I love Jens, and I think Black Cab is probably my least favorite song on that record.

I think it's a really great song, but my personal Jens pick was "Maple Leaves". Guess that wasn't the consensus.

I like Maple Leaves as well, though I prefer Julie and a couple others on the record. I guess I just never understood why everyone got behind Black Cab - and not just on the SOMB either. I find the chord progression and the melody of the chorus to be boring and off-putting.

Yeah, it's always sounded kind of plodding to me.

The stuff on his first LP is my favorite and has always hit the hardest, IMO.

Really dig A Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill. Love the Jonathan Richmany "bum bubum bubums." Plus, song just sounds like an awesome party. Love songs like that.

Not nearly enough they might be giants going on in here. Holding out hope for the lone player, Anna ng to make a showing. Wouldn't have felt the least bit weird tossing don't let start or they'll need a crane into my top five.

birdhouse in your soul, man.

blue canary in the outlet by the lightswitch
who watches over you


unfuckwithable as far as non-rhyming couplets go

Oh man... Totally. Song is the best. Not the biggest "Flood" guy, but I probably should be. Apollo 18 too. I palindrome I, narrow your eyes... Fuck.

Dudes riding around in tricycles for music videos. Totally. Wouldve loved to see those guys live during the fucking around with procussion for "lie still little bottle" days.

Also, off topic... Just throwing it out there: The Crystals. Much more needed. No "He's a Rebel?"

But, on the plus side, this list still kills.

My general feeling is that there will be a handful of surprises for everyone in the top 100.

There will definitely be some hard boarding this weekend.

It should be noted that according to Iggy, T.V. stands for "Twat Vibe".

“Stop”

#100.




Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
(1486 Points, 17 Votes)

Release Year: 1988

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Surfer Rosa

All Music Review: Pixies leader Black Francis (aka Frank Black, Charles Thompson) seems unmoored literally and figuratively on this innovative pop song from the band's highly influential Surfer Rosa LP (1988). His narrator sounds like a protagonist from one of David Byrne's Talking Heads songs like "Once in a Lifetime." In that song, Byrne sing-speaks, "You might find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife/And you might ask yourself 'Well, how did I get here?'" In "Where Is My Mind?," Francis sings, "With your feet on the air and your head on the ground/Try this trick and spin it, yeah/Your head will collapse if there's nothing in it/And you'll ask yourself/Where is my mind?/Way out in the water, see it swimming." The water also plays a significant part in both songs, the idea, perhaps, of reality being fluid. Byrne sings, "Water dissolve me and water remove me/There is water at the bottom of the ocean." Francis' whole song is based around a swim in the Caribbean where up seems down, and where "Animals were hiding behind the rock/Except for little fish/When they told me east is west trying to talk to me, coy koi."

But the similarities mostly end with the lyrical theme and maybe a bit of the vocal delivery. For while the Talking Heads song is a rich tapestry of layered beats and synthesized textures, "Where Is My Mind?" is a stark and organic production. The vertiginous nature of the lyric is amplified by a spiraling guitar lick, sparse and "roomy" drum parts, and a nervously strummed acoustic guitar. Francis' vocals are alternately sung in a higher-octave chant and spoken -- swallowed almost, as if to himself -- not unlike Neil Young on his "Tired Eyes." Certain phrases, "Where is my mind?" especially, are repeated and layered in varying levels and positions in the mix -- a slightly jarring and haunting effect almost like the audio equivalent of a funhouse hall of mirrors. The creepiness is also accented by the repeated, echoing, bestial howls throughout the song. The innovative production is by former Big Black leader Steve Albini. The record became sort of a calling card for Albini, whether he liked it or not. Noted Pixies followers and alt-rock stars Nirvana employed him on In Utero (1993), the follow-up to their breakthrough, Nevermind (1991). The sound is indicative of Albini's style: sparse and dry with natural room sounds, gritty guitars in the forefront, vocals unadorned and mostly an afterthought. Though Albini insists he is just a recording engineer and not a producer per se, he quite obviously has an identifiable sound that has had a great impact. He had a large influence on the sound of the record as well as the Pixies' subsequent direction. Though the Pixies were already well left of center, Albini accentuated their edgy art rock leanings to add another level of interest to the band's pop tendencies. "Where Is My Mind?" enjoyed another look as the closing theme to the 1999 film Fight Club.

Rank in Round One Voting: #293

Ranked Highest By: Raj 'Substance' Exico, Duff. (#18)

“And now a thousand years between”

#99.




Led Zeppelin - Tangerine
(1490 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 1970

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Led Zeppelin III

YouTube User Comment: "wonderful . .=)
i love this song . .
i am 13years . .
go fucked techno and all shit . .

led zeppelin 4-ever ." - The Luks789

Rank in Round One Voting: #286

Ranked Highest By: Ramona (#5)

“I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when”

#98.




Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues
(1499 Points, 14 Votes)

Release Year: 1955

Chart Peak: #4 (US Country)

Found On: With His Hot and Blue Guitar

All Music Review: The remarkable accomplishment of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" is its success in eliciting sympathy for the lonely, cold-hearted prisoner who "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die." Riding a chugga-chugga train rhythm, the song gives voice to the frustrations of a condemned man sentenced to life in prison. Recorded for Sun records, the song was in the country Top Five in 1956, though Cash had written it while in the Air Force somewhere before 1954. "Folsom Prison Blues" follows the traditional symbol of the train whistle, as Hank Williams wrote about in "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" (1951). That song tracks a man following the siren call of the rails, finding trouble along the way, and getting sent to jail: "All alone I bear the shame/I'm a number, not a name/I heard that lonesome whistle blow" ( Williams/ Davis). Cash's protagonist is already locked away, imagining life going on outside the prison walls: "I bet there's rich folks eating in a fancy dining car/They're probably drinking coffee and smoking big cigars/But I know I had it coming, I know I can't be free/But those people keep on moving/And that's what tortures me." As the audience often confuses the singer with the song, "Folsom Prison Blues" was one of the tunes that -- along with his status as a musician that fell in between rockabilly, folk, and country genres -- led to Cash's reputation as a country music outlaw, the "Man in Black" who wrote about society's dispossessed castaways. "Folsom Prison Blues" rightly takes its place among the folk/ country lexicon of prison songs. As such, it has become folk/ country classic, a standard with countless cover versions. Among the best: Flatt and Scruggs play up the song's rowdy bluegrass elements on the 1996-released 1964-1969, Plus box set. On the Genuine Basement Tapes (1992 release), Bob Dylan and the Band inject some of the Highway 61 Revisited-like blues; and Jerry Reed Lord, Mr. Ford (1973) offers an unexpectedly funky reading of the song -- if ever there was such a thing as country-funk, it would have to sound something like this cross between the Bar-Kays and Waylon Jennings. But the finest renditions of the "Folsom Prison Blues" remain Cash's own live recordings from 1968's At Folsom Prison and 1969's At San Quentin. These highly energized, in-prison performances feature prisoners hooting in approval at that chilling line "But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."

