This is written as part of an award graciously bestowed upon me by indytony @ http://writingforfoodinindy.wordpress.com
ABC’ s of Music
I love to know what bands people like and don’t like. It is impossible to hide your personality if you are honest about it. So for the ABC’s I will give you one of each for each letter to help fill in my musical personality. First listed is the good one, I have to clarify because I could see someone having a complete opposite view.
A. Aerosmith the rock band /Aerosmith the pop band: One day these guys were “Back in the Saddle and Toys in the Attic” and all of a sudden they were “Love in an Elevator” and “Angel”. Hey! We all got to make a living and I know drug addiction is bad but damn you guys rocked when you were wasted! (sorry kids, drugs are evil but sometimes great art comes out of conflict and it may be a just a coincidence that they cleaned up and produced crappy music-the good thing is that they remained alive so they could still rock out to the good stuff in concert!)
B. Beatles/ Beach Boys: The Beatles are true icons and even if you don’t like them-you cannot argue about the influence on every single thing that followed them. The Beach Boys and endless youth and endless summer. Youth does not last forever and summer turns to winter, we all reach a point when a good day on the beach is finding a few coins and ring with the metal detector.
C. Clash/Chicago: Saturday in the park I think I don’t care what day and the righteous preaching of my favorite band.
D. Death Cab for Cutie/Dead or Alive: Death Cab for Cutie is a great band name and my favorite hipster group. D’s are tough because it’s hard to find a bad band with this letter…so I picked this one because the dudes botched plastic surgery photos have given me at least 5 nightmares.
E. Everclear/ Eddie Money: Everclear makes it just because I love “Santa Monica” so much and Eddie Money makes it just because he looks so bad in that Geico commercial.
F. Foo Fighters/Foghat: Foghat may be the worst band name ever and yeah.. Fool for the City and Slowride…got it… anything else?…no didn’t think so. Foo fighters keep the fire burning.
G. Goo Goo Dolls/Genesis: The best thing to come out of Buffalo since hot wings against an over-artsy band with Peter Gabriel or an over-cheesy band with Phil Collins.
H. Heart/Huey Lewis and the News: Ann and Nancy Wilson know how to rock and Huey does not. I know this isn’t news to anyone.
I. Iggy pop/Iron Maiden: Iggy is all substance and no hype (or shirt!) IM is a name and artwork with little substance.
J. Jam/Jefferson Starship: “Pneumatic drill and ripped-up concrete, a baby wailing, stray dog howling” That is entertainment!…”We built this City on Rock and Roll” still causes countless migraines among serious music fans and has been ruled the source of at least one minor earthquake in the North Pacific.
K. Kinks/Knack: Ray Davies is a genius and “My Sharona” is “OO my little pretty one, my pretty one.”
L. Lumineers/Lifehouse: My new favorite band in the Lumineers and a band that I really tried to like but they would not take.
M.Mumford and Sons/Marilyn Manson: Mumford and Sons grow on you and like Johnny Depp says “they are sublime”. Marilyn Manson has two M’s.
N. New Order/Nazareth: New Order always the serious commentator that was telling the truth in the confused dance crazed 80’s…Nazareth is on my bad side because “girl you’re messing with a son of a bitch” has been stuck in my head for about 30 years…I can hear it now (I guess that is the upside of being music insane instead of regular insane-songs instead of voices play in your head!)
O. Oasis/One Direction: Wonderwall is reason enough for one. Boy Band is reason enough for the other.
P. Pretenders /Paul McCartney: I know that I am talking about Sir Paul and rock royalty but if you can imagine Wings and the solo stuff without all the work he did with his first band…I could see him being billed with Eddie Money and Al Stewart for a “three crooning whiners of rock tour” coming to a hockey rink near you. The Pretenders were not pretending to be friggin’ awesome with Chrissie Hynde, who deserves to be knighted as first lady of Ohio.
Q. Queen/ Quiet Riot: Queen is growing in statue ever since Freddie Mercury passed on to become a legend but even when he was around this band had the respect of all different kinds of music fans. Not easy to accomplish. Quiet Riot ripped off Slade to become a quick success. Even if Slade made some serious money off this deal, they stay on this list because there are not many “Q” bands.
R. Red hot chili peppers/ Rush: RHCP have evolved, stayed mostly intact and relevant. This is not the typical progression of any rock band. I will send you to https://caveoffame.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/confessions-of-a-rush-hater/ for the Rush rant.
