It was a year of transition for yours truly. In the summer of that year I had decided to quit my job and run DobberHockey full time. That meant no more commuting. No more radio. I played music all day long on my PC while I worked – but that music was from my already-vast collection. There were limited occasions where I played new stuff.

It wasn’t a good year for rock music. Even listening to these songs over and over again, trying to find some kind of connection with them – I came up empty. For the first time since 1963, I didn’t find a single song I would classify as “awesome”.

While reviewing and cataloging all music, I was curious about certain groups and artists and how I feel about their music today. I decided to rank the songs of some of the greats and after kicking things off with the Beatles, Zeppelin, Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac, The Stones and CCR – next up is R.E.M.

Yes, I definitely lost my hold on the music scene by this point, and wouldn’t get it back for 15 years. In fact, teens and twenty-somethings will say that I never got it back. Old age has hit – in 2005 I was just 31. Mark it! That’s the moment!

The Doors are one of the best rock bands in music history. Their unique blend of keyboard, bass and vocalized poetry has no peer. There really is nothing like The Doors.

I wanted to see how far back I could go, to hear songs that are enjoyable to the modern rock ‘n roll fan (i.e. me).

The turmoil from 2003 lead to true happiness in ’04. But if I were to nail down the year were I began to be distanced from the music scene it was this one.

It was a year of turmoil for yours truly. And unlike the other difficult year of my single life (1998), this one wasn’t helped along by music. In fact, I started drifting away from newer rock and tried to gain some appreciation for pop. I stress the word “some”.