Top Classic Rock Artists on Rhapsody Online

The Rolling Stones

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

Few partnerships in rock 'n' roll have been as productive as the collaboration between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and of course having wunderkind Brian Jones along did nothing to hinder the Rolling Stones' popularity. From the get-go, the band played the raunchy, gritty doppelganger to the Beatles' dandified Merseybeat pop. They ventured a heavier, bluesier sound than their British Invasion counterparts, taking their cues from Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. The band's greatest strength, besides Charlie Watts, has always been their ability to add stylistic touches drawn from their interests in Eastern music, psychedelia, country and even disco to a blues rock chassis. It's difficult to listen to the trippy Their Satanic Majesties Request, the down-and-out honky-tonk of Exile On Main Street and the clean modernist surfaces of Bridges To Babylon and believe they were recorded by the same band. Of course, in some ways they weren't; the lineup changes that have dogged the Stones account for much of their musical diversity. Jagger's famous slur and Richards' sloppy guitar elegance are the two constants in the band's many life cycles that make every Stones song instantly recognizable. - Chad Driscoll

Pink Floyd

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:01 -0800

Early Pink Floyd recordings make space travel superfluous so long as we have keyboards here on Earth. Back when enigmatic lyricist and acid-eater extraordinaire Syd Barrett skippered the ship, the Floyd sounded something like Monty Python with instruments -- quirky, trippy and weird. Barrett made Bedlam seem a reasonable price to pay for such gems as "Bike," "Lucifer Sam," and the Space Rock tour-de-force "Astronomy Domine." Upon Barrett's departure, the only marginally less maniacal Roger Waters took on singing and songwriting duties. The band dug even deeper into labyrinthine song structures, but nothing prior had prepared the world for 1973s Dark Side of the Moon. The concept album par excellence, Moon utilizes a narrative lyric structure and musical leitmotifs to give the album a sense of coherence. These compositional strategies culminated in '79s harrowing magnum opus, The Wall, an unflinching look at England's soul -- its educational system, its flirtations with fascism, the conservatism leading up to Thatcher. After Waters' defection, the remaining members came down with a crippling case of the blands but decided to stick it out, releasing a series of flashy (note '95's Pulse), nostalgic commodities that basically sounded like David Gilmour solo efforts (even if they continued to sell like genuine Pink Floyd productions). In July 2005, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright and Roger Waters reformed for the Live 8 charity concert. Sadly, in July 2006, Syd Barrett died at the age of 60, from complications of diabetes. - Chad Driscoll

Bob Dylan

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

Bob Dylan is on the short list of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He coupled a love for all forms of American popular and folk music with a personal and poetic songwriting style instead of relying on professional craftsmen or standard tunes. Influenced by Woody Guthrie, Dylan proved that you didn't have to be a technically perfect singer or musician to make brilliant pop music. The songs on 1963's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan catapulted the artist to stardom but he was already burning to get away from acoustic backing and match his unique vision to rock, country and blues. Dylan's music influenced a whole new generation of musicians -- such as the Beatles and Stevie Wonder -- to start crafting songs about what was important to them. While Dylan kick-started folk and country rock in his '60s studio work, the ragged home recordings he made with the Band showed that not even poorly placed microphones could stifle brilliance. Dylan still tours these days and records less often then he used to, but as albums such as 1997's Time Out of Mind and 2006's Modern Times prove, the man still has a lot to say and continues to do it in a way that no one else can. - Nick Dedina

Journey

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

For the generation that grew up during the Reagan Era, Journey will always be associated with the sweaty palms and stomach-churning anticipation of grade school dances. Orgasmically dramatic break-up songs employed pulsating synthesizers, massive guitars, and innumerable vocal tracks backing up Steve Perry's pleading falsetto. With this astonishingly successful formula, Journey defined the blow-dried power-ballad that ruled '80s FM radio. After a long hiatus, Journey reformed in 1996, releasing a single and going on a reunion tour. In the early 2000s, minus original singer Steve Perry, Neal Schon and company went back into the studio and began recording new material, which produced Arrival in 2001 and Generations in 2005. - Mike McGuirk

Queen

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

Heavy metal gods to some, studio-oriented power pop innovators to others, and purveyors of overblown sports arena anthems to still many more, Queen left a deep and varied legacy at the end of their nearly 20-year career. Despite a 2005 Broadway stage show that was written by guitarist Brian May, which featured the remaining members, the band never really recovered from the tragic loss of singer Freddie Mercury to AIDS in 1991. Combining a fondness for hard rock riffs with a knack for catchy melodies, Queen had forged a unique sound brought to life through elaborate (bordering on excessive) studio production. Of their many hits, 1975's "Bohemian Rhapsody" best exemplifies their range: revved-up guitars, near-prog rock complexity and operatic vocals courtesy of Freddie Mercury and a cast of thousands (all of whom also happened to be named Freddie Mercury). Moving from the glam-inspired sounds of their early days, the British quartet scored late 1970s/early '80s hits as they dabbled in rockabilly ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), disco ("Another One Bites the Dust") and New Wave-leaning dance (their 1981 David Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure"). Say what you will, there's much more to Queen than "We Will Rock You." - Will York

Bruce Springsteen

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:53 -0800

No rock performer has spoken with more authority on the human fallout of the American Dream than Bruce Springsteen. Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska are American Gothics haunted by star-crossed lovers and noble souls hag-ridden by fate into crime, depression, and worst of all, ordinariness. But lest we forget, the original denim rocker has also written some of the most uplifting songs in AOR: every line of "Born to Run" and "Glory Days" offers an ideal place to hang your troubles out to dry. Springsteen plays the perfect tailor for the damaged lives that populate his lyrics, recognizing the tiny flaws and the holes that gape in the human fabric, and doing his best to mend them -- sometimes with simple compassion, sometimes with joy. Just about everything the Boss has done has an air of permanence about it. You just know that when generations hence try to grasp what life meant to us, his music will offer an important clue. But despite his many accomplishments and incredible fame, something has kept the Boss down to earth. He generously handed out hit songs to Patti Smith and Robert Gordon in the 1970s, and even today continues to promote the careers of lesser luminaries such as duet partner Elliot Murphy. - Henry B.

