Reply #12: The simple answer [View All]

[Squeech]

is that this is VH1, and anything they say is inherently chowderheaded.

More to the point, they expect this show to appeal to metalheads-- hence the emphasis on Metallica, Sabs, Ozzy etc-- but they also want to throw a bone to the punk and grunge demographics. It's really about striking a balance in a world of niche markting. So as to why Southern rock is conspicuous in its abssence, they probably did their market research and ascertained that their viewership doesn't include the stars 'n' bars demographic.

As to who rocks harder than who, your mileage may vary. I think, despite that "Roundabout" kicks ass in a way that "Court of the Crimson King" doesn't, people take Yes less seriously than King Crimson because of the high pitched harmony vocals. Moreover, King Crimson belongs to an era of bands (most of whom seem to have colors in their name, odd coincidence-- Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Vanilla Fudge) that were collectively responsible for taking previous hard rock (e.g. Cream and Zeppelin), amping it up another notch, and nullifying the blues influences to generate a truly white suburban "ethnic music"-- which is to say, heavy metal. I think this is the real reason Jethro Tull famously won that first Heavy Metal Grammy: not for whatever piece of shit they'd released that year (Catfish Rising, was it? Yucko!), but because contemporary metal would be unthinkable without Aqualung.

Queen definitely belongs, however. The secret to Queen was that they balanced out so many influences, but Brian May definitely had both feet in the hard rock/metal camp, as both guitarist and composer. Check out the Sheer Heart Attack album, and pretty much every song he wrote up until the Jazz album.

My opinion, and worth what you paid for it.

On edit: posts like this one are why I deserve a Nobel prize.