The following is from the mind of Beatle Bob…

“Ever since I rode my very first roller-coaster when I was five-years old ( The Comet, Forest Park Highlands, St. Louis,Mo.), I’ve been goosed with getting scared out of my wits on my favorite amusement park ride. After reading about various roller coasters throughout the years, I’ve made it a personal goal to ride on as many as I could in the USA throughout the past four decades. When travelling to many music festivals during this time, I was always able to convince several friends of mine to make a slight detour either before we reached or were returning from a festival, to the amusement parks that had a reputation for having the most hair-raising roller-coasters in the country. And although summer may be roller-coaster season, but not all thrill rides are created equal. A coaster should be like a perfectly orchestrated play. The pacing should provide non-stop action. You should never have a moment to regain your composure.

Of the nearly 800 coasters I’ve ridden, here are my Top-Ten:

1. Bizarro, Six Flags New England: Agawam, MS. The best coaster on the planet with high speeds, fog-filled tunnels and darting turns. The ride is enhanced by a soundtrack played through headset speakers. It provides riders so much airtime — periods of perceived weightlessness — that the seats are superfluous.

2. Millennium Force, Cedar Point: Sandusky, OH. An elevator cable pulls riders to a 30-story peak before they plunge down to a near-vertical track at speeds of up to 92 mph. It has over banked turns, tunnels and four moments off your seat that are unforgettable. At 6,000 feet, it’s the longest steel coaster in the Western Hemisphere.

3. Thunderbolt, Kennywood: West Mifflin, PA. Known affectionately as the T-Bolt, this classic wooden coaster takes advantage of its setting along the Monongahela River. It starts with a drop halfway down the bank, then finishes with its steepest drop at the end. It’s as if the coaster is built backwards.

4. X2, Six Flags Magic Mountain: Valencia, CA. This Southern California park is home to a unique coaster with separate rails for the seats, so riders find themselves twisting and turning as they fly through the air. This bizarre coaster breaks the paradigm of how a coaster should work.

5. The Beast, Kings Island: Mason, OH. This wooden coaster is the world’s longest in both time and length, thrilling riders for more than four minutes on a track that stretches 7,400 feet. It includes a 540-degree helix can hear the screams that twists through a partially covered tunnel. You can hear the screams echoing through the forest.

6. Ravin Flyer II, Waldameer Park: Erie, PA. Riders plunge down an embankment and across a four-lane highway on this unique 2-year-old coaster. There are several moments when the train changes direction and tries to pull the seat out from under you. That’s nasty! From start to finish this feels like controlled mayhem.

7. Viper, Six Flags Great America: Gurnee, IL. Inspired by the classic Cyclone at Coney Island, N.Y., this coaster is 10 feet taller, a little faster and a whole lot wilder. Everything that’s good about the Cyclone is even better on the Viper. It masterfully employs the picket-fence effect — rushing past stationary objects to add to the illusion of speed.

8. Intimidator, Carowinds: Charlotte, NC. Pedestal-style seats have thrill-seekers leaning back with their feet off the floor. It’s like riding in an out-of-control easy chair on a steel coaster that reaches speeds of 80 mph. Anything that makes the ride feel more vulnerable is good. It enhances the sense of imagined danger.

9. Intimidator 305, Kings Dominion: Doswell, VA. NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt inspired this steel coaster, which boasts an incredibly high average speed of 68 mph, nearly double the pace of most rides, and faster than traffic can legally travel on adjacent Interstate 95. It starts with a drop from a 305-foot hill. I counted six moments of air and several way-too-fast turns.

10. Hades, Mt. Olympus: Wisconsin Dells, WI. You can learn mythology from this wooden coaster, which pays homage to the underworld with a 700-foot-long tunnel under the parking lot. It comes up, turns around and dives underground again. the sense of immediate decapitation is often present. It’s pitch-black in there, and there’s a turn inside you don’t see coming.”

-Beatle Bob