Tenology: More Weak Guitar Solos In Rock/Metal

I know it hasn't been long since the last blog post about weak solos but in typical Riffs And Raffs tradition, I recalled about eight songs with weak solos right after finishing the first post. Similar to the last post, these aren't necessarily "bad" guitar solos; they're ones that sound underwhelming or poor in comparison to what the band is capable of. Also similar to the last post, I'll try not to dwell too much on solos I've criticised in previous blog posts but I might slip a couple in just to justify my personal (and this post is largely personal) thoughts on why it's weak.
If you want to listen to each of these songs and their respective solos, scroll to the bottom of the page for an embedded Spotify playlist with each track. I've also included the time the solo starts next to each song title and artist in the list headings in case you just want to listen to the solo whilst reading the post.

1. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Oyster Cult (2:43)

So this is one of the guitar solos I've often criticised on the blog, hence me getting it out of the way first. I love the song and I've talked about how much I love Buck Dharma's guitar playing when it comes to both riffs and solos but I've always thought this song stopped being awesome right after the second chorus. The song's built around an awesome riff and chord progression but once it's time for the solo, the track takes a sharp and awkward turn into a completely different song. It sounds like something they couldn't fit onto another track and chose to tape onto this one...or maybe it was chosen to be a darker twist in the song's melody to signify the song's story about vampires and their victims, although that doesn't excuse it for sounding like dogshit.
Aside from the opening series of notes, there's nothing hugely memorable about the solo and the way it ties into the rest of the track. It doesn't show off technical talent or contain catchy hooks like the song's main riff, it just sounds like Buck's winging it after an imagination drought. It probably could've been improved with more melodic riffs and less dull sustains but it's hard to say, as I feel like I'm conditioned to hate it as soon as the bridge before the solo starts.

2. "Holiday" - Green Day (2:00)

Green Day aren't your typical screeching solo Rock band so I didn't feel like they were an appropriate band for the last blog post. However, since writing the last post, I've realised that Green Day have actually given us a couple of solid solos such as the one from "American Idiot" and "Jesus Of Suburbia". Sure, they're not great in comparison to Zeppelin and Iron Maiden tunes but they work in the songs and showcase some decent guitar playing. "Holiday" has a solo that sounds forced and uninspired, even for Green Day.
It's not quite as bad as simply reciting the vocal melody (we'll get onto that later) but it is far too short and far too simplistic to be considered a good solo, even for the song. It sounds like something that should play under the vocals during the last chorus, not the instrumental break that 90% of Rock songs use to release the energy they've built up throughout the course of the song. But hey, at least the rest of the song's OK, I guess.

3. "Woman From Tokyo" - Deep Purple (4:40)

I was tempted to pick "Smoke On The Water" for this list, as I've always found the solo to be a bit underwhelming in an already dull track. However, upon revisiting it, I realised that it's not actually that "weak" in comparison to the rest of the song. In comparison to other Deep Purple guitar solos, hell yeah it's weak...but then, so's this solo and my God, this solo makes "Smoke On The Water" sound like "Burn". As far as Deep Purple songs go, this one's pretty white bread. Basic riff, bland vocal melody but a good structure. The song plods along until the last minute, where the pianos pick up a bit and a guitar solo's set up...and it sucks.
It's a non-solo, a bit of fluff that sounds like the first part of an actual solo but as it stands, it's just terrible. The obvious improvement to it would be to make it longer but the song's already getting on towards the fifth minute and as I previously said, it's not really anything special. Extending a filler track with no life or character to six minutes is a surefire way to create a forgettable and unnecessary song (just look at some of the band's other tracks for proof). Or just don't include a solo! Not every song needs one and I'd rather it was a tighter package without one than forcing some hollow shit into a passable track.

