Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
Are there too many "best of" lists" for music? The quick answer is yes.
However, when it comes to music, the well of topics is darn near bottomless. Alas some of the subject matter is rather abysmal.
Here are some of the worst ones I’ve encountered whilst prepping my daily morning radio program on KX96:
• Best business films: movies about making (and losing) money. (Holy yawn factory, Batman!)
• Top 15 Christmas stocking fillers for geeks (No thanks, just keep ’em.)
• Wikipedia articles flagged for deletion (They should have included this list.)
• Top 15 guerrilla road and rail signs (Who actually had the time to rate these, let alone understand them?)
•l Top 10 cheesemakers (Really? Is this even necessary? Even cheese connoisseurs would find this… well, cheesy.)
However, since this is a music column, let’s focus on a list that we can all relate to — the top driving songs!
But wait — before you speed through this article, have a good gander at the list that inspired this week’s Happenings column.
Bad Top 10 Driving Songs
10. Steppenwolf "Magic Carpet Ride"
9. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers "King’s Highway"
8. Queens of the Stone Age "Go WithThe Flow"
7. AC/DC "Highway to Hell"
6. White Zombie (ft. Iggy Pop) "Black Sunshine"
5. Talking Heads "Road To Nowhere"
4. Ministry "Jesus Built My Hotrod"
3. Iggy Pop "The Passenger"
2. Golden Earring "Radar Love"
1. Willie Nelson "On The Road Again"
After viewing this list, which was made available online through a fodder factory which passes itself off as a website, my disdain inspired me to dedicate this very column on such lists.
I disagreed with 70 per cent of this list (I’ll let 1, 2 and 7 go).
But isn’t that why these lists are compiled? To spark healthy debate among readers in hopes of begetting more readers or visitors to whatever site slaps them together. Seriously, is this type of content even qualified as journalism? Wait a sec… don’t answer that last question.
Back to my main point here, the bad list of so called "best" driving songs. I disagreed with most of it so I decided to make up my own.
What qualifies as a good driving song? If you’re in your car and a song comes on that not only inspires you to crank up your radio or stereo but also causes your foot to stomp on the gas pedal a bit harder than usual, that my friend, is a good driving song.
As long as you get from point A to point B faster or have a more enjoyable time getting to your destination because of a song, then that tune is definitely a great driving song. (Although having a travel-based term in the title is a cool bonus.)
Everybody has his or her personal list of faves. Here are my Top 10 driving songs:
frank’s top 10 driving songs
1. Queen — "I’m in Love with my Car" (Roger Taylor’s raunchy and raspy vocals mixed with Brian May’s stellar guitar blasting over top of a bombastic drum beat always make me cruise faster!)
2. Stones — "She’s So Cold" (Mick uses a car as an analogy for a chick.)
3. Rush — "Red Barchetta" (Great classic about a kid who visits his uncle’s old country place and goes for a ride in a classic car. When Lifeson’s solo kicks in, it reminds me of a souped-up car lighting the tires before speeding off into the sunset. Classic car and classic rock go together so well.)
4. Sam Roberts — "Hard Road" (One of Sam’s coolest songs about something we can all relate to, hopefully without getting stuck on for too long.)
5. Grateful Dead — "Truckin’" (Just such a cool tune to set the cruise and groove to.)
6. Canned Heat — "Going Up The Country: (A classic boogie rock track about bathing in wine and staying drunk all the time out in the country. Can we go? How about now? I wanna go right now!)
7. Motorhead — "Ace of Spades" (Lemmy claims he wrote this song in the back of a transit van travelling at 90 miles an hour. Good enough for me to put it in my Top 10 and it always helps get me to any destination much faster.)
8. Cars — "Good Times Roll" (For the sake of the title for this list, I had to include at least one tune from the Cars. This particular tune is good for cruising with the windows down and just letting the good times roll ... rimshot!)
9. Eddie Rabbit — "Driving My Life Away" (Such a cool ditty that always makes me tap the dashboard or steering wheel and yes, roll into my destination quicker with a grin on my mug.)
10. Paul McCartney and Wings — "Helen Wheels" (Starting off with a classic B-Side from Sir Paul. This one always helps me speed along my route.)
Frank McGwire is a radio personality and booster of the music scene in Brandon and Westman.
» Frank@kx96.astral.com.
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition August 23, 2012
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Are there too many "best of" lists" for music? The quick answer is yes.
However, when it comes to music, the well of topics is darn near bottomless. Alas some of the subject matter is rather abysmal.
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Are there too many "best of" lists" for music? The quick answer is yes.
However, when it comes to music, the well of topics is darn near bottomless. Alas some of the subject matter is rather abysmal.
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