Rank in Round One Voting: #64

Ranked Highest By: n.k. (#2)

“Nobody came”

#97.




The Beatles - Elanor Rigby
(1527 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 1966

Chart Peak: #11 (US), #1 (UK)

Found On: Revolver

All Music Review: "Eleanor Rigby" was the most serious-minded song that the Beatles ever released when it first appeared in mid-1966, as part of a double-A-side with "Yellow Submarine." The Beatles had only just begun to write and sing songs that were not about love, with "Nowhere Man" and "Paperback Writer." "Eleanor Rigby" was different yet from those two predecessors -- it was not only not about love, but was written entirely in the third person. What's more, it was a first in that the Beatles themselves did not play any instruments on the recording, which was played by a double string quartet of session musicians. Writing-wise, it was principally the work of Paul McCartney, who gave the piece one of his most outstanding sad melodies. In the main the lyrics were the sketch of lonely spinster Eleanor Rigby, although another lonely elderly figure, Father McKenzie, also has a prominent role. In a broader sense, the Beatles could be commenting here on the alienation of people in the modern world as a whole, with a pessimism that is rare in a Beatles track (and rarer still in a McCartney-dominated one). What are these characters doing their small tasks for, and what is the point: those are the questions asked by the song, albeit in an understated tone. Pessimism about the worth of organized religion is implied in the desolate portrait of Father McKenzie and the finality of the phrase "no one was saved." Far more controversial a critique of organized religion, when you think about it, than John Lennon's famous statement of the period that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus (which landed him in a great deal of trouble). It was most unusual, then and now, in such a youth-oriented medium as rock for a group to be singing about the neglected concerns and fates of the elderly, and was thus just one example of why the Beatles' appeal reached so far beyond the traditional rock audience. The desolation of Rigby and McKenzie's lives was brilliantly amplified by the arrangement, for which producer George Martin must take much credit. Its strident strings produce emphatic, dramatic beats in the manner of a Bernard Herrmann soundtrack ( Martin has admitted to being influenced by Herrmann's score for the Francois Truffaut film Fahrenheit 451 when devising "Eleanor Rigby"'s score), while the tempo variations subtly complement the lyric. Listen to how the strings increase in speed at the point where Father McKenzie is seen working, for instance. Other than Paul McCartney's lead vocal, the Beatles barely appear on the track at all, but they do add fine full harmonies to the chorus. As a double A-side, "Eleanor Rigby"/ "Yellow Submarine" made number one in the U.K., but in the U.S. (where the sides were charted separately), it only made number 11 to "Yellow Submarine"'s number two. It made for quite a daring pairing, actually: one side was the Beatles' most somber song to date, the other their wackiest. "Eleanor Rigby" is not an easy song to cover, due to its ambitious melody, varied rhythms, and the indelible imprint of Martin's arrangement, but somehow that has not kept a lot of people from trying, including soul singers Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles; Booker T. & the MG's (who did an instrumental soul version); jazz artists such as Joshua Redman; Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band (with Norman "Spirit in the Sky" Greenbaum), who did an instrumental jug band rendition with kazoo; folk-rock singer Richie Havens, who put it on his Mixed Bag album; and the Vanilla Fudge, who did a typically agonizing drawn-out heavy rock treatment in the late '60s.

Rank in Round One Voting: #78

Ranked Highest By: andystripes (#3)

Also Ranked By: Man Is Matter (#4)

“The song is over”

#96.




Pink Floyd - Time
(1536 Points, 9 Votes)

Release Year: 1973

Chart Peak: #101 (US)

Found On: Dark Side of the Moon

All Music Review: "Time" is one of the key songs on Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon. Beginning with a collage of clock chimes, the track gives way to an instrumental introduction paced by drummer Nick Mason's rototoms, an early form of electronic drum programming. The song's lyrics, with the verses sung gruffly by David Gilmour and the bridges more ethereally by Rick Wright, are in the second person, describing what the passage of time is for "you," who fritter the hours away in a desultory way as a youth, only to discover belatedly that much of your life has gone by. "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way," Roger Waters' lyrics declare at the end, echoing American philosopher Henry David Thoreau's much-quoted remark in the 1854 book Walden, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." The Dark Side of the Moon was released in the late winter of 1973 and immediately became a massive commercial success, topping the charts in April and eventually becoming one of the biggest-selling albums of the 20th century. "Time," an FM radio favorite, though never a single, was played in the group's concerts of the early '70s, and they returned to it in their tours of the 1980s and '90s, including live versions on both Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) and Pulse (1995).

Rank in Round One Voting: #55

Ranked Highest By: Montana (#2)

“I fell for you like a child”

#95.




Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire
(1536 Points, 17 Votes)

Release Year: 1963

Chart Peak: #17 (US)

Found On: Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash

All Music Review: Johnny Cash had a hit with "Ring of Fire" -- a song co-written by his wife, June Carter, and Merle Kilgore -- in the summer of 1964. By that point, he had already become a country super star, but the early '60s had been a little bit of a fallow period for Cash. The Top Ten hits stopped flowing steadily in the spring of 1960, and while he was still charting, he hadn't had a huge smash in a few years. "Ring of Fire" changed all that. Spending seven weeks at number one and reaching the pop Top 20, the single ushered in the second great wave of hit singles from Cash. More importantly, it cemented the image of Johnny Cash, "the Man in Black" -- not necessarily an outlaw, but certainly an outsider.