4. "Californication" - Red Hot Chili Peppers (3:29)

I've said before that Red Hot Chili Peppers are a band that are strongest with softer songs in the Alternative Rock genre rather than heavier Funk based ones. This song is no exception and contains your typical RHCP sound at its finest right up until the solo. It sounds disjointed and out of place, enough to take you right out of the song with its awkward note bends and clashing harmonics. It sounds like a beginner's first attempt at writing a "deep" solo which, for John Frusciante, is the definition of weak.
A solo does work in this song but it needs to have a bit more meat to it than this. It doesn't have to be "Suck My Kiss" but it would benefit from some more melodic work; think the solo from "Cirice" - Ghost, it's competent and feels like the culmination of what the song's been building up to. It doesn't sound like a poor fit or that it's a waste of talent like "Californication" does.

5. "Armageddon It" - Def Leppard (3:12)

One of the lesser known singles off the band's biggest album and with good reason. It's a bog standard tune for Def Leppard from the album that had "Rocket" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me" but it didn't do the band a lot of favours with fans of traditional British Rock as opposed to overproduced American Arena Rock, especially when it came to the guitar solo. The solo itself isn't all that bad; it's a little plain and could easily be longer but musically, it works for the song. The biggest problem with it is the tone.
The solo is played with guitar synthesiser and it sounds fucking naff. This is a good example of when overproducing something can make it worse, as a typical guitar sound instead of synthetic nonsense would've helped steer it away from this blog post. There's also a small guitar solo that fades out with vocals in the outro of this song but again, it's nothing worth getting excited about.

6. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana (2:52)

I've briefly touched upon this solo being pissweak in the past but now I get to retread that ground with the rest of the song to back me up in an embedded Spotify playlist! I get that Nirvana aren't about guitar solos but this song was as commercial as they came and with that means they needed a solo in their song, since they were clearly going for a popular sounding Rock song (presumably one of the subconscious reasons the main riff sounds like a twisted version of the chorus riff from "More Than A Feeling" - Boston). It obviously wasn't going to be a solo full of noise and furious strumming but it does lack any kind of imagination.
I've said it multiple times before and I'll say it again, solos that simply play the vocal melody or chord sequence of the main riff are not good solos. This song literally just plays Cobain's vocals in the verse before giving us another verse! If it was the vocal melody BEFORE a great solo, I would've let it slide for giving us something. Unfortunately, it gets the solo completely wrong but hey, it's one of the most iconic Rock songs in the last half century so I doubt anyone involved in the songwriting process (who's still alive) is crying themselves to sleep over missed opportunities.

7. "All You Need Is Love" - The Beatles (1:18)

This song will always remind me of the final episode of The Prisoner. It had a great use but I never really got into the song due to its overproduction and weak melodies, another fine example of polishing something insubstantial in the hopes it'll become amazing. However, the worst part of the song has to be the pathetic excuse for a guitar solo. If you haven't heard the song in a while and don't recall it sounding offensively bad, I recommend never listening to this song and the solo again as your false memories of a passable solo are better than the original will ever be.
It sounds like a shitty covers band attempting to play the actual solo but messing up all the way through, complete with rough note bends and the guitarist eventually just fucking giving up in the middle of it. These are all signs of a bad solo before you get onto the fact that it's just repeating the opening vocal melody. George Harrison has given us some cracking solos in the past but this takes the absolute piss.

8. "Everybody Wants Some!!" - Van Halen (2:34)

Ah yes, the song that "Panama" made redundant. I think I prefer the guitar riff and chorus for this over "Panama" but God, David Lee Roth didn't make this song pleasantly memorable with his weird sexual improv during the breaks and the delivery of some of his lines in the verses ("I seek a poopoo ladder lookin' for a moopee" is the best I can make out at 1:55). However, if Lee Roth fails, you can always rely on EVH to make a song great, right? Right...just not in this case. Eddie phoned it in when it came to writing a solo and chose to just play a descending note pattern without his trademark tapping or imaginative shredding.
The closest he comes to showcasing some great guitarwork is when he rapidly strums the same notes but even then, it's not much for a man of his talents. I can appreciate that he only has so many guitar solos that are iconic or awesome before the inevitable drought or unintentional recycling of ideas comes in but it's not like this song came out well into the band's career. This song came out before Fair Warning and 1984, albums with fine solos (although "Unchained" is a bit dodgy). Ah well, at least we've always got Lee Roth's one-sided conversation about stockings to enjoy.

