I agree on both counts. I like Styx as well, but much prefer their harder stuff.

I agree with all of these, except the Billy Joel song. I haven't heard it in years, and I don't remember it getting a lot of airplay, ever. And, I kinda like it.....

I get sick of hearing certain songs just as much as anyone but lets not talk of "retiring" them. Frankly, I haven't STH on the radio in years. And A guitar player I am sure I got sick of it long before most other people. I know the artists who made these songs famous don't want them retired. They are responsible for a great deal of their income.

Rock is currently a shadow of its former self. I almost disagree with this because if you take the old classics off the radio, there isn't a whole lot of good to replace them with. Having said that, yes, these great songs are way overplayed. Here's to hoping rock gets rescued by something new, soon.

I guess these songs can go away now, but frankly they're smarter and more challenging than ... well, virtually anything else on rock radio. I'd rather keep these and ditch the endless litany of Bad Co., Nugent, Foghat, and god-must-we Lenny Kravitz. These songs, and these artists, became famous because they're great. A lot of other stuff is famous because it's ... well, famous.

I'd rather listen to Stairway to Heaven 1000 times in a row than HEAR OR READ ONE MORE STINKING WORD about Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, or any other member of today's breed of over-celebrated "celebrities".

If we're going to talk about what in popular entertainment needs to be retired, let's be real.

Can't believe Rush didn't make that list with Tom Sawyer

Hear, hear on the Billy Joel song. It seldom gets played around me, and it brings back some memories!

Your radio has an off button and the fancy ones come with more than one channel.

JFC: As far as overplayed songs by great bands, OK, I'll give you Tom Sawyer. It's not in the top 90% of the Rush catalog, but still - they're sacrosanct, and you are therefore a heretic. :)

I think these classics can be re-made and re-interpreted by every generation. Of course some remakes simply suck donkey schlong, like the reggae version of Stairway to Heaven I have heard one time in Jamaica. I thought I'm going to vomit all my rum right there and then... but get a load of this: "Come With Me" by Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page remake of Kashmir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aafm_qoD-yA&feature=related

NO!  Stairway to Heaven is a classic.  You don't retire classics.  Have you retired the Nutcracker or Brahms Lullaby or Bach anything (ah, Bach!).  

But you can take that rasty picture of Plant off the front page.  Let us remember him as he was in the poster that I put on the ceiling of my bedroom licking an ice cream cone in his 20s!

I'd rather hear these songs a million times a day than the modern, auto-tuned, over-produced, cotton-candy fluff crap that's made nowadays.

Agree on all fronts. We can all probably think of a dozen more that need to be retired ( Love in the Elevator by Aerosmith comes to mind)

Two Big Issues: 1) There has not been really outstanding new rock in years, if not decades. Even though AC/DC, the Stones and others put out a new album every three years or so, there is nothing memorable being recorded.

2) Classic Rock stations play the same 500 songs over and over and over. Occasionally, some station will play " deep cuts" that will air something I have not heard for months. " Soul Kitchen" by The Doors is a good example of some DJ straying off the "Classic Rock" playlist.

Maybe we blame rap, or IPods. In the Good Old Days, I would by an album for $3.99 and listen to the entire thing over and over. No one really buys albums anymore, so the entire industry is geared to "Top 40" style hits.

For the first time in my 53 years, I now have a country station on my car radio pre set dial. Some of the big acts are getting more rock and less country. If you don't like "Honkey Tonk Bodunkudunk" by Trace Adkins, you just are not alive.

Peace Out

1

I love most of these songs, but agree, they need to be retired. I appreciate my memories of when I first heard them. Just, todays corporate radio keeps playing the same tunes over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Like I said, I love most of these songs, but, we need to have a variety. Independent artists, B sides, just something different.

It will never get better!!!! Stairway will be number one in a thousand years!!!!

I buried my second wife to this, I'll never retire it.

I agree with all of those who say these classics should never be retired and that we'd rather listen to them a million times than the new junk that's out there. These people were singer/songwriters and they were genius. Who's gonna want to listen to Beyonce and Mariah Carey 40 years from now. Even most of the twentysomethings I know prefer classic rock to anything else.

What a bunch of drivel. Can you not write an article about anything new?

