. note: my minutes may be longer than most:

Bob Seger – Against The Wind
Bob Seger – Rock & Roll Never Forgets
Bryan Adams – Cuts Like A Knife
The Doors – Roadhouse Blues
The Eagles – Heartache Tonight
Foreigner - Urgent
Jackson Browne – The Load-Out / Stay (Live)
Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath
Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way
Journey – Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Call Me The Breeze
Molly Hatchet – Flirtin’ with Disaster
Nazareth – Love Hurts
Neil Young – Southern Man
Outfield – Your Love
Pete Townshend – Let My Love Open The Door
Rush – Fly By Night
The Scorpions – No One Like You
Styx – Renegade
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Here Comes My Girl
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – You Got Lucky
Van Halen – (Oh) Pretty Woman
Yes - Roundabout
ZZ Top – I Thank You

I'm really wondering what IS on DC's classic rock station if these aren't?

DC being Doctor Casino, but maybe Washington DC has some weird regional variant of AOR too...

aaahahahah YOU GUYS

okay so just for those not in the first thread, to establish that i am not just a complete amateur phony - (1) i will freely concede that i bet a bunch of these turn out to be things i TOTALLY KNOW (2) my excuse for the rest remains "regional differences" - Atlanta classic rock radio 1990-1999 is probably really different from Akron AOR/classic rock radio 1980-1990!

the doctor is in!

ROADHOUSE BLUES: Was digging the opening, kinda sinister bump-ba-bump - someone should loop that for hours for some kinda dance classic. Kinda loses me as soon as the harmonica and piano and stuff comes in, oh lord, this is going to be the Doors trying to be really BLUESY isn't it? And it is. I'm sure I've heard the "hands upon the whee-ul" thing before - maybe in Dylan that I can't place while this is playing. I'm sure that'd be Dylan mining some of the same source material, mind.

This is probably my least favorite kind of classic rock, but this would be interesting from a historical/forensic standpoint if this recording is really ground zero for this kind of thing - I mean obviously the Animals and so on, but this seems like more the specific template for a filled-out American bar band chugging along at a country bar and insisting repeatedly that they're out on the road, doing stuff on the road, being at a road house, roading. Bad Company. This is getting better as it goes and they try to do the "laid back" thing. I can't believe it, but Jim Morrison scatting is a little better than Jim Morrison roaring and groaning. OH GOD now he's being loud again. SAVE OUR CITY... from this terrible song!

Is this the like standard version? The ending seems really flubbed, like too quiet on the final note, should be more Bra-DANNNnNGGGGGnnnnnnn--GUH!

Wikipedia confirms that a cover of this was used in the film Road House. I have seen that movie and liked it, would watch again, which is not how I feel about "Roadhouse Blues."

- Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight

Dude.

- Grateful Dead – Casey Jones

Dude!

- The Doors – Touch Me

DUDE!

My exact thought process, but you've gotta hear those and report back!

On the other thread, I confirmed that on further investigation, I do know (and dislike) "Wonderful Tonight." I also realized I left "Run To You" in which is just an outright mistake. I suspect other errors may crop up, if this project lasts.

just FYI Atlanta classic rock radio was definitely playing Marshall Tucker Band in the 90s

I also realized I left "Run To You" in which is just an outright mistake.

Ha, that was the one that surprised me most but I was willing to consider that there was a regional difference.

If every review is as good as the one you just did for Roadhouse Blues, this is going to be one of my favorite threads ever.

I'm curious, which station in Atlanta 1990-1999? Because the monolithic rock giant in Minnesota, KQRS, sounds much the same to me now as it did in the 80s. I mean, that Marshall Tucker track hasn't gone away in 40 years.

this is going to be the Doors trying to be really BLUESY

i'm pretty sure this is the first song i ever heard where i was aware that it was in fact a blues. i hated it, as i would come to hate all blues at that point in my young life. i have since come to understand and love the blues, but not this rendering of it. i'll generally turn the dial if this comes on, unless i'm in a very particular mood, in which case the hands upon the wheeee-ul part reminds me of high school and my wannabe dazed & confused years and then, for those exact four minutes, i will be quite happy. but that doesn't happen a lot.

