2. Who: “Bubba O’Reilly”
“Baba O’Riley” is both rock and roll and nostalgic, and like much of 1971’s “Who’s Next,” it’s squarely in the father’s shoes. In the words of comedian Joe Pera, in his brilliant sketch celebrating the song’s brilliance, “Maybe I just don’t get it, but it seems like they realized they’d written a perfect song, and then Panicked, so they added a violin solo.
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3. Steely Dan: “Barrytown”
I could have chosen any Steely Dan song, so why not choose one of my favorites, a beautiful ditty from the band’s great 1974 album “Pretzel Logic.”
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4. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”
Almost any Tom Petty song qualifies as “dad rock,” but I chose this 1993 hit for personal reasons: When this song came out, my dad used to play it in the car every time. My sister and I always giggle when Petty sings this song.
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5. Bruce Springsteen: “Frozen on 10th Avenue”
Of course dad won’t cry, but they Do They got a little choked up when they heard the words “Uptown changes and the big guys join the band” as they thought of Bruce Springsteen and his late saxophonist Clarence Clemons. beautiful friendship between.
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6. The State: “Fake Empire”
Mitchum defined National in 2019 as “a pure dad rock band.” Its members are some of the younger, second-generation practitioners of the genre, now in their 40s and 50s. (Just don’t tell dad they worked with Swift.)
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7. Pink Floyd: “Us and Them”
Dads won’t be able to truly evaluate the quality of a set of speakers or headphones until they do the all-important test: “How does ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ sound on them?”
