Thursday, March 01, 2007

70’s and 80’s Power Rock

1 MAR 07

I was thinking about great rock from the 70’s and 80’s and trying to come up with songs that had a “moment.” You know, when an awesome drum beat or opening guitar riff just hit you in the gut. Here are my first thoughts:

Money for Nothing – Dire Straits. When the music builds beyond all reason and Knopfler kicks in that guitar – awesome.

We Will Rock You – Queen. Foot stomping and hand clapping mayhem.

Bohemian Rhapsody – Also Queen. The “moment” was immortalized in Wayne’s World in the AMC Pacer.

In the Air Tonight – Phil Collins. That drum beat half way thru the song. Two sticks per hit. Da-da. Da-da. Da-da. Da-da. Da. Da. Boom. “I can feel it comin’…”

Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions. HUGE guitar and drum opening, classic 80's power rock.

How could I forget AC/DC?! Church bells, anyone? Listening to AC/DC now, I'm amazed at how they did so much with relatively slow beats. Other than things like Thunderstruck, think about how slowly Hells Bells starts.

Hells Bells via the Wiki

You Tube – Great old AC/DC!

I’m having a hard time coming up with anything today that makes me feel like these songs did. What does it for you?

4 comments:

Seattlejohn said...

There is no real good hard hitting music these days, bums me out. Anything from Van Halen with Dave, minus 1984, still rocks even today. Rage Against the Machine is the best I can come up with after that.

Thanks for checking out my new blog, I will get a post up next week. SJ

Anonymous said...

My hard hitting tummy flipping comes from keyboard/piano beats...

Runaway-Bon Jovi, loved it so much I learned to play it myself...

Jump-Van Halen, a little too predictible, but still does something to me...

The Final Countdown- Europe, learned how to play that one too...

Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young-Streets of Fire Soundtrack, so awesome I used a line from the song as my "Senior Quote" in my high school yearbook...

Finally, but certainly not the last of the list...Push It-Salt 'n' Pepa, I'd get up and dance in the middle of a funeral if I heard that keyboard jam coming out of the speakers.

Unknown said...

"Seek and Destroy" - Metallica

Played it before every hockey game and before I took the mound in baseball.

Matt Silverthorn said...

I'd have to go with the opening to "Right Now" by Van Halen and "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. They play the beginning to Sandman at the Thursday night home football games at Virginia Tech. The atmosphere is freaking electric when you're there in person.