Jimmy Buffett

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:55 -0800

Jimmy Buffett was a country rocker before 1977's aptly titled Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude cemented his image as a beachcombing sage. Although he hit his creative peak during this period, Key West, Fla.'s favorite son has continued to write amusing, often intelligent tunes. A wise businessman, he has become the hero of "parrot heads" -- blue and white-collar working stiffs who would love to lead the life about which he writes (music, novels, plays) and sings. Jimmy Buffett is indeed a genre of one. - Eric Shea

Van Morrison

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:15 -0800

Van Morrison stands out in the youth-obsessed, disposable world of modern pop music. A grouchy fireplug of a man, he has earned a loyal following that's always kept guessing as to what direction he'll take next. Since the beginning, Morrison has ignored all fly-by-night fads and in doing so has amassed a timeless body of work. Coming out of Them's primal R&B-fueled Garage Rock, Morrison's 1968 Astral Weeks was a daring, exploratory work that painted a bleak picture of the acid generation, while Moondance (1970) was a breezy celebration of life. These albums have set the stage for an artist who freely mixes soul, folk, blues, jazz, and his native Celtic influences into highly personal, idiosyncratic music. Only a handful of his later albums are masterpieces on the level of No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986), but each release contains at least one brilliant track. A private man, Van Morrison is more comfortable talking about heroes such as Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, or Jerry Lee Lewis than himself. - Nick Dedina

Neil Young

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

Throughout his extraordinary career, Neil Young's Americana-rooted songwriting has dipped into a staggering variety of styles and tones. With the live Time Fades Away, the spatial On The Beach and the liquid Tonight's The Night, Neil inadvertently presented his so-called doom trilogy -- three records that beautifully capture throwing in the towel. 1975's Zuma signaled a return from the darkness to the sunny, rural rock he first explored on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Comes A Time found him hip deep in a fermentation of 1970s canyon and country rock, while Rust Never Sleeps unfolded his career multi-dimensionally as he unleashed his acoustic/electric duality to a receptive commercial and critical audience. With Freedom and Ragged Glory, Young made a valiant return to form in the late '80s and early '90s before recapturing acoustic peace with Harvest Moon, his 1992 release that many view as the sequel to his heroically pastoral 1972 album Harvest. The Canadian transplant's high, watery tenor emotes with an elasticity that can effortlessly traverse into falsetto with natural warmth and heavenly tremolo. You'll find the real Young singing the hazy guitar epics "Like A Hurricane" and "Cortez the Killer," or when songs such as the gentle "Birds" and "Motion Pictures" seem to weep from your speakers. True to form, Neil Young is one of the only songwriters in the world who can approximate the sound of a heart breaking with his voice. - Eric Shea

Fleetwood Mac

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

A band with a long and convoluted history, Fleetwood Mac was originally conceived as a heavy blues outfit in the tradition of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. It wasn't until Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie enlisted the services of soft-rock duo Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham that the band took on its definitive form. In Buckingham the band acquired a prodigious guitar talent and a gifted lyricist whose occasionally daffy sensibilities nicely complemented the tender intimacies of Nicks and McVie. Though incestuous liaisons within the group threatened to tear it apart, these also sparked some of the band's greatest material. Witness Rumours, to this day one of the top ten best selling albums of all time. From the giddy, self-deprecating "Second Hand News" to the achingly beautiful "Gold Dust Woman," the album is painfully intimate -- and that's precisely what gives it power. Though a pair of mediocre releases in the '90s threatened to end the band's career with a whimper, The Dance (1997) restored Buckingham and Nicks to the fold and dusted the cobwebs off Fleetwood Mac's rich legacy. - Chad Driscoll

Tom Petty

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:54 -0800

"The weak ones fall, the strong carry on." When Tom Petty offers those words on "Straight into Darkness," he may as well be singing about his career, which has produced a steady output of punchy power pop that's made him an impervious fixture in American music. Petty first made the scene in the '70s with his Heartbreakers, offering tales of blue-collar outsider love that employed the Byrds' sunny 12-sting sonance to achieve an indubitably apple pie aftertaste; it all began, appropriately, with the Top 40 triumph of "American Girl." Petty's third record, Damn the Torpedoes, cemented his staying power, and by capitalizing on the MTV revolution with brilliant videos, it made his dour smirk iconic. More than any other quality, though, it's Petty's reliability that has made him so enduring; there's hardly a misfire among his three decades of quality album-oriented songwriting. As if these records don't speak for themselves, Petty's membership in rock 'n' roll's paramount old boys club, the Traveling Wilburys (alongside Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynn, George Harrison and Roy Orbison), demonstrated his towering status as a long-lasting hero of American rock's middle generation. - Nate Cavalieri

The Grateful Dead

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

Born out of the burgeoning West Coast hippie scene in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district during the late '60s, and inextricably linked to psychedelic experimentation, the Grateful Dead blended psychedelic folk music and a transformative live experience that grew into the largest, most devoted and longest lived cult following in the history of popular music. Deadhead culture rapidly became more ubiquitous than the music -- the Dead's friendly jams, laid-back tunes and open attitude towards bootlegging inspired a tightly knit community that followed the band around the country and traded tapes of concerts years after they'd been recorded. The Dead's concert performances live forever in the often-altered minds of those who attended show after show, and in thousands of hours of recorded material. The majority of these Dead bootlegs were recorded really well and sound like someone took the time to master and equalize them. Hardcore Deadhead classics like "Jack Straw" re-emphasize why the band's live shows were a musical phenomenon. Those who identified best with the Workingman's Dead and American Beauty LPs will be pleased to know that there is an overwhelming amount of well-recorded and downloadable live jams from that era when Jerry was younger, the songs were fresh, and the guitars sounded especially warm.

Paul McCartney

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:45:41 -0800

Paul McCartney will forever live in the shadow of the Beatles -- every rock band lives in their shadow -- yet he has still managed to amass a solid body of work over the years. His 1970 self-titled debut has all the scrappy charm he originally envisioned for Let It Be; its follow-up, Ram, matches its pastoral feel with orchestral grandeur, and the frothy masterpiece Band on the Run is the mirror image of Lennon's confessional masterpiece Plastic Ono Band, both of which are definitive '70s albums. McCartney's solo work displays strong melodies and craftsmanship, but most of his lyrics can't match the sharp point of view he had on "Eleanor Rigby" or "Lady Madonna." That said, songs such as "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Dear Friend," and "Too Many People" are strikingly autobiographical, showing the confusion, anger and isolation he felt after the breakup of the Beatles. Other cuts, such as the bizarro No. 1 hit "Uncle Albert/Admiral Hasley" and the ace James Bond theme "Live and Let Die," display his decidedly experimental interest in playing around with song form and studio sound. What's amazing is that he has often found as much popular success with his practically avant-garde pop as he has with a ballad like "My Love" or a disco-rock hybrid like "Silly Love Songs." By the mid-'70s, McCartney's band Wings was a touring powerhouse, delivering the kind of satisfying stadium rock shows that people craved. Unfortunately, all of his energy went into touring, and after the undervalued Wild Life and Band On the Run, the songs on Wings releases were generally generic '70s rock.