In light of that, the mariachi horns that grace the song seem a little incongruous, but even while those horns sound a little dated, the song still sounds tough, particularly because the chorus about "I fell down in a burning ring of fire" sounds so ominous. It's easy to forget that the "Ring of Fire" is just a metaphor for falling in love because a "Ring of Fire" sounds so intimidating and dangerous. Falling into a "Ring of Fire" is something an outlaw would do, or at least it sounded that way, so the song gave Cash a cool, outsider reputation. That's the reason why rockers -- from surf god Dick Dale and rockabilly cat Sleepy LaBeef to post-punkers Blondie and Social Distortion and old-school bad boy Eric Burdon -- chose to cover this song when they wanted to pay tribute to Johnny Cash. And, while certain lyrics are a little corny, it was such a strong song that it sounded good in this myriad of covers. Throughout it all, Cash's original stood strong, because it was a forceful blend of his image and musical attitude. Even though those mariachi horns sound a little silly at times.

Rank in Round One Voting: #282

Ranked Highest By: n.k. (#17)

“You know we've got to find a way”

#94.




Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
(1538 Points, 13 Votes)

Release Year: 1971

Chart Peak: #2 (US)

Found On: What's Going On

All Music Review: "What's Going On" was a new kind of protest song, a sugar-coated pill which surveyed the troubled landscape of an America torn apart by war, poverty, and prejudice, but reported its findings not with anger and recriminations, but with compassion and tenderness. The song was inspired as much by the bigger picture of Vietnam and the civil rights movement as by events in Marvin Gaye's tumultuous personal life -- specifically, the return of his brother, Frankie, from combat; the death of his duet partner, Tammi Terrell; and his disintegrating marriage to wife Anna. ( "What's Going On"'s title, on the other hand, originated with Detroit Lions star Mel Farr, who along with teammate Lem Barney also contributed backing vocals.) It's first and foremost a song about family, both literally and figuratively: the plaintive cries of "father, father" reflect not only the troubled relationship between Gaye and his biological father, but also the singer's ongoing struggles with God, while the appeals to "brother, brother" speak as much to Gaye's own sibling as to the brotherhood of all humankind. "What's Going On"'s scope is vast -- the lyrics also touch on hot-button subjects spanning from anti-war protests to the generation gap to police violence -- but its message is simple: "Only love can conquer hate." Gaye doesn't just pose the question "what's going on?," he answers it, relating his truths with a spiritual power rooted in gospel while tempering the song's bitter realities with gorgeously layered vocals, jazz-inspired rhythms, and luminously soulful saxophone breaks. Indeed, in contrast to the more biting, hardline polemics of contemporaries like James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, and Sly & the Family Stone, "What's Going On" is remarkable for its serenity and warmth -- even detailing their litany of injustices Gaye's vocals remain implacably calm, radiating a Zen-like wisdom and peacefulness. In a major break from Motown tradition, Gaye produced the record himself, and while the label certainly hadn't shied away from making social and political statements in the past, nothing was remotely so explicit and direct as this. Label owner Berry Gordy Jr. reportedly hated "What's Going On" and its accompanying LP, probably because it frightened him -- not only did the record threaten to alienate the white audiences the company coveted, but it broke free of the famed Motown assembly-line production process, liberating artists once and for all. "What's Going On" might not be the biggest hit Motown scored -- the song reached number two in 1971 -- but it might be the most transcendent.

Rank in Round One Voting: #287

Ranked Highest By: phlowtron (#2)

“You're gonna cry, cry cry cry”

#93.




? and the Mysterians - 96 Tears
(1542 Points, 15 Votes)

Release Year: 1966

Chart Peak: #1 (US), #37 (UK)

Found On: 96 Tears

All Music Review: America in the mid-'60s was a truly grand time and place to be alive; where else could five greasy-looking teenagers who sounded like they were still learning their instruments cut a record in someone's living room and not only see it win nationwide release, but hit number one on the Billboard singles charts? Rock & roll doesn't come much more gloriously dumb than "96 Tears"; over a two-finger Farfisa organ riff from one Frankie Rodriguez Jr., Question Mark (aka Rudy Martinez) wails in a combination of sorrow and anger about the girl who has done him wrong, and announces his determination that he's going to hurt her as she hurt him, until he's cried 96 tears -- not 90, not 100, but exactly 96. It was weird as all get out, but it was also funny, and very catchy. In 1966, a time when every kid who could talk his parents into buying a Sears Silvertone guitar dreamed of someday being as big as the Beatles, it must have been a real inspiration to see five guys from Saginaw, MI, who weren't much farther along than they were achieve this impossible dream, if only for a moment. While Question Mark and the Mysterians cut a few more records (most of which sounded an awful lot like "96 Tears"), their days in the sun were numbered, though over 30 years later, the band was still at it, sounding just as inspired (and only a bit less inept) as they did during their 15 minutes of fame, and more than willing to crank out their hit for anyone who wanted to hear it.

Rank in Round One Voting: #85

Ranked Highest By: Some Guy (#4)

“Aboard a tidal wave”

#92.




The Beach Boys - Surf's Up
(1544 Points, 12 Votes)

Release Year: 1966/1967/1971

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Surf's Up

All Music Review: Almost more of an experience than a mere song, the title track from the Beach Boys' 1970 Surf's Up album has rightfully achieved legendary status in the pop world. Originally the centerpiece from the much celebrated, incomplete 1966-67 SMiLE sessions, this song is one of the prime examples of the songwriting collaboration between Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. A classically influenced melody with odd timings and eccentric bass notes all melt together to create a virtual pop symphony. Lyrically, the song is equally impressive. Parks and Wilson were, legend has it, inspired by the tensions of America at the time in relation to the protest over the Vietnam war. The lyrics are an aural painting of an audience at a theatre, while all around them the world and empires are changing and falling. Indeed, this is weighty stuff, yet told with Park's patented wordplay and Wilson's gorgeous music, it all settles into an incredible experience, and one that should be listened to by anyone interested in "the genius of Brian Wilson." The 1970 recording was partially cut in 1966 and then added in the studio in 1970 by the rest of the band, mostly Carl Wilson, who did an admirable job. Various bootleg SMiLE recordings shed a different light on the song -- some better than others -- but this version is wholly worthwhile and easily available. It was also among the songs newly recorded by Wilson for his 2004 version of SMiLE.

Rank in Round One Voting: #48

Ranked Highest By: kingsleadhat (#5)

Good song.

EDIT: I meant "96 Tears," but hey, another good song.

“Got my eyeballs on my knees”

#91.




