We received two rather critical comment on our post today WTIT's Top 15 Male Rockers which we wrote and posted just about a year ago. Here is the list as a frame of reference:
1. Jim Morrison
2. Mick Jagger
3. Rod Stewart
4. Steven Tyler
5. Joe Cocker
6. Jon Bon Jovi
7. Burton Cummings
8. Robert Plant
9. James Blunt
10. Elvis Presley
11. David Lee Roth
12. Darius Rucker
13. Meat Loaf
14. David Clayton Thomas
15. John Kaye
Considering the amount of shit we say in general, we found it amazing that such harsh criticism of a fucking list of rock singers. The first one received was from someone with much courage, being anonymous. He states (comments in bold.):
Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, JAMES BLUNT over Freddie Mercury???
This is murder, absolute murder.
No Freddie Mercury in the top 15 and you call yourself an expert??
Ba Ha haaaa! What a joke! This list is the biggest joke I have seen in my lifetime. Maybe you never heard of Queen, Mr. Rock n Roll expert.
We responded by acknowledging that putting James Blunt on that list was just stupid. Almost as bad as not putting Freddie Mercury on it. At the time we were enthralled by Blunt’s unique vocals. And while we still are a fan, we now consider him rather a “lightweight” and a guilty pleasure. We never have claimed to be an expert on anything, but our credentials are fucking solid enough to at least to share our opinion. So, we have to conclude that anonymous’ points, while rudely put, were close to dead on. Although picking Jon Bon Jovi and Rod Stewart over Freddie Mercury we would do again. But leaving Mercury off, we can’t justify and but the numbers anybody received from 1-15 was a crapshoot. You could turn that list upside down and have little to argue with.Which leads to the second comment, which came from at least someone with a name. When we read Anteraan’s list of missing singers, other than Freddie, we thought, “huh?” We had to look a couple of them up even to jog our memory as to what band they were in. Here’s the comment:
Steven Tyler and Rod Stewart over any of the following?
Brad Delp
Steve Perry
Freddy Mercury
Kevin Cronin
Lou Gramm
Chris Cornell
Unbelievable, simply unbelievable.
Brad Delp we did not have a clue as to which band for which he sang. He turned out (as I am sure many of you know) to be the lead singer of Boston. Boston? They made three identical albums in the 80’s. Or was it four? Hey, and we liked them. We have all their vinal. But Delp and Boston were at best a one trick pony. And we are UNBELIEVABLE?Steve Perry is a phenomenal singer for the legendary band Journey. While we could not remove either Rod Stewart or Steve Ty
ler for Perry, as the reader suggested for him, he is great. After Freddie, he sights Kevin Cronin. Now if you do know who he is, we would be surprised. He was the lead singer of REO Speedwagon. We shit you not. He didn’t sing, he whined. And sold a shit load of records, so what do we know? Well, we know he is not one of the top 50 rock male vocalists. Better than Rod Stewart? Steven Tyler? REO Speedwagon? How about The Archies? Who sang for them??Lou Graham is the fantastic lead singer of Foreigner. That’s another band that we have the complete vinyl collection of, and proud of it. Could he have been on the list? Sure. But like Perry, you can’t cut out one guy (Stewart) who has continually had great albums since the mid sixties with Jeff Beck. Or the lead singer of Aerosmith, who still sell music. Chris Cornell was the lead for Soundgarden and Audioslave and has a terrific voice. But we have to admit that we didn’t recognize the name at first. But that is a sign of age. We were looking at guys who had longer careers.
You know what we want to say to these two readers? THANK YOU!!!!! Thanks for loving music and being passionate enough to say something. And we like to be kept on our toes. The great thing about writing a blog is that a post doesn’t die. We have written maybe 300 posts since that day in June last year. We weren’t correct about our Top 15. But we were correct to publish it. And may we add one last and painfully overused cliché? Long live rock ‘n roll!! That will do it for a Thursday.
Keep those cards and letters
coming. Considering the traffic
our "Top 10" lists get. We are surprised
we don't get more complaints.
But, hey. We can take it.
Thanks for stopping by the WTIT Blog today.
Join us next time, Same time. Same blog.
1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles. It never got better than this.
2. "Abbey Road" by The Beatles. John Lennon wasn't thrilled that Paul turned the album into a concept album. He went along with it, and we should be glad he did.
3. "On the Threshold of A Dream" by the Moody Blues. A great album by the most "classical" oriented rock band. (Or if you think "Pink Floyd", I won't argue). Their best work.
4. "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen. The Boss has a ton of great ones, but this is the best. From the 80's, President Reagan thought it was "patriotic", he hadn't heard the words to the title cut. 
5. "C'mon, C'mon" by Sheryl Crow. This album sounded like an all time classic the very first time I heard it. Crow's best by far. 
6. "Cracked Rear View" by Hootie and the Blowfish. Sure, it got overplayed, but what an album. I really thought that they might be the band of the 90's until their second album, "Fairweather Johnson" came out. Boy, was that awful.
7. "What's the Story Morning Glory" by Oasis. You would think that I, as such a HUGE Beatles' fan might not care for a 90's-00's band that ripped them off. I always thought that was over stated. Sure, they were heavily influenced, but were not a real "sound alike" band. Great in their own right. 