After a 1980 arrest in Japan on a drug charge, McCartney broke up Wings and released McCartney II, another self-recorded outing, though this time he cut a largely synth-driven LP that showed his interested in both Kraftwerk and roots rock, and contained the great comeback single "Coming Up." During the '80s, Macca's music started to sound saccharine and bloated, and he took on the ever-cheery, ultimately guarded public persona he's displayed ever since. In 1989, he bounced back with Flowers in the Dirt, a strong, if over-praised, collaboration with Elvis Costello, before re-exploring stripped-down rock and a respectable -- but ultimately pointless -- classical excursion. In 1999, McCartney recorded Run Devil Run, a joyous celebration of the early American rock 'n' roll that inspired him to pick up a guitar in the first place. The release of the Beatles Anthology TV series and book shed light on how much McCartney contributed to the sound and production of key Lennon tunes, while the Wingspan CD retrospective reminded people how many great solo tunes he crafted over the decades. The companion DVD documentary shows how hard the initial breakup of the Beatles was for Macca -- financially and, especially, psychologically. 2001 saw him surrounding himself with young rock musicians to positive effect, while 2005's Chaos and Creation featured his strongest set of new tunes in years. Like Brian Wilson, who created brilliant "vapid surf music" with the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney has a pure pop genius -- he just makes complexity look so simple. - Nick Dedina

Bon Jovi

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:56:21 -0800

Eternally topping the A-list of Jersey-bred pop-metal lady-killers, Bon Jovi dominated American life in the mid-'80s. Their third album, 1986's Slippery When Wet (original, tragically banned cover art = awesome), made them megastars, but they had already won over more than 50,000 pop Hessians with 1984's "Runaway," a melodramatic story-song made unforgettable by a killer chorus and Jon Bon Jovi's absolutely perfect hair in the video. A string of hits between 1986 and 1988 -- "You Give Love a Bad Name," "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Wanted Dead or Alive," followed up by "Bad Medicine" and "Lay Your Hands on Me," from New Jersey -- defined the power ballad and resulted in a virtual Bon Jovi sleeper hold on the mainstream psyche. While the grunge explosion rendered them instantly obsolete, Bon Jovi continued to put out records amid side projects for both Jon and guitarist Richie Sambora. In 2000 they returned with Crush, an updated look (no hairspray) and a single that stands today as one of the best on their roster, the soaring "It's My Life." A creative resurgence has since resulted in steady releases, the most recent of which, Lost Highway, appeared in 2007. - Mike McGuirk

Eric Clapton

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:55 -0800

The weight of becoming a guitar god in the '60s never seemed to slow Clapton's creativity, though he has had some close calls while overcoming addiction and other tragedies. Originally lauded for his lightning-fast guitar licks, it's arguably Clapton's soulful blues playing that merits the "Clapton is God" refrain. After performing in a slew of influential and certifiably Classic Rock bands in the '60s -- and chumming around with guitar greats like Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and John McLaughlin -- Clapton launched a successful, provocative solo career, quickly finding his own voice as a singer and ballad writer. Borrowing heavily from Freddie King, Clapton's playing continues to find new styles worthy of a blues injection: he's recorded R&B crossover hits, unplugged singer-songwriter fare, and even incognito trip-hop projects (as x-sample). - Jessy Terry

Van Halen

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

In the late 1970s and on into the '80s, Eddie Van Halen's virtual re-invention of the guitar and David Lee Roth's horny circus performer stage presence were the core of one of Hard Rock's most enduring bands. Eddie's older brother Alex's shimmering hi-hat attack has always been as much a trademark of their shiny, sexy sound as Eddie's hammer-on-crazy solos -- solos that essentially introduced the phrases "ribboning leads" and "guitar pyrotechnics" into the rock vernacular. From their self-titled 1978 debut to the chart-smashing, band-wrecking 1984, each of their records with Roth contains at least one Classic Rock gem, if not an entire side of them. The band's early era was topped off with Fair Warning (1981) -- an uncharacteristically dark record that, through blazing songs of pure, unyielding rock power, reflects the growing tensions between Eddie and Roth at the time. Those same tensions eventually led to a much-debated switch to frizzy-haired "Red Rocker" Sammy Hagar in 1985. While the Hagar years still featured dynamic playing, the dreaded power ballad became a staple of their new, more mature demeanor. Nevertheless, VH continued to sell an unholy number of records on through the mid-1990s, and you practically had to kill yourself in order to avoid hearing their cloying soft drink anthem "Right Now." After further upheaval led to the departure of even Hagar's replacement Gary Cherone, rumors flew that the unfortunately named Bruce Cockburn would take over next. - Mike McGuirk

The Who

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

More than any band before them, the Who transformed rock 'n' roll into the weapon of choice for the generation gap struggles of the 1960s. Playing up tensions between young and old in teen anthems "My Generation," "The Kids Are Alright," and a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues," this combativeness quickly became the band's hallmark. Roger Daltrey's perilous mic-swinging, Pete Townshend's ill-tempered guitar-smashing, and Keith Moon's "gonzo" drumming all bolstered the band's thuggish, working-class youth image -- and suggested it was more than image. As Mod's heyday waned, Townshend began pushing the band in more adventurous directions, which culminated in the first proper rock opera, Tommy (1969). In one fell swoop, the band upgraded their standing from "average Joes" to intelligentsia. Emboldened by Tommy's success, Townshend's songwriting became increasingly self-centered and confessional. While "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Love, Reign O'er Me" are simply sublime, much of the Who's '70s material is bogged down by the band's internal conflicts and Townshend's downward spiral into alcohol and drug abuse. The public began to feel that the band had simply overstayed its welcome. Fans had a hard time forgiving the spokesmen of angry youth for getting old, and the band seems to have had a difficult time forgiving themselves. - Chad Driscoll

