Vanished From The Megahertz (1)

I am by no means a fan of the classic rock radio format. To me, listening to music that was starting to fade away when I was in high school ('79-'83) on any kind of regular basis is nauseating. While the hits that those particular bands die a thousand paper cuts on commercial radio, I actually don't mind listening to those bands entire body of work. Problem is, the only way to do that is to either dig out your old vinyl/c.d. reissues or listen to college radio.

Having said that, there are bands from that classic rock era, that for whatever reason have been regulated to the junk heap by the technocrats that run commercial radio, which I actually miss listening to.

The other day, I was listening to one of the man adult rock radio stations that pepper the country while driving to work one morning, and one of the two overly played Foreigner songs, "Jukebox Hero", came on the radio.

While the cheese grater vocals of Mick Jones was making my skin crawl (not sure who is worse, Mick Jones or Dave Mustaine), my brain started thinking about all of those so called "classic rock" bands that aren't being played on commercial radio stations.

What follows is by no means a comprehensive list, because even though it would be incredibly fun to do, I don't have that kind of time to kill. So, without further ado, here are the first half of my short list of bands who have disappeared from the airways.

Bad Co.

This band fits perfectly the definition of classic rock: radio hit, late 70's to just within the 80's presence. I always enjoyed listening to Bad Co., and my first Bad Co. album was High Rollers, which featured the song "Shooting Star". I have a couple other Bad Co. albums (Running With The Pack and Bad Co.), both of which have what are considered to be classic rock hits. But except for a cover of their hit "Bad Company", nothing can be found of them on the commercial FM dial. you might find them on college radio, but realistically, the only way you can probably listen to them is via Pandora radio.

By the way, they still have what I consider to be the best jacket photo for a 45. For the song "Smoke Without Fire", the have a picture of a child about the age of six, dressed in a 40's fashion motif, lighting a cigarette.

The Firm

Paul Rodgers & Jimmy Page's best known other band. They had two very good albums in the mid 80's (certainly qualifies as classic rock by today's myopic standards), with a couple of decent size radio hits that were overkilled then and should be overkilled today. But due to the powers that be, not a not is to be heard on the FM dial.

The Guess Who

This band simply screams classic rock. With more than enough radio friendly hits to choke a horse and people like Lenny Kravitz covering their music, they should be all over the FM dial. I mean, they are an anal retentive radio programmers wet dream. Music like theirs brings in the listeners, which means the bucks for advertising (I'm being a realist here), and yet, not a peep is heard of them on any kind of adult rock or classic rock format. If you love The Guess Who (or Burton Cummings for that matter), they came out with a very good live double album in the mid 80's called "The Best of The Guess Who Live", which features all of their FM hits plus a few lesser knowns, and features all of the original members.