The most buttrockin' song on Buddy Blue's list of the top 50 Butt Rock Anthems (search term: buttrock)

Slow Ride voter here

Slow Ride voter here

― sorry for butt rockin (Neanderthal), Saturday, February 22, 2020 1:09 PM (one hour ago)

my man!

lol didn’t know nick cave covered but black Betty”. but like omg of course he did

here's how this poll's top finishers placed in ILM's never-to-be-forgotten Classic Rock Tracks Poll:

"Black Betty" by Ram Jam 100
"Slow Ride" by Foghat 5
"Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood Did not place
"We're An American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad 218
"Tush" by ZZ Top 276
"American Woman" by the Guess Who 268
"Mississippi Queen" by Mountain 51
"Hot Blooded" by Foreigner Did not place
"Highway Star" by Deep Purple 369

does Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" count, or is it too pop, or too nerdy?

idk but I want to call it out as the nadir of rock music

https://i.imgur.com/JNogpz6.jpg

good thread. the first time i read it i was thinking about butt rock way more than i really wanted to, lol.

here are my butt rock thoughts. the subject matter of dumb good times is key, but it has to be genuinely dumb about it. "tush" is about dumb good times but it's practically nietzschean compared to say "slow ride". also buttrock has to be rhythmically clumsy and flat-footed. zz top is not that. foghat on the other hand, definitely. basically i don't believe butt rock can be good, categorically speaking, and i am not down with pure butt.

the verses of 'its my life' have butt elements, but the chorus is too dramatic for it to be truly buttrockin imo

And here are my butt-thoughts: most 70s rock was blues derived to some degree, but if a band's blues influences are too readily apparent (ZZ Top, Thorogood, Foghat, although the latter crosses the line occasionally) then to me they are blues-rock. Real buttrock is probably based on the same three chords, but emphasizes the rock rather than the blues. Hence why I would have voted for Grand Funk in this poll.

My textbook definition of buttrock is basically generic, anonymous, shirtless hard rock with lyrics about women, whiskey, and partying. Here are The Boyzz from Illinois, whom I once saw warm up for REO Speedwagon, Rush, and Blue Oyster Cult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_MwihQSO50

"It's My Life" is butt rock because Max Martin. That is, it's not really any more butt rock than Backstreet Boys (JBJ's vox aside). Or, you know, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuMre7PGsZA

I still contend that "Black Betty" is way too syncopated and tricky to be butt rock. Especially compared to the next few on the list.

xp damn, the boyzz rule!

why were they not the Boyzz from Illinoiz?

lol they kinda got booed off the stage. The show started late and the crowd was impatient. Rush had just released 2112 had a huge laser show; although I'm not a fan it was obvious they'd never be third band on the bill again. REO were so boring I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of BOC.

Well, "fell asleep," it was 1976 after all...

Where does this fall on the butt spectrum?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG8auUjhZEI

Copyright 1885 Hacienda Records. Antique cockrock that shouldn't have been brought to the refinishers for the hairmetal varnish. Oh my that attempt at a DLR split is painful looking. A+ for enthusiasm though!

Black Oak did some buttrock, although they were such a weird band. And this... buttrockers would think Jim Dandy had gone new wave. I've never heard/seen this before, it's hilarious. A tossup between this and the video for "Music Time" by Styx posted elsewhere this week for most astoundingly misbegotten new wave cash-in.

i'm the king of butt
there is none higher
All would-be butt rockers should call me Sire
To burn my butt, you must use fire
I won't stop buttin' til I retire

If you want butt, you got it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW22JDVEejk

Loverboy is Buttrock in spirit butt Post-butt by necessity, what with the keyboards and Steinberger bass and collared shirts. Cars-like adaptations so more dire New Wave like B-52s may be fended off - "Lovin' Every Minute of It" video most explicitly. True Buttrock could only happen in the 70s, when there were no challenges to the throne of rock power.

All those live videos of the Boyzz are great! Buttrockin' but also very Radio Birdman.

Interesting that this thread that ended several days before the official start of the pandemic in the US has come back to life now that the country is opening up. What, I wonder, is the relation between normalcy and the existence of buttrock debate?