Santana

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:52 -0800

Carlos Santana has been mixing blues, Afro-Cuban jazz, rock, fusion, and psychedelic guitar elements into his brand of Latin rock since the 1960s. Many of today's musicians hold Santana responsible for picking up where Ritchie Valens left off, bringing Latin sounds to the forefront of popular music. Shortly after Santana's start playing music halls of San Francisco in the liquid light-show heyday (mid-'60s), his eclectic band found itself at the first Woodstock festival, playing one of its most memorable performances. The band has undergone many lineup changes since, but Carlos Santana continues to radiate global soul, playing new material as well as the hits that brought him acclaim back in the day of the longhairs. - Eric Shea

Steely Dan

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:30:58 -0800

In the early 1970s, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen began an extremely influential collaboration, adding jazzy harmonies and complex changes to memorable pop hooks, creating a slew of Jazz Rock classics in the process. "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," "Kid Charlemagne," and "Peg" proved their prowess as hit songwriters that defied traditional means of songwriting, adding their biting humor and subtle lyrical style. Their sound reached its crux as the pair hired top session and jazz musicians to add a polished touch. With horns by jazz veterans like Phil Woods and Wayne Shorter covering the upper ranges, guitarists Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter and Larry Carlton added pristine, jazzy guitar solos over the crisp rhythms of drummers Jeff Porcaro and Steve Gadd. Over the years Steely Dan has attracted diverse listeners, from hip-hop samplers to fans of a musically exciting, finely crafted melody - Jessy Terry

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

Aside from Gram Parsons, no one has influenced Americana music as much as Creedence Clearwater Revival. Their gritty fusion of swamp pop, country rock, hillbilly soul, and a driving dose of Southern-inspired R&B gave the band their trademark "chooglin'" sound. Formed by John Fogerty in 1967 out of El Cerrito, Calif., the band released seven futile singles on Fantasy Records as the Golliwogs. In 1968, they changed their name and CCR's first album was a hit, largely due to the rustic rendition of "Suzie Q." While they were geographically close to the Haight-Ashbury scene, songs like "Fortunate Son" revealed that the band didn't identify with the prevalent counterculture (in part made up of trust-funded hippie kids at the time). Fogerty's vision of a good party was painted in the bouncy strut of "Down on the Corner," a song that proved that white boys could get funky. CCR broke up in 1972, and Fogerty's successful solo career spawned similar songs, sealing any existing doubts that he was the central songwriter in the band. - Eric Shea

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

Lynyrd Skynyrd epitomized 1970's southern rock. Just as famous for their reckless lifestyle as their three-guitar wail, the band did for the word "redneck" what gangsta rap bands would later do for the word "n*gg*" -- turned a derogatory slur into a badge of honor. "Free Bird," their anthemic tribute to Duane Allman, was much more than a hit: it has become a classic rock staple, a song whose stature can be measured by the way countless high school bands continue to maul it in gymnasiums across the country. The band's career was tragically cut short by a plane crash which killed leader Ronnie Van Zant and two other members in 1977. Skynyrd reformed ten years later with Van Zant's little brother Johnny taking over as vocalist. The new line-up has continued touring and recording into the '00s. While they've put on plenty of pounds and stubbornly stuck to a sound that's now over thirty years old, their blues-inflected hard rock is still curiously vibrant. - Tim Quirk

Jimi Hendrix

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:53 -0800

It seems as if no other musician has had more posthumous music released than the mighty Jimi Hendrix. But more amazing is the stratospheric, comet-like career of the man who, more than anyone before or since, revolutionized the way the electric guitar is played. Ask any middle-aged English blues and rock guitar player from Eric Clapton to Pete Townshend, and they will each individually claim that they were Jimi's best friend -- Hendrix was known for having that kind of ingratiating effect on people. His prodigious guitar playing, his soul-saturated, swaggering vocal style, and his brother-from-outer-space aura immediately seemed to hypnotize anyone within a five-mile radius. From 1966 to his death in 1970, he breathed life into his Stratocaster, squeezing a new sonic language from the fretboard that had never been played, let alone fathomed, by any guitarist before. With drummer Mitch Mitchell and bass player Noel Redding, his power trio, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, forged a new galactic style of psychedelic blues. Nearly thirty years after his untimely death, his music remains as popular, influential, and powerful as ever.

Aerosmith

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:53 -0800

White trash kids from suburban Massachusetts, Aerosmith ripped open the '70s rock scene with loud, violent and lurid tunes built on a foundation of riffs lifted directly from the blues in the time-honored tradition of musical colonialists like Led Zeppelin and the Stones. Joe Perry's long-haired riffs perfectly complemented lead singer Steve Tyler's sleazoid Jaggerisms in songs that ran the gamut from Girl Group covers ("Walkin' in the Sand") to angry-robot Bowie funk ("Last Child"). There was a time when paperboys knew the kids to look out for were the ones riding BMX bikes, smoking cigarettes (and who knew what else), and listening to the abrasive, overtly sexual music of Aerosmith. A well-documented descent into drugs threatened to end their careers, but they returned clean, sober and completely digitized in the mid-1980s and achieved a semi-astonishing level of success. Although their new material relies more than ever on the power-ballad and over-produced blooze to get the point across, if you listen close you can still hear Joe Perry's snake-like, boogie monster guitar tearin' it up underneath all the special effects. - Mike McGuirk

Chicago

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:44:39 -0800

Not to be confused with Boston or Kansas, Chicago forged a driving, horn-filled, white jazz-rock-soul sound before staggering into their later romantic ballad era, which eventually led to grizzled-geezer casino tours. Their many platinum-selling hits were catchy enough to stay in your head after just a glance at their title ("25 or 6 to 4," "Saturday in the Park," "You're the Inspiration"). - Jessy Terry

The Doors

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:57 -0800

The mania Jim Morrison elicits decades after his death is just one of the many fascinating and seemingly eternal aspects of the Doors. Lest it be forgotten, the band also recorded some of the darkest and most challenging music of their time. What is so distinctive about the Los Angeles group is how it successfully melded rock, jazz-inspired improvisation and Weill-esque angularity into dramatic settings for Morrison's haunting baritone and acid-damaged poetry. Their amazing range set them apart from their psychedelic brethren, as they moved seamlessly from the propelling rock of "Break on Through" to the breathy beauty of "Indian Summer," the manic blues of "Five to One" and the Coltrane-flavored "Light My Fire." Whether you feel that Morrison was a brilliant and complex modern-day shaman or a second-rate poet who lost it to alcohol and pills, it's impossible to deny the long-lasting impact the Doors have had on rock 'n' roll. In 2002, following a 20 year hiatus in the wake of Morrison's death, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek reunited, enlisting ex-Cult singer Ian Astbury on lead vocals and shamanistic behavior duties. The band now calls itself Riders On the Storm. - Will Lerner

