VIEW FROM HERE: LIST OF SONGS STRIKES CHORD IN MEMORY FROM MY GENERATION

There have been lots of lists lately. The 100 best movies ever made. The top 100 authors of the 20th century. The greatest thinkers of the last 100 years.

I'd look through each, noting my agreements and making disparaging remarks about disagreements. I jotted down great books critics said were worth reading or recommended films that could be found on video.

But none of those lists struck a chord with me like the list of the 100 greatest rock songs compiled by VH1 and released last week.

It's not that I agree with the rankings of these songs. Even at No. 99, I question the inclusion of the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" on a list of rock songs. And some of my favorite songs didn't even make the list.

What I enjoyed about the list was that reading it sparked so many memories for me. For you see, rock and l grew up together. I was born in 1955, the year the first major rock hit "Rock Around the Clock" (No. 37 on the list) went rocketing up the charts. And rock has been a major part of my life since. Many of the songs on the list hold special meaning for me, reminding me of significant parts of my life.

As unlikely as it would seem, though I'm sure others share the same experience, the person who introduced me to rock music was a stiff, stodgy old guy who hosted a weekly television variety show.

My family each Sunday would gather to watch the "Ed Sullivan Show" and it was there I first saw Elvis Presley, who has four songs on the VH1 list: "Jailhouse Rock" (18), "Hound Dog" (31,) "All Shook Up" (68), "Heartbreak Hotel" (71). While watching Presley's first appearance on the Sullivan show, my sisters and I were hoping to get a glimpse of his rotating pelvis we'd heard our parents discussing disdainfully. Alas, Presley was shown that first time only from the waist up, but it was an exciting performance.

Sullivan also gave me my first glimpse of the Beatles. I remember screaming along with the girls in the audience as John, Paul, George and Ringo sang "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (23). I didn't really have a reason for my squealing except I saw others doing it, but it was fun and added a new, participatory dimension to variety show viewing.

It was while watching the Beatles that I realized my parents weren't the coolest people in the world. Far from it. Here was this great new sound (at least what could be heard above the wailing of female audience members) and all my parents could do was remark how long the guys' hair was. Almost to their ears.

As I grew, being cool became more important. So I made sure to tune into "American Bandstand" each Saturday for the latest in styles, dance steps and music. It was on that show I heard other songs that made the VH1 list: "California Dreamin'" (48) by the Mamas and the Papas, "Brown Eyed Girl" (49) by Van Morrison, "Gloria" (81) by Them.

My first musical recording purchase, which I played endlessly, was the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" (8) on a 45 rpm record. For those who aren't as ancient as I am, that was a small round vinyl disk with a large hole in the middle into which you had to slip a plastic device so it would fit on a stereo turntable, which was used to play 33 rpm disks known as albums. By the time of my first album purchase, I had moved on in musical taste to Crosby, Stills and Nash, whose "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is No. 51 on the VH1 list.

By the time, I'd moved on to heavy metal, guitar-driven, beat-pounding music like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (3), Jimi Hendrix' "Purple Haze" (25) and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" (75), we were purchasing our music on eight-track tapes and later on cassette tapes so you could play them in the car. Those songs still remind me of summer evenings spent cruising the drag with music blaring out the open windows, trying to look older than our mid-teens.

I remember parties in my young adult years when we zoned out listening to "Layla" (16) by Derek and the Dominos and danced wildly to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" (44).

Friends in college introduced me to Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" (5) and Bob Marley & the Wailers' "No Woman No Cry" (97).

There are more recent contributions on the VH1 list like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (27) and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (41), but even though those would be considered stone-age sounds by today's young adults. To me they are newer songs that I find it hard to appreciate. And I can hardly stand to be in the same room with music from bands like the Backstreet Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Just as my parents did, and I swore I'd never do, I have gotten stuck in a certain time period and genre of music and have become very uncool. I just can't get no satisfaction with the new stuff that's not of my generation when we were born to be wild. So put on some classic rock and crank it up.