El Burro Volador

But I like it.  It turns out that it is hard to concentrate on putting together a perfect rock playlist when the overseer keeps whipping you all the time.  Nevertheless, I’ve managed to come up with 45 songs that more-or-less satisfy our two criteria.  Let’s review:

1) The song must rock.  No offense to Steely Dan (who are very good), but I once knew someone who listened to them to go to sleep at night, so they don’t get to be on this list.  I discovered, however, that not all the songs I thought of rock super hard.  Some of them are a bit slower, grinding blues thingies, but at least they tend to have gutsy soul vocals and/or bitchin’ guitar parts.

2) The song can’t be overexposed on typical classic rock radio.  This got very tricky, as plenty of the hardest rockin’ songs get played all the time (“Jack and Diane”).  Also, some artists are played so much that five or ten of their songs are probably off-limits for this list (ahem, The Doors, Zeppelin, Hendrix), but I still wanted to include them, so I tried to pick songs that are played less frequently.  Finally, I picked greatest hits from some artists that are outside the reach of typical classic rock stations.  These songs might get played plenty on soul or funk or metal stations, for example, but not on classic rock, although I think they fit.

Originally I was going to meticulously arrange these songs in the perfect order, but in the interest of getting this post up before I return to the sulfur mines I’m just going to throw them at you in no particular order.  Here we go:

“Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) – Jimi Hendrix  You may play along on air guitar.

“Think” – Aretha Franklin  You remember the scene in Blues Brothers?

“Boom Boom” -Big Head Todd & The Monsters W/ John Lee Hooker  May be the best version ever.

“I Drink Alone” -George Thorogood & The Destroyers The Blues never rock as hard as when Thorogood plays them…

“Milk Cow Blues” – Eric Clapton  …Except maybe for this smokin’ Robert Johnson cover.

“Lost in the Flood” (Live in NYC) – Bruce Springsteen  Live version adds rumble and menace to an old fave.

“Green Manalishi” – Fleetwood Mac  From back when crazy guitar hero Peter Green ran the band.

“Death or Glory” – The Clash  Punk anthem is often overlooked by classic rock stations.

“Little Wing” -Stevie Ray Vaughan   Hendrix wrote it, Clapton and Duane Allman covered it too, but this is my favorite version.

“Come to Papa” – Bob Seger   Play this more!  It makes a good change from “Night Moves” or “Turn the Page”.

“Invincible” – Pat Benatar   I get so amped listening to this!  Who says chicks can’t rock hard? (okay, sometimes I say that, but I should really know better)

“Girls Rock Your Boys” – Quiet Riot  Quiet Riot is not quiet enough to get played on The Mountain, apparently.

“Immigrant Song” – Led Zeppelin   Hammer of the Gods!  There are at least eight Zep songs that get more airplay than this one.

“Tribute” – Tenacious D   You don’t have to be serious to rock hard.

“Jungleland” – Bruce Springsteen   Epic from my favorite rocker.  Would get more play if it wasn’t seven minutes long.

“Hot Rod Lincoln” – Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen   I may just have wanted to write the band’s name…

“Jack the Ripper” – Link Wray  Dirty boogie from a true guitar hero.

“You Give Love A Bad Name” – Bon Jovi   Bon Jovi seems underplayed on The Mountain at least.

“Rollin’ and Tumblin’” – Cream   ‘Cause you gotta have Clapton, and this one keeps a lower profile than some of his other stuff.

“Green Onions” – Roy Buchanan   The original is great, but I only listen to this version now.  Here’s to you, Roy.

“Superstition” – Stevie Ray Vaughan   Another great song made greater by a master axeman.

“Back Door Man” – The Doors   Tough to find a Doors song that hasn’t been played to death, but this great blues cover has life left in it.

“Whipping Post” – Allman Brothers   Southern rock classic.

“Frankenstein” – The Edgar Winter Group  Yeah, how about a 9 minute jam to change things up.

“Lawyers, Guns, and Money” – Warren Zevon   This does get played, but not as much as “Werewolves of London“.  Terrific lyrics from one of rock’s best songwriters.

“Will It Go Round in Circles” – Martin Sexton   Martin knocks this one out of the park.  Hearing him do it live may have been the best moment of my concert-going career, and I’ve been to dozens of shows.

“Pressure Drop” – Toots and the Maytals  Oh, the pressure’s gonna drop on you…

“Tear the Roof Off the Sucker/ Give Up the Funk” – Parliament  Funk classic will in fact tear the roof off.

“Revolution” – The Beatles  I think we all know which version of this song I’m talking about.

“New Orleans” – Gary U.S. Bonds  Before the electric guitar took over, the saxophone ruled rock’n'roll

“Black Betty” – Ramjam  Aw, what the hell.  It’s my list.

“Walk of Life” – Dire Straits  The boy can play.

“Out in the Street” – Bruce Springsteen Best Friday song ever.

“Bad Reputation” – Joan Jett & the Blackhearts  One of the hardest rockin’ ladies of all time.

“Bring Me Some Water” – Melissa Etheridge  This does get played a bit, but talk about passion and intensity!

“Tom Sawyer” – Rush  Why the hell not?

“Pump It Up” – Elvis Costello  Because organ players can rock out too.

“Baba O’Riley” – The Who   My favorite Who song tends to get skipped in favor of stuff from Tommy.

“Godzilla” – Blue Oyster Cult  Great song, but it coulda used more cowbell.

“Rainbow in the Dark” – Dio  Gets played more on metal stations.

“Ace of Spades” – Motorhead  Ditto.  Frenetic high energy stuff.

“Thunderstruck” – AC/DC  The Mountain doesn’t usually dig this deep into AC/DC because they just rock so hard.

“Adam Raised A Cain” – Bruce Springsteen  I imposed a strict Springsteen cap on myself, believe it or not.

“Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)” – Pat Travers  And we’re back to blues rock.

“I Ain’t Done Wrong” – Yardbirds   Yardbirds w/ Jeff Beck on lead guitar.

And thus ends my playlist.  Now it’s time for you guys to throw in all the great stuff I missed!