Rod Stewart

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:55:15 -0800

Rod Stewart once sat at the right hand of nearly every critic, enjoying the fulsome praise due a rock 'n' roll wunderkind. Then came commercial success, and the critics dismissed their former fave as a trendy sellout. After an incredibly productive stint from 1960 to 1975, in which Stewart matched Faces releases with solo albums (with the Faces backing him), he left the band to explore new currents in the mainstream. From the slick soft rock of "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" to the polyester pop of "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?," Stewart openly pandered to public tastes; but to goof on "Rod the Bod" without acknowledging his important early work with the Jeff Beck Group and Faces is unfair. Recent box-set anthologies sample moments from Stewart's lengthy career, bringing them together in a convincing argument for his election into rock's elite. They remind listeners that from the down-home Folk-Rock of "Handbags and Gladrags" to the Zeppelin-esque "(I Know) I'm Losing You" and wistful pop of "Downtown Train," there is little Stewart hasn't done and done well -- with or without critics' blessings. Then, in 2002, he changed course again and cut a standards collection that became one of the biggest sellers, prompting him to release a string of "American Songbook" collections. - Chad Driscoll

Styx

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:49 -0800

Who exactly was Mr. Roboto, and did he understand Japanese? Why was the Renegade sentenced to hang? How come Paradise Theatre went out of business? Was Tommy Shaw a boy or a girl? Were there really enough admitted fans for a reunion? And who in the name of Desert Moon was Kilroy, anyway? These are all unanswered mysteries, and to a large extent Styx remain a mystery as well. They were one of the biggest stadium-packing progressive rock/arena rock bands of the '70s, with a maniacal cult following, concept albums, and even a concept video/short film for their synth-laden Kilroy Was Here. Their epic songs and Rock Opera sensationalism, as well as the elastic falsetto singing of Dennis DeYoung and androgynous charisma of Tommy Shaw, gave Styx an odd hit-or-miss chemistry that overwhelming amounts of music listeners either didn't understand, or to which they completely identified. - Charles Hodgkins

ZZ Top

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:53 -0800

In the more than thirty years that they have been together, ZZ Top have mutated from a hard rocking boogie band into pop culture icons. Some might say, that they are also forward thinking musical geniuses whose appropriation of MTV and melding of Hard Rock to Dance rhythms put them so far ahead of the curve that -- for a while in the mid-1980s -- they seemed poised to take over the world. The band started out in 1970 when singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons got together with drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill. Gibbons, only in his early twenties, was already a veteran musician whose previous band The Moving Sidewalks had had regional hit records and had opened for Jimi Hendrix. The band started out playing hard edged, deeply blues based Boogie Rock that cruised on the power of the Hill-Beard rhythm section and Gibbons' powerful vocals and even more powerful guitar. The band toured relentlessly, guided by svengali-like manager Bill Ham, a disciple of Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker. He helped them score a major record deal and created a certain band mythos (access to the band was severly limited; personal biographical information was closely guarded) that lingers to this day. Their third album, Tres Hombres broke things wide open with the smash hit "La Grange," a song driven by an insistent John Lee Hooker boogie riff and Gibbons' squealing guitar solos. They became increasingly popular on the live circuit, breaking attendance records set by The Beatles by 1976. Returning after a three year hiatus in 1979, they emerged with their now-trademark hirsute look and the hard-hitting record Deguello, which included the hit "Cheap Sunglasses." Gibbons' longtime fascination with all sorts of Dance music came into play with Eliminator (1981), which coincided with the rise of the music video as a promotional tool and took the band to new commercial heights. That record was propelled by a sound that wedded Texas Blues guitar heroics to banks of churning synthesizers and sequenced rhythms. It was the sound of money being minted as the singles "Sharp Dressed Man," "Gimme All Your Lovin'," and "Legs" shot up the charts. That the accompanying music videos included hot rod cars, leggy models, and the band doing oddly choreographed dance moves that rendered them at once hip and cartoonishly funny probably helped their album sales. Eliminator and its follow-up Afterburner sold gazillions of records and the band was, for a time, as popular as a band can be. In the 1990s the group's popularity waned some, and they moved away from the sequencers and synthesizers. They went back in the direction of their earlier work. They nonetheless continue to make vital music that draws deeply from the blues and R&B tradition, while always trying to bring something new to it. - Tom Heyman

The Allman Brothers Band

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:52 -0800

Before assembling the first legendary lineup of the Allman Brothers Band in 1969, Duane and Greg played together in two British-Invasion-style projects called the Allman Joys and Hourglass. Duane decamped to Muscle Shoals where he was exposed to the finest Soul and R&B players around, appearing alongside Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. These influences fed into the gumbo of sounds that made the Allman Brothers Band's self-titled debut unlike any record that had come before it. At a time when the color line dividing the American South was still something people fought and died over, the Allman Brothers not only integrated blues and soul with swampy, Psychedelic rock and bits of country; they went one step further by including an African-American in their lineup. The twin percussive attack of Jaimoe Johanson and Butch Trucks gave early concert favorites such as "Whipping Post" and "Dreams" an elaborate architecture, which Dickey Betts and the Allmans supplemented with tidy bits of soloing, sharing leads with the poise of a seasoned jazz group. They were one of those rare bands who always sounded better live than in the studio -- Live at Fillmore East being one of those epochal documents (like Johnny Cash's penitentiary performances or MC5's Kick Out the Jams) that captures a certain music at that certain time when it's as near perfect as it ever will be. The live version of "Mountain Jam" featured on Eat a Peach (1972) is still one of the best ways to stretch a jukebox quarter into a half an hour of pure happiness. - Chad Driscoll

John Mellencamp

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

Long before Prince decided he had it with his regal name, Mellencamp was the original "artist formerly known as." He started his career with the record label-chosen moniker Johnny Cougar before his success allowed him to return to his family name. Early in his career he could have gone by Bruce or Bob, since his first recordings sounded more like Springsteen or Seger than something original. It wasn't until he produced a bushelful of radio hits before he started to mine a territory that was uniquely his own. Mixing '50s rock with more than hint of the blues, soul and R&B, Mellencamp's middle career records stand out not only for music maturity, but also because of his direct populist voice. Starting with 1983'sUh-huh, building with Scarecrow and then becoming fully realized with 1987's The Lonesome Jubilee, Mellencamp told stories of those on the fringes. While perhaps not as subtle as others, Mellencamp's message that all was not well in Regan's America powered him to the top of the charts and into political consciousness. In 1985, along with Willie Nelson and Neil Young, Mellencamp helped found the Farm Aid concert series that provides financial assistance to struggling farmers.

