There's no question that the '70s was an incredible decade for music in general, but that's when one genre in particular truly came into its own: Hard rock. From Deep Purple to AC/DC to Black Sabbath and beyond, it was the era when rock and roll got harder than ever before.
So many classic tunes came out of this magical time in music that it's almost impossible to pick the very best, but that's what the staff of Ultimate Classic Rock did when they voted on the "Top 50 Hard Rock Songs of the '70s" earlier this year — and it's pretty tough to argue with which song was crowned number one.
Of course, the selection of 50 encompassed plenty of tunes that have been mainstays on classic rock radio for years upon years: "Slow Ride" by Foghat at #38; "Rock and Roll All Nite" by Kiss at #31; "The Boys Are Back in Time" by Thin Lizzy at #14; "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who at #6.
As for the top 5, a mix of unsurprising favorites battled it out for the winning spot. AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" took the number 5 slot, with "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple coming in at #4. The #3 position was nabbed by Led Zeppelin's masterpiece "Kashmir," with Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" — from 1975's Toys in the Attic — taking #2.
Taking the very top place? Another Led Zeppelin classic: "Black Dog," from 1971's Led Zeppelin IV, 1971.
"Is there a more exciting or fitting moment in hard rock than the opening seconds of Led Zeppelin's fourth album?" wrote UCR's Michael Gallucci, before going on to rave about the rest of the tune.
"A collage of guitars, tuning up and preparing for battle, followed by the briefest of pauses before Robert Plant storms in: 'Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move...' And then the band reveals its real hand, pushing and pulling at the verses (there's no chorus to speak of in 'Black Dog'), back and forth, as singer and band call-and-response (a trick Jimmy Page cribbed from Fleetwood Mac's 'Oh Well'). It's a thrilling five minutes that seems poised to take off at any moment before it brings itself back to the start. It's a masterclass in hard-rock record-making played by hard-rock royalty at their best."
Naturally, this list from UCR is far from the only one to award "Black Dog" with high, hard-rocking honors. In 2007, Q magazine ranked the song as #1 on a list of "20 Greatest Guitar Tracks," while Rolling Stone included the track on two separate lists of the "Greatest Songs of All Time" (at 294 and 300) and Classic Rock placed the tune at #18 on the "Top 50 Classic Rock Songs of All Time" (just to name a few).
Related: Iconic Singer, 77, Called This 1970 Led Zeppelin Classic 'Ridiculous'
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