9. "Suffocated" - Orianthi (2:23)

I talked about this song in my write-up of the Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock soundtrack and whilst my opinion on Orianthi as a musician has changed since I first played that game, my opinion of the song has not. It's generic Pop Rock garbage with utterly soulless shredding crammed in on more than one occasion. In this case, the "solo" is the brief section in between the middle eight and the final chorus where Orianthi showcases her talents as a guitarist but not as a songwriter. I could've picked the "According To You" solo for basically the same reasons except that solo has its place in the song, even though it's the audio equivalent of Orianthi loudly shouting "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" (although you could probably say that for most guitar solos in Rock).
No, I went with "Suffocated" because the bland shredding, whining vocals and Pop structure don't blend together at all. If you're one of those teenagers who thinks great guitarists are ones who can fit as many notes into a short space of time as possible without considering the quality of the sound, melody and dynamics, you'll probably think this song's the shit. If you want a solo that tells a story, that feels like it belongs in a piece of music and isn't just taped on for the sake of it, you're better off listening to something else.

10. "Cinnamon Girl" - Neil Young with Crazy Horse (2:06)

I remember seeing this song on a list of amazing guitar solos or something along those lines and to this day, I have no fucking idea why. At least overrated solos like "Comfortably Numb" and "Stairway To Heaven" have some musical creativity and skill behind them. This solo's just the same fucking note over and over again! The rhythm guitar is more active than the lead, for crying out loud. It's lazier than repeating the vocal melody on guitar and it sounds like toss, the only downside to a great Classic Rock track.
I could forgive the terrible solo if the outro went somewhere, as it sounds like the song's going to kick things into the next gear similar to the guitar solo in "Heartbreaker" - Led Zeppelin but nope. That's not the Neil Young way! Instead, it just ends on a strong note shortly after a pissweak one. I don't even need to talk about how the solo could be improved, it just needed more than a couple of notes. Still, the song's still good and the crap solo was enough to inspire a Tenacious D skit on their first album. That's right, this song made them think of "Hard Fucking" because the solo fucks the listener hard in the ears.


I didn't expect that I'd be writing another one of these posts so soon after the first so for all we know, I'll be cracking another one of these out in a week. That or a video game post so you've got that to look forward to.
Until then, here's the Spotify playlist with all the songs listed above.

Christmas Christmas - Cheap Trick

Yes, I know it's November and I'm reviewing a new Christmas album but if you want someone to blame, blame Cheap Trick for putting it out two months early...or for putting it out at all.

Christmas Christmas by Cheap Trick Cheap Trick isn't exactly a brand new studio album as 8/12 songs are covers, although it's not a collection of traditional Christmas carols/tunes awkwardly recorded as Rock songs either. Most of the covers included are of Rock songs with Christmas themes but there are a couple of new tracks written by the band, such as album opener "Merry Christmas Darlings". Naturally, it contains all the hallmarks of a Christmas Pop/Rock song from the rhythm you can dance to to the festive choice of percussion but it sounds more like the band's attempt to rerecord Slade's hit "Merry Xmas Everybody", an odd choice as they actually went ahead and rerecorded that song for this album anyway.
It doesn't try to be anything different than a celebration of Christmas music we all know and (mostly) love from the past, which makes it a perfect album opener. As much as Christmas music has begun to grate on me over the last year or so, I can't deny that there's something special about the Christmas singles from the 70s compared to the hollow or depressing shite that's put out now. Maybe it's just because it's had several decades to become part of established tradition or maybe they're just better Pop songs than ones whining about how it "doesn't really feel like Christmas at all". Either way, Cheap Trick made the right choice with the general theme of the song selection in order to create a proper Christmas Rock album.
Previous Rock bands/artists have tried turning carols and public domain tunes into Rock songs before (Bruce Springsteen and Twisted Sister come to mind) and it always sounds fucking naff. It sounds like the festive equivalent of rapping grannies and whilst Cheap Trick did stoop to that level with their version of "Silent Night", the lion's share of the album features covers of lesser known songs by The Kinks, Ramones and Chuck Berry that were meant to be blasted out out speakers, not sung by children door to door in the snow.