Bryan Adams

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

With his sandy vocals and blue-collar songwriting skills, crafty Canadian hitmaker Bryan Adams' pop-friendly take on rock 'n' roll basics found a niche that lasted through much of the 1980s and into the early '90s. Just about anyone who turned on a radio during those years will remember songs like "Cuts Like a Knife," "Summer of '69," and "Run to You." He remains active today, working the ballad territory that yielded the 1991 mega-hit "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You." - Will York

Electric Light Orchestra

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

No band better represents the pros and cons of overproduction than ELO. In an era of excess, ELO had no equal for sheer audio opulence. Singer Jeff Lynne frosted his voice in so many coatings of studio sugar that it hardly sounded natural. Singing at the helium-huffing apex of the human voice, he dusted off notes not heard since cherubs gamboled in mythological clouds. Bringing in entire symphonies for heart-fluttering arpeggios on fairy-dusted strings, the band's songs fill the air like mirage waves of sound so glossy, you can almost see your reflection in them. "Can't Get It Out of My Head" and "Telephone Line" roll gently along like long, lonesome walks on the beach while the Disco/rock hybrids "Turn to Stone" and "Livin' Thing" still set the mood for fans working on their night moves. It's just physiologically impossible not to get high from inhaling so much production varnish. For some, it will cause euphoria -- for others, altitude sickness. - Mike McGuirk

Heart

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:27 -0800

On Heart's 1976 debut, Dreamboat Annie, Ann and Nancy Wilson rocked as no other female act had since Janis Joplin. The record is all the more amazing for its diversity, demonstrating that the sisters were equally at home in the folky confines of Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell as they were in the heavy blues environs of Led Zeppelin. Nowhere is the influence of the latter more prevalent than on the Little Queen single "Barracuda," with its instantly recognizable "Achilles' Last Stand" riff and bated-beat dynamic. In the '80s, the Wilsons re-styled themselves as power balladeers, and 1985's Heart was wildly successful, restoring credibility to the band just when it seemed to be on it way out. Songs like "What About Love?" and "These Dreams" introduced Heart to a new generation. The sisters returned to touring in the early 2000s and released Alive In Seattle, focusing on their classic '70s material, in 2003. Jupiter's Darling appeared in 2004 and found the band revisiting the hard rock/folk-rock hybrid that made them famous in the '70s. - Chad Driscoll

The Doobie Brothers

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

The Doobie Brothers' Soul-infused Boogie Rock dominated the airwaves throughout the 1970s, and even today such songs as "China Grove" and "Black Water" enjoy round-the-clock rotation on both Oldies and Classic Rock stations. To some, their patented, fake-funk formula sapped rock 'n' roll music of all its vitality, and their music personifies the bland AOR stylings of the '70s. Nevertheless, the Doobie Brothers were able musicians and showed remarkable talent with group harmonies. Most notable were the vocals of keyboardist Michael MacDonald, who went on to experience fame as a solo artist in the '80s. - Mike McGuirk

KISS

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:52 -0800

Scene: interior of house. Dad reading newspaper on recliner. Mother crocheting on couch. Television is on, Mary Tyler Moore is heard dimly in the background. A young man of about fifteen walks through front door carrying a plastic bag. He says nothing to his parents, walks down the hall into his bedroom. Posters of rock stars like KISS, Alice Cooper and Queen are on his wall. He shuts the door, sits on his bed, takes a record out of the bag. It is KISS Alive!. He removes vinyl from the sleeve, puts record on turntable and stares in awe at the maniacal, rapturous, cartoonish hard rockers on the cover. "Deuce" blasts out of the speakers, and the boy is transported to an arena where it's all happening.

Scene: Concert stage. Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter are there, bashing away at their instruments, the crowd is screaming with delight, smoke is pouring from the stage, explosions are going off. The boy finds himself with a guitar around his neck and in makeup similar to the others; he is called the Hawk. He finds he can play his guitar like a champ, and is soon beating out those bar chords while Paul sings, Ace plays lead, and Gene and Peter hold down the rhythm section. The teenager feels warm liquid hit his torso; he realizes that Gene has just spit blood on him. They smile at each other.

Scene: the boy is back in his room, eyes closed, playing air guitar while "Hotter Than Hell" blares from his stereo. His mother is banging on the door. We hear her shout, "Turn it down, godammit!!!" The boy doesn't hear her. He's in hard rock paradise. - Will Lerner

The Moody Blues

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

Yes, they were part of the original British Invasion. And yes, they had a substantial hit in the 1980s. But the Moody Blues will always be remembered for their marriage of rock band and orchestra as heard on Days of Future Passed(1967). Embraced by flower children and art rock lovers alike, the album-story winds through a prototypical day before ending with their most famous song, "Nights in White Satin." Over the top? Absolutely. Pretentious? Possibly. So, the Moodies dropped the orchestra and placed more importance on keyboardist Mike Pinder's mellotron and the rest of the group's ability as multi-instrumentalists. The streamlined sound served them well, especially on songs such as the joyous rocker "Ride My See-Saw." After making a series of albums in this vein, the band went on hiatus, only to reemerge in the late 1970s. They never again broke new ground in popular music, but they did have enjoy a few more hits, most notably "Your Wildest Dreams" (1986). The band has continued frequent touring and the sporadic release of records into the present day, with Keys of the Kingdom, Strange Times and December appearing in 1991, 1999 and 2003, respectively. - Will Lerner