8. "Congratulations, I'm Sorry" by The Gin Blossoms. My favorite alternative rock group of the 90's, their founding member/song writer died young (by suicide). All of their hit albums came after that but were together relatively a short time. In 2006 they reunited and produced "Major Lodge Victory." 
9. "Sticky Fingers" by the Rolling Stones. Their best album ever. Which is saying quite a bit, since they have had so many great ones. Remember the real zipper on the original LP? 
10. "Imagine" by John Lennon. 'Nuff said. 
11. "All Things Must Pass" by George Harrison. The biggest individual Beatle album after the breakup initially. Great double album. (I know it was a triple, but the "jam" third album sucked).
12. "Deja Vu" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young". Not a bad song here, by far the best album the four or three, have done. It won't be topped. 
13. "August and Everything After" by The Counting Crows. Led by Adam Duritz, the best songwritter over the last ten years. They have never had a bad album. Adam writes a blog by the way, on the Crows' website. 
14. "Tommy" by the Who. The first rock opera is still the best. Made into both a show and a movie, the story of Tommy is much better told by listening to the album as you read the words.
15. "Led Zeppelin IV" was not the actual name of Zep's fourth album, but since the name was symbols, that is what we called it. WTIT's number one song of the 70's, "Stairway to Heaven" is on this album.
16. "Everyone Knows This is Nowhere" by Neil Young. While "Harvest" was a much bigger seller I always thought Neil never has been better than this, his follow up to his first solo album, "The Loner." 
17. "A Boy Named Goo" by the Goo Goo Dolls. One of the best bands as modern rock became the rage in the 90's. The band does not release bad albums to this day. 
19. "Tea for the Tillerman" by Cat Stevens. All his 70's albums were great, but this was the best. It is good to see him back with a new album this year. While that album is no "Tea for the Tillerman" is has a great cover of "Don't Let Me be Misunderstood". 
21. "Sports" by Huey Lewis and the News. The best band of the eighties. You've probably seen the photo of Huey and I. I only met him once, but he is a terrific guy.
22. "Beck, Bogart & Appice" a self titled album. Critically well received and the best non-hit album I've ever heard. Jeff Beck from the Yardbirds and Jeff Beck Group, Tim Bogart from Cactus and Carmen Appice the drummer from Vanilla Fudge created this unbelieveable album. They broke up during the recording of their second album. 
23. "Innervisions" by Stevie Wonder. Any of Stevie's concept albums of the 70's could be on this list. When pressed, this is my favorite. What an amazingly talented guy. 
25. "Last Mango in Paris" by Jimmy Buffett. My closest friends were all "Parrot Heads" and I never got it. When I went through my first divorce I listened to this album, which is all about relationships. Jimmy is one of my favorite artists now, I have every album he ever recorded. But this will remain my favorite, though my Parrot Head friends insist "Off to See the Lizard" is better.
26. “Rumours” Fleetwood Mac. How I missed this on my first list, I don't know. You cannot hear these songs enough.
27. “Tapestry” Carole King. For a long time, the best selling album of all time. It has to be still in the Top 10.
29. “Damn the Torpedoes”. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. A perfect album. You cannot get sick of this music.
29. “Glass Houses” Billy Joel. Side One is Billy's best rock and roll. Period. 
33. “Goodbye” Cream. When they said "Goodbye" I thought they'd return. I didn't know we'd wait nearly forty years.
34. “Nimrod” Green Day. Best rock band today. And for the last ten years. 
35. “Nick of Time” Bonnie Raitt. I've loved her since her first album in 1972. "Green Lights" maybe my favorite, but "Nick of Time" launched her to super stardom. I kissed her once. Ask me nicely and I might share that story... 
36. “Toulouse Street” Doobie Brothers. Jesus wasn't the only thing "All Right" with this album. 
37. “Sitting In” Loggins and Messina. I was in a record store and this was playing. I thought "Wow. Who is this?" So I asked. I said I want it. He said, "Sorry, sold out." 
38. “Let It Bleed” Rolling Stones. Nothing needs to be said here. 
39. “Yes I Am” Melissa Ethridge. I never thought I'd like a female rocker as much as Pat Benatar. But I do.
40. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” Elton John. They called it his "White Album". It was Elton at his best. 
41. “X & Y” Coldplay. They don't do a bad song or album. This is their most recent. 
42. “Low Spark of High Healed Boys” Traffic. Steve Winwood and the boys at their best.
43. “A Place in the Sun” Lit. My son Ben said I'd love this group and album. He did not lie. 
44. “1984” Van Halen. Eddie can't seem to get along with anybody but I challenge you to name a better guitar player. As good, but not better.
45. “Can’t Buy a Thrill” Steely Dan. The record company took out a full page ad in Billboard before this album was released. It simply said: "Steely Dan. A band you will never forget." They weren't kidding.
46. “The Wall” Pink Floyd. Never a big fan of this band, but I couldn't overlook this album. 
47. “Working Man’s Dead” Grateful Dead. While the Dead were all about concerts, they put together solid albums as well. This was their best.
48. “Street Corner Symphony” Persuasions. In college, Stu (my roomate senior year, of "Sparky & Stu) and I had to listen to this album before we hit the road. It is still fabulous. 
49. “Bat Out of Hell” Meat Loaf. He hooked up with Jim Steinman, the writer of the songs he did with "The Rocky Horror Show". This bad boy rocks.