However, there are a few downsides to this commendable attempt at bringing the energy and fun back to Christmas songs. Some of the song choices are questionable, such as the combination of Bluesy "Please Come Home For Christmas" and operatic "Remember (Christmas)" from the 1974 soundtrack to the film Son Of Dracula that ironically sucks all the life force out of the record like cabin depressurisation during a flight gone disastrously wrong. They were likely included as a sort of tongue-in-cheek attempt to be completely different from previous Christmas compilations, although it's a shame they're dull as dishwater.
Then there's the quality of the Rock covers in general. As ambitious as Cheap Trick were in their vision, they really fucked up the delivery. "Father Christmas" is one of two Christmas songs I don't dislike at the moment and Cheap Trick absolutely ruined it with a slower tempo and complete lack of passion in their recording. The whole point of the song is that it's meant to be a punchy, anti-Christmas anthem about poverty that doesn't come across as mawkish as the Band Aid wank. It should be feisty and gritty like The Kinks pulled off but the cover fails on every level. I wouldn't mind as much if it was just my favourite Christmas song they screwed up but it's not the only dud on the album.
"Merry Xmas Everybody" is a limp recreation of the iconic anthem recorded by Slade, as proven by the band's choice to not feature Robin Zander screaming "IT'S CHRIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAS" at the end. If Cheap Trick know they've got nothing on Noddy, why bother in the first place? Covers have three reasons for existing: tribute to the original in a faithful rerecording, making a song your own through various changes or bland recreation in an attempt to capitalise on someone else's talent. Since the band did nothing to alter the song in any overly-discernible way (other than off-putting vocal delivery of lines throughout) and they didn't have the bottle to go full Slade, it starts to come across as more of the third option than the other two.

As for the two remaining original Christmas songs, "Our Father Of Life" and "Christmas Christmas", the former sounds more like a traditional hymn and the latter starts off like a great Rock song before ending at the 1:39 mark and filling the rest of the song with pointless white noise. It could've turned things around but I suppose it's fitting that the album's title track starts off promising before falling to shit and leaving you with a bad taste in your ears...yes, your ears. My ears taste like crap now thanks to this album.
Whether you're a fan of Cheap Trick's crowd-pleasing style of Rock or Christmas hits from yesteryear, Christmas Christmas is a let down. The biggest positives are gained from the idea of the album itself but once it's brought to life, the band fail to deliver on what they presumably thought sounded amazing on paper too. I rate it 4/10 for some serviceable filler tracks but mostly the ambition behind it, as I feel like I gained no festive cheer or merriment from any of the songs apart from the first minute and a half of the final track which was promptly dragged into a dimly lit car park and given a good kicking by the last 35 seconds anyway.
You might like some of the covers if you've never heard the originals but I honestly think you'd gain more from a Spotify playlist containing the three original Cheap Trick songs and the original versions of all their covers, minus "Silent Night" unless you have a soft spot for Christmas carols. I'm hesitant to say this album's just another lump of coal in the stocking because coal at least has some value and purpose that it fulfils adequately; this album's more like the excessive plastic wrapping inside the packaging for toys that takes ages to dismantle and only succeeds in pissing you off. Merry fucking November.