Foreigner

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:51 -0800

From 1977 to 1982, Foreigner was a hit-making machine, selling a bazillion records while creating power ballads and shiny hard rock tunes that may forever live in our collective consciousness. Their most obvious counterpart is Journey -- both bands possessed overtly dramatic and distinctive lead vocalists, while also featuring guitar masterminds who played second fiddle to said singers. And like the boys from the Bay Area, Foreigner were on the track to the big bucks beginning with their eponymous debut album, which featured the hit tracks "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold As Ice." Straightforward classic rock was further refined on Double Vision (1978), while Head Games (1979) offered some welcome sleaze with the song "Dirty White Boy" and the silly, sexist album art. On Agent Provocateur (1984) the band dished out their most well-known power ballad, the gospel-ized "I Want to Know What Love Is." Singer Lou Gramm left the band to pursue a solo career shortly after but returned in 1992 and recorded the album Mr. Moonlight. Gramm left the band again in 2002 and a replacement was found for touring purposes only. By this time sole original member Mick Jones was surrounded by Jason Bonham, Kelly Hansen, Jeff Jacobs, Jeff Pilson and Thom Gimbel. - Will Lerner

The Band

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:21 -0800

The Band's saga began in the late 1950s when they performed with Ronnie Hawkins as the Hawks. In 1965, they became Bob Dylan's band. After his motorcycle accident in 1966, they changed their name to the Band and relocated to upstate New York in a house they dubbed "Big Pink." It was here that The Band began to write and record songs that would influence anyone in love with music surrounding the myths of Americana lore. Guitarist Robbie Robertson, pianist Richard Manuel, drummer Levon Helm, and bass player Rick Danko all shared singing responsibilities. From the swamp boogie of "Up on Cripple Creek" to the pure soul of "The Weight," the Band had just begun to realize their ability to capture and release the ghosts of Okie souls in their unpretentious, down-home, roots music. While the songs available here run the gamut of the Band's almost incalculable career, many of their fans believe the sessions recorded at Big Pink to be their collective opus. Manuel took his life in 1986. Rick Danko died in his sleep on December 10, 1999. - Eric Shea

Steve Miller Band

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:50 -0800

Steve Miller's astro-blues psychedelia and frat house theme songs have become the sort of classic rock music that seems absurd and irrelevant one day and the work of pure '70s genius the next, depending which side of the bong you wake up on. As a child, Miller got his initial guitar lessons from Les Paul; by the age of 21 he was gigging around the San Francisco blues scene. When Chuck Berry came to town in 1967, the fledgling Steve Miller Blues Band played behind him in a set released as Berry's Live at the Fillmore Auditorium. While not exactly experimental, Miller's early work was far more spacey and strange than the music he's most known for. In 1973 Miller put out The Joker, a smash hit that made him a household name and yielded the goofy title cut that has since become a perverse mantra for Ray Ban-wearing, pangenerational jerk-offs across the world. Fly Like an Eagle followed in 1976, and Book of Dreams in '77, records that ensured him a spot on FM radio playlists for years to come. But Miller's music hasn't always been strictly commercial, and his obvious respect for his forefathers often lends the songs credibility. From the pumped-up Chuck Berry/Brian Wilson sound of "Rock'n Me" to the sheer cocaine buzz of his '82 comeback single "Abracadabra," Miller's influences are never hard to identify, and they're good, too. It doesn't matter whether you consider his music fake blues or if you get off on the bedrock riffs and trippy falsetto; Steve Miller still sells out open-air arenas, and his best songs have more to offer than any of the jam rock bands his music spawned. - Mike McGuirk

Yes

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:55 -0800

Yes founded the Church of Prog. Its disciples were called mathemagicians. They revered "The King," but not Presley -- Crimson. Their services consisted of mostly instrumental, hour-long songs chock full of synth solos, endless guitar noodlings, medieval themes, and formulaic changes. At the forefront of the mid-'70s Prog Rock movement, Yes' near-falsetto, three- and four-part harmonies sounded like a stoned Bee Gees on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. "I've Seen All Good People" and "Roundabout" ensure their place on Classic Rock radio in perpetuity. In a sort of bizarre wrinkle of the time continuum, Yes redirected their falsettos and keyboard prowess to coincide with the 1980s' New Wave interest in androgyny and synthesizer sounds to score a radio hit in 1983 with "Owner of a Lonely Heart." And they're still kicking around today. Currently, Yes find themselves recast as the Brothers Gibb hosting Paul Simon for New Year's 2000. - Eric Shea

REO Speedwagon

Sun, 6 Dec 2009 09:55:39 -0800

From the late '70s through the 1980s, REO Speedwagon packed arenas with AOR fans who had big hearts for ballads and no taste for the harder side of rock. From the baby, I'm-yours-forever power punch of "Keep on Loving You" to the yank out the hankie and fly the red lighter angst of "Can't Fight This Feeling," REO took your lovelorn, your downtrodden, and your bad Supercuts hairdos and gave them all hope that New Wave would not steamroll all of '70s rock. "Roll With the Changes" and "Time for Me to Fly" took to the charts with the other vein of REO inspirations--more along the lines of pick yourself up by the jeans and do your own thing, man. In this new decade, the band picks themselves up out of Los Angeles very rarely, really only leaving their hometown to help die hard fans who can't fight the REO feeling anymore ring in the New Year in Vegas casinos. - Jennifer Maerz

America

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:52 -0800

With hits like "Ventura Highway" and "A Horse With No Name," America took the California sound to new plateaus in the 1970s and '80s. Even with the innovative and pristine production of Elliott Shiner (who also produced Randy Newman) and Phil Galdston (Jill Sobule, Vanessa Williams), the folk-rock band still made the kind of free and easy music that rocked dads' leather-craft night classes and your moms' latch-hook rug-making parties. Their albums' popularity trickled off as the '80s progressed, possibly owing to the band's shift from a rootsier, Neil Young-influenced sound to more polished soft rock (complete with synthesizers), but the tours, live albums and greatest-hits collections continued to flow. In 2007, with younger, hipper listeners finding a new appreciation for lite-FM sounds of the '70s and '80s, the band reasserted its relevance with Here & Now, a double album produced by Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha and Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger, featuring appearances by Bryan Adams and Ben Kweller, along with covers of songs by Nada Surf and My Morning Jacket. - Eric Shea

