Retire/Replace

What to do with overplayed songs...

My dad is a regular reader, so I would like to let him know from the get-go of this post that this is nothing personal and I get it now.

But…

When I was a kid and we were travelling somewhere or another by car and inevitably had the classic rock radio station on and Led Zeppelin would come on, my dad would frequently change the channel.

Before I proceed, I should tell you that if you were a teenage boy in my hometown circa 1993 there were three bands that you would inevitably go through a phase with: Rush, Metallica, and Led Zeppelin. It was merely a rite of passage to discuss the drum technique of Neil Peart, crank “Enter Sandman” on a car stereo while driving country roads, and/or listen to a friend play the riff of “Black Dog” on his new Fender Strat until he got it “just right”.

And no, I was not immune. It never turned into a super fan of any of these bands like many of my peers, but I bought the cd’s, I knew the words, and I may have head banged along once or twice to a track or two.

So I was none to happy at a certain point in my young life when my dad turned the channel from the mighty wielders of the “Hammer of the Gods”. I asked him one time why he changed it and he said something that I couldn’t relate to back then, but can very much relate to 30+ years later, “I heard these songs a million times when they first came out.”

Sixteen year old me probably thought, “Well I haven’t heard these a million times because I wasn’t there!”, but 49 year old me is okay if he never hears “Whole Lotta Love” ever again.

"Jimmy Page with Robert Plant 2 - Led Zeppelin - 1977" by Jim Summaria, http://www.jimsummariaphoto.com/ is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

I’ve likely told you about this idea. Besides realizing that I’m now in the phase of my life where I am tired of Led Zeppelin, I’m also in the phase of my life where I’m uncertain how many times I’ve said the same things over and over. I assume a lot. But hey, you chose to read this, so you should know what to expect by now! Those who have never read my Substack ramblings, prepare to see this post again in about eight months. Kidding. I think. Am I sure I am? No, no I’m not. Regardless, here’s the idea:

We as a collective body of lifelong classic rock listeners need to take a stand and do something about the problem of the overworn, tired, overplayed song.

Now you may be saying to yourself or your device screen, “Andy, nobody listens to classic rock radio anymore! Hasn’t the problem taken care of itself?”

Fair point. Thanks for bringing it up! However, these songs are powerful entities. If you put on a “70s Classic Rock” mix on Spotify right now, I GUARANTEE you there’s going to be so much overlap with what I heard on 97X out of Davenport, Iowa back in the early to mid ‘90s. I’m by a device with Spotify on it so let’s just randomly see what the first five songs are on said mix when it’s thrown on shuffle.

1. “Mama Told Me (Not to Come) by Three Dog Night - Okay, respect Spotify algorithm, respect. Three Dog Night has sadly faded from collective consciousness quite a bit. Not that they really got heavy rotation even when I was a kid, as for some reason they got relegated to the Oldies format, but I always enjoyed them. Fantastic song and good way to start this experiment. But also, you’re killing me Spotify because I’m trying to prove a point and so far you’re not doing me favors!

2. “Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra - Now you’re really killing me, Spotify! ELO? I’ve heard this song at least 30,000 times in my life and I have yet to get tired of it (oooWEhooo!…sorry, this song has so many great parts…can you hear it in your head?). I think I see the problem, though. This list is curated to ME and my listening history. So of course it’s the ones I particularly like. I need to find a playlist that isn’t specifically curated to me. Hold please.

3. Alright, I found a playlist called simply, “70s Classic Rock”, curated by user eRN364z. It is a 17h 28m playlist. This has got to be the winner. And the first song on shuffle is… “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield! I have heard this song approximately 29,452 times and am somewhat tired of it. But I guarantee you I’d be screaming along with it at karaoke, so I have mixed feelings. What do other Rick Springfield songs even sound like? This is an important question and it is the main question I wanted to address with this post. Let’s get back to it shortly. Let’s break it down with some guitar and bass drum first and, “Tell me!” Song four to follow…

4. “Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John - Getting warmer here, Spotify. Getting warmer. I have heard this song approximately 48,499 times and am somewhat tired of it. But I am not completely tired of it, I must admit. I think I’m more tired of “Tiny Dancer” unless it is sung by a fictional rock band working through their feelings on a tour bus in a Cameron Crowe film. But do I need to hear B-b-Bennie ever again? Probably not. Props to A Tribe Called Quest for sampling it in their song, “Solid Wall of Sound” on their masterpiece last album, though. It’s fun when a song like this can find a second life in a different setting.

