by Bobby Jonte
More shocking news! A radio station is going to do a countdown of the 1000 best rock & roll records of all time. That sounds like a great thing, but I’m a little nervous about the whole thing. This will be a daunting task, and I’m afraid to get wrapped up into this subjective contest of what will be the best Rock & Roll song. It’s too much.
I got this news from a friend, and I don’t know the specifics of this. There will be no telling how this is going to turn out. There are the problems of deciding when did Rock & Roll actually start. Have we had 50 years or 60 years or 70 years of Rock & Roll music?
How can I possibly listen to all this? One thousand songs would be over 50 hours of just the music. Of course, I don’t remember the difference between Led Zeppelin and Queen. Is there a difference between the Guess Who and the Who? Once you explain some of those things and the back story of how the bands started etc., etc., you’ll have a brain full of questions.
How about songs by the same band that could end up on different ends of this 1000 song countdown? Man, I hate the thought of a song ending up in the top ten, but my favorite song by a band could be at say 900. I can’t get involved in such a thing. Then you have to fight all the memories these songs bring to mind. Naturally, you will have a happy time of remembering your first kiss or dancing at the prom, but some of the songs will remind you that your old boy/girlfriend kicked you to the curb listening to some song.
Don’t worry about some little tiff you had in high school, either. It could be a lot worse. One of my friends has a story of the song “When a Man Loves a Woman.” He married his high school sweetheart, and their song was, “When a man loves a woman.” He fondly remembers riding around, giggling and being in love and getting married. That was all well and good; however, years later, they got a divorce. His second wife loved that song too. They rode around, giggling and listening to the song, and of course, he has divorced his third wife as well. All his ex-wives and children and stepchildren know about this song. He claims the bad part is that if he finds another woman to date, he is afraid he will be riding around giggling and listening to that song again.
I’m deliberately trying to skip this 1000 song countdown. It is too hard to decide whether I like Betty Wright or Barry White the best. How about Motown Thunder with Stevie Wonder? Where will the Beatles be, and how about all those obscure one hit songs that meant so much to you so long ago?
I have started listening to the oldies station again. It is fun to think about old times and riding around in cars with girls and all those special times you had.
The best part is being able to skip the part about which songs you listened to with which ex-wife.