Dire Straits

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:31:01 -0800

Formed, somewhat anachronistically, in 1977 at the outset of the punk era, Dire Straits swam against the current with a brand of classic-rock revivalism piloted by Mark Knopfler's breezy vocals and elegantly tempered Fender Stratocaster. Their self-titled debut, moored by the single "Sultans of Swing," went to No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts, while Making Movies, from 1980, was universally applauded by critics. In 1982 Love Over Gold went to No. 1 in the U.K. without the aid of a big single, but it was Brothers in Arms, from 1985, that fixed Dire Straits in the firmament on the strength of the huge hits "Money for Nothing" and "Walk of Life." The album's release coincided with the advent of the compact disc; it became the format's first million-seller and won two Grammys and two BRIT awards. During the next 10 years, the band, whose original lineup included Mark's brother David Knopfler on rhythm guitar, John Illsley on bass and Ed Bicknell on drums, took extended leaves while Mark Knopfler concentrated on solo and soundtrack work, and they finally disbanded in 1995. But not before they produced one more No. 1 record in the U.K., 1991's On Every Street. - Nate Baker

Robert Plant

Fri, 4 Dec 2009 13:19:28 -0800

After Led Zeppelin grounded its blimp in 1980, Robert Plant could have taken the easy stairway to continued stardom, but he has continued to take chances that have paid off -- much like Scientology texts, his solo albums have consistently, if quietly, sold quite well. The orgiastic blues screech that Plant perfected for a generation of operatic Metal belters seems to have taken a toll on his voice; as a result, he now sings more and wails less. The Principle of Moments (1983) is his most integrated effort, but Fate of Nations (1993) saw Plant gracefully carrying folky protest signs. He is now back with old bandmate Jimmy Page, but some wish he would have maintained the Honeydrippers -- a sophisticated 1950s rock side project -- going. This one-off 1984 EP saw Plant paying homage to his heroes and proving that the latest crop of swing revivalists are really just rock 'n' rollers at heart. - Nick Dedina

Boston

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:45:41 -0800

For every high school party that got busted up and relocated to a secret outdoor spot, Boston was there. And now Boston is here, right at your fingertips, with glassy, harmonic falsettos, analog and digital synths battling it out like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, and electric power chords that ring the bells of rock 'n' roll freedom to everyone's inner teenage rebel. Your nostalgic juices will start flowing as your fingers instinctively form the secret devil sign, and you will understand that yes, it really is more than a feeling. - Eric Shea

John Lennon

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:55:44 -0800

Without question, John Lennon gave us some of the most enduring music of the previous century, yet everything he wrote appears destined for perpetual scrutiny. He left behind a massive catalog of some of the finest songs the idiom has to offer -- the bulk of which are acutely personal in nature. For the first half of the 1970s, Lennon was the angry and, at times, self-righteous protestor of everything from the war in Vietnam to getting out of bed. Songs such as "Give Peace a Chance," "Power to the People" and "Working Class Hero" -- powerful slogans and scathing indictments in their day -- have lost much of their bite, primarily due to their disturbing and perverse use in ad campaigns, something that would surely make Lennon purple with rage. The remainder of his solo output has a tendency to be spotty, but there are certainly some unmatched heights, from his perennial rocker "Cold Turkey" and signature song "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" to the tonsil-shredding masterpiece "Mother" and his pure pop comeback "(Just Like) Starting Over." With his trademark reverb-heavy vocals, the unapologetic exposure of his beleaguered emotions, and a lifelong fascination with the Chuck Berry riffs that initially inspired him, John Lennon gladly offered the world ringside seats to the overhauling of his psyche and, for a time, acted as an outspoken, prickly conscience to us all. His unfathomable murder in 1980 remains one of the most mourned losses in the history of rock 'n' roll. - Mike McGuirk

Cheap Trick

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:52:46 -0800

Emerging from the Chicago suburbs in the mid/late 1970s, Cheap Trick's fuzzy Power Pop stood out amidst a rock/pop field of aging dinosaurs (the Who, Zeppelin), nihilistic punks (the Pistols) and cheesy Disco (the Bee Gees). Combined with singer Robin Zander's sex appeal and careening vocals, guitarist Rick Nielsen's penchant for loud guitar hooks have written the quartet some gigantic checks over the years, particularly after the multi-platinum live record At Budokan made them superstars around the end of the '70s. Legendary hits such as "Southern Girls" and "I Want You To Want Me" bounced, rocked and rolled with electrifying fervor, helping to jump-start an American Power Pop scene that had stalled in the mid-'70s with the demise of Big Star and the Raspberries. Cheap Trick took those bands' supreme sense of melody and cranked the amps up louder than they ever did: "Surrender" remains the loudest catchy song -- and the catchiest loud song -- this side of the Replacements. The band has continued in the decades since, enduring a fallow, big-haired period in the '80s and widespread reverence in the '90s from younger bands wishing to carry on the Power Pop flame. - Eric Shea

Pat Benatar

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:55:54 -0800

Pat Benatar hit the late '70s rock scene like a teeth-and-spandex tornado. The original Long Island Lolita, Benatar was an impressive belter with a band that brought New Wave-tinged Power Pop to the American mainstream. While her first chart-toppers -- such as "Heartbreaker" and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" -- remain her best, Benatar's popularity held strong through the mid-'80s, when she took on synth pop leanings. This direction, though popular, eventually made her original audience forget why they liked her music in the first place. The sultry True Love (1991) showed that classic R&B and urban blues are where her passion really lies, but she has since returned to rock instead of further exploring these genres. Joan Jett may be everyone's favorite riot grrrl godmother, but it was Benatar who first showed the general public that rock 'n' roll isn't just a man's world. - Nick Dedina

Lenny Kravitz

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:08:56 -0800

Kravitz loves his heroes so much, he mimics them to perfection, expertly recreating late '60s Acid Rock and mid-'70s soul and Funk. His songs can be tight Funk workouts or free-form, hard-edged psychedelia.

Joe Cocker

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:55:47 -0800

After the initial 1960s success of now-classics like Joe Cocker! and Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Joe Cocker's stock rose and fell in the '70s, '80s and '90s due to the ravages of alcohol on his voice and a lack of inspiring material. Despite the less than stellar moments of his career, Cocker's reputation remains secure as one of rock's greatest interpreters. His trademark antic gesticulations must have caused titters at first, but soon became an invaluable asset of his stage performance. Flailing like a man aflame, Cocker exuded the intensity of a soul possessed by the song. That Cocker managed to transform the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" into a Gospel-esque romp is one of the minor miracles of rock 'n' roll. Though he may sound like he just smoked an entire carton of cigarettes and forgot to blow out the smoke, Cocker possesses the lungs of a whale, and with his powerful voice he brought the energy and spectacle of Tom Jones to the Woodstock nation. Cocker never just sings his songs; the man testifies. - Chad Driscoll