5. “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive - So okay, no Zeppelin to be heard so far, but another classic rock song with stuttering! BTO, baby! I’ve heard this song approximately 79,452 times and am tired of it. Can we retire it yet?

The idea is thus…an agreed upon list of criminally overplayed classic songs from the past 50 to 60 years is made. Let’s say 100, as that’s a nice round number and feels realistic. Out of those 100 criminally overplayed songs, which songs are the proverbial dead horse? It is time to retire these songs.

But, I’m a man who believes in balance, so I don’t think we should retire merely to retire, but we should then find a lesser played song by the same artist that we can replace it with. See what I’m doing here?

Just for funsies, let’s do a couple off the top of my head.

Retire: “White Room” by Cream, Replace with: “Tales of Brave Ulysses” by Cream

Retire: “Come Together” by The Beatles, Replace with: “Yes It Is” by The Beatles

That’s the general idea. I think in actuality it would take a deeper dive than the, “off the top of my head” strategy if we want to get it right, but for example’s sake, I think these work pretty well.

Now you may be asking yourself, and/or addressing your device screen with the following question, “But Andy, what about the 16 year old kids who haven’t tired of ‘White Room’ and ‘Come Together’?”

You’re full of amazing insights! Thank you. So we don’t need to completely retire the songs. But they need to be properly labelled, sorted, and categorized. If you still listen to classic rock radio, maybe they get to be on a two hour show every Saturday night or something. If you get your music through streaming services, maybe they get put onto playlists labelled, “A Classic Rock Primer” or “Rock and Roll 101 for Young People”. Or maybe the playlist is just called, “Overplayed Rock and Roll Gems That Have Now Been Put Out to Pasture”.

By the way, I just turned off the 70s Classic Rock playlist. I couldn’t take it anymore. As soon as it hit the MTV Unplugged version of, “Hotel California”, I tapped out. That one can be permanently retired actually. Can we all agree upon that?

New playlist has started: Classic Rock B-Sides, courtesy of user johnnymetz. It is 8h 19m long and it started with “Carrying That Load” by Ray Charles. Nice start! Would I categorize Ray Charles as classic rock? One could make the argument, certainly. Love it and think this song would make a brilliant replacement for “Hotel California”, any version, any day. I know I’m breaking my own rules by not finding a new Eagles song to replace HC with, but do you really need another Eagles song in your life? Me and The Dude are on pretty much the same page with that band¹

2. “L.A. Woman” by The Doors - Come on, man. Not exactly a b-side here. Although awhile back I did write a piece entitled, “In Defense of The Doors” which looks to explain why they faded from classic rock importance, but should still be taken seriously. So in a way, The Doors can be viewed as a b-side sort of band in general. But this isn’t exactly the direction I was hoping for with this playlist. Let’s keep this game going and get to five. What’s next?! I think “L.A. Woman” only has like 14 more minutes to go now that we got past the whole, “Mr. Mojo Risin’” part, so we’ll get to song three at some point…

3. “Couldn’t Get It Right” by Climax Blues Band - You’ve redeemed yourself johnnymetz! This is what I’m talking about! I assume I must have heard this on classic rock radio from time to time because I know the song well, but there’s no way it was played as much as say, “Taking Care of Business” by the aforementioned BTO. Love this song. Great hook. Pretty funky. What’s not to like?

4. Hahahahahaha….here they are! Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham…Led Zep is back, baby! The song? “Trampled Under Foot” off of Physical Graffiti. Actually a worthy choice to replace “Whole Lotta Love” with, methinks. You can hear this one from time to time on classic rock radio, though. I feel like we need to dig deeper if we truly want to get this idea off on the right foot. I like the track, though, and am pretty sure I’ve only heard it approximately 11,452 times and am not yet tired of it.