Trvmp rally music is not all Buttrock in form, but is certainly Buttrock if reception theory holds

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/06/20/trump-rally-playlist-tulsa/

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7673XgxqA16yhdVEFvpYyh?si=acde744669f64a2b

I can't believe I missed this thread! I feel like if I have a wheelhouse aside from dadrock and classic rock, it's def buttrock lol

I think you can stretch the cutoff to maybe 1982 but i agree that generally 1979 is the cutoff

It has to be songs with a bluesy/boogie kind of bass. But not necessary blues-boogie songs?
Should suggest fucking but it doesn't have to be ABOUT fucking.
Which kind of leads to my main thought, that there needs to be an air of sleaze. Either lyrically, or musically, or both.
Out in the world, I feel like buttrock is to me the songs that make those messy drunk couples that were the cheerleader & the football star in highschool but now they're the hairdresser & the contractor go into full makeout mode at nostalgia concerts & Rocklahoma, etc.

worthy additions
I'm On Fire - Dwight Tilley Band
Hot Legs - Rod Stewart
Your Mama Won't Like Me - Suzy Quatro
Hittin & Runnin / Rockin into the Night / Wild Eyed Southern Boys - 38 Special
Head Games / Feels Like the First Time - Foreigner

the main reason to stretch the cutoff is that early .38 Special definitely belongs in this genre

also maybe Loverboy, though they're kinda too synthy.
And I really want to try to get Night Ranger in there but I don't think they make it. Don't Tell Me You Love Me is close, but perhaps too pleading?

No Molly Hatchet, no credibility. I kinda think "Flirting with Disaster" should be in such company.

Maybe they play MC5 in Michigan somewhere on the FM radio, but I doubt it was played ANYWHERE outside of maybe college radio shows. That record was also out of print for well over a decade before it came back into print in CD, it was pretty obscure.

I get it fits riff wise and perhaps sonically, but there was no one jamming that in their Bitchin' Camaro in '77.

"Rock You Like A Hurricane" by the Scorps should probably be here too.

It and "Too Young to Fall In Love" by the Crue fit better here than "Enter Sandman".

Basically, if you had a video where you are in a cage with women in shredded clothes writhing on the bars - you probably are playing something pretty damn butt rock.

I'm glad this thread has been revived because I think buttrock overlaps a lot with the "music to listen to while shooting pool" genre from the ZZ Top thread.

Earlnash, you will find uncontested support upthread for your opinion that "Flirtin' with Disaster" by Molly Hatchet should have been included in this list. The original list has certain flaws that have been hashed over throughout the thread in the interests of creating a more perfect conception of buttrock. I would personally caution against the idea that stripper rock a la Motley Crue and the Scorpions is proper buttrock. I realize both are coming from sleaze, but hair metal is more of a post-quaalude era sleaze, for lack of a better description.

Also I must admit that when I did a quick review of this thread I wondered, "where was Vegemite in this conversation?" so it's good to have her input. Definitely agree that .38 Special belongs here; imo they put an emphatic period on the whole era, although Loverboy and Billy Squier should be discussed in this light as well.

Billy Squier should NOT be discussed bc I hate him but ok :)

I agree that Molly Hatchet could easily slot in here
And maybe the cutoff should be 1983 so we can get those ZZ Top Eliminator classics in there

I think UFO definitely has some stuff that fits here. Maybe not Doctor Doctor (it's a bit too fast?) but stuff like Too Hot to Handle or Only You Can Rock Me.

and unfortunately pretty much every song from the late 70's that raves about boning 17 year old girls. Yes, Babys, I'm looking at you.

oh and whoever said upthread that Kiss doesn't belong here is forgetting Love Gun.

UFO are a weird one because although their whole catalog reeks of buttrock, I question how popular or prominent they really were. Their albums sold pretty well, it looks like, but I don't honestly remember them from (US) AOR radio back in the day, which is the admittedly biased lens through which I came to know this "genre"... (maybe "Doctor Doctor" was played a little? It has a certain familiarity).

How could anyone hate Billy Squier?

JUST WATCH ME

xpost josefa, yr right but man i would hate to exclude UFO based on airplay.
i think if it sounds like it should be blasting from a camaro tape deck, it stays. :D

xpost to earl - I think the Scorps are too fastpaced for buttrock
also their sleaze is weirdly, um asexual? wrong word but idk how else to say it. i thought maybe something from Lovedrive but i couldnt find anything that gives the specific buttrock vibe

Ozzy's "Crazy Train"
Sammy's "There's Only One Way to Rock"
Montrose's "Rock Candy"
Blackfoot's "Train Train"
Uriah's "Easy Livin'"
April Wine's "I Like to Rock"

Reviewing my teenage FM radio ravaged brain cells, these are the others I came up to list. I spent waaay too much time listening to Q95 when I was a kid.

