From the late-60s to the mid-80s or from the end of Rock n’ Roll to pre-Grunge. The Classic Rock songs listed are uptempo, unrelenting blasts of power. All of the songs listed have a kick ass guitar – which was a major factor in making the list. Here Are The Top 10 #10. Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf Written by Mars Bonfire (Dennis Edmonton, brother of the band’s drummer Jerry), the song was featured in the 1968 film “Easy Rider.”  It’s sometimes described as the first Heavy Metal song (it’s not – more Hard Rock) but the song does have the second-verse lyric “heavy metal thunder” (referencing a motorcycle) and was the first use of this term in Rock music.  “Born To Be Wild,” in some form or another, has been heard extensively in commercials and films – usually in the context of “breaking free” from some oppressive situation. #9. You Really Got Me – Van Halen Always dangerous for a new band to cover a classic. In this case it was The Kinks mid-60s hit. “You Really Got Me” was the first single off Van Halen’s self-titled debut album. A stunning introduction to say the least. However, guitarist Eddie Van Halen had a problem with producer Ted Templeton’s decision to lead with that song. “It kind of bummed me out that Ted wanted our first single to be someone else’s tune. I would have maybe picked “Jamie’s Cryin'” just because it was our own.” It was released first because another band, hearing that Van Halen was recording the song, tried to get their version out ahead of Van Halen. The Kinks guitarist Dave Davies remembers one Kinks concertgoer congratulating him on performing a “great cover of the Van Halen song.” #8. All Along The Watchtower – The Jimi Hendrix Experience Hendrix worked slavishly on “All Along The Watchtower,” a Bob Dylan song. With numerous overdubs getting laid down, then erase to make room for new overdubs. At one point the Experience bassist Noel Redding walked out frustrated. During another sessions, Dave Mason (Traffic) played twelve-string acoustic guitar and Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) added percussion including the dry rattles featured in the intro. By the end of the sessions, Hendrix had 16 tracks for mixing. Released as a single it peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s on the “Electric Ladyland” album – Hendrix’s third and final set with The Experience. Over the years, Dylan came to play “Watchtower” closer to Hendrix’s version than his own. “I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way,” noted Dylan. “Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.” The Hendrix version has been heard in several films often as a cue that dark times have arrived, The track has become inexorably linked through film usage to the Vietnam War. #7. Revolution – The Beatles Political unrest in the U.S. and England over the Vietnam War, campus unrest in France and anti-communist protests in Poland led John Lennon to write the song while The Beatles were in India studying Transcendental Meditation. The song was completed when he returned to England. “I thought it was about time we spoke about it, the same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnamese war (in 1966). I had been thinking about it up in the hills in India.” The Hard Rock version of the song, which was released as a single after being the B-side of “Hey Jude,” begins with a “machine gun” guitar and a scream by Paul McCartney. The original slow Blues take of the appeared on “The Beatles” (a.k.a. “The White Album”).   #6. Suffragette City – David Bowie Before recording the song himself, Bowie offered “Suffragette City” to Mott The Hoople, a band he greatly admired, in a effort to forestall their break-up. The group declined but recorded Bowie’s “All The Young Dudes” instead. It became Mott The Hoople’s biggest hit. The song’s riff was composed by Bowie but driven home by Mick Ronson’s muscular guitar. Also, an ARP synthesizer was used to mimic a sax while the piano part was heavily influence by Little Richard. Suffragette City” was initially released in ’72 as the B-side of Bowie’s single “Starman” and was the penultimate track on his fifth studio album “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.” #5. London Calling – The Clash “We felt that we were struggling about to slip down a slope or something, grasping with our fingernails. And there was no one there to help us,” commented Joe Strummer, who wrote the song with bandmate Mick Jones. Written in 1979, the song references the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, the River Thames flood and police brutality. The lyrics also reflect The Clash’s desperate situation struggling with high debt, no management and arguing with their record label over whether the “London Calling” album should be a single or double album. It was a double set. “This is London calling …”, which was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to occupied countries. #4. Detroit Rock City – KISS “Detroit really embraced us before any other city,” remembered KISS guitarist Paul Stanley. “We were an opening act everywhere else, but in Detroit we were a headliner. It started as a tribute to Detroit, and then it kind of took a left turn, because we played Charlotte once, and somebody coming to the arena was killed in an accident. And I thought how bizarre that somebody on their way to something so life affirming loses their life. So there’s a juxtaposition in that song about singing about how great Detroit is, and actually about someone going to the show who doesn’t make it.” #3. Paranoid – Black Sabbath “The song ‘Paranoid’ was written as an afterthought,” said Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler. “We basically needed a 3-minute filler for the album, and Tony (Iommi) came up with the riff. I quickly did the lyrics, and Ozzy (Osbourne) was reading them as he was singing.” #2. Rock n’ Roll – Led Zeppelin The band was getting frustrated trying to finish “Four Sticks” when John Bonham began playing the drum intro to Little Richard’s “Keep A-Knockin.” Guitarist Jimmy Page started playing a Chuck Berry style riff. Bassist John Paul Jones and vocalist Robert Plant joined in. After an initial improvised run-through the song was finished in fifteen minutes. Forty years later, “Rock and Roll” became the first Led Zeppelin song to be licensed for commercial use, when Cadillac featured it in television advertising. “I think that’s appropriate,” Plant commented. “I don’t know how people view it, but as far as a young generation goes, if you hear that music in as many possible places as you can outside of the normal home for it, then it can only be a good thing.” Zeppelin earned a large licensing fee while the advertising campaign increased Cadillac sales by 16% in ’02 #1. Welcome To The Jungle – Guns N’ Roses GN’R guitarist Izzy Stradlin once said the song was “about Hollywood streets; true to life.” It’s ironic that the song’s lyrical origins were 3,000 miles away. Singer Axl Rose claimed the lyrics were inspired by an encounter he and a friend had with a homeless man in New York. Trying to put a scare into the runaways, the man yelled, “You know where you are? You’re in the jungle baby; you’re gonna die!,” “It was a very telling lyric – just the stark honesty of it,” said guitarist Slash. “If you lived in Los Angeles – and lived in the trenches, so to speak – you could relate to it.”[ “Welcome To The Jungle,” which peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, has been heard in 20 films and in a handful of video games. Kerrang named “Welcome To The Jungle” as Guns N’ Roses’ “greatest song” and Blender (another music magazine) named it the “greatest song about Los Angeles” in an ’06 poll. ### The post Classic Rock’s Top 10 Greatest Songs appeared first on RockinTown.