The Velvet Underground - I Heard Her Call My Name
(1547 Points, 8 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Release Year: 1968

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: White Light/White Heat

All Music Review: Lou Reed was a bit more than the traditional campus jazz snob during his college days; he developed a great passion for "out there" jazz artists like Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, and even hosted a show on Syracuse University's college radio station called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail (named after one of Taylor's compositions) in which he aired both cutting-edge jazz and vintage R&B and doo wop (two of his other great obsessions). Reed has always cited the influence of jazz players on his guitar work, and Reed never brought together his impulses as a rocker and a jazz enthusiast better than in his guitar work on "I Heard Her Call My Name," from the Velvet Underground's second album, White Light/White Heat. While the song was a charging, straight-ahead rocker, and bassist John Cale, drummer Maureen Tucker, and guitarist Sterling Morrison drove it along like a jockey entered in the Kentucky Derby, it's Reed's lacerating guitar runs that really set the song apart. Throwing out fractured lines and stuttered chords enveloped in feedback, Reed runs riot with his axe, and the results bear more than a passing resemblance to what Ornette Coleman did with his sax on recordings like This Is Our Music, only transmuted through a Gretch Country Gentleman. Someone once asked avant-garde musician Sonny Sharrock if he considered himself a jazz guitarist or a rock guitarist. He replied, "I don't consider myself a guitarist; I consider myself a saxophonist with a very f -- ked-up horn." On "I Heard Her Call My Name," that's just the kind of axe Lou Reed seems to be playing.

Rank in Round One Voting: #511

Ranked Highest By: Badger (#1)

Also Ranked By: just another noob (#4)

“With liquor and drugs”

#90.




Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
(1547 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 1977

Chart Peak: #26 (UK, 1996 release)

Found On: Lust For Life

All Music Review: The one song most identified with former Stooge Iggy Pop's solo career, "Lust for Life" is also quite possibly the most upbeat, exuberant tune he ever cut. There's a heavy influence from co-writer David Bowie in the hip-shaking, glammed-up swing of the drumbeat, which dominates the song from start to finish and is doubled at one time or another by all the instruments. Really, it's the only hook the song needs; it's immediately memorable without being all that melodic. Pop bleats his hard lyrics with the ferocity of a survivor who's visited the absolute depths of life without having been consumed, and that's really what the song is about: making your way through everything life can throw at you, screwing up along the way but emerging stronger for it. Pop's persona gives the song a rougher edge than it would have otherwise, a harder-rocking grit that marks it as the product of an equal collaboration, not just Bowie's imagination. While the music definitely feels glammed up and a little bit campy -- not just the swinging rock & roll beat, but touches like the male falsetto voices echoing Pop on the chorus -- it's due to Pop's performance and lyrical contributions that the song never loses its strutting machismo. "Lust for Life" was originally released on the 1977 album of the same title, but remained a somewhat overlooked classic until it was used as the opening-credit theme for the 1996 film Trainspotting, after which it became a staple at college parties and radio stations.

Rank in Round One Voting: #184

Ranked Highest By: SmashNapCrash (#3)

“Lift my head, I'm still yawning”

#89.




The Beatles - I'm Only Sleeping
(1547 Points, 10 Votes)

Release Year: 1966

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Revolver

All Music Review: "I'm Only Sleeping," one of the better songs on Revolver, showed John Lennon's growing facility for crafting tunes that exuded a druggy yet attractive sense of lethargy ( "Rain," "Strawberry Fields Forever," and to a lesser degree "She Said She Said" are other examples from this period). While much of the song is in minor keys and a sluggish dirge-like mid-tempo, like most of the Beatles' songs that were set in those musical modes, the melody is quite pleasing and memorable and not so gloomy as to be off-putting. Although much of the arrangement is couched in folk-rockish guitars, this is not folk-rock. In fact, it edges toward psychedelia with its snaky, hypnotic backwards guitar solos, heard both in the background at points, and in the forefront during the brief instrumental break, as well as during the fade (which is nothing but backwards instrumental guitar). On the surface this might sound like the rumination of a lazy sod too lackadaisical to get out of bed. Various accounts of John Lennon circa early 1966 confirm that this picture did actually bear some relation to real life. It should be borne in mind that just having toured the world exhaustively for three years while doing two films and writing and recording when time allowed, it might be understandable that he might not feel too energetic when he had a break that allowed him to stay at home. On another level, it could be inferred that the dream world of sleep was preferable to the hassles of straight, everyday life. Or, perhaps, that being alone with one's thoughts -- or, maybe, drug-induced images -- was preferable to the mundane reality that comprises a good deal of external experience. The arrangement, like many 1966 Beatles tracks, was highlighted by ingenious harmonies in which the vocalists sing counterpoint melodies and words to the verse, as well as a few sudden stops in which the dead, musty air was slowly stirred up again by an ascending bass figure. Indeed, the lugubrious bass notes that follow some of the repetitions of the title phrase do much to mimic the sensation of falling asleep, the slow bass phrase that restarts the song echoes the feeling of waking or being roused from slumber. The most noteworthy cover of "I'm Only Sleeping" was by Rosanne Cash in the mid-'90s; it, like much of the material she did during this time, was a suitable vehicle for the avowed non- country direction she wanted to pursue in her music at that point in her career.

Rank in Round One Voting: #194

Ranked Highest By: spiritofeden (#3)

"I Heard Her Call Name" really is something, isn't it.

“Do you think you can tell?”

#88.




Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
(1559 Points, 10 Votes)

Release Year: 1975

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Wish You Were Here

All Music Review: Without a doubt the most heartfelt, honest, and impassioned song from Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here" starts off with a beautiful opening guitar piece from David Gilmour that perfectly invokes tranquility and warmth. Arriving as soon as the radio has finished switching stations, the guitar begins in what sounds like a monaural passage and then sweeps in with colorful glory, taking the speakers by storm. Riveting and haunting at the same time, the folk-induced guitar playing is only half of "Wish You Were Here"'s magic. Waters' abstract lyrics filled with symbolism and surreal images are actually references to the loss of Syd Barrett as a musician and a friend, as well as Waters' inner battle with stardom and his socialist viewpoints. Gilmour's singing is wispy and effectively coarse to carry over the subtlety and openness of the lyrics. The faint background vocals from Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams set a somber mood, along with the saxophone playing from Dick Parry. Although extremely difficult to decipher, violinist Stephane Grappelli plays a small piece amongst the swirling winds at the end of the song. Whether the song is an outright ode to Barrett or a tug of war between Waters' humanitarian principles, "Wish You Were Here" continues to be one of Floyd's most penetrating songs.