Let's retire Katy Perry's Teenage dreams, it feels like I've been listening to it for 40 years.

Here's an idea...stop listening to radio. Sad to say, but radio is irrelevant today and the playlists (regardless of format) don't engender anything close to growing artist's careers anymore or taking chances to do deep cuts or introduce new artists. It's done at a corporate level with a formula with very few stations out there resembling the radio we grew up with in the 1970s and 80s. I have a large collection of music and listen to whatever I want whenever I want, and if I feel like listening to Stairway, I will. These songs are all classics NEVER to be retired (except Billy Joel whom I don't really care for at all..Piano Man can never be heard be me again and that is one I could agree with). But generally, if you choose your own playlists then hearing classics now and again mixed in with playing actual ENTIRE albums of ARTISTS one likes...it's really not a problem. The problem is for those who seek to consume music in the single, repetitive format. You get what you get if go that route. Make yourself!

Sorry but the classic bands are way better than the crap we have today. I'll take Queen, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, etc. any day.

There's tons of good music being made today - every bit as good as the best classic rock. Only thing is, it's underground, while the classics are considered classics because they were actually popular. Music didn't change; radio did.

I'd rather listen to any of these songs, or even an old Dean Martin, than Justin Beiber, Selena Gomez or any other autotuned/Disneyfied singer. What has popular music come to, it is not very popular and barely qualifies as music.

You cannot "retire" classics. Besides, there's the next generation to instruct in the art and beauty of rock and roll. I taught my kids, now they get to teach theirs...and so on. Floyd, Joplin, Hendricks...no end to it... However, like Bruce saved us from Disco, we need someone to get us away from the absolute crap out there right now. I wonder who will appear to save us this time? Safe bet...it will be about roots...basic sound with great lyrics. Classics never die...

Agreed. Stairway was run into the ground 30 years ago. To go along with that let's retire:

Black Sabbath - Paranoid, Iron Man

Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water

Led Zeppelin - Everything but a few cuts from Physical Graffiti

The Doors - Absolutely everything

Journey - 99% of everything

U2 - Anything older than a year ago

Bruce Springsteen - All the stuff he sings in. The music he wrote was awesome especially the stuff he wrote for Manfred Mann

JFC-3426249

Rush is far to awesome to make that list. ;-)

Since when is "Love in an Elevator" an Aerosmith classic? Overplayed, yes. Classic, not by a long shot. And it's really not necessary to retire any classic. If you don't want to hear them, change the channel or slip in another CD.

If I never heard a Boston song again (any they all sound the same) I would not lose any sleep!

In fact they can take a "Journey" while there at it!

99octane at 1.7 - could not have said it better.

flbikerchick - I agree with the last part of your comment. If it's a classic, why would you want to stop playing it? Besides that, no one retires at 40 unless they are a billionaire ;-)

If there is anything Stairway to Heaven should be retired from it's all SCHOOL DANCES. Pick a new song to close out the night tweener DJs! And no, don't use Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" either. That is another one that gives me bad High School flashbacks.

How many times do you have to hear a song before you get a little bored with it? 40+ years of repeating it on the radio not enough? Switching to satellite radio to get away from the local, unimaginative "classic rock" station is your first step on the road to recovery. There are a lot of great newer musicians to listen to, and there are no commercials and no content-edited songs.

JCFromDallas,

I think one of the saviors of rock playing now is Kid Rock. He started off as a rapper but every album has shown a huge improvement over the preceding one, melding great rock n roll with rap . I saw him in concert 2 years ago and he really kicked a$$. Another modern kick ass band is Marilyn Manson. People tend to not even give him a chance, but if they do they'll find it pays off. He'll give you a real show with his vaudeville hard rock horror act, plus I really like the darkness of it. It is reminiscent of Alice Cooper's vaudeville horror rock show.

As for the songs the writer would like to see dropped- I say keep them all, but insist that any "classic rock" station greatly expand their play list to about 5,000 songs. There were so many great ones that they just skip that it gives young people a very limited idea of those artist's talents. Such a shame. On youtube you can find so many young people who admit to the low quality of music most of their generation produces that its heartening to know that some of the younger generation DO have some good taste after all. I've said my piece- now onto youtube for a little bit o' Black Betty- the finest kind of rock n roll!