Is this the like standard version? The ending seems really flubbed, like too quiet on the final note, should be more Bra-DANNNnNGGGGGnnnnnnn--GUH!

this is the standard studio version. and i agree w/you.

thank you for playing!!! this project will last as long as you keep playing.

Z93 is my reference point here - distinct from Fox 97 (friendly oldies 60-70, lot of Beatles, Motown, Four Seasons etc.) and Oldies Lake 102 (a doomed, tiny station that played absolutely wonderful 50s nuggets). The "Z" is the giveaway that it would be a tough, hard-drivin' station.

FWIW, my list is the off-the-top-of-my-head exceptions to a much larger list posted by some dude in the poll thread - I know Marshall Tucker Band! Just not that song! I think!

DC classic rock stations play "Guilty of Being White" once an hour

haha i will keep playing as long as i actually have time to goof off on ILX as much as I prefer to

lol xp

yay! xp

Is it not generally understood, by the way, that a lot of DLR's screams were electronically assisted? The a cappella Running With the Devil vocal track shows this pretty clearly. That's a Harmonizer, that is.

The way they're overdubbing it almost sounds like they're really trying to sound Orbison for the one line "Pretty woman," but it's a funny fit for the rest of their sound and I really prefer it when it's Roth by himself.

agreed. and i usually love VH's gang vocals. but i do think the harmonies work really well here on the "pretty woman stop awhile" bridge.

perfectly ok single, never did a whole lot for me, kinda think it might've been better totally camped up as a DLR solo track.

Also, the video makes exactly 0 sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWQRDI7mTyw

try to imagine axl rose singing this one.

SONG #46: AC/DC "SHOOT TO THRILL"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gDch1p4c_M

Wowwwwwwww at that Pretty Woman video. Oscillates between offensively awful and more wtf, like how sometimes video-booth karaoke will throw up this random weird B-reel footage from god knows what direct-to-video shoot. What does any of that have to do with anything? So strange.

(AC/DC response to come tomorrow!)

That's sure some 1981 thinking of "Sure seems a bit rapey... I know! Let's make her a guy in drag. That'll make it more funny than rapey."

you say 1981 thinking, I say cocaine, let's call the whole thing awful.

I just heard "Shoot to Thrill" on the car radio and made the connection. Shit.

Well, so, "Shoot to Thrill," ladies and gentlemen... it's an AC/DC song. During the intro - not the opening growls of guitar but once the groove gets going - I almost thought it was "It's A Long Way To The Top," but this song is less interesting and reminds me of why I don't like a lot of their most-played songs: just a lot of repeating the big slogan-like chorus that basically just declares that the lead singer guy (either one) is a really wild dangerous tough guy or whatever. He shoots to thrill, he's got big balls, he's TNT, he's back in black, he's on the highway to hell... like ugggggggh sing about something else for fuck's sake! I'm over it.

Nonetheless the band still rocks really great - very punchy production without losing a sense of grit and oomph, or sucking the life out of that rhythm section; again the drummer is essential here, with like the little swing thrown into the "gonna take you down" part. I also like the sorta spacier breakdown, which anticipates "For Those About To Rock" (which I've always liked, partly for not sounding so much like their usual fare) while getting quickly back to the driving beat. The "shoot yeah! shoot yeah! Aaa! Aaa!" part is reasonably cool and I like what the lead guitar is doing after that - this is a hot, live band, and if you go see them you'll get rocked. Would make a very good opening track for the set, but boy would it be a better song without that boring chorus.

In the end, thumbs up I guess, it does rock and sounded good in the car (better than it does in my hotel room tbqh), but I wonder, if they hadn't released it, would anyone notice? Or if they released it instead of one of those other big ones, would it be accepted as a stone-cold classic in its place? If they'd been a one-hit wonder with, say, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," (my favorite of theirs) would that have basically been all the world needs of AC/DC?

But then we wouldn't have "Jailbreak".

Boring chorus??