Rank in Round One Voting: #230

Ranked Highest By: Montana, phlowtron (#4)

Here's hoping for some more songs from the '80s - present, and stat.

“You make me feel like dirt”

#87.




Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)
(1531 Points, 16 Votes)

Release Year: 1978

Chart Peak: #12 (UK)

Found On: Love Bites

All Music Review: Pete Shelley's basic formula in the Buzzcocks was to marry the speed and emotional urgency of punk with the hooky melodies and boy/girl thematics of classic pop/rock. When he applied this thinking to that most classic of pop themes, unrequited teenage love, he crafted one of his most indelible songs, "Ever Fallen in Love?" While the tune is as ear-catching as anything Shelley ever wrote, it's dominated by minor chords that give it a distinctly downbeat, edgy feel, and the lyrics owe less to adolescent self-pity than the more adult realization of how much being in love can hurt -- and how little one can really do about it. While the Buzzcocks' version was a solid success in England, the later cover by Fine Young Cannibals garnered more airplay in the United States. But while Roland Gift's supple voice was a good match for the song's all-too-common question, "Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with?," ultimately Pete Shelley's plainer but more fervent original packs a greater punch.

Rank in Round One Voting: #246

Ranked Highest By: stphone (#16)

Alright, well I can't be annoyed that the track immediately after my post is by the Buzzcocks. God I love Buzzcocks.

“They're gonna find us”

#86.




The Flying Burrito Brothers - Dark End of the Street
(1570 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1969

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: The Gilded Palace of Sin

Last.fm User Comment: "A great song. Makes you feel both euphoric and melancholy at the same time." - SUMMERSOFCLECK

Rank in Round One Voting: #468

Ranked Highest By: The Gram (#3)

Also Ranked By: birdistheword (#5)

“I don't do too much talking”

#85.




Nico - These Days
(1573 Points, 14 Votes)

Release Year: 1967

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Chelsea Girl

Last.fm User Comment: "wasn't this song in The Royal Tenenbaums? Yeah I think it was. anyway it's pretty" - Inufasha

Rank in Round One Voting: #187

Ranked Highest By: Chicken Invaders! (#9)

“Took a long time to come”

#84.




The Zombies - This Will Be Our Year
(1581 Points, 12 Votes)

Release Year: 1968

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Odessey and Oracle

All Music Review: Like Lennon and McCartney, Chris White and Rod Argent had the wonderful ability to feed off each other creatively, and this gave the Zombies' catalog a fine, homogenous feel. "This Will Be Our Year" echoes the joy of "I Want Her She Wants me," the previous song on the Odessey & Oracle album. Quoting from Brian Wilson's "Warmth of the Sun," White's take on domestic bliss is propelled by a simple, but highly effective piano-driven chord structure.

Rank in Round One Voting: #72

Ranked Highest By: Asher Ford (#2)

“I was thinking about what a friend had said”

#83.




Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
(1582 Points, 13 Votes)

Release Year: 1970

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: After The Gold Rush

All Music Review: The title song from Neil Young's 1970 album After the Gold Rush is a version of the apocalypse -- either from the consequences of environmental neglect or nuclear holocaust. Based on the title of a screenplay written by Young's friend, actor Dean Stockwell, all cinematic similarities end there. The surreal imagery in the lyrics is among what would fill Young's songs for the next 30 years: archers (arrows), spaceships, and the omnipresent sun. Singing in his most desperate, melancholic tones and accompanied only by his piano and an unidentified horn or keyboard sound (there's a solo before the final verse), the song has an overwhelming sadness about it. Artists as diverse as Flaming Lips to Dolly Parton have reworked it, but no one has done it to greater effect than Young who also re-recorded it nine years later for Live Rust (1979). Throughout the '90s, he usually delivered it in concert on pump organ; by keeping the song alive, he's managed to turn it into yet another one of his many signature songs.

Rank in Round One Voting: #151

Ranked Highest By: spiritofeden (#5)

“You know the change will do you good”

#82.




Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
(1599 Points, 14 Votes)

Release Year: 1979

Chart Peak: #39 (US Hot Dance Club Play)

Found On: Entertainment!

All Music Review: A sliver of light poking through the terse, bracing music of Gang of Four, "Damaged Goods is the closest thing approaching a traditional pop single from their influential first record, Entertainment!. It remains a masterful blend of sexual politics with propelling, melodious post-punk angst. The music is given an uncharacteristic lightness and bounce from Dave Allen's superb, hooky bass line, countered with a constant hacking rhythm guitar from Andy Gill. The end result is almost danceable, skewed only by singer Jon King's indignant rant: "Your kiss so sweet/Your sweat so sour/Sometimes I'm thinking that I love you/But I only know it's lust." The group's fondness for a sexual/political double entendre provides the crux of the song's message, becoming most obvious during a middle breakdown where the bass drops out and guitarist Gill deadpans the lines: "Damaged goods/Send them back/I can't work/I can't achieve/Send me back/Open the till/Give me the change you said would do me good/Refund the cost/You said you're cheap, but you're too much." All the while, King sings "ah ah ah ah"s in the background with sweet, dripping sarcasm. The song culminates in a sort of rave-up, vamping out to the lyrics that could summarize the collective attitude of the post-punk era, bidding adieu to the more optimistic music of the '60s and self-absorbed '70s with a singalong chorus of, "I'm kissing you goodbye/I'm kissing you goodbye, goodbye, goodbye." "Damaged Goods" would prove to be the musical flashpoint of an era, which -- along with contemporaries such as the Fall, the Au Pairs, and the Clash -- would forge a new radical political agenda in rock & roll. A fusion of punk and funk that would echo through future groups, such as Fugazi and Rage Against the Machine, amongst others.

Rank in Round One Voting: #469

Ranked Highest By: TaxiDriver (#2)

“And we don't know”

#81.




Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
(1604 Points, 19 Votes)

Release Year: 1995

Chart Peak: #12 (US), #16 (UK)

Found On: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

All Music Review: Light, bright and just slightly off-kilter, ”1979” was a somewhat surprising hit for the Smashing Pumpkins in February 1996. With James Iha’s guitars conjuring up just a hint of down-tuned drone a la My Bloody Valentine, and Corgan winding a clear vocal through a mid-tempo melody with nary a shout or wrenching outburst in sight, the song was the perfect winter wonder. Disaster was lurking around the edges though, as a key portion of the accompanying video was lost when a production crew associate left the only copy on top of his car like the proverbial cup of coffee, or wallet, or important files, and drove away, effectively driving the images into nowhere. Never recovered, a frustrated band managed to recreate the moment, and duly dispatched it to MTV, where it became a heavy hitter. Although this wobble would become one of the earliest in a string of disasters that would eventually unhinge the band, before hindsight shook out its mane, the beauty and tenderness of ”1979”, with the pure poetry in lyrics like “you and I should meet, junebug skipping like a stone” did more to erase the angst and anger of a generation of X-ers with its nostalgia tripping than just about anything else.

Rank in Round One Voting: #145

Ranked Highest By: bunk (#4)

“It's real early morning”

#80.




Björk - Hyper-Ballad
(1613 Points, 12 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Release Year: 1995

Chart Peak: #1 (US Dance), #8 (UK)

Found On: Post

rateyourmusic.com User Review: ""Post" marked the moment where Bjork come to full maturity as an artist. In the middle of the Age of Grunge, she intuitively sensed that the future of experimental pop would lie in atmospheric electronica. Remember, at this point Radiohead were still a guitar-based indie band and most indie kid's 'electronic' music collection didn't go much past a New Order greatest hits compilation. Into this Bjork through a collection of beautiful, esoteric pop songs, the absolute star of which is the gentle, lilting "Hyberballad."" - paddlesteamer

Rank in Round One Voting: #98

Ranked Highest By: RoBKoZ (#1)

Also Ranked By: caley (#4)

“Darkness imprisoning me”

#79.




Metallica - One
(1636 Points, 7 Votes, Two #1 Votes)

Release Year: 1988

Chart Peak: #35 (US), #13 (UK)

Found On: ...And Justice For All

All Music Review: "One" became Metallica's first Top 40 hit in early 1989, based almost entirely on the single's gold-level sales — pop radio certainly wasn't about to play a seven-and-a-half-minute progressive thrash metal epic about an armless, legless soldier deprived of all sensory input. That subject was actually the main character of Dalton Trumbo's anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun, and the video integrated footage from the film version of the book between plain, gray-toned shots of the band performing in a blank room, with moving shadows coming from slowly rotating fan blades. It matched the song in intensity and definitely gave the message more impact, a probable reason why Metallica had relented on their earlier vow never to cater to MTV by shooting a video (what a difference a few years would make). The muted, tinny production — co-botched by the band and Flemming Rasmussen — robs the louder sections of some of their power, but it also gives the song a weird, sick tone, an alien quality which makes it that much more disturbing. After fading in with artillery and helicopter sound effects off in the distance, the song begins with a creepy minor-key arpeggio figure played on a clean-toned guitar; each time the figure repeats, it ends with a stop-start motif played in 2/4 time (in other words, the measure lasts half as long as the ear expects it to). Kirk Hammett contributes a lyrical solo and Lars Ulrich subsequently enters with vicious cymbal accents on the stop-start 2/4 figure, adding menace to the overall mood of melancholy. After Hammett finishes his solo, multiple guitars (even one acoustic) begin to harmonize with and play off of the arpeggios, creating a lush effect similar to what Led Zeppelin achieved through Jimmy Page's multiple overdubs. James Hetfield sings the verses quietly, but on the chorus, the guitar distortion is abruptly kicked on with shattering force, only to disappear after two lines. This cycle repeats, with Hammett offering more tender solo work, until after the second chorus, when another, four-line chorus leads into a new section driven by distorted guitars and simple, harmonized solo melodies. This gradually transforms into a heavier, riff-driven section, with Ulrich pounding a rapid figure underneath. The guitars ring out for a bit, then begin to double the drum pattern for the legendary "machine gun" riff — the guitars and drums simulate bursts of machine gunfire, stopping and starting to separate the rounds. What's amazing about this riff is that it's played nearly as fast as the gunfire it's mimicking. Hetfield barks out a catalog of the character's disabilities in two parts, giving the song its emotional climax. The spaces between riffs/rounds are then filled in for a slightly new section, in which Hetfield demonstrates why he was the best rhythm guitarist in speed metal — he maintains the machine-gun pace without stopping to rest again until the end of the song. That's a little while in coming, because Kirk Hammett launches into a manic, blistering solo that caps off the previous lyrical section with unbelievable intensity, while showcasing the opposite side of his playing. Before the song ends, the filled-in riff figure is played through just by itself, stark in its power, after which the music stops as quickly as a respirator can be unplugged. The various sections and components of "One" are seamlessly integrated and flow logically from one to the next, unlike some Metallica epics, which felt like series of good riffs connected without much in the way of transitions. Although bassist Jason Newsted can barely be heard, the rest of the band is firing on all cylinders, at the absolute peak of their powers; it sums up the band's tremendous range of musical expression in one shining epic, and as such is arguably the defining individual moment of their career. "One" has the power to frighten, to disturb intelligently, to awe listeners with its sheer force; it's simply one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time.

Rank in Round One Voting: #224

Ranked Highest By: velocity, throughsilver (#1)

“If you want her lips and you get her cheek, it makes you wonder where you are ”

#78.




