Dude, What’s That Chord?

Gibson’s Top 10 Songs For Six-String Beginners brings back some memories.

It’s the list of songs all beginners start with, the ones that drive the music store employees and patrons nuts, they say.

Here’s the list:

Sweet Child O’ Mine – GNR

Eruption – Van Halen

Wild Thing – The Troggs

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Dylan

Rockin’ In The Free World – Neil Young

Smoke On The Water – Deep Purple

Iron Man – Sabbath

Seventh Nation Army – White Stripes

Working Class Hero – John Lennon

No Rain – Blind Melon

Eruption?  Really?  For beginners?

Wild Thing would have been on the list when I started out.  As would House Of The Rising Sun, Satisfaction, Gloria, Twist And Shout, Blowing In The Wind, Spoonful, Whole Lotta Love and Purple Haze.

And, like Smoke On The Water, who ever learned all of Purple Haze?

Interesting that Lennon replaced The Beatles and Dylan replaced himself.

At my school, guitar players were a community, and we all taught stuff to each other – even if it was wrong.  There was no internet, there were no tabs, no YouTube lessons, and if you picked up the needle and dropped it too many times, you would toast the record.  If you could afford it you could buy sheet music and songbooks, but the riffs were always missing and the chords were usually wrong.

Still not sure about Eruption, but what I hear kids playing in music stores definitely reflects a higher level of skill than it was in my day.  Chalk one up for the internet. 

I hope the community thing is still going on, though.  That was the best part of learning.

Jalopy Rock

Gibson has this list of 10 Great Garage Rock Bands.

The intro talks about garage rock as both primitive and singles-oriented (not self-contradicting?) while Wikipedia describes garage rock as raw and amateurish - and punkish.

To me, rock and roll is punkish by definition. Three chords and a message (even if it's only complaining about the cheerleader who doesn't notice you) - that's the essence of rock and roll. Everything else is just window dressing - or pretense.

Anyway, here's the list:
The Count Five
Flamin' Groovies
13th Floor Elevators
The Seeds
The Troggs
MC5
The Electric Prunes
The Kingsmen
The Stooges
The Velvet Underground

Note to Gibson: not sure I buy that Jimi Hendrix loved The Troggs. I always felt his whole Wild Thing thing at Monterey was a put on.

The point of Gibson's list is who were the pioneers, so it is a pretty good list. Otherwise I might have said: where's Camper van Beethoven, The Northern Pikes, The Smithereens, or even George Thorogood? Not that any of these sounded amateurish.

It's not that I admire poor production of sloppy musicianship, but to me it's the feel of the music, not the degree to which it sounds professional. It's about raw rock and roll. So, my list would also include Creedence, The Kinks, The Status Quo, even The Stones and Neil Young.

We're talking genres, right? And a genre is about style and attitude, not commercial success, and certainly not ability. I mean, if Keef isn't punk then I don't know who is!