BORING

CHORUS

Doc

buddy

we need to talk

sure, the great wall of china would have been fine at a few feet long, people would have got the general idea. it's a wall, call it a day. but what makes it GREAT is that it kept fucking GOING

right but for your average invader, one perpendicular encounter with a small slice of wall tells you all you need to know. anyone really want to walk the length of the thing?

it's also like, y'know, you can be a sexy confident awesome rock star frontman and not have to just sing about that all the time. mick jagger sang about all kinds of shit! i don't think the stones would be more great-wall-like if "satisfaction" had been him shrieking "I'M SO SATISFYIN', THERE'S NO DENYIN', I GET SATISFIED, IT AIN'T NO LIE!" for five minutes. or like, "I'M A STREET FIGHTIN' MAN! YOU UNDERSTAND! SING FOR A ROCK AND ROLL BAND! GOT AN ACE IN MY HAND!" or whatever.

ac/dc - who at times do bring more rockin' thunder to the table than the stones ever muster - at other times just feel so redudnant. even their name is sort of repetitious. probably if they'd only put out a couple albums and it was clearer to me, hey, there are these two perfect slabs of this one sound and this one type of song, they're wall to wall classics, go buy them, but somehow their catalog seems to drown out what's good about them through sheer quantity of it.

I think Bon Scott's lyrics had more variety to them: busting out of jail, being a hitman for hire, loving an overweight woman, ...

... having big balls

Yeah, the lyrics definitely went downhill after Scott died, and that's mostly due to the Young brothers taking over a lot of the writing - Brian Johnson was literally just the voice for decades, hardly contributing anything. I also blame Mutt Lange for the change in the band; starting on Highway to Hell, their songs got a lot slower: less boogie, more stomp.

exactly how i pictured dr. c throughout this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGTaA6d3BXQ

I can't even begin watching that video because

Who the hell wears a Braves hat with a Yankees poster on the wall?

he's just a classic Yankees-Braves-Steelers-Tar Heels fan

No way a Braves/Tar Heels fan is hearing Skynyrd for the first time.

I ff'd to 7:52 where it kicks into gear and wasn't disappointed.

Though I never thought I'd hear the words "N_____! Skynyrd!" until now.

Ok that vid is p lolz

“this a casual break up right here”

lol

'reacts' videos are very charming and fun, got a major soft spot for those

Yeah, I like watching dudes listen to Rush for the first time in particular.

i cherish this thread btw

'reacts' videos are very charming and fun, got a major soft spot for those

this was a "reacts" thread! not having dr. c do all his posts via video was possibly a mistake.

I love react videos because I wish I could be that enthusiastic about anything. Man, the part where the guitarists start soloing (or overdubbing, I have no idea) in unison ...

aw. miss this thread.

Xp to josh, it’s def overdubs, Allen Collins plays all the guitars during the solo

heck of a solo

this is a much shorter thread than In Which Doctor Casino Sees Old Hollywood Classics that Fall Short of 21st Century Political Acceptability for the First Time would be.

har hardy har

*crosses self*

morbius with the sweet lovin' better than a white line

revisiting Fire Down Below: i know it's like a standard blues chord progression or whatever, but today this is reminding me SO much of Dylan's "On the Road Again." knowing the Dylan affectations sprinkled in the Never Mind the Bullets material, i wonder if there's actually a direct connection. anyway it's really pointing up my recurring disappointment with Seger, where his great band and convincing performances are always let down by pretty lame first-draft lyrics.

I always get that one mixed up with The Fire Inside, which I think has more interesting lyrics.

pretty lame first-draft lyrics.

the hell you say >:(

i mean it's not Foreigner-level, but it just never adds up to much of anything... most of the lines just name people and places and the others are like "One thing for certain it ain't never gonna stop," "And it went on yesterday and it's going on tonight" etc. he may be one of Chuck's children but it's for the licks and not the lyrics. his voice takes it a long way.

Okay, before this explodes into a rockin' barroom brawl: Fire Down Below!