Faces - Ooh La La
(1651 Points, 9 Votes)

Release Year: 1973

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Ooh La La

All Music Review: While not as raucous as some of their honky tonk party songs, oldies, soul covers, or hard-driving blues numbers, "Ooh La La" nevertheless epitomizes the joie de vivre spirit of the Faces. "Ooh La La," from the 1973 album of the same name, utilizes the same acoustic-based folk jangle that was also forming the basis of many of Faces lead singer Rod Stewart's solo recordings from the early to mid-'70s. Formed around just two chords (a third is added for a middle-eight section), a catchy riff, and a singalong chorus of "I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger," "Ooh La La"'s wistful lyrics have a melancholy tinge, an older but wiser perspective, though one without regrets, looking at love that does not last: "The can-can such a pretty show/Will steal your heart away/But backstage back on earth again/The dressing rooms are grey....When you want her lips, you get her cheek/Makes you wonder where you are/If you want some more then she's fast asleep you're just twinkling with the stars." The melancholy of the song is underscored by its placement as the last song on the last album from the band. Stewart and founding member Ronnie Lane were experiencing an increasing amount of tension, not a small amount of it due to Stewart's larger success as a solo artist; having left the Jeff Beck Group with Wood, Stewart's career had commenced simultaneously with the Small Faces' morphing into the Faces. Stewart reportedly did not show up for the first two weeks of recording Ooh La La and, when finally arriving, he had issues with the keys of the recordings and other problems and arguments ensued. Though Lane did sing other songs with the group, it is perhaps telling that it is Ronnie Wood, not Stewart, who sings "Ooh La La." The song gained its rightful status as an anthem of sorts when it was used on the inspired soundtrack to the excellent film Rushmore. Stewart also "covered" the song with a similarly acoustic though more pronounced Celtic arrangement featuring Jeff Baxter and Irish popsters the Corrs on his When We Were the New Boys (1998).

Rank in Round One Voting: #92

Ranked Highest By: Michael K. (#3)

Also Ranked By: Campaigner (#5)

“I always wanna be by your side”

#77.




The Kinks - You Really Got Me
(1655 Points, 13 Votes)

Release Year: 1964

Chart Peak: #7 (US), #1 (UK)

Found On: Kinks

All Music Review: The Kinks originally recorded "You Really Got Me" in 1964, but elected to cut it again; the second version is the one we've come to know and love. To explain why and how this song works would be against its very nature; it operates on a purely visceral level. Those chords, the riff, and the sentiment "you really got me" are basically all you need to understand its essence. At the time, it was likened to a play on the ambiguous "Louie Louie," another classic from the era. But a few facts are in order: Dave Davies' fuzz-tone guitar was a groundbreaking sound at the time, achieved by him cutting the speaker of his amp with a razor blade and poking pins into it. The song was a million-seller. The band adapted and adopted its riff and phrasing throughout their career -- from the immediate follow-up, "All Day and All of the Night," on into the '80s on songs like "Destroyer." Naturally it was a live concert staple. "You Really Got Me" remains a blueprint song in the hard rock and heavy metal arsenal. In 1978, Van Halen recorded a white-hot cover version for their debut album. With Eddie Van Halen's fret-board histrionics and David Lee Roth's vocal shenanigans, Van Halen made the song their own; it's a close second to the original and the airplay it has enjoyed on classic rock radio is rivaled only by the Kinks' own song. In 2000, as the song was approached the 40-year mark, The Gap clothing company used it in two television commercials for its children's line: one features a girl band doing a punked-up version, while the boys give it the hip-hop treatment. All that's to say that it's nearly impossible to mess up a truly extraordinary rock & roll song like "You Really Got Me."

Rank in Round One Voting: #285

Ranked Highest By: Some Guy (#8)

“The walls are coming down the walls are crumbling down on you”

#76.




Wipers - Youth of America
(1667 Points, 7 Votes)

Release Year: 1981

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Youth of America

All Music Review: "Youth of America" is the title track from the Wipers' brooding second LP. Clocking in at over ten minutes, this behemoth of a track is an ambitious closer to an impressively original album. "Youth of America" is a sprawling recording of epic proportions with thin layers of dense noise and feedback. Greg Sage claims the song was inspired by a futuristic dream he had: "This dream had such a sense of realism and intensity to it that I went overboard with the recording to symbolize it. There are about 50 guitars in some parts." The song structure seems closer to that of a modal jazz composition, kicking off with a short, melodic theme, then venturing into extended solo variations, and returning to the original theme at song's end. Sage says the length was also a reaction to the absurdly brief hardcore punk recordings that were in vogue at the time: "At the time of this recording, it was the trend that most songs by bands were very fast and short, to the point that some were doing songs as short as 13 seconds or so. Well, I had to do the opposite." The lyrics deal with the general alienation of the nation's youth and a plea for action, sung with harrowing desperation: "Youth of America/It's living in the jungle/Fightin' for survival, but there's no place to go." The atmosphere is more hopeful during the repeated refrain of the chorus: "It is time we rectify this now/We've got to feel it now/Got to see it now, now, now." The music then takes over, descending into an extended freakout. A myriad of guitars create an otherworldly soundscape with layers of feedback, while the bass and drums form a droning undercurrent, doggedly pounding out a hypnotically simple two-chord progression. Eventually the storm subsides, as a spoken lament is issued in somber, low tones: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer/To me there is no place left to go/Got to get out of this world/Do you want to be born here again?/I don't want to be born here again/'Cause this ain't no existence/Can't wait much longer." All does not remain "doom and gloom" as the music returns to the opening theme, with the clouds lifting and guitars again soaring. Sage implores with conviction, "Youth of America/Youth of America/You! You! You!," repeating the "you" as if in an attempt to connect with each of the disenfranchised kids of the world individually. In between each of these repeated lines, inaudible at first, then slowly gaining in courage and volume, is inserted the heartfelt, bald statement, "I believe in you," as the music slowly fades away. "Youth of America" is truly a peerless, fiercely original piece of music, the result of the D.I.Y. punk philosophy taken to the extreme. Sage even made his own records on professional cutting lathe in grade school, citing this as an important catalyst: "The sight of the music in these grooves seemed magical. Like a fingerprint, each sound had its own unique pattern. At the time, it seemed like fine art to me and what really inspired me to play music was the desire to paint my own pictures into the grooves of a record."

Rank in Round One Voting: #514

Ranked Highest By: FEDEXXPOPE (#2)

Also Ranked By: just another noob(#3)

Ooh La La, Youth of America bringing me up here

Love all the late 60s / early 70s British Rock. This list is like Wes Anderson's wet dream.

“Close my eyes”

#75.




My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
(1675 Points, 14 Votes)

Release Year: 1991

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Loveless

songmeanings.net User Comment: "I love this song. No idea what hes going on about!

Rank in Round One Voting: #51

Ranked Highest By: SmashNapCrash (#8)

“Hello”

#74.




Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
(1683 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 1979

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: The Wall

All Music Review: I went to this modest wedding once where after the bride and groom kissed (well, made out for about three minutes), the leather-vested groomsmen threw open a garage door (where the catering was), cranked up the stereo (no DJ or band), and the first song of the wedding was Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." This is an odd choice, of course, as Pink Floyd is not exactly known for their love songs, "Comfortably Numb" notwithstanding. In fact, one would hope that one of the last things that the lovebirds would want to feel immediately is a general sense of numbness -- the song was popularly misunderstood as a pro-intoxication song. But "Comfortably Numb" is really another stellar effort from the band into plumbing the psychological depths of humans living in the late 20th century, detached and consciously or unconsciously walled-off from others, as the album title The Wall (1979) suggested. After the premature departure from the group of their erstwhile leader, Syd Barrett, a mentally ill drug casualty, such psychological themes understandably became overarching concerns for the band's increasingly dominant songwriter, Roger Waters, and also became a source of inspiration for some of their greatest work. While Waters and company may not have written exclusively about mental illness as such, they did pay a great deal of attention to human behavior, usually cast in an unflattering and disappointing light; in fact, much of their lyrical content explores variations on the seven deadly sins: greed, belligerence, sloth, lust, and so on. And when people aren't using or just plain mistreating each other, they are tragically, if voluntarily disengaged, as in "Comfortably Numb." From the would-be masterpiece The Wall (1979), "Comfortably Numb" continues as "another brick in the wall," a further explanation of how one character, the album's (and subsequent film adaptation's) hero, slips further adrift from his world, "a distant ship smoke on the horizon." Waters again puts himself in the shoes of a Barrett-like subject, a person helplessly caught in a conversation where, "You are only coming through in waves/Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying." And Waters continues to use imagery and songwriting tools culled from Barrett's days as lead songwriter: childhood memories and vivid and evocative, dreamlike episodes. As such, these images evoke not only the intended scenes, but also Barrett himself. The music of "Comfortably Numb" is at once creepy and grand. It begins with the subdued introduction of an ascending slide guitar through an echo-delay over a single bass and synthesizer note. "Hello, is there anybody in there/Just nod if you can." Waters' voice is also fed through an echo, the single words of each first line repeating on the beat. The dark verses open into the light of the chorus, with acoustic guitar, fluttering synth-string parts, and high vocal harmonies, wherein the point of view seems to shift from doctor to patient, with David Gilmour taking over the lead vocal, recounting childhood episodes in a seeming effort to figure out what has made him so "numb," but it all is so allusive: "When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse/Out of the corner of my eye/I turned to look but it was gone/I cannot put my finger on it now/The child is grown, the dream is gone/I have become comfortably numb." Waters believes the child within is all that keeps us genuine and human; our personalities are formed as children; when that aspect is gone, so is our soul and innocence. At this point, the melancholy of the chorus turns to outright malevolence in tone and one of rock's greatest guitar solos enters -- Gilmour's two-minute Hendrix-ian blues-rock workout with a raunchy tone that Prince seems to have copped for his excellent guitar pyrotechnics in "Purple Rain." Though Gilmour foreshadows this solo with a smaller one after the first chorus, it does not prepare for the bravura performance of the second screaming solo; it rumbles in on a low distorted chord, picking up steam quickly, a passionate rendering of the rock-solo archetype that still sounded glorious after countless listens.

Rank in Round One Voting: #112

Ranked Highest By: Montana (#3)

Also Ranked By: Agrimorfee (#4)

“Everything, everything, everything”

#73.




Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place
(1713 Points, 12 Votes)

Release Year: 2000

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Kid A

Pitchfork Review: As we near decade's end, let's take a moment to pity the poor, patient believers who-- when the 00s were but 10 months old-- plunked down a dozen or so dollars for Radiohead's fourth album, Kid A, hit play, and waited for their favorite band to rock out. Sure, Thom Yorke had struggled with fandom and fame touring behind the monumental OK Computer, but what was this shit? If everything was really in its right place, where were the fucking guitars, which they had vowed anyone could play (except themselves, suddenly)? And whose crackling old keyboards were those? And why did rock's razor-sharp voice suddenly sound as if it'd been broken into bits by a centrifuge? Luckily, every band didn't follow this song's lead, but "Everything in Its Right Place"-- a sharp-tongued kiss-off that stood on the shoulders of different giants, like krautrock, Stockhausen, and Squarepusher-- poured new possibilities into several previously hermetic circles. And it was too hypnotic to dare apologize.

Rank in Round One Voting: #57

Ranked Highest By: Chronodiggity (#4)

Also Ranked By: The Anti-Ringo Monster (#5)

“I, I'm so in love with you”

#72.




Al Green - Let's Stay Together
(1725 Points, 14 Votes)

Release Year: 1972

Chart Peak: #1 (US), #7 (UK)

Found On: Let's Stay Together

All Music Review: Even Al Green's most gossamer pop songs hearken back to his gospel roots, so it makes perfect sense that 1971's "Let's Stay Together" -- though for all intents and purposes a simple call for romantic reconciliation -- resonates most deeply as a spiritual appeal, a Memphis soul sermon for a nation ripped apart by assassinations, riots, and betrayals. Green's lone number one hit, "Let's Stay Together" radiates compassion and understanding -- there are no accusations, no finger-pointing, just tolerance and love with no strings attached. There are also no specifics -- racial, political, or otherwise -- just the heartfelt plea not to give up, "whether times are good or bad, happy or sad." Willie Mitchell's lush production is subtly insistent, enhancing the immediacy of the song's message with staccato horns and a galloping beat while tempering its passion with cotton-candy strings and a silky guitar lead; he and Green made a lot of great records together, but none quite so perfect as this.

Rank in Round One Voting: #46

Ranked Highest By: Some Guy (#2)

Also Ranked By: Tracy Jacks (#3), RoBKoZ (#5)

“Ha ha ha ho”

#71.




Pixies - Debaser
(1728 Points, 20 Votes)

Release Year: 1989

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Doolittle

rateyourmusic.com User Reviews: "Debaser is possibly the greatest song of the past 30 years, and probably the best opening track of an album ever. An essential tune." - PetSoundsGuy

"Wow, everything I hate in alternative/indie rock, combined into one song. Bland mid-tempo groove, sloppy playing, off-key singing - is there even a vocal melody? This ain't abrasive like they said it was and it ain't melodic like they said it was. So of course everyone else loves it. Give me Dream Theater over this crap any day." - notesworth

Rank in Round One Voting: #29

Ranked Highest By: The Anti-Ringo Monster (#7)