Shout Out: Doctor Who Series 3 (Original Television Soundtrack) - Murray Gold & The BBC National Orchestra Of Wales

I've written about orchestrated music twice before on this blog; once when looking at an album of orchestrated Rush songs and again when discussing various covers by the Vitamin String Quartet. This time, I'm dedicating a short blog post to one of my favourite (if not my number one favourite) television score in recent memory.
The orchestrated soundtrack to the third series of Doctor Who.

Whilst the music in Doctor Who has mostly felt incidental at best (with the exception of several character themes between the first and fifth series), I remember actively recalling the musical stings and melodies from the third series almost as clearly as the plot twists and striking visual imagery the show provided. However, the shining diamond on the crown jewel that is the soundtrack has to be album opener and recurring tune "All The Strange, Strange Creatures". I can remember hearing it for the first time in a special effects reel (along with subsequent trailers for the series) and feeling exhilarated. To this day, I still think it's the best piece of music Doctor Who has ever given us...except maybe "I Am The Doctor". I just wish the main melody went on longer than 1:23, kind of like it does in this version.
The soundtrack also introduces us to new character themes in the form of "Martha's Theme", "The Master Vainglorious" and "The Doctor Forever", a magnificent piece that perfectly encapsulates Tennant's Doctor with a sombre, magnificent introduction shortly before a whimsical section full of life and joy. Variations on these pieces appear throughout the series to emphasise certain character moments but the multitude of episodes each contain their own unique score to give each chapter of the series its own feel or to punctuate iconic scenes with music unlike anything else in the show so far, e.g. "The Carrionites Swarm" or "Smith's Choice".
Some of these tracks were used in later episodes whilst (I believe) none of the pieces from the first two series' were used in full throughout this one. However, there are some upgraded tracks with added depth and additional melodies such as "Boe" (wondrously used twice in the series, exactly the right amount to deliver maximum impact) and two specially written songs; one for the lacklustre Daleks In Manhattan/Evolution Of The Daleks two-parter entitled "My Angel Put The Devil In Me" and the other for the lacklustre Christmas special Voyage Of The Damned entitled "The Stowaway", somewhat of a sneak peek as the soundtrack was released before December 2007.

Overall, series three may not be everyone's personal favourite (although it does contain Blink, an episode that Whovians and casual fans unanimously believe to be the single greatest episode the show's ever given us) but I'd be surprised to learn that it doesn't contain at least one piece of music that you don't get some kind of pleasure from, whether it's the racing thrill from "The Runaway Bride", the light-hearted cheese of "Gridlocked Cassinis" (that's often used as background music in the UK version of The Apprentice, if you're interested) or the beautiful "This Is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home".
The only downside to the soundtrack that stops it from being absolutely perfect is the lack of a few tunes used throughout the series and occasionally in the next one (musical sections similar to "The Doctor Forever" used at the end of The Lazarus Experiment and The Family Of Blood). However, I would still strongly recommend this soundtrack to anyone who likes Doctor Who and wants a single collection of some of the best music the show's ever used.

1. All The Strange, Strange Creatures

2. Martha's Theme

3. Drowning Dry

4. The Carrionites Swarm

5. Gridlocked Cassinis

6. Boe

7. Evolution Of The Daleks

8. My Angel Put The Devil In Me

9. Mr Smith And Joan

10. Only Martha Knows

11. Smith's Choice

12. Just Scarecrows To War

13. Miss Joan Redfern

14. The Dream Of A Normal Death

15. The Doctor Forever

16. Blink (Suite)

17. The Runaway Bride

18. After The Chase

19. The Futurekind

20. YANA (Excerpt)

21. The Master Vainglorious

22. Martha's Quest

23. This Is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home

24. Martha Triumphant

25. Donna's Theme

26. The Stowaway

27. The Master Tape

28. Abide With Me

ALBUM RATING - 9/10

Yes, it's not really Rock or Metal (although "The Futurekind" and "The Master Tape" feature some heavy riffing). Normal service on the blog will be resumed relatively soon.

