Most Epic Rock Songs Ever (Revised)

This is the compendium of the most epic rock and metal songs ever! No other lists matter. This is the list.

Note: For all of you idiots out there, epic does not necessarily mean badass or cool, or some other quality found in a "good" song. Epic is grand is scope -- it is a song that takes you on a journey.

Legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple; Rainbow).

His bands make two appearances on this list.

20) Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas
19) You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth by Meat Loaf 
18) Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf 
17) I'd Do Anything For Love by Meat Loaf
16) Love, Reign O'er Me by The Who

15) Baba O'Riley by The Who (suggestion made by Eric Sedler)

14) Paradise City by Guns 'N' Roses (suggestion made by Dan Blum and Eric Sedler)
13) One by Metallica
12) Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
11) Fade to Black by Metallica
10) Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden
9) Civil War by Guns 'N' Roses
8) Mistreated by Ritchie Blackmore/Rainbow
7) Estranged by Guns 'N' Roses
6) Victim of Changes by Judas Priest
5) 2112 by Rush

2112 (The Opening)

As the song is 20+ minutes I just posted the opening part here.

It would have been higher if it played like one song, but instead

it plays more like 5-6 linked songs.

4) Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin

Stairway to Heaven

It would have a higher score if it's build-up was shorter.

3) Child in Time by Deep Purple

Child in Time

Epic epic song, it has a good build up and nice crescendo.
It would have beat November Rain if Ian Gillan's voice
was less squealy.

2) November Rain by Guns 'N' Roses

November Rain

Beautiful/weird music video, and epic Slash playing on guitar.
Perfect mix of vocals and piano.

1) Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Free Bird

The studio version is better (with the organ). Only organ beats piano,

just like rock beats scissors, just like the North beat the south.

Most Mentions
1) Guns 'N' Roses (with 4 songs)
2) Meat Loaf (with 3)
3) Ritchie Blackmore (with 2 (1 in Deep Purple, 1 in Rainbow))
4) The Who (with 2)
5) Metallica (with 2)

If you think your list is better -- don't care -- suck it.

Notable Mentions: 21st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson), The Ballad of Billy the Kid (Billy Joel), Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden), Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath), Rainbow in the Dark (Dio), Paradise by the Dashboard Light (Meat Loaf), Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin), The End (The Doors).

Jack's Music Shoppe

Jack's Music Shoppe. If you are an idiot like me you pronounce the e on the end. Shop-ee. Jack's Music Shoppe is an awesome music store in downtown Red Bank, NJ. Ever since I purchased my record player several years ago I've been going there to sift through their thousands of old vinyls.

Quaint storefront, but turns into a music compendium inside.

I made a trip to the Shop-ee today to see what kind of records they have before making my dreaded return to Virginia. I picked up five vinyls of badassery plus a CD.

1) Made in Japan by Deep Purple. This is an awesome live album by one of the metal founding fathers. A classic, which I picked up for $2.99. The cover is in rough shape, but I'm sure the vinyl will play well, the Shop-ee has never done me dirty.

2) CSNY's Deja Vu. This is another classic album. It was released in 1970, and followed up on CSN's first release, but now included Neil Young... who is one of my favorite artists. I got it for $3.99. Not bad. The cover is in pretty good condition -- I'd say good or very good.

3) Live Rust by Neil Young. This is an epic album. Released in 1979 it includes live performances of Sugar Mountain, There Comes a Time, Hey Hey My My, After the Gold Rush, The Needle and the Damage Done, Cinnamon Girl, and Like a Hurricane. The cover is in modest condition at best, but it was well worth the $3.99. Some might say it is one of the better live rock albums of all time. I'd agree.

4) Perfect Strangers by Deep Purple. There isn't much special about this record other than having a fairly memorable cover. I got it for $1.99. This album was released in 1984 when Deep Purple reformed as version II, but they never could pull off their original epic-ness. Like I said, I do like the cover though.

