H Sayers writes:
Others will have a different view but for me classic rock extends roughly from 1967 to 1981, in other words the pre cd era. Most of the great albums from that time have a superb side one and an indifferent side two but back then we would often only play one side of a record. The only exceptions I can think of are The Soft Parade by the Doors and Hemispheres by Rush in as much as the second side is better. Be honest, didn't you play side one Led Zep iv a lot more than side 2?
Of course there were some albums that did play all the way through such as Dark Side of the Moon, Rumours, Electric Ladyland and Ziggy Stardust but usually 3 classic tracks would be sufficient to qualify an album as great.
I'll conclude by giving a “straight” answer. As much as I love Springsteen, Born to Run is 2 or 3 exceptional songs surrounded by fairly nondescript filler, it's just those 2 or 3 are SO good that you can forgive the rest !
RG writes:
Ramatam. Thought it be an awesome rock record with former hendrix drummer mitch Mitchell on drums and a hot guitar/vocalist lady by the name of april Lawson. A dismal mess of an album. Super letdown.
TW writes:
I love the Stones. I really got into them just in time for when Voodoo Lounge released. I love that album. 26 years later and I still listen to my original CD. So when Bridges to Babylon came out I was hyped. VL kicked so much ass for guys in their 50s. Needless to say, Bridges is not so good. I vaguely recall the big single off it, but haven't listened to the full album in 20+ years.
A B writes:
Depends how you define “Classic Rock” I suppose. “Victim of Love” by Elton John was pretty wretched. But Wings’ “Wild Life” was even worse.
BL writes:
Just Push Play by Aerosmith. When the extremely average and formulaic single “Jaded” is the best song from the album, you’re in real trouble. Joe Perry is on record saying the album is a “waste of plastic” or something along those lines, so even the band think it sucks.
TOM M writes:
I got three that come to mind pretty quickly,
John Fogerty followed up “Centerfield”, a great album that was reminiscent of CCR, with a totally boring “ Eye of the Zombie”.
Bob Dylan “ Dylan & The Dead”. Ii was going to mention At Budokan, but then I remembered this. Probably a great show, but on CD it was just a mad musical match, The Grateful Dead are a great jam band, and that’s just not Bobs style. It is barely listenable, you just want to hear Dylan, or The Dead, but together….
Extreme - Pornograffitti, The Band had a huge hit Ballot with with “More then Words” that I really liked, then I saw them perform at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, they did a few Queen songs with the whole band, then Gary Cherone ( singer ) and Nuno Bettencourt ( guitar ) sat by themselves on stools in front of the stage and did a small melody of songs with just acoustic guitar. This blew me away, so I brought the CD, out of 13 songs, there was 3 or 4 I really liked, and a bunch of Rock/Rap songs or really heavy metal style rock. I still own it, but doubt I have played it in 20 years!
