Ultimate Rock ’n’ Roll Collection
1996: Epic/Legacy E2K 65020
Disc 1
Boston
Quiet Riot
Cheap Trick
Bad Company
Foghat
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Golden Earring
Eddie Money
Meatloaf
REO Speedwagon
The Cars
Electric Light Orchestra
Yes
Disc 2
Lou Reed
The Edgar Winter Group
Molly Hatchet
Ted Nugent
Alice Cooper
Blue Öyster Cult
The Hollies
The Guess Who
Santana
Ram Jam
Ratt
Argent
Steppenwolf
Lynyrd Skynyrd
This mishmash of 1970s hits is at least reflective of the collective schizophrenia of classic Rock’s condition by the end of the decade, with some fairly straight-ahead material here and then tastes of what’s about to come heralded by both “ Walk on the Wild Side” and “Don’t Bring Me Down” as they pull in totally different directions and leave Rock flustered and unsure of its moorings for a little while. I suppose “Flirtin’ with Disaster” here is the best example of Rock stopping in its tracks for that moment…doing what it knew how to do because that’s what it had been doing, but utterly unprepared to compete with these new sounds and attitudes (and that it’s a Southern band also portends some of what’s ahead on the reaction side). For that matter, among these tracks “Just What I Needed” is arguably the best belwether of where things were headed, at the time (although not necessarily where they went).
That I even have this compilation in my library is a further statement of that cultural schizophrenia: aside from two tracks I’d never heard of outside of these discs (“Black Betty” and &147;Round and Round,” neither of which strikes me as ever having been an actual hit as most of the others were) and Alice Cooper’s “Poison” (a completely inappropriate inclusion, as it dates from the end of the 1980s and has only its lead singer in common with the rest of the material here), I had known each of these tracks to one degree or another at various times throughout my childhood. Many of them, it’s worth noting, are forever associated in my mind with the Southeastern Washington State Fair, where they would be blaring on big speakers alongside the carnival rides we’d enjoy in that Labor Day weekend each year. Others I was only distantly aware of, such as “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (which still is only a sort of technical footnote in my mind now as to the music of the times). I added this title to my collection because it allowed me to revisit some of those times via musical time-travel tickets back in my own past.
I think some of them are great; others, not so much. Lyrically they’re pretty shallow fodder, with the exception of “Walk on the Wild Side” (DUH!), “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” (with its enigmatic drama sketched in and left to our imagination, all to a killer groove), and “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” And I confess that I still love “Don’t Bring Me Down,” compounded/compacted fluff that it is, because it has such a damned catchy vocal riff on the verses (but spare us the choruses, please!) and gorgeous vocal chordings.
Ominously absent in this collection is the Steve Miller Band, which certainly provided material I encountered in these same contexts (and damned good material, too). And one could make something of the nearly-all-white makeup of these bands/performers, although it can also be argued that the (to me still arbitrary and ludicrously offensive) categorization of other stuff as being “R&B” or &147;Soul” means that those contemporary hits would be found in a parallel compilation (presumably a separate but equal one, as it were). Actually, there are lots of other big rock bands absent here—Kiss comes to mind, belatedly, although maybe they weren’t considered big hit-makers at the time—so perhaps there’s a copyright licensing issue controlling.
Comments © 2019 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.