Rock Songs Every Boomer Dad Knows By Heart

Musically speaking, boomer dads have to be the luckiest sons of guns alive. They cut their teeth on Elvis Presley, who inspired The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. They witnessed '50s and '60s rock 'n' roll splinter into a wealth of genres, including guitar rock, Americana, prog and punk rock, and even hair rock. From this embarrassment of riches comes a long list of songs that, once heard, could never be forgotten. As well as getting lots of airplay, these hits found their way into millions of music collections, evolving as the technology did from vinyl and tapes, to CDs and back to vinyl again. Skip forward to the 21st century, and while boomer dads may not be quite the movers and shakers they once were, it doesn't take much for a song to whisk them back to their glory days when they felt free.

Certain tunes hark back to a time before the responsibility of being a grown-up took hold, and they were free to hang out — and rock out. Although there are hundreds to pick from, we've chosen those that speak to the hearts of boomer dads: the call of the open road, desperate romance, and, of course, a gloriously overblown rock anthem. What they all have in common is that the instant the needle drops, they know every note and nuance.

There are people who don't like "Bat Out of Hell," either the song or the incredible album that spawned it, or both. Meat Loaf later claimed American doctors used it as a barometer of people's mental state, but among die-hard fans of the nearly 10-minute-long song, few can match it for grandiloquence. When British music show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" aired the video for "Bat Out of Hell" a few months after its 1977 release, the song caught on like wildfire.

The story it told was more vivid than anything that came before: "There's a man in the shadows with a gun in his eye/ And a blade shining oh so bright/ There's evil in the air and there's thunder in sky/ And a killer's on the bloodshot streets." Rock superstar Meat Loaf sang like his life was on the line, and as the lyrics thundered toward the tragic climax, anyone dragged along for the ride knew there was only one way it could end.

Yes, it took a lot of replaying to learn the lyrics but once you did — man, oh man. Entertainers talk about TV or film characters "going on a journey," but the composer of "Bat Out of Hell," Jim Steinman, did it years before in rock music, and he had millions of us following his every step and living each visceral moment. Boomer dads might forget where they put their car keys, but they can recite every word of "Bat Out of Hell" because it's engraved into their souls.

There's barely a rock-loving boomer alive whose ears don't prick at the first few notes of any Led Zeppelin track. "Stairway to Heaven" no doubt sits at the top of millions of dads' lists of know-it-backwards faves, but there's a strong case for "Immigrant Song" too. Released in 1970 as a single in the United States, it failed to break the top 10, but the live performance blew a parting in every audience member's hair for a couple of years after.

John Bonham's infectious drumbeat and Jimmy Page's guitar riff — a sound that bypasses the ears and plugs straight into your body — grab you by the ears, before Robert Plant's from-the-gut cry fills your mind. The lyrics, famously inspired by a summer trip to Iceland, gave us all permission to lord it like vikings: "How soft your fields so green/ Can whisper tales of gore/ Of how we calmed the tides of war/ We are your overlords." That last line managed to be both haunting and threatening, something many skinny hippies at the time yearned for.

Whether they grew up to become white or blue-collar workers, boomer dads up and down the land took "Immigrant Song" to their hearts, committing every deliriously good square inch of it to memory. Whenever it comes on the radio or pops up on a playlist, they are ready for the thumping beat, have the breath for Plant's opening salvo, and enjoy the ride all over again.

Rock music was created to light a fire under a generation and, looking back, many boomer dads will agree it did its job. But every now and again, an outlier band would break through with a different sound, and Thin Lizzy was one of them. Led by the ridiculously charismatic Phil Lynott, the Irish rockers hit chart-topping paydirt thanks to its 1976 album "Jailbreak". American DJ's could not get enough of one song in particular, and "The Boys Are Back in Town" swiftly became a single. What made it into "Jailbreak" by the skin of its teeth was transformed into an anthem for men everywhere. 

Boomers, even if they weren't particularly wild, relished the sense of bonding between guys and the knockabout, if violent, camaraderie of the lyrics. Indeed, "The Boys Are Back in Town" was a soundtrack to a misspent youth: Alcohol and drug misuse snatched 36-year-old Lynott away in 1986, and in the decades since the song's release, it has taken on a more profound meaning for boomer dads. The friends may have moved on, but "The Boys Are Back in Town" proves there's still plenty of life in the old dogs. Call it "dad rock," if you dare.

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No compilation of boomer dad music would be complete without a nod to The Boss, though our choice probably wouldn't be the first on many people's list. We're all agreed that "Born in the USA" is a banger, but "Born to Run" is a rare example of how a gritty rock song can have the heart of a troubadour. One for the boomer dads who are also hopeful romantics? You'd better believe it.

The opening guitar is a lovelorn ache, the drumbeat an urgent heartbeat, and Springsteen's guttural cry halts the song in its tracks over and over again. The lyrics are the most compelling reason of all for boomer dads to know them by heart: They gave men permission to be vulnerable — unthinkable in 1975, when it was released. "Oh, will you walk with me out on the wire?/ 'Cause baby I'm just a scared and lonely rider."

"Born to Run" was a defining rock moment for all the boomer dads who yearned to be the hero of their own story. It's now a song for the ages, an anthem for the tramps who wooed and won their Wendys, who shook off the dirt of their small-town roots, and who managed — however briefly — to walk in the sun.

The counter-culture of the 1960s and '70s gave many post-war parents the heebie-jeebies, but it was a fertile breeding ground for rock music that boomer dads know and love to this very day. Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" was written by Dennis Edmonton (aka Mars Bonfire), who was inspired by driving through the landscapes around Los Angeles while taking psychedelic drugs. Released in 1968, it went stratospheric after it was featured in the iconic 1969 film "Easy Rider," and tapped into a generation's desire for freedom.

Whether you interpreted the first verse as a wish or a command, its message was heard loud and clear: There's a whole world out there. Sure you could dance to the steady drum beat and wicked guitar licks, but the title chorus was a rallying cry. "Born to be Wild" isn't a sophisticated song. It doesn't have any hidden depths or have an epic run time, and that's partly why every boomer dad knows it by heart. It offers a moment of respite from the day-to-day grind; a chance to shake our fist at the universe, and remember, even as we settle into the third act of our lives, that we once felt immortal.

Back in the '60s, you were either Team Beatles or Team Rolling Stones, and that was that. Boomer dads may tell you that part of the joy of growing up is allowing your opinions to change, and giving room to something you'd previously sworn off. For fans of Mick Jagger and company from the get-go, no introduction was needed, while those a little later to the party soon realised what they had been missing, starting with the 1965 smash hit "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)."

The guitar hook on "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction) is as down-and-dirty as they come, written by Keith Richards, who woke up with the iconic riff playing in his mind. Jagger initially sounds — dare we say — innocent, before he launches into a two-verse diatribe about feeling isolated from the world around him. The Stones were very much the bad boys of their time, and for millions of boomers, their devil-may-care attitude and British brand of street smarts were literal music to their ears. 

Even as the decades rolled by and the band defied the laws of ageing by continuing to tour, boomer dads, grumpy about everything from taxes to gray hair, can belt out this timeless classic, knowing every treasured word is as relevant now as it was then.