Please.....take a couple of Bob Seger songs, box them, and drop them to the bottom of the ocean. Katmandu and most of all Old Time Rock and Roll. I still have horrible flashbacks from playing that damn song in bands. Better yet....put that in the "good ole boy rock n roll hall of shame".

Bands that are able to produce and create their own music have a hard time getting on the radio, because those radio stations are all owned by conglomerates, who only want a low paid performer under contract, so the company can reap all of the profits, while the Barbie they prop up on stage makes next to nothing. Kids nowadays are being programmed to like only a certain brand of music by most stations, their friends propagate the popularity of a musician, and then that's the music you hear over and over. Until producers decide they want to produce and play a more classic sound, there's small hope someone new will come along and revive rock again.

Until producers decide they want to produce and play a more classic sound, there's small hope someone new will come along and revive rock again.

True, as far as radio is concerned, but aging Rush fans like me can still find tons of awesome and challenging progressive rock and metal on the Internet, some with, and some without, "a more classic sound." I use radio for my alarm clock, but that's about it any more. (Cool handle and icon, but I always preferred Cygnus X-1 Book II.)

I used to think that if I heard an old song on classic rock radio that I didn't want to hear,all I had to do was switch the station...I've found, more times than you would believe,the next classic station playing the EXACT same old song simultaniously...One time two stations were playing the same Tom Petty song in synch..I mean to the second..no kidding...How they pulled that off I'll never know.Giant music mothership that feeds all radio stations and these two stations were on the same link comes to mind.

I'm not sure why these corporate radio stations insist on playing the same stuff over and over and never pick any other songs from an album..There has to be money involved..If you are in your 20's and you like classic rock...great..But as a guy in his mid 40's I've been exhausted by these old songs..I've been hearing the same songs literally for 30+ years...These days you never get to hear a song that you haven't heard in a long time..Proof that there is a list that they don't stray from..Sad

"Another one Bites the Dust" should bite the dust. We hear it enough at every sporting event they don't need to play it once every hour on classic rock stations. As for "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" I NEVER hear that on local stations. We get "Piano Man".. and that's basically it from Joel around here.

This article is purely tongue n cheek, people are taking it way too serious.... These songs have to be passed down to younger people, AND they are R & R staples! If this were to really happen, Italian Rest. isn't overplayed-'PIANO MAN' makes me want to jump off a bridge..... Also, if I could complain a bit more, there's plenty of great stuff out there now-Radiohead, Wilco, Mumford and Sons, etc. You just have to look for it, rather than just put on the "they don't play em like they use to..." excuse. Try Pandora, it'll getcha movin.

Alex Smith (the author) must be sniffing glue - lots of it! Considering how bad most "new" music is how dare you even suggest that we ban some of these amazing classics (and that random Billy Joel song).

Clearly you were attempting to piss off people, and it worked. How about we ban Disney teenybopper music, or "the younger sibling of somebody sort of famous, who just HAS to be a singer, even though they don't have any talent WHATSOEVER", or the "cute young kids who don't even know how to play their instruments at all, and aren't good enough singers to make up for it". That is what needs to be banned, not some of the best songs ever.

How the Billy Joel song made that list also baffles me. It is nowhere near as well known as the rest of the songs on the list - not even in the same league. Clearly you have a serious Billy Joel fan in your life if you pick a semi obscure song like that (compared to the rest) to join your list of "to be banned".

"I'd rather listen to Stairway to Heaven 1000 times in a row than HEAR OR READ ONE MORE STINKING WORD about Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, or any other member of today's breed of over-celebrated "celebrities"."

Exactly!!!

If anything, ban the crap, not the foundations of modern rock. However I really don't think banning anything makes sense - after all, one can only appreciate how completely bad Hanson is musically if you are subjected to the cruel and painful experience of listening to it.

As a people, we can only learn from our mistakes if they are still open and available to refer to. To remind the next set of kids of what to avoid at all costs.

'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant' made the list? That's got to be a joke, I haven't heard that song on the radio in my area for a LOOONG time.

'Tom Sawyer' by Rush is the best song to play air drums to, hands-down.

