« Wednesday Musical Chairs: I'm Guilty | Main | I really need to get my hair cut* »

ASV Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: A Winner and a New Category:
Best Rock Anthem

crue

Like what I did with the statue? I'm getting all fancy now. I may have to go back and fix the previous three.

Obviously, Crue is the winner in the Hair Metal category, by a wide, wide margin.

Testimonials:

* Because Vince Neil killed the competition (RIP, Hanoi Rocks), Nikki Six returned from the dead, Mick Mars is still at it with a completely fused spine, and Tommy Lee went to college.
* "Girls, Girls, Girls" was my first rock cassette, and I played the hell out of it.
* They started out with leather and studs, switched to lace and makeup and wound up in plain jeans and t-shirts. Their look changed but they continually put out some really great rock songs. Shout at the Devil.
* Clearly the winner has to have an umlaut.

And now that we've had that induction ceremony (I swear, there was a ceremony with flowers and crowns and crying runners-up) we can move on to the next category.

This one will go into the "Songs" wing of the Hall of Fame when it is built (out of legos):

Best Rock Anthems

You know the rock anthem. It's that song that brings the house down. The song that gets played after you've held up your Bic lighter for so long that you have tiny ridges in thumb, the song that makes the crowd stomp their feet so hard that the stadium shakes, the song that they turn the house lights on for so you can see the entire arena rock the fuck out together. It's a band's identifying song, the one that they save for the encore. Got it?

[You can find a starting list here, if you need some ideas]

Update:

For the record, my picks (as of this moment)

We Will Rock You
Rock and Roll All Night and, what should be the clear winner:

For Those About to Rock.

Dude, cannon balls. Come ON.

Comments

The Clash - London Calling
Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot
Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
The Specials - Ghost Town

'Still of the Night' Whitesnake
&
'Rock & Roll All Night' Kiss

Anthems:

Paradise City - G'n'R
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Smells like teen Spirit - Nirvana

And the ultimate bic lighter song:

Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden

No contest. "We Will Rock You" by Queen

You gotta have a Ramones song in the top 100.

Let's go with the one that started it all:

"Blitzkrieg Bop"

These are all older but sorry, so am I!

Ten Years After - I'd love to change the world
UFO - Love to Love (Misty Green and Blue)
AC/DC - It's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock and roll)
Ted Nugent - The Great White Buffalo
Styx - Come Sail Away
Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son
REO Speedwagon - Ridin' the storm out

Rush - Working Man

Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World

I've seen it live twice and both times you couldn't hear Neil singing the chorus because the audience is screaming the lyrics.

Rush - "Working Man"? Nuh-uh. Great song, but "Tom Sawyer", dude. Or "Spirit of Radio". Or "Free Will"

The Who - "Baba O'Reilly"

U2 always did a song called "40" to finish their shows when I saw them in the 90's, but that wasn't a foot-stamper.

But the winner has gotta be Queen - "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions"

Cool Statue, Michele!

Free Bird (Skynrd)
I'm Eighteen (Alice Cooper)
School's Out (Alice Cooper)
My Generation (The Who)

Can't think. Must. Get. Coffee.

Born to Run - Springsteen
Who Are You - The Who
New Year's Day - U2
Layla - Derick & The Dominos/Clapton (original version only, the MTV acoustic version blows)

We're talking "blow the roof off" songs? Well then...
Who: Won't Get Fooled Again; Long Live Rock
Deep Purple: Speed King; Highway Star
Clash: Clash City Rockers
Ramones: Blitzkreig Bop;I Wanna Be Sedated
Joan Jett: Bad Reputation

oh, and
The Jam: Going Underground

There is only one song that comes immediately to my mind when thinking about the lighters up, band-defining, entire-stadium-rocking thing - Freebird. Everybody knows it. When you think Skynyrd, you think Freebird. Even just thinking about the song itself makes me want to lift a lighter high in the air.

Jukebox Hero - Foreigner

Veteran of a Thousand Psychic Wars - BöC

Separate Ways - Journey

Working for the Weekend Loverboy

given as viable alternates to the usual stuff

Boston - More Than a Feeling
Joan Jett - I Love Rock & Roll
Journey - Wheel in the Sky
Rush - Spirit of Radio
Ozzy -Crazy Train
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Judas Priest - Breaking the Law

But I agree with previous posters that the ultimate rock anthem is Queen, "We Will Rock You."

If you are going to put an AC/DC song, you might think "Highway to Hell," or "Thunderstruck." Maybe "Back in Black." But, "FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK" would be on the top of my AC/DC Rock Anthem List.

I would put in a vote for KISS, "Rock and Roll All Night".

"Eye of the Tiger"?---What do you think?
"The Final Countdown"?----A sleeper, but it rocks.

I'd probably agree with Queen's "We Are the Champions."

Rush -

1) Tom Sawyer
2) Working Man
3) Spirit of the Radio

AC/DC

1) For Those About To Rock

KISS -

1) Detroit Rock City

Sammy -

1) Heavy Metal

Definitely "We Will Rock You", "Free Bird", "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Rock and Roll All Night" are all great suggestions. Some that aren't so old come to mind:

Green Day - When I Come Around
Stone Temple Pilots - Plush
Pearl Jam - Alive
Korn - Blind

This is tough, because the bands that have one good, solid, defining song (THE encore at their shows) aren't the great bands. But for the bands that have so many good songs (Van Halen) it's tough to pick one that is their anthem.