Yeah, this is all right. Maybe I'm predisposed to like it based on this other quality Seger, but it's sounding really good on headphones, nice solid recording of some nice solid playing. Not so into this 'list of people' kinda songwriting, adds up to a kind of bland scenario: they're different people, but they're alike! Seems like you could get to the same point with a little more interrelationships in the story, the banker could be casting shade at the poor man before he's taken over by the fire down below. What's this about again? Strippers? Or they're not all at the same place, I guess, some are in Berkeley and some are in Queens? Somewhere there's somebody ain't treatin' somebody right... wait, what's going on? I thought the fire was going to be about sex but is it actually wrath? What these guys have in common is not treating somebody right?

Wow, that was baffling. The one! two! three! into the solo has renewed my interest though. Another kinda sudden ending - my one lasting beef with Rock & Roll Never Forgets (now that I've listened to it like seven times in the last twelve hours) is how it just wanders away from the last chorus and ends without fanfare - surely if rock and roll never forgets, it'd show the 31-year-old sweet sixteen a better time than that. In this one it just seems like they ran out of energy, time or ideas - gimme a little more solo, a little more 'fire' at least.

Second listen, hoping I can follow the story a little better. The rock-n-rolling is probably strong enough to carry it just as an instrumental, with Seger's rasping as just another instrument, so in any case this isn't killing my interest in picking up the album. So, okay, there are street lights, here come these girls... what is this all about? Are they going to see a band? Why would all these lawyers and bankers be there? I feel like I'm lost in a pronoun here, the "it" that's never gonna stop. I do like that it happens in Moline, and I guess at this point I'm pretty sure this is about prostitution, an "oldest profession" kinda things... which makes the implications of bad treatment kinda grosser. At best I'd guess it's that the johns' wives aren't "treating them right" sexually but that's not very appealing as a narrative. Yeah, blame Mrs. Lockhorn... yeesh.

Thumbs up for the band, thumbs down for the lame lyric. "Fire down below" is too strong a phrase to get wasted on a lame cliche. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it really would have done well as another paean to the eternal appeal of rock: get all these horny men and women to the Bob Seger concert and let the music stoke the fires. Last verse could wrap up how the night ends up: Steve and Sally on the pinball table / Jack and Jill are in the john, etc. With a little rewrite here and there it could also have made a good Tums commercial.

I'm not sure I know this song, but from a reading of the lyrics it seems pretty clear this is about guys picking up prostitutes (and perhaps murdering them?)

a murder mystery would work well with "even the butler, he's got something to prove"

although "Honey, how come you don't MOVE?" takes on a rather grim cast

i gotta say this channel is pretty much classic rock heaven:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MainSqueezeMusic/videos

Looking back, I feel like this thread was a real turning point in my listening habits, and embracing the fact that a lot of what I most like to listen to is well-produced mainstream pop-rock from the 60s-80s. At home, it's the mellower and/or art-pop end of things, where I can just bask in the details of the recordings and the melodies. On the road, or maybe doing chores, I'm looking for the big riffs and fist-pumping hooks. I always liked all this stuff, but it's funny to think back to when a thread like this made sense for me! Thanks again, fact checking cuz, and everyone else for playing along.

Oh, and the Deacon Blues session was definitely a huge step towards me becoming a Dan fan, when previously I only really knew a few singles and the Yacht Rock show material.

thank YOU for playing along, doctor c! you taught me, and i assume plenty of others, quite a bit about songs we thought we knew. i loved this journey (your aversion to journey with a capital J notwithstanding!).

:D :D :D

"Roundabout" was another big watershed track... I bought a bunch of Yes albums in the months after that, and it helped open me up to a lot of other proggy records, like Meddle. I was also starting to explore jazz for the first time in the same years and in general my ears these days are much more interested than they used to be in specifically drinking in what the instruments are doing and how they're playing off each other as a "live" unit, even when they may not have actually been recorded that way.

Not pegging all of that to this thread... but still, something significant did happen here, amidst all my wordy and naive efforts to get ahold of these songs!

man I am so bummed that all of Sandy's amazing pix are lost to time, can anyone repost them by chance?