Yeah, I like Scenes from an Italian Restaurant and barely ever hear it. There's a lot of things I'd ban before it-and wizard, if you ban Boston, I'll have to fight you, because More Than a Feeling is my mom's song.

Where is Tom Sawyer from RUSH? Again the mainstream media turns it back on one of THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BANDS of all time.

Sorry there Tbone... I could listen to Pink Floyd FOREVER!!!!

BLASHPHEMY!!! There's no retiring Floyd!! EVER! :)

Can't agree on the Floyd. They've just never gotten the repetitive airplay around here (except possibly on my iPod) to get old.

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut. Nothing better, some as good, but none better.

Stairway to Heaven and Light my Fire can never be played too much, all the rest mentioned above, Hmmm....don't recall them at all. Also Black Sabbath - Paranoid.......can never play it too much.

Gotta agree: Floyd should NEVER be retired! Pick any album from Dark Side on, and there's something timeless and perfect there. (And I only say from Dark Side on because [a] that's what's played on the radio, and [b] that's the stuff I personally know.)

Spot on!!!!!

Dark Side has to be the best studio album ever.

I love Pink Floyd, it's my favorite all-time group. But Money and Another Brick in the Wall needs to be played a lot less. They have far far better songs than these, but it's about the only I ever hear. Heck, there are far far better songs on those two albums. I wouldn't go so far as to say they should be retired, but it's definitely a disservice to play those two songs as much as they do.

Mitchell

Floyd can not be retired. It is a format that has never truly been duplicated where the album plays like one long song. Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall were fantastic. Sgt Pepper is the only other that came close. Get back to the very old when Sid Barrett was still part of the band and it was an acquired taste. Several Species of Small Fury Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict....now that's a song title.

Would love for the kids to sit and enjoy this music but the short attention span bursts they put out now doesn't allow them to sit and listen to an album all the way through. As a matter of fact I don't know when they have ever listened to a full CD. Music has gone from albums to songs which is a shame.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band did develop some interest in the classics to the point that our 19 year old son downloaded some of the music from iTunes but I don't know how often he listens.

Since we have brought up Floyd and I mentioned the Beatles earlier, why no Beatles songs on this very short list of overplayed music. BTW, there is a good solution to the problem. Change the station from time to time. In the Cleveland area we have a multitude of choices down the radio dial and some quality talk radio so my radios isn't fixed to the classic station 24/7 and I can still appreciate the music when I hear it.

I agree with most here that Pink Floyd has to be considered as one of the best prog-rock bands of all time and none of their songs should be retired. I find myself listening to Dark Side of the Moon, Meddle, Animals and Wish You Were Here whenever I'm on long, lazy drives and want something more, uhhh, substantial to listen to instead of the crap on the radio these days.

I don't happen to think that Money is played all that much on the radio, even though it says a ton about how the wealthy view their own wealth and how it's never enough (very pertinent in today's society). Anyone here like the song Dogs from the Animals album? There's another one that gets my juices boiling about what it takes to be successful in today's workplace.

When I was going through my divorce, I used to play "One of These Days" just to enjoy the fantasy of going off the deep end and...well....doing something "horrible" in my mind to my ex-wife. And when I was having trouble sleeping some nights, putting on my headphones and zoning out with "Echoes" playing always helped me drift off to dreamland.

Shine On, Syd and Richard!! R.I.P.

Pink Floyd FOREVER!!!!

D.A., I agree on the Animals album. The other cuts, Sheep and Pigs, as well as the somewhat sentimental Pigs on the Wing are all phenomenal compositions with intense social commentary in the lyrics. Echoes, off the Meddle album would be my personal vote for the single greatest composition from the rock era. You can stand that one up next to anything from Beethoven or Bach and it'll hold it's own.

Dave in N.M., give a listen to the early stuff, it's quite different in texture because it was so strongly influenced by the off-kilter creativity of Syd Barrett, but without him, there would never have been a band called Pink Floyd and none of the later work they recorded without him. They've recently released a COMPLETE boxed set of everything, if you can afford it, that's nicely remastered, and they are releasing comprehensive "immersion sets" of the classic albums such as Dark Side and WYWH which include several disks worth of obscure demos and alternate takes/remasterings, if you're into that.

