Rock Relics 3

This pick closes out this chapter of the series and I will be honest, putting it together felt a little like saying goodbye to an old friend. Not because the music is going anywhere but because narrowing it down is genuinely hard when every song on the list deserves to be there. There is one track in particular that I think stands above everything else here and if you know it you already know which one I mean. There will probably be a Volume 4 at some point, just not right away. I need to live with these three for a while first. This pick has range, it has weight, and it has that thing that all the best Rock Relics volumes have where it sounds better end to end than it has any right to.

Rock Relics 3

37 Led Zeppelin - Rock And Roll

38 ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses

39 Steely Dan - Bodhisattva

40 Eagles - Heartache Tonight

41 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Have You Ever Seen the Rain

42 Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Women

43 Kinks - (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman

44 Bob Seger - Old Time Rock & Roll

45 Stealers Wheel - Stuck In the Middle with You

46 Grand Funk - The Locomotion

47 Brownsville Station - Smokin' In The Boys Room

48 Kiss - I Was Made For Lovin' You (Original 12'' Single)

49 Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog

50 Shocking Blue - Venus

51 Van Halen - Dance The Night Away

52 Van Morrison - Domino

53 Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

54 Doobie Brothers - China Grove

55 The Knack - My Sharona

56 Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town

Rock Relics 2

I had a fire engine red 1964 Mustang once. Purists would say I ruined it as a classic and they are probably right. I stuffed the largest engine I could fit under the hood, which made it look like it could outrun anything on the road. It could not. But the sound system was something else entirely. Separates, subwoofers in the trunk, sound paneling throughout the whole car. Inside that thing this music was a physical experience. Outside the car you could barely hear it because of all the dampening I put in the panels. So it just sat there looking menacing and fast, quietly shaking itself apart from the inside. This pick is the soundtrack to that car. The kind of rock that was built for exactly that situation, big, loud, unapologetic, and best experienced at a volume that makes the rearview mirror vibrate. That is what Rock Relics is. My old Mustang in playlist form.

Rock Relics 2

19 Ike & Tina Turner - Proud Mary

20 Toto - Hold The Line

21 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama

22 Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion

23 Foghat - Slow Ride

24 Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down

25 AC-DC - Highway To Hell

26 Grateful Dead - Truckin'

27 Ram Jam - Black Betty

28 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

29 Free - All Right Now

30 Cars - Just What I Needed

31 Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)

32 Three Dog Night - Joy to the World

33 Eddie Money - Two Tickets To Paradise

34 Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

35 Van Halen - You Really Got Me

36 Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me

Rock Relics 1

This pick is where the series begins and honestly it might be my favorite of the three just because of what it represents. These are the songs that were everywhere when I was growing up. On the radio, at a party, blasting out of somebody's car in a parking lot at the wrong volume for the neighborhood. You did not choose to love this music, it just happened to you whether you were ready or not. I have been collecting and playing music my whole life and I still cannot fully explain why certain songs just lodge themselves permanently into your brain, but every track on this volume did exactly that to me at some point. That is what Rock Relics is really about. Not nostalgia exactly, more like evidence that some music just refuses to age no matter how many times you have heard it.

Rock Relics 1

01 Elvis Presley - Always On My Mind

02 Guess Who - American Woman

03 Aerosmith with Run DMC - Walk This Way

04 Foreigner - Feels Like The First Time

05 Sweet - Ballroom Blitz

06 Boston - More Than a Feeling

07 Rolling Stones - Miss You (12 Special Disco Version)

08 Foreigner - Hot Blooded

09 Grand Funk - Some Kind of Wonderful

10 AC-DC - You Shook Me All Night Long (Ultimix Remix)

11 T. Rex - Bang a Gong (Get It On)

12 Alice Cooper - School's Out

13 Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

14 Heart - Barracuda

15 Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper

16 Elton John - Crocodile Rock

17 Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love

18 Kinks - Lola