Lately I’ve discovered a troubling trend among people my age and my friends. A lot of them have no concept of how great older songs are. I’ve noticed it especially on road trips, they’ll say that they’ve never heard of a song that I thought everyone under the sun knew. Now I preface this by saying I am by no means a music aficionado but there are songs that I can’t fathom people being unaware of. I spent most of my teenage years listening to the same songs over and over on the pop stations, never really enjoying them even though my friends raved about them. I never got into T-Swift or Kanye or Beyonce, though I did have a serious Maroon 5 phase. It wasn’t until I got into classic rock, which varied from Fleetwood Mac soft rock to Nirvana grunge, that I felt like I was connecting to the lyrics and actually liking the music. These were the songs that I felt like I’d been missing out on, the ones that I’d not wanted to listen to because it wasn’t what my friends liked but instead it was my parent’s music. A scary thought but a genre I delved into anyway. I’ve compiled a list of songs below that are quality listens if you are considering branching out into the genre, which is incredibly broad with sub-generes. This list could go well past 20 songs but this is a good start with a lot of variety and they’re all songs that are definitely worth knowing.
1. “Blackbird” by the Beatles
2. “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
3. “Desperado” by The Eagles
4. “Friend of the Devil” by Grateful Dead
5. “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison
6. “Renegade” by Styx
7. “Hard to Handle” by the Black Crows
8. “Walk this Way” by Aerosmith
9. “Gypsy” by Fleetwood Mac
10. “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty
11. “White Room” by Cream
12. “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart
13. “Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses
14. “Better Man” by Pearl Jam
15. “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana
16. “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie
17. “Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed
18. “Going to California” by Led Zeppelin
19. “Barracuda” by Heart
20. “Piano Man” by Billy Joel
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