Now, if only Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour would patch up their long running battle of egos and get back together with Nick Mason... what I wouldn't pay to see the real deal one final time before they're gone.

On the Turning Away - I imagine most righties would want this one retired, but it is an anthem that needs to be played in the House right now!

I don't know if I agree, Money and ABITW Pt. 2 is overplayed but their albums are 1.) very diverse and 2.) they aren't designed for singles (although they are cut into singles on the radio). They are full concepts that are really an entire piece. Have you ever heard a floyd song on the radio and here the disgusting 'cut' at the end? BTW, I've been listening to 'Obscured By Clouds' a lot lately. You can find a lot of "obscured" stuff in their catalog. To each their own I guess, but I can listen to Meddle, WYWH or Animals any day of the week.

Hey Tbone-2440509 Leave Pink Floyd alone. When it comes right down to it I think I can count on one hand the number of rock bands formed after the year 2000 who album I have bought. Maybe I am getting old or maybe the quality of the music is just not the same. Me I think the quality of the music is just not as good. How many songs recored in the last 10 years do you think will still be played on radio 10 years from now much less 40 years from now. You might be tired of Stairway to Heaven or Freebird but i'm not and I bet they will still get air play 40 years from now.

LOVE Pink Floyd! For those who haven't listened to their songs before DSOTM, give it a try. Danny Caufield, I'm right with you re: 'Obscured By Clouds'. It's one of my favorite Floyd albums, and I've been playing it a lot lately (just listened to it this AM). 'Wots...Uh, The Deal' is one of my favorites. My kids like 'A Pillow of Winds' from 'Meddle'. Great music.

I'm sorry; I'm so very, very sorry (you get a cookie if you can figure out where I got that particular apology from), but I'm just not a Pink Floyd fan. However, BrownsBacker, in response to this comment of yours "Would love for the kids to sit and enjoy this music but the short attention span bursts they put out now doesn't allow them to sit and listen to an album all the way through. As a matter of fact I don't know when they have ever listened to a full CD," I do listen to full CDs. It just has to be by an artist I like. I can listen to American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown all the way through any day, because Green Day has put together what I feel are two of the next great rock operas-and I don't think I'm alone, since American Idiot was turned into a Broadway musical.

Listen to what you want, but leave these alone for those of us who love listening to them.

I'm loading Led IV right now!

Long live Rock and Roll.

Retiring Stairway to Heaven would be Sacrilegious. Zep, Stones, Beatles, Clapton, all the rest are my life from like 8th. grade on. The younger generations will be totally robbed of the best music ever written. I grew up in a renaissance of music... the Birds, Yardbirds, CSNY Buffalo Springfield, Paul Butterfield, and so many more. Start retiring the really good stuff and the next generation will never hear it, never appreciate it. What a sad world it would be indeed.

Starway is probably the best Rock song ever written. I think it plays on the radio because it IS so great. Don't retire songs, let them live on for generation after generation. It's the right thing to do.

Alex Smith, you're a dumb-assed nimrod. Go listen to your friggin' Yanni and Jim Neighbors cassettes and leave rock to the people who understand it and enjoy it. Jeesh, who lets these numbskulls write articles?

Shouldn't call names, not even to an author of silly articles; but really - Let's see, whom do I listen to in today's artists: Lady Gaga, maybe; Nickelback, Joe Bonamassa, Robert Plant (oh,him!), Blackmore's Night/Rainbow; probably a few more, but it really isn't worth it. I need to bang my head, and that means real metal!

Caught Bonamassa in concert in April. That guy is the greatest! What a show!!

I call them as I see them and Alex fits the bill. He shouldn't be allowed to discuss music.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Those songs make me happy!

Agreed as far as playing these songs. Jimmy's solo on Stairway NEVER EVER EVER gets old (and this from a fan of guys like Petrucci, Romeo and Gambale, who all have chops Page couldn't touch. Doesn't matter. He was a genius).

Vicmic

If you cant play Stairway, youre not a guitar player, I dont think Ive ever met a player who couldnt play it.

Just shows me that the guy may listen to the music but he doesn't "hear" it.

Try iTunes radio

-------------------------------------

Stairway is the only one I would want to keep...but then why retire something that may give someone else on the planet a little enjoyment! Play Stairway at my funeral and then retire it!

