While it has been a rough summer thus far, I am at last ready to return the land of the blogging. And since this whole Throwback Thursday thing has caught on to the point that even the venerable National Geographic has jumped on the band wagon, so shall I. (Also, a summer of unhappy distraction has resulted in my not really paying that much attention to stuff, so it works as a good excuse for an entry 😀 ).
And yet I struggled to choose the appropriate throwback. Where does one start? What makes a throwback a valid throwback? And then on my ride home from work: Voila! I’m flipping through the stations and land upon Stone Temple Pilots. On the Classic Rock Station (gasp!). Followed by INXS. Followed by (the much more correctly aligned, in my opinion) Foreigner.
I admit to struggling with the reality that the music of my formative years is now found on the Classic Rock station. I don’t feel like that much time has passed (can music time travel? Cuz I’m willing to accept that as an explanation!). It started with U2 probably 8-10 years ago. Which was a bit jarring – can college radio icons turned mega rockstars turned pop rock staples be played next to Pink Floyd and Journey? It took some getting used to.
And then it got weirder. Nirvana as classic rock?! Can that even be possible? (Though I admit that I wasn’t as phased by Pearl Jam as Classic Rock. They were always the Classic Rock Grunge Band*). But I finally came to terms with this as well. It has been 25 years since Bleach, regardless of how improbable that seems.
But STP?! Perhaps because of a semi-surreal experience involving STP in college, this one hits home in a visceral way (and no, it isn’t that type of story, get your head out of the gutter). Their music, in all of its second-gen Grunge/Alternative glory, just doesn’t fit the Classic Rock ethos for me. (Though there is no doubt that the DeLeo brothers are HUGE Beatles and classic rock fans, so maybe that’s the path I follow to find acceptance?) And then to have the next song be by INXS, a band who stylistically doesn’t seem well matched for the Classic Rock format either (though at least it is music from my elementary school years and not high school and college). It was sweet relief to hear Foreigner and have my expectations met in such a comforting, if moderately annoying, fashion.
I will leave you to determine if this is what you expect when listening to the Classic Rock station, while I try to process what this could all mean…
Stone Temple Pilots “Interstate Love Song”
INXS “Need You Tonight” (oh, how I love the catch of his voice at 1:05. Only Ville and Billy Idol top Michael in sexy vocalizations. May he rest in peace)
Foreigner “Cold As Ice” (Foreigner always reminds me of Aqua Teen Hunger Force – Carl Rocks \m/)
A few side notes before a footnote:
STP is still making music, currently with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park singing (who presumably requires much less maintenance than Scott Weiland).
First, some of my fav STP songs:
Dead and Bloated
Big Empty (appeared on The Crow soundtrack. And we all know how I feel about that)
Big Bang Baby (they are not shy about the Stones reference in the chorus!)
And now their new work with Chester (surprisingly good – I’m not much of a Linkin Park fan) “Black Heart”:
However, I really dig this Linkin Park song (A delightfully punky departure from nu metal):
I hope you’ve taken a moment to ponder the concepts of both “What Is Classic Rock?” and “Surely, I’m Not Old Enough For That To Be Happening?!” And, as always, if you dig the music, enjoy it responsibly!
* IMHO, Grunge had 4 parts: Nirvana = Punk, Pearl Jam = Classic Rock, Soundgarden = Proggy Metal and Alice in Chains = Metal/What Grunge Actually Sounds Like