S. Strokes/Styx: Fresh energy against nostalgia
T. T.rex/Triumph: Did Marc Bolan invent glam rock? I don’t know but I love this band. I am sure there is a power pop trio from this great northern land that I like but it’s not these guys and it’s not Rush.
U.U2 /Uriah Heep: U2 is classy. Great live band and stewards of peace and freedom. And it is getting tough to find new reasons why I don’t like bands with silly names.
V.Vampire Weekend/ Van Halen with Sammy Hagar: V’s are tough so I know the SH thing is a bit of a stretch but man that hurt when Dave was flung out of the band. Vampire Weekend are intelligent and quirky- two things that seem to go together.
W. Weezer /White snake: Weezer is like a joke so good that it keeps going and going and somehow transforms into true quality somewhere along the way. WhiteSnake is a chick on a car in a video and probably other stuff but I can’t even remember the song…just the chick on a car.
X. X/Xtc: O.K if you made it this far, I can admit that I like both these bands. I could not find a band starting with X that I did not like.
Y.Yaz- Yazoo/ Yes: Yaz is a guilty pleasure from the early eighties and I always think it is cool when a band has to change its name to play in a different country. Yes is no pleasure at all, just another over self- important vintage art band.
Z. Frank Zappa/ Dweezil Zappa: I love Frank and I love all those that are also fans of the comic cynic and original character. I have trouble with sons carrying on the legacy of famous parents and this is a “me” problem, not a Dweezil problem, who is by his own right a very talented and respected musician. I hit the same wall with the Bob Marley children. Both these stars were so bright and influential -it is too much for us as fans to ask the kids to carry that weight.
Cave of Fame 
I’m excited to uncover this sheet. i would like to to many thanks for ones time for this considerably fantastic read!! I undoubtedly very likable each a part of it and that i even have you kept to fav to appear at new data in your world wide web site.
Thanks for visiting!…The Cave is all about spreading the joy of good music to anyone that cares enough to join in.
Cool list … I would have said Depeche Mode instead of Death Cab in the D category, tho. That’s just how I roll!!!
That is cool but that “Personal Jesus” song just bugs me…no disrespect meant to Depeche Mode or Jesus himself, it’s the combo that seems off to me.
Like this. There are some fairly controversial ideas here. And just what do you have against Canadian bands?! And as for Sir Paul? You clearly don’t agree with Alan Partridge that Wings were “the band the Beatles could have been…”
ABC’s- Arcade Fire, The Band, Cowboy Junkies are just three that I like from the great white north. And believe it or not – I am starting to warm up to Rush…I have written and argued about them so much I feel like I am getting to know them….think it may be the Nietzsche thing.. that “careful the monster you wrestle, lest you become the monster” or something oddly profound like that.
And no – I am not down with Sir Paul without John. The sugar without the vinegar makes the dish a little sweet for my taste.
And thanks for reading and commenting, I love the interaction! Rock n Roll should not toe the line!
I am finding the same thing happening with Depeche Mode. Used to believe they were dreadful – now a reluctant respect emerges from time to time…
We do evolve as rocks fans…it is often a painful process but yes it happens…
Wow , I knew you didn’t like Rush, but putting together this whole thing just to get another jab in, at least you didn’t bash Journey. I agree with most however a very admirable feat to put this together.
I got the award and felt it would be a disservice to my followers to put any other band in the “R” spot. So it was not done just for them but since I was driving around the block anyway I figured I might as well tag them with the driver side snow tires!
Congrats. My Z would be Zebra. Hair band, that a couple of my buddies liked. I never did care for their music. I am gonna do this some day just for fun or bring it up when camping with friends. We always seem to end up talking about the stranded on an island and five albums to be left with. Again, congratulations, it is well deserved.
Thanks man…I got about 90% of it done by what was stuck in my brain..I did have to google a couple fillers – this was a tough challenge to put myself through.
Can we freestyle and be creative with it. I was thinking of listing bands or artists and writing stories of what memories each band brings up. Some would be silly, some would be kind of crazy. If I am supposed to do what you did, by listing my favorites and worsts, I can do that too, though.
You can do anything you want with it…it can be as simple as one word about yourself using each letter. I went a little overboard because I love to hear what bands people admit to liking and more importantly, not liking…
So have fun and make it as simple or complicated as you want.