5. Last one. Zep is still playing, so let’s speculate what this could be. Maybe a Petty deep cut? Cheap Trick would be fun? Maybe “Southern Girls”? Marshall Tucker Band? Squeeze? The suspense is killing me. The actual song is…(he still can’t stop talkin’ about love…we’ll get there)… “Bold as Love” by Jimi Hendrix. Phenomenal. Absolutely perfect selection, purely accidentally of course, but if I have heard this song on classic rock radio, it would have been part of an “Album Sides Weekend” or something like that. Let’s retire, “Purple Haze” and replace it with this one. I don’t think Jimi would mind. He seemed like he didn’t get overly precious with the hits, so I think we’re fine. This song has such a weird breakdown! It’s almost a false ending. The drums taper off but then kick back in and there’s Jimi with another killer solo like nothing anyone had ever heard then or has heard now!

And that’s why we need Retire/Replace. We need to remember what made these great artists truly great artists. I hear “Purple Haze” and I likely tune out because I have heard it approximately 98,213 times. But I hear, “Bold as Love” and my brain is fresh and open to the crazy sonic genius of Hendrix. We shouldn’t take for granted how amazing someone like that was and continues to be.

But I know not everyone listens to music like this². Some people like the comfort of hearing the hits over and over. Some treat music as something to have on in the background and don’t think too much about playlist construction. This seems weird to me. But my obsessiveness over music very well might seem weird to you. I mean, let’s face it. We’re all weirdos. Some are weird about music, some are weird about movies, some reality tv, some bird watching…we’re a quirky bunch, we humans.

My point, though, is in reality, listen to music how you want to, sure. But also, don’t forget how much great music exists that you probably aren’t aware of. Be open to discovery and the element of surprise, even with artists and bands you’ve heard approximately 47,402 times! I’m guessing despite this, there are still songs that you either are less familiar with or aren’t familiar with period that are bound to move you if you let them. Part of it, especially if you are from my generation and older, is to deprogram yourself and realize that gatekeepers don’t exist anymore and you can experience music the way you want to and in ways where it, to quote another overplayed classic rock song, “Feels Like the First Time”.

One thing I recently decided to do is pick an artist I claim to like, but really go through each album and find out what I ACTUALLY like. I want to bring you my results in a multi-part “Eight Songs a Week”…multi-part because this artist has so much music that it doesn’t seem right to try to pick just eight as that’s way to limiting.

The artist in question is Prince. I have been what you’d call a casual fan for a long time. I know the hits. I know some of the “lesser known” hits. But I can’t claim to know his discography very well so I’m using my daily morning commute to listen album by album and note the songs that I like the most. So far I’m only three albums in but have found plenty to love. There’s A LOT to go, but it’s not the worst problem to have!

I think part one is going to feature the five pre-Purple Rain albums. Part two will go from Purple Rain through Sign O’ the Times. And then we’ll make a decision of how to break up the rest. Maybe five at a time? Like I said, there is A LOT! I mean, I could write a whole treatise on the 1989 Batman soundtrack! Will I? That remains to be seen.

I do this because, a.) I’m from the era where getting labelled a “poser” was the worst thing in the world. If I say I’m a fan of someone, I really want to know their catalog and not just the radio hits. Nothing against Purple Rain, but you can’t say you know Prince by this album alone. I ain’t no poser, man!

And b.) because I enjoy the adventure and challenge of diving deep into an artist’s catalog. A friend and I have chatted a lot recently about how easy it is to forget how great it is to listen to full albums, but that once you do it, you remember and kind of wonder why we all got away from it in the first place. Yeah there might be some clunker tracks or even full albums that you don’t completely connect with, but by not just cherry picking individual tracks, I really do think you get a better sense of the artist and their vision. And Prince certainly had a lot to say in the time that he had on our planet and whatever other galaxy he was drawing from.

So that’s where I’m at with Retire/Replace. What songs do I put in place of, “When Doves Cry”, “1999”, and “Raspberry Beret” once they are retired? Although, to tell you the truth, I rarely get tired of the hits with Prince either, but if we’re going to play this game…we’re going to play this game!

And how about that list of 100 classic rock songs to retire? There’s some homework for me, and hell, if you wanna play along, you too! Shout out ten classic rock songs that should be shelved in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

1. I’d be lying (eyes) if I didn’t admit to you that I went through an Eagles phase too. I had both volume one and two of their greatest hits, no doubt courtesy of either the Columbia House or BMG CD Clubs of old. I just can’t with them anymore, though. I just can’t

2. If you’re here, chances are you do, though