‘Red River’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
If rock-and-roll is essentially dead, replaced by the dominance of pop, hip-hop and alternative, nobody told Tom Petty.
On Hypnotic Eye, his best album since Wildflowers (and that’s paying full respect to such great records as Highway Companion and Mojo), he unleashes monster guitar riffs and sticky melodies just like in the good old days.
The album is a pleasure from start to finish, but ‘Red River’ puts together all the pieces in four minutes of muscular rock-god bliss.
This is the hit-maker of Damn the Torpedoes merged with the grizzled bluesman Petty has become. A pure delight.
Got a child she’s never named
She shakes a snake above her hair
Talks in tongues when there’s no one there
So meet me tonight by the Red River
Where the water is clear and cold
Meet me tonight by the Red River
And look down into your soul
Look down into your soul
She’s got a rosary and a rabbit’s foot
A black cat bone that keeps her good
A tiger tooth and a gris-gris stick
Still it don’t do the trick
So meet me tonight by the Red River
Where the water is clear and cold
Meet me tonight by the Red River
And look down into your soul
Look down into your soul
I’m gonna walk her down to gypsytown
Find the spirit queen I’ve seen around
Paint her body up in mud and clay
Let the river wash it all away
So meet me tonight by the Red River
Where the water is clear and cold
Meet me tonight by the Red River
And look down into your soul
Look down into your soul
Look down into your soul
Meet Me In Montauk 
I’m with ya on this one, both as to the song and the album.
I’m not sure rock is “dead” by the way. There are a few artists and bands of this generation having success with a more pure rock sound and you hear the influence and infusion of rock in the other more dominant genres you mentioned.