Supernatural, Seasons 1-5

I probably should've written this for Halloween but sadly only had the idea for it on Bonfire Night. Similar to blog posts about Brutal Legend and GTA, this post is going to take a look at some of the highs and lows of the soundtrack to the TV series Supernatural.
Since the show's been going for over ten years now, I'm focusing entirely on seasons 1-5 in this post as that was when the show (and soundtrack) was at its strongest. However, I may look at later seasons in the future. I should also note that whilst I might mention the score in these posts, this is primarily a look at the licensed music for the show and the history surrounding certain musical decisions.

If you've heard of Supernatural but have never watched it, your experience is probably poor to middling at best. Whilst the show's fandom has been engulfed by affected teenage girls and the united forces of tumblr pages themed around anything with David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch and a pumpkin with a weed logo and curly hair in it, the show isn't just Twilight Unchained. I first got into the show when a friend of mine explained to me over Twitter that the show consisted of two brothers driving around, killing monsters as they listen to Classic Rock and whilst the show deals with moments of forced emotion now and then as mid-season plot arcs develop, this description remains valid from the season 1 pilot to the season 5 finale and beyond.
So why does a show about two hunky brothers (Sam and Dean Winchester) fighting vampires, ghouls and racist trucks feature a soundtrack consisting of Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and many more from, to quote Sam Winchester, "the greatest hits of Mullet Rock"? The short answer is because of Eric Kripke, showrunner for the first five seasons and renowned Classic Rock fan. The long answer is because in the pilot episode, Eric made sure to include a scene where Sam and Dean discuss Dean's taste in music, even going as far as to include a line in the script stage directions instructing TV executives to "take your anemic alternative Pop and shove it up your ass". Eric reasoned that featuring a scene would make it part of the show's mythology and, sure enough, he was spot on. However, since then, Dean's love of 70s Rock has played an important part in the shaping of his character and the show in general.

Before I get too much into that, I should probably tell you exactly what the show's about from a specific plot related point of view. Also, if you're considering watching the show, maybe skip this entire section as I'll be briefly touching on a couple of plot spoilers in my description of the first five seasons.
In Supernatural, monsters exist. Vampires, zombies, Bloody Mary, ghosts, demons, wendigos, Pagan Gods, werewolves and creatures spawned through cursed artifacts and/or black magic. However, they don't just walk about the street; they hide and occasionally pick off unlucky sods to feast on their flesh or just plain old revenge. Hunters, as you probably figured out from the word 'Hunters', find these monsters and kill them before they kill too many teenage boys or "TV attractive" women. That's where Sam and Dean come in; they're hunters and have been ever since their mum was killed by a yellow-eyed demon. Their dad, John, vowed to find and slay the demon that killed his wife and in the process, trained his two children to be hunters along with him.
Season one deals with the now adult brothers getting back into hunting together after Sam left to go to college (motivated by the death of his girlfriend, also by the yellow-eyed demon) and their father went missing whilst "on a hunt". However, over the course of the show's first five seasons, the plot evolves into SO MUCH MORE. We get plotlines and arcs involving psychic children, selling souls, a plan to open a gateway to Hell, angels bringing the dead back to life, a conspiracy to break Lucifer out of his prison and the motherfucking apocalypse.
In four seasons, the show transforms from a show looking at urban legend folklore and Western mythology in heartland America to one dealing with Christianity and global peril...all whilst featuring two brothers driving around in a muscle car killing monsters and listening to Classic Rock. Whilst the show took on more of a freeform plot structure in later seasons, the way a simple show about wanting to avenge their mum on behalf of their dad transitioned into one about two archangels settling a millennia old grudge whilst still feeling like it was all part of the same interconnected story provided some fantastic examples of storytelling with a wide variety of characters you cared about until they almost certainly died in a blaze of glory...and whilst the show changed around them, the soundtrack (for the most part) did not.