I have only heard Stairway on the radio three times in the last 10 yrs anyway! "Pick on something else!" like a politician!

FREE SPEECH!!!!

Actually - you cannot retire a classic, that's why they are classics! So the whole discussion is mute!

What does this writer want to hear, Justin Beeber or whatever his name is...you know the kid that still wants his binky!

Agreed on the Billy Joel. More "Pressure," less "Still Rock'n'Roll." I'm not sure I've ever heard "Scenes..."

/43

I'm not only confused with the song choice but how did Billy Joel even get on this list? Has he been relevant, even on a classic stations, over the last ten years?

You have it right Mark T. All you have to do is listen to what is out there today. I have a nephew that has a band and the only reason I have their music is that he is family. I could never understand why these performers of today have to grab themselves it does not help their music at all. Bring on the classic rock. Don't get me wrong there are few I listen to like ZZ Top, Queen and few more but there are only a few songs I like. Just like with micheal j he only 2 songs that I would listen to Billy Jean and Beat It the rest of his songs I did not like nor would watch his shows I thought they were junk. I have a few records that went gold that have never been played from Elvis, The Beatles, Jefferson Air Plane, and Paul and Simon still in the original covers. Long live the real Rock and Roll. One other song White Rabbit is also good.

wow....Bob Seger? Really? I was not a big Seger fan at all back when he was "in", but, lately when I hear one of his songs, I'm like "damn, that's a pretty good song".

maybe because I spent all my time turning the station when he came on back in the day, so now they don't sound so bad.

Dream On — Aerosmith, Symphony for the devil_Rolling Stones, We will rock you— Queen

O love all these bands, but i even leave these songs off my ipod when i transfer them, enough is enough, thay all have HUNDREDS of other good songs.

Are you kidding Me?!!!!!!! Turn the channel if you don't like Seger.

Is it just me, or does Bob Seger always sound horribly constipated? OOOOOHHHH! LIKE A ROCK! And, sorry, but a guy who writes songs about disillusionment and the existential angst of aging to be selling same songs to sell trucks in commercials in NFL games seems kind of disingenuous.

Never ever retire Stairway to Heaven. That is a true classic by one of the greatest bands of all time.

The rest - Bye Bye. Especially the doors and FREEBIRD.

No, don't retire ANY of them. And need to play more Erik Burdon and the Animals, especially We've got to get out of this place and Sky Pilot. Two classics while I was in Vietnam. And stations really must play Marianne Faithfull - Come and Stay with Me - what a song, I could barely hear it on Armed forces Radio when I was up at the DMZ in 1968/69 Sigh.

Let's kill Freebird, but I will fight for my right to hear "Gimme Three Steps" ad nauseam.

.

No more Free Bird. EVER.

LR Lucas - You are right on my friend. I was raised right in the middle of all the change, chose to go to Vietnam in '66, but my girlfriend sent me all the good music on 45's and 33 1/3'ds and I played them in Vietnam when Armed Forces Radio wouldn't, so we DID have the good stuff over there in some places, at least up at the DMZ.

I think you are wrong, Mercenary. Every generation says this....our music was the best. Our music will last. this crap today...is crap. Every single generation.

The people listening to rap/hip hop/R&B today are not going to wake up 10-20 years from now and all of a sudden go, "you know the music I was raised on, sucks...it's my parent's music that really rocks!"

Just doesn't happen. Our music is our music, and will always be the best....and the next gen;s music is their music and will always be the best and so on.

I try to keep an open mind to that. I dont even want to sound like my parents when it comes to this topic. And guess what...you sound like your parents!

I try to keep an open mind to that. I dont even want to sound like my parents when it comes to this topic. And guess what...you sound like your parents!

Absolutely!

The early Beatles made my dad apoplectic! "What's with all that screaming? It's not real music, it's just noise. When I was your age, we listened to Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman - now there's music they'll be playing when the world has forgotten these long-haired hoodlums."

Needless to say, his opinion of popular music did not improve as time wore on. He was sour on everyone from Elvis through Madonna. He particularly disliked Godsmack (don't ask).

For the most part, we tend to be fans of whatever was popular when we were in our late teens and twenties.

