The George Lite Zone

50 Definitive Classic Rock albums, 100 posts on the George Lite Zone, there's a symmetry there of sorts. The second entry on planet rocks definitive album list is an old favourite of mine, Pump by Aerosmith. There are some albums were every track is a dyed in the wool classic. Some bands make a plethora of them, while for some this musical summit comes along once in a lifetime. For Aerosmith the achiement was reached with Pump where each offering hits the bulls eye and then some. Ripping into the groove with Young Lust , sneaking up on you with extreme sleaziness with F.I.N.E , going down with Love in An Elevator , slide guitar par excellence on Monkey on My Back before the sublime Jamies Got a Gun segues into the wonderful The Other Side . My Girl chugs along quite nicely before the digereedoo takes you into the anthemic Don't Get Mad Get Even . The Doorsesque opening Hoodo-Voodoo Medicine Man kicks in next, with the album finishing on a high with the excellent What It ...

First off the block in Planet Rock's 50 Derivative Classic Albums is AC/DC's (that Scottish band) Back In Black. An album for which the word classic was invented. For me there are two derivative AC/DC albums, this one and Highway to Hell. Highway to Hell has the advantage of Bon Scott's vocals. For me Scott was sleaziness made flesh firing double-entendres and inuendos from the hip like some mad debauched gun slinger (I've still got the new Alan Davey album on the mind). Brian Johnson certainly filled Johnson's boots well enough, but watch a video of the same track performed live by both artists and Scott wins hands down every time for me. However, for the stuff of rock legend Back In Black is probably the AC/DC album to own. Back In Black was released shortly after Scott's death (he died on the 19th of February 1980, it was released a few months later on July 25th). The bell tolling on Hell's Bells still sends shivers down the spine, as does the equally f...

Checking out the Planet Rock website the other day, I spotted yet another list of top Rock Albums. This time it was the top 50 Definitive Classic Rock Albums as voted for by their listeners. AC/DC - Back in Black Aerosmith - Pump Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies Bad Company - Southern Harmony & Musical Companion Black Sabbath - Paranoid Cream - Disraeli Gears Crosby Stills Nash and Young - Deja Vu David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust Deep Purple - Made in Japan ELP - Brain Salad Surgery Eric Clapton - 461 Ocean Boulevard Frank Zappa - Hot Rats Genesis - Selling England by the Pound Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction Hawkwind - In Search of Space Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast Jeff Beck - Truth Jethro Tull - Aqualung Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland Judas Priest - British Steel King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King Kiss - Destroyer Led Zeppelin - Physical Grafiti Lynrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd Marillion - Script for a Jesters Tear Metallica - Justi...