SPOILERS OVER



Season one contained a solid collection of greatest hits but most tracks were often used at the end of an episode after the brothers had vanquished the beast or near the start as they rode into town, the sound of Ratt, Quiet Riot or UFO blaring through the Impala during a standard establishing shot. Music was largely incidental but there were a few uses now and then that felt deliberate, perfectly employed to capture the mood and themes of the scene in a way that I can still picture in my head just under a decade or so after watching them for the first (and only) time.
These instances include the use of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" - Iron Butterfly during a cold open in which police stealthily surround the house of a serial killer who turns out to be Dean Winchester (dun dun DAAHHHHHHH), "Bad Company" - Bad Company when a character you thought was pretty cool turned out to be a throat slitting demon in disguise, "Bad Moon Rising" - Creedence Clearwater Revival during the season finale cliffhanger and, my personal favourite, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Oyster Cult as a Reaper pursues a jogger in the woods, draining their life to cure a faith healer's patient. Some of these uses might sound a little on the nose but the way their used in the show couldn't be more fitting and awesome.
As I mentioned earlier, the soundtrack helped shape the feel of the show and gave the audience a better understanding of Dean's character. You realise that the man has spent almost his entire life trying to be his dad, to the point that he's literally driving his car, wearing his clothes and (you guessed it) listening to all his music. It's an extra layer to integral character development and now and then, comes in handy when the brothers are trying to solve a case...OK, it mostly just came in handy when Dean realised that the symbol for Blue Oyster Cult was part of some fake mystical symbols painted somewhere, but it's better than just having their music as background noise.

After season one's strong start, season two kept that train a-rollin' with more of the same. This time, since the show was building its own mythology, we had more "Previously on Supernatural..." montages at the start of the episode which gave us an opportunity to watch supercuts of the brothers killing monsters to the sound of "Wheel In The Sky" - Journey or "Foreplay/Long Time" - Boston. Not only that but season two marked the start of one of the show's staples; using "Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas, the unofficial anthem for the show due to the nature of the song's lyrics and the fact that Sam and Dean are actually from Kansas, during the season recap at the start of finales, a trend that's been used in every single season to this very date (I think. I haven't finished season 12 but I'm pretty sure they have done).
Aside from this new use of music, previous uses have been echoed. We still get incidental tunes as the brothers discuss cases or drive off onto their next adventure and we still get amazing music moments such as the use of "White Rabbit" - Jefferson Airplane or "Renegade" - Styx but the show didn't need to deviate too much. It was in its second year so fans expect to see more of the same with some improvements here and there, which is exactly what they got. Season three should've been incredible, right? Weeeellllll...

Season three had a couple of negative factors despite being pretty solid overall. For starters, the writer's strike meant the season had a reduced number of episodes which meant less budget for expensive Classic Rock hits. However, even though the casual uses of Billy Squire or Rush were reduced, this did mean that specific song uses struck with more precision and (often) hilarity. Plus, season three had a heavier plot to deal with now that [SPOILERS RELATING TO WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF SEASON 2] so random Classic Rock songs in the background of important scenes as opposed to comical ones probably would've distracted viewers from that.
Still, season three features "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" - Bachman Turner Overdrive in the background as Sam walks in on his brother having sex with twins, "Hocus Pocus" - Focus as the brothers and amateur ghost hunters set up cameras in a documentary style episode, "Wanted Dead Or Alive" - Bon Jovi as the brothers bond over what could be their last ever hunt together in the season finale ("Bon Jovi rocks...on occasion" is one of my favourite lines from the show) and most important of all, "Heat Of The Moment" - Asia at the starts of the worst day of Sam's life...and no, that's not a grammatical mistake.
By now, the show had garnered a fanbase of teenage girls and dudes who liked Sci-Fi/Supernatural drama with splashes of action throughout. As a result of this and the aforementioned budget issue, Classic Rock songs slowly began to fade away from the show's mythology as it became more about the drama between the brothers and the impending doom they were facing. Instead of being one of the show's many unique attributes, the use of iconic Classic Rock hits was more of a nostalgia fuelled punchline enhancer and sadly, this continued through season four.