AC/DC - For Those About To Rock - I think my ears are still ringing from that show.

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb

Bon Jovi - Wanted, Dead or Alive

Aeromsith - Dream On

Just a few suggestions.

We will rock you-Queen

Hmmm... only some I'd agree with above as qualifying per the criteria. Would agree with "Rock and Roll," "Won't Get Fooled Again," and almost any AC/DC song.

An obscure one that we were into in high school from Trooper was "Raise a Little Hell." And one more, kitsch rock, but maybe qualifies is Grand Funk's "We're an American Band."

'What song you wanna hear?'

FREEBIRD!!

'I heard it then...'

Queen: We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions

STOMP STOMP CLAP, STOMP STOMP CLAP trumps cannon balls based on audience participation. That and we all thought we could sing the "We Are the Champions" part when we saw them live and Freddy and the boys were nice enough to pretend we were right.

Well, I don't think it holds up against Queen, but

We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister

There's a lot of choices out there, but to me a real anthem leaves you completely drained at the end. You've been jumping around like a madman, screaming the lyrics at the top of your lungs, throwing the furniture all over the living room. At the end of the song, you pass the fuck out from exertion.
GNR - Paradise City, Welcome to the Jungle
Nirvana - Teen Spirit, Territorial Pissing
Sublime - Same in the End

I'm drawing a bit of a void, I guess the strength of a rock anthem depends exactly on how you feel RIGHT now. Since I'm at work, I feel more like falling asleep than turning over furniture. meh, I'll go kick the water cooler over for good measure though.

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Elton John)

I'm drawing blanks today.

The first thing I thought of was Rcck n Roll all Night" - Kiss. I was at a concert in the 80's where they did that for an encore. Its the only concert where I remember people starting to leave and Kiss started playing that song and everyone turned back to catch it.

"... because we know Poughkeepsie is serious about rock and roll!"

Personally, I can't narrow it down any farther than this:

Rock & Roll All Night
We Will Rock You
Freebird

I think Rock & Roll All Night will get my vote, but I will have misgivings for betraying I'm Eighteen and School's Out.

Metallica: Enter Sandman (hey, stuff blows up/runover in the video)

AC/DC: For those about to rock

Cher: Turn back time (just checking to see if you were paying attention)

NIN: Head like a hole

Queen: We will rock you

Scorpions: Rock You Like a Hurricane

There's just not enough controversy today, so I'm gonna have to get rude and stir things up with this:

Whoever suggested Eye of the Tiger, Final Countdown, or anything by Lover Boy deserves to be BANNED! What are you thinking???

(Ok, so I could probably comment about Lover Boy over on Michele's Guilty Pleasures post, but I don't have the balls to go public with that yet.)

Some of my suggestions will be fairly obscure, but I wanted to gives these song their props. Bear with me here....

"Story of my Life", or "Highway 101" by Social Distortion.

"Temple of Love", or "This Corrosion" by Sisters of Mercy.

"Firewoman", or "Wild Hearted Son" by The Cult

"One" by Metallica

"Sunday, Bloody Sunday" by U2

"Anarchy in the U.K." by The Sex Pistols

Mark, I was going to knock down Zep's Rock and Roll along the "what are you thinking?" line...they used it as their opener to jolt everyone out of their preconcert ingested substance of choice haze.
And fer chrissakes, now it's used to sell Caddies.

"And fer chrissakes, now it's used to sell Caddies."

That is sooooo wrong!
So is using Dream On to sell Buicks.

Wrong wrong wrong!

Is it beer time yet? --reality can be so cruel.

Led Zeppelin--Kashmir
Ten Years After--I'm Going Home
Slipknot--Wait and Bleed
Metallica--The Outlaw Torn

Blue Oyster Cult - Heavy Metal: Black and Silver

Judas Priest - Livin' After Midnight OR
Heavy Duty/Defenders of the Faith

Two nominees:

"We Care A Lot" - Faith No More

"Loser" - Beck

Tell me you don't know the words.

Green Grass and High Tides. Classic.

I'm gettin' thirsty and a great anthem occured to me:

Tequila!

(Who recorded that?)

Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode

Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

CCR - Down On The Corner

Social Distortion - Ball & Chain

Green Day - Basket Case

Janis Joplin - Me & Bobby McGee

Rolling Stone-(I Can't Get No)Satisfaction and Gimme Shelter
Joan Jett-I Love Rock and Roll
Alice Cooper-Eighteen
Blue Cheer-Summertime Blues
Queens of the Stone Age-No One Knows

All anthems, what else!

Recent choices (1990-present):

Pearl Jam - Jeremy, Alive, Evenflow
Coldplay - Clocks

And, to dig a little into the past -

U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday
Eagles - Hotel California
Freeeeeebiiiiiirrrddd! (too obvious)
And definitely Queen - We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions

oh so many... but only two can truly fit the bill the way you need it...

you already mentioned "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)," so this is a second vote...

Someone got close to my other one... Metallica's Whiplash HAS got to fit the bill. Back in the day, they played it after "Anesthesia".. nowadays, they play it after "Nothing Else Matters" or "One"