Rob & Arnold...

To a certain degree you are correct with your generation comment.

However, because of the digital media age and access to perform, record and release new music with little or no effort or talent it has become much easier to clutter the airwaves. Unfortunately this will continue to excelerate with the growth of the internet & digital media.

Where in the past it required some talent, skills, and a great deal of effort to make & release popular music due to the simple mechanics of writing, performing, recording and publishing in the past it limited the number of artists that could be heard at all. Now we have the digital age where there are too many artist with too little talent, and they all get play time.

This has caused the labels to create artists (Katy Perry as an example) they promote in an attempt to make a "return on investment" and the problem is that most labels have adopted this method to making money in the music biz...which really has nothing to do with representing a generation with music of its own anymore ...

Keep in mind...the very 1st popular "Rap- Hip Hop" single was based on an Aerosmith tune......so much for the creativity of current contemporary music. Songs like "Stairway to Heaven" will never be written again......

I aint but 16 but I'm with you. Stairway is it!

Alexander ... I too am getting long in the tooth. 49 to be exact. I grew up with an older brother who played in a band and many of the songs mentioned were their bread and butter. But I grew tired of hearing them over and over again and quit listening.

After years -- perhaps decades -- of avoiding many of these songs and the stations that play them, I am rediscovering them almost as if they were new. My most recent "crush" is Janis Joplin. Damn that lady could sing.

Well, I'm 60, and a rock & roll musician, and I totally agree with the author...Give it a rest. Radio is so bad here in the Bay Area, that I listen to news, or sports talk on the car radio. I don't have any of these tunes on my ipod either...

Folks, I'm 64 - will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm 64? Ha! Ha!, Anyway, no, never retire any of them, I played them for my kids and my grandkids and people can have my 45's and 33 1/3'ds when they pry them from the fingers of my cold dead hands. Most of my records are getting up to 40 or 50 years old and still sound great. Most of them been to Vietnam and back. Long Live Rock and Roll.

Until the radio is playing the likes of Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Symphony X and Pagan's Mind, I'll stick with stations that play "Stairway to Heaven" and "Hotel California." Guess that'll be forever.

Oh!, also all I hear about on here are ipods, for God's sake folks you haven't really heard Rock and Roll if you haven't heard vinyl on a good turn table with 12" woofers and a 1970 sound system. I could still blow the windows out of my neighbors houses for a quarter mile to this day, but I use restraint because I'm 64 now and I'm not suppose to act like that anymore (NOT).

If music were your life, you'd be talking about stuff you love to hear. There's too much good music out there to beat on what you don't like. I'm the first to admit that I'm a music snob but for me to ask someone else to stop listening to what they love is a crime to me.

Like A Veteran I am in my mid 60s and would not trade any of these songs for what is out there today. Like him I have 100s of records that will go to family and hope they will enjoy them as much as I do and right now I am listening to Deuces and Eights. Bet most of you don't even remember that one. My husband brought that one back from Nam, it was big in the area where he was.

More Allman Brothers!

More Allman Brothers!

Steve: THANK YOU, BROTHER! Actually, reading some of these comments makes me feel like I've been tied to the whipping post!

Let me get this straight. you were born in 1967 so

in 1967 you were 0 years old when the Door's released The Doors.

in 1971 you were 4 years old when Zeppelin IV was released.

in 1973 you were 6 years old when Skynyrd's Freebird was released

in 1976 you were 9 years old when Eagles release Hotel California.

in 1977 your were 10 years old when Joel's Stranger was released

And you think you have the right to "retire" these songs? Some one spank this snot nosed kid and send him home!

Antiochcat

And smeared with Mountain Jam! God bless Duane Allman!

THANK YOU! Well said! These pups who grew up with the Jonas Brothers and Britney Spears think they know music? Oh, PLEASE! And on a side-note, how many of these 'music authorities' ever heard John Lee Hooker or Gatemouth Brown or Sonny Boy Williams or Robert Johnson or Sun House or Koko Taylor or Bessie Smith, etc? What's the phrase: 'The past is prologue'? If you don't know where you came from, you don't know where you're going. I think that's where American music is today and why such nonsense as this article gets written. And it's also why I still get all warm and runny when I hear Cream's version of 'Crossroads'.

