Super Bowl Halftime Could Use Little More Cowbell

By David "Large" Larzelere

Now that we’re all starting to get over the second biggest shock of the Super Bowl – that the Giants won – we can get back to concentrating on the biggest shock of the Super Bowl – that Tom Petty was the halftime entertainment.

[img=http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080208/86429.jpg]

For years now, the NFL has been the last bastion of respect for classic rock in popular culture, but obviously the A-list of the nostalgia set is no longer returning their calls. With that in mind, I’d like to offer up a list of ten other acts I think the league could probably book for next year’s gig:

10. Badfinger – These guys were the (very very) poor man’s Beatles back in the day, a fact that I have to imagine will land them on the Super Bowl shortlist eventually.

9. Nazareth – Fourth grade, I was down at the park playing basketball with all these older burnout kids from my block and Greg Peters’ sister Staci bent over in her tank top and I got suddenly… confused. The song on the boombox? “Love Hurts” by Nazareth. Now does that story say Super Bowl or what?

8. Wishbone Ash – Has Wishbone Ash already played the Super Bowl halftime? I can’t remember.

7. April Wine – Granted, the kids today probably have never heard of April Wine. But look, they’ve never heard of Tom Petty either. American Girl, Sign of the Gypsy Queen, whatever – it’s still a bunch of 60-year-old potheads with guitars.

6. Alan Parsons Project – I could never figure out what the deal was with these guys. They were one of the first bands, though, that had a weird cartoon as their music video.

5. Molly Hatchet – These guys should be trotted out the next time the Super Bowl is down South. Molly Hatchet’s bigger than Zeppelin down there.

4. Rush – All kidding aside, if Tom Petty can play the Super Bowl, why not Rush? And I quote from “Cygnus X-1, Book One: The Voyage” – “They sat a while in silence / Then they turned at last to me / We will call you Cygnus / The god of Balance you shall be.”

3. Blue Oyster Cult - The question is not “why don’t Blue Oyster Cult play the Super Bowl halftime gig?” The question is “why don’t Blue Oyster Cult always play the Super Bowl halftime gig?” Plus, there's this, which made the rock icons all over again:



2. Triumph – Incredible sequined jumpsuits and a penchant for those guitars that were, like, two guitars make these guys a Super Bowl layup. They could play “Fight the Good Fight” three times, or just once for 15 minutes.

1. Uriah Heep – My top pick is most definitely the Heep, provided that the Super Bowl halftime was extended at least long enough for them to play their every song on their 1972 album, “Demons and Wizards.”

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.