Despite being one of the stronger seasons the show's ever had, the soundtrack was hit and miss. The season opened with a couple of well known hits such as "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC and "Lonely Is The Night" - Billy Squier in opening montages but it was clear that Classic Rock was no longer being sought out. The show even had an episode set in the 70s but the closest thing to proper Classic Rock it featured was "Ramblin' Man" - The Allman Brothers Band, a song used in season one already. Then there's "Eye Of The Tiger" - Survivor, a song used as background music in an episode that only became popular after a hilarious post credits outtake featuring the actor playing Dean miming along with the vocals.
Aside from random muzak and no-name bands that were licensed for certain scenes, there aren't really any memorable music moments aside from the ones I've mentioned and "Ready For Love" - Bad Company that plays whilst Dean bones an angel. Instead, the job of amplifying the emotion in a scene via music was left to the Supernatural score. Fortunately, it did the job well although unfortunately, this meant that Classic Rock was no longer needed in the same way as it was before. At this point, it made diminishing sense thematically due to Dean's character changes, although the show didn't go full-blown ridiculous by making Dean a fan of Indie/Alternative.
There's an episode where Dean bonds with a guy over their love of Led Zeppelin and another where he reveals his favourite songs are a tie between Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" and "Travelling Riverside Blues". Hell, even one of the songs in the score entitled "Dean's Dirty Organ (Brother's Guitar Theme)" - Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz that's used throughout the entire series sounds like the show's own homage to "Good Times Bad Times" - Led Zeppelin, since they couldn't license any Zep songs without breaking the bank. The show was aware of its past but wouldn't let it get in the way of the climactic tale it was telling, which brings us neatly onto season five.

Season five was the culmination of all the previous seasons; the big bad was as big as you could possibly get (even though the show tried to go bigger in season eleven and failed miserably) and the individual stakes for each character were sky high for a multitude of reasons. Similar to the previous season, we got a concentrated burst of great Classic Rock tunes in the first few opening montages such as "Thunderstruck" - AC/DC and "Long, Long Way From Home" - Foreigner and a couple of great little uses now and then too, such as "Spirit In The Sky" - Norman Greenbaum when Sam and Dean walk through a war-torn village and "Simple Man" - Lynyrd Skynyrd during a montage contrasting the lives Sam and Dean are living having gone their separate ways. However, much like season four, these are all in the first three episodes. After that, it's somewhat of a Classic Rock drought.
Once again, it's not as if there were a lack of opportunities for this. There's an episode where fans of the brothers' adventures are having a sort of Supernatural-Con at a hotel, all dressed up as Sam and Dean and staging their own little adventures. There could've been a great moment where a cheesy but well known Classic Rock hit starts playing from the radio (something by Bryan Adams or Jefferson Starship, since it's since been established in the show that Dean dislikes that band) and all the fake Deans pretend to love it whilst the fake Sams groan, only for the real Dean to hate it due to it being too corporate and the real Sam to kind of dig it as a guilty pleasure. I dunno, would've been better than generic Blues based background music.
We get a few more Classic Rock tracks this season and a few memorable moments such as "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" - Bob Dylan in an episode where the brothers literally die and go to heaven or "Oye Como Va" - Santana as the hunters prepare to take on the big bad before they literally summon Death. However, the most memorable moment has to be the use of "Rock Of Ages" - Def Leppard in the season finale. It's not the best Def Leppard song but it works in the scene and defines Dean perfectly in that moment. Overall though, I think it's fair to say that as the quality of the writing and storytelling of the show increased, the great usage of 70s/80s Rock steadily decreased with a couple of anomalies peppered about here and there.

Luckily, in 2011, cast and crew members behind the show responded to fan complaints about the decline in Classic Rock usage and around the seventh season, we start getting a few more tunes creeping in (only for them to creep back out a couple of seasons later). However, you won't find a better collection of Classic "Mullet Rock" in the Supernatural's history than in the first five seasons...although mostly seasons 1-3.