5) The Magician's Birthday by Uriah Heep. This was probably the coolest album I picked up because I was not expecting to see anything by Uriah Heep. It is an original 1972 Uriah Heep album. It isn't one of their best, but it does include the songs Sunrise and Sweet Lorraine -- which are amongst their best. I picked it up for $1.99, which is a good deal. The cover is pretty beat up, but that doesn't bother me much. Based on the cover art, I'd say the album was released during a time when it was still acceptable to be a hippie.

6) CD. Obsessions by UFO. I picked up this CD while at the Shop-ee. They have more obscure bands there. It has been hard to find UFO CD's other than their "best of" compilation. UFO isn't really obscure obscure, but they surely aren't an Usher. Obsessions (1978) is one of their better albums. It doesn't have Doctor Doctor on it (which is my favorite UFO song), but it has some good jams, like Only You Can Rock Me, and Cherry.

"I wish I wasn't just passing through..."

I will definitely be playing these records on my record player when I get back to Virginia this Saturday -- you should join me. Until then I'll just have to settle for jams on the new iPod that Santa brought me.

The Founding Founders: Led Zeppelin

The early Rock pantheon is occupied by only a few hallowed souls. But who makes this short list? Where did the best genre of music come from? We have to consider, at least, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin as the primary founders. If these bands were late 18th Century American statesmen, then they would rank up there with Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton... undoubtedly.



Indeed, veritable historians believe that the two histories -- that of the American founding and of Heavy Metal -- may have been intertwined. Some recently discovered evidence indicates that Ben Franklin was a satanist, and that he mistook Black Sabbath as an ally. In fact, Black Sabbath wasn't a Satan tribute band, and in addition, they were quite the opposite of an ally. Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin, being ENGLISH, were the enemy! (duh)

Veritable historians believe that Ben Franklin

may have been the first Black Sabbath fan... and a satanist.  

Because of Mr. Franklin's mis-perception of the Founding Fathers of Heavy Metal ("FFHM"), he adamantly supported them. At late hours, eyewitnesses occasionally saw him wearing heavy metal t-shirts -- which must have been really odd apparel for the time period. He was also seen shopping at Hot Topic once.

One of Mr. Franklin's other favorite bands was the mighty Led Zeppelin. This morning I heard one of their songs playing over the system in my apartment building... which is awesome, by the way. Quick aside: My building plays some random ass music, but it's always awesome -- from 99 Luft Balons to Land Down Under (hilarious music video).


You should know who Led Zeppelin is. If you don't, then I hate you, and you should rethink your life. I mean seriously, Led Zep has become a music icon... unlike Uriah Heep (whom I'll cover in a post down the line). Zeppelin started in 1968, and by the 70's were in full swing as (what I call) a proto-metal hard rock band. They did crap-tons of drugs, and probably sexed lots of women. They are often cited as one of the FFHM, contemporaneous with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

Now, it is hard to say exactly where metal came from -- most say Black Sabbath, which is likely -- but there are some examples of early songs that were very metal indeed. In-a-gadda-da-vida is surely a proto-metal song, but Iron Butterfly, despite having a kick ass freggin' name, were quite low on the Iron, and very high on the Butterfly (and drugs, I mean c'mon "In-a-gadda-da-vida"? Really? In the garden of eden, perhaps?). So while you have an early band, with a kick ass song, and name, the band was definitely not metal. They are like the Vikings discovering America -- they discovered the best thing in the world, once, but they just didn't recognize it at the time.

Leif Ericsson c. 1000 A.D.

Some fools actually cite a Beatles song (Ticket to Ride) as an early metal song. The Beatles were the Beatles. They were good at what they did, I guess. But they were not metal... please. I really don't see a plausible argument for saying the song Ticket to Ride is metal.. at all. Proponents say that it is metal because of its repetitive bass line. ...Well those people are idiots, and clearly know nothing about metal (after all, they are Beatles fans). See, e.g., Cliff Burton; Steve Harris; Geddy Lee (for an example of an epic bass-player-front-man with a metal as shit voice (at 4:07; also, the RUSH guys look like they are having lots of fun early-on in this video)).

So, in conclusion, "they are who we thought they were" -- Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zep are the real founding fathers.

Have a happy thanksgiving everyone!