For Those About to Rock: Top 8 Favorite Bands

As I mentioned the other day, I'm a bit of a Classic Rock junkie. Not the 80s "hair band" stuff. (I leave that to my husband, who graduated in 1986 and came by his love of The Scorpions and White Snake naturally.) As Homer Simpson famously stated, "Everyone knows Rock reached perfection in 1974." Yeah, that's about right.

Now remember, I'm not a fan of the people in these bands. Nor am I a fan of much of what the bands represent. With a few very limited exceptions, I'm a fan of their songs, and that's about it. It's about the music, Baby!

This list is in order, but the order changes without warning. What's at the end of the list today may be at # 3 tomorrow. The top two are pretty steady, though. You don't own every album by a band and not put them at the top of your favorite band list. That would just be weird.

So without any further ado, Gina's Top 8 Favorite Bands:

1.) Led Zeppelin

2.) The Beatles

3.) The Eagles

4.) The Doors

5.) Creedence Clearwater Revival

6.) CSN (and sometimes Y) -- that's Crosby Stills and Nash (and Young) for you whippersnappers

7.) The Rolling Stones

8.) Santana

Feel free to disagree with me. I'll have to disown you, but I'm sure I'll survive.

(P.S. Special thanks to Rush, who did more for my music education than repeated viewings of every VH1's Behind the Music ever could. But I didn't need to know that thing about the shark.)

What?!?

If you've ever been in my car listening to the radio, or perused my CD collection, or read the music section of my profile, it won't surprise you to find that I enjoy me some classic rock. Don't get me wrong, I like other music, too. But it's always Classic Rock first, all else second.

The first CD I ever bought was Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. II (It's the one with "Seven Bridges Road," which WILL be the go-to lullaby for my theoretical children.) And I don't just love Classic Rock from a distance--I get involved. I sing along, often when the situation calls for a little more decorum than trilling along with Freddie Mercury allows. I once broke up with a guy because he thought The Who sucked. (Okay, there were a lot of other reasons, but I like that one the best.) I nourished the requisite "I wish he wasn't dead, and that he hadn't been a morally bankrupt egomaniac, and that he hadn't gotten all fat and hairy towards the end" crush on Jim Morrison. I think more colleges should offer classes on Bob Dylan's poetry and The Beatles impact on history and culture. I can name more Led Zeppelin songs than you. (Not you Rush).

Let me clarify one little point, though: I can't call myself a "fan" of most of the bands/musicians because I can't actually admire people who are by and large drug-addicted, sexually immoral egomaniacs. But, man, I love the music.

I said all that to say this: You've heard of this little band called The Rolling Stones, yes? They've put out a few albums here and there, put on a couple of rather enjoyable concerts. Well, one of their songs, "Brown Sugar" used to be my favorite. I mean, for YEARS this song was my very, very favorite. I would sing along and bop around, stay in the car to hear the end, get all excited if I heard it on a commercial or a soundtrack...

Then the Internet happened. And I looked up the lyrics. And I. Just. About. Died. See, sometimes I can't understand all the words to songs, even though I really, really like 'em. (Happens with Led Zeppelin all the time, and they're one of my uber-favorites. Come to think of it, maybe my lyrics-challengedness is one of the reasons they can still be one of my favorites--some of their songs are a little raunchy.) Anyway, that's what happened with "Brown Sugar." I couldn't understand all the lyrics, and it turns out that was for the best. Because I couldn't have enjoyed the song the same way if I had known it was about the Old South and masters treating their slaves like prostitutes.

Yikes.

No wonder people looked at me funny when I told them "Brown Sugar" was my favorite song.