I grew up outside a neighborhood called 'Shedtown' with LOTS of dudes that looked exactly like Todd from Beavis & Butthead driving old beat up Nova's or Vega's with way too big a stereos or van's they airbrushed Miss Playboy 1979 on the side.

ozzy - ehh no for me, it’s too fast & flashy for buttrock

sammy YES
montrose oh hell yess
blackfoot fuck yes
uriah yep
april wine CMON CANADA

Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin'" for damn sure, that is a neglected classic

lol ~airbrushed miss playboy 1979~ is startling imagery that i had never considered before
wizard vans sure
nudie vans? whoa

She was more in lingerie but there was some definite nipplige visible. Dudes would bust on him as she kinda looked cross-eyed in the painting. Other than the eyes, it was some pretty impressive redneck airbrush auto-painting.

We used to have a dude in our hood that was older that was nicknamed by kids as I shit you not "Mr. Disco" that used to rip through the subdivision in a powder blue Nova. He had the big white dude curly fro and a handlebar mustache and probably was in his late 20s still living with his parents - this would have been probably 80/81 era. Moms would bitch at him (and his older mom) as he would tear through the streets with kids playing in the street.

We had one street that used to flood pretty bad after huge rains and kids would literally play in the flood water like was a swimming pond until it drained away. (I shudder at the thought at what was in that water now bacteria and chemically now.) Anyway the kids playing in this redneck street pool lured him to run through the waters to get a big wave going (as he done it before) but this time it was a bit deeper than normal and he got stalled. Dude had to evacuate and flooded his beloved Nova and there in the middle of this utter defeat for Mr. Disco was like probably 40-50 kids from 6 to 14 laughing their ass off and pointing at him including a couple of the Moms that saw it happen.

^I recognize that type of culture. That could have happened in my old neighborhood.

Dying at the cross-eyed airbrush queen.

When we moved there in '78 - our next door neighbor was a divorced sales guy for Pepsi that had like 4 teenage sons (no mom). The dad looked kinda like Herb Tarlek with the checkered leisure pans etc. Their house was complete madness, with tons of Pepsi on the shelf, HBO on the TV and dad not much around - which meant all sorts of crazy stuff going on.

The older brother looked pretty much like Wooderson, the two middle sons were twins Denny and Danny that had big curly fros and glasses and me and my buddies hung out with the youngest kid who was a couple years older than me (I was like 8-9 at the time). The twin brothers were geeky and were always like using those old metal tennis ball cans and building cannons with lighter fluid and using M80s to blow shit up. They literally got me high a few times as a kid like age 8-9. I remember well listening to the first Cars record on LP and like the world melting down.

Couple years later the dad started dating this redheaded English lady and they eventually got married and moved out. How the heck he met a English woman in Muncie in the that era, I still wonder how it happened.

Keep mind behind this neighborhood was a creek and then a cornfield - the road on the other side of the cornfield was CORNBREAD ROAD - the very road that Spielberg used for Richard Dreyfuss' first 'Close Encounter' in the movie. From what I understood, Spielberg was going to film in Muncie but the crooked ass politicians tried to shake him down for cash - so they passed.

In hindsight, it was a weird place in a weird time.

So that is my buttrock credentials in a nutshell.

using those old metal tennis ball cans and building cannons with lighter fluid

We called those "Polish cannons" (suburban South Florida circa 1980). We probably could've come up with a less disrespectful name, but that was the times. There seems to be a certain fundamental common ground connecting suburban culture across the US.

I think we all have to acknowledge that earlnash might be a buttrock authority.

I grew up in Southern Illinois and I might be slightly younger but I can totally relate to your posts.

There is something very midwest about buttrock, I feel.

so pleased at how much the butt thread expanded today

earlnash def has the bonafides
*stamps buttrock card*

ozzy still aint buttrock tho :)

Agreed. But why? One thought is it's not quite bro-y enough.

no sleaze

sleaze quotient must be 75% or higher