Bless Duane indeed. The greatest guitarist of our time (even Clapton kind of acknowledged it; though Stevie Ray Vaughn was close). It still hurts to think of what he could be producing today were he still with us. Beyond the soul, he was a great technician. That's I think the difference between Duane and Vaughn and Clapton; they were all technically incredible, but Duane had the soul, his solos went right through you and touched nerves.

Unfortunately, while Alex may be 44 and music is his life, research obviously isn't important. Jim Morrison did not write "Light My Fire". Even the laziest researcher could determine that. It zeroes in on the fact that you, for the most part, have no idea what you are talking about.

If any Joel song needs retired, and none do, it would be "Piano Man". Hands down.

Antiochcat

To take a silly song like First There Was a Mountain and turn it into Mountain Jam speaks to sheer brilliance. Just before he died he was working on Favorite Things from Sound of Music, I would have loved to hear what they could have done wit it. I wish Duane and Clapton would have done more together, they seemed to bring out the best in each other.

Really? Like a little fix of 'Satisfaction' or ' Sympathy for the Devil' wouldn't make your morning commute? I have been stuck in traffic on the way to work in the morning (back when I had a JOB!) and could tell who was listening to the same station as me because all the drivers were singing the same song. You could read their lips... 'PLEASED TO MEEEEET YOUUUUU! WON'T YOU GUESS MY NAAAAAMMME!' And even when the radio's not on, and I'd be sitting in traffic, I would find the words 'I can't get no... SATISFACTION!' running through my brain. That stuff will never grow tired or old as it hooks into a part of our collective psyche. It's primeval and organic and it speaks to all the crap you know you will be dealing with during the day. It can never get overplayed because, esp. if you are of a certain age, it is hardwired into your DNA, much like The Doors (I always wondered how many kids 'The End' sent to therapy because they found themselves fearfully empathizing with the narrative portion.).

Curt, not sure about the Stones, but I agree on retiring Maggie May.

How many of the bands in our times changed their names to fit with the crowd of today. How many didn't. I remember a few and did changing their names really do them any good? I still remember seeing Jimmy Hendrick in person boy could he make that guitar talk. Chuck Berry was another one I got to see and The Rolling Stones of course that was back in the day but then we all needed something back then didn't we.

Kansas'Shame.....I Agree.......I Am 64 and also a Viet Nam Vet, Went to Woodstock in (69) This music is classic. Take your Rap, and White Boys yelling through a rasppy voice, these song won't even be classic, after they fall off the charts. I still listen to them and Mario Lanza. Remember without Blues, Doo Wop, Motown, you would not have Rock n Roll today.

You hit the nail on the head. Classic rock station in any week period seldom play any more than 50 songs. It's too frigging repetitive.

I don't think the author is slamming the bands...he's roasting radio, and radio deserves to be ridiculed. Honest...Jimi Hendrix recorded more than 3 songs...I've heard them...lol

I havent heard anybody mention Creedence, think of all the hits they have had.

All Courtney's doing is offering her honest opinion on the shelf life of songs she feels she hears too often on classic rock radio. Why does everyone want to bash her so much? If it's because of the places the songs hold in history, not everyone keeps that in mind every time we hear them. Sometimes we just want to listen for listening pleasure's sake, and when we do that we get tired of things. If it's just because she bashes what you like, please stop being such a fascist.

This isn't even an article, per se. It's nothing more than a cheezy amateur blog.
Wait...it isn't even that!...my apologies to cheezy amateur bloggers worldwide!

@economykiller - you hit the nail right on the head!
It's as if you took the words right out of my mouth.

But why stop there???
Let's eliminate Shakespeare and Dickens, etc.
Never mind, some other idiot tried that 70 years ago.

I love how these kids want to blow off the classics,
yet they can't help but try to create [really bad] remakes of them.

It's been 40 years and we're still banging our heads and wailing "...and she's buying a stairway to heaven".
I can see it now [NOT]...in 40 years, idiots running around singing "Po-po-po-poker face" or "London, London, London, London!". LMAO!!!

Don't forget Bing Crosby's White Christmas. Who wants to listen to that every Christmas season :-)