Nah, that's fine. It is goofy, and while I appreciate certain elements of it, ultimately it annoys me to my very core.

I can only appreciate the Botch cover of Rock Lobster

I can appreciate Botch doing anything.

I've got a lead singer as big as a whale and she's about to set thail!!!!!!!!

Hey look guys, Montana is making fun of fat people again.

Funny that, considering nobody's as big a champion of bloated washed-up artists as he.

I'll save him the trouble of replying, "Did I hit a nerve?"

Amazing start, though I like others am not that big of a "Rock Lobster" fan. Not horrifyingly bad or anything, but it is the type of song that can get under your skin.

"Rock Lobster" is one of the best and one of the worst songs ever.. at the same time. It's hilarious, bizarre, and full of ideas. It can also be grating. I honestly have to be in a wacky mood to really enjoy it, but I love playing it to annoy friends.

Rarely do I feel "wacky."

What about 'zany' or 'madcap'?

Also, I loathe Rock Lobster.

wow, this show of solidarity against "Rock Lobster" is baffling. I can understand if you don't like it but jeez, there are far more offensive villains in pop music.

The B-52's are horrible.

hearing you say it makes me reconsider my position.

Interesting to know I have that much power over your musical taste.

i hate love shack. rock lobster, on the other hand, is amazing.

Zany, whacky things really frighten me on a primal level.



lol

That shit's zany brah

Probably, but I was presented with Rock Lobster.

yeah, I know. Incredible. I have you to thank for opening my eyes to Effervescence.

Hardly. Though on an occasional evening, if I've had a second glass of wine, I can manage "batty."

can anyone here honestly say with any sincerity that this album isn't absolutely amazing?

^^ excactly. Bashing Rock Lobster I can tolerate, the song is beyond old after one or two listens. But the band? The album? No sir.

What he said ^

You have to give them credit for coming up with an innovative sound for the time, before new wave became a cliche. They were able to create a lot of sound with a 4 string guitar and a drum kit. They weren't any goofier than Devo. Tell me that this clip doesn't kick ass, especially after the 2:30 mark.

Let's rock!

God I hate Devo.

^^^^^^^

WTF

Rock Lobster is a badass song. A couple years ago I worked at an amusement park over the weekend for a fundraiser and they played 5 or 6 pop songs mixed with a few horror movie themes on a loop all day for the 2 full days I worked there. Rock Lobster was definitely the only song I looked forward to hearing. Fuck yeah. That song'll tear you a new asshole.

Yes, pleasantly surprised Whip It did not make the short list. Unless it did and I didn't notice, in which case fuck that bullshit.

I apologize profusely that my taste fails to correspond with your preconceived notions of what it should be. (soe, obv)

I don't hate the B-52's so much. I find them annoying though. And I also find that this list is SO high quality and SO many great songs failed to make the first cut, much less the top 300 that Rock Lobster's presence just makes the lack of so many great songs on the list that much more unpalatable.

As one who was programming college radio when the B52's debut was released I can tell you it was a monumental release. It sounded so utterly different and polarized then as it is here. I'd venture to say that album really ushered in the era of "college radio".

why isn't this thread pinned?

Exactly! When I saw this show the song & band was amazing, but it was fresh & new and I hadn't heard the song over & over & over again for 30 years.

apology accepted.

this album blew me away the first time i heard it. i only knew the b52s off singles. i picked up this album in a lot of a few dozen, spun it one day, and was just floored. but i still don't really care for "rock lobster." it's just way too fucking long.

“He who fucks nun will later join the church”

#285.




The Clash - Death or Glory
(853 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 1979

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: London Calling

All Music Review: About halfway through the Clash's masterful London Calling album comes this glorious slab of cathartic rock & roll. The song's theme and central message is sounded with the first couplet: "Every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world/And ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl." "Death or Glory" proceeds to tweak the previous generation of rock stars that had sworn to die before they got old. With "Death or Glory," Joe Strummer and Mick Jones proclaim their comfort with the idea of coming to terms with the world and turn the song into the first-ever punk paean to maturity. What makes it work, though, isn't the message as much as the medium; this song features the best and most satisfying chord progression and melody the Clash ever came up with. In its place at the center of the ambitious and highly variegated London Calling, it had the effect of a palate-cleansing sorbet in the middle of a multi-course dinner.

Rank in Round One Voting: #276

Ranked Highest By: 6:00 (#18)

“I don't even know why”

#284.




Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
(856 Points, 8 Votes)

Release Year: 1983

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Violent Femmes

All Music Review: The leadoff track on the Violent Femmes' self-titled 1983 debut, "Blister in the Sun" spent nearly a decade as an underground classic, its cult popularity maintained mostly through word of mouth until the commercial acceptance of alternative rock in the early '90s helped it break through to more mainstream audiences. Since then, it's become something of a retro-'80s standard, instantly recognizable to a multitude of listeners who missed it (or who needed time for the song's quirkiness to grow on them) during the many preceding years it took Violent Femmes to go platinum. "Blister in the Sun" is built around a simple, sing-song acoustic guitar riff which is answered by drumbeats resembling handclaps; there's also a section toward the end in which the previous verses are repeated at a steadily decreasing volume (similar to the Isley Brothers' "a little bit softer now..." section in "Shout") before suddenly and climactically returning to the original volume. Gordon Gano's lyrics are sometimes very free associative (despite crystal-clear references to being "high as a kite" and staining his sheets), but even when their specific meaning isn't easily understandable, his quavering, unhinged vocal performance leaves no doubt about the seething tension and frustration being released through the song. Instrumentally, the arrangement is bare-bones, just the same acoustic guitar/bass/drums format the trio used in their days as Milwaukee street buskers; they perform the song with a ragged, amateurish enthusiasm, although bassist Brian Ritchie's busy melodic lines demonstrate ample chops. Even though Gano's gift for capturing teen angst with sensitivity and humor permeated the entire Violent Femmes album, "Blister in the Sun" stood out as (arguably) its catchiest and most infectious tune, and it's no wonder listeners continue to connect with it.

Rank in Round One Voting: #341

Ranked Highest By: n.k. (#15)

“Trying to get over”

#283.




Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
(863 Points, 9 Votes)

Release Year: 1972

Chart Peak: #8 (US)

Found On: Super Fly

All Music Review: Curtis Mayfield was presented with the script for the movie Superfly after a 1971 concert at New York's Lincoln Center. Impressed with the depth of the topics that the script dealt with and the character progression of the main character Priest, Mayfield enthusiastically began writing songs for what was to become a classic, trendsetting soundtrack whose influence stretched over decades. On the surface, the track may seem to be glorifying Priest, but a close listen will find that really the opposite is true, masked in bravado and "game-face bragging." Selling over a million copies as the follow-up to the gold single "Freddie's Dead," "Superfly" went gold, peaking at number five R&B and number eight pop in late 1972. The Superfly LP went gold, topping the R&B charts for six weeks and the pop chart for four weeks. A tidbit for movie buffs.

Rank in Round One Voting: #178

Ranked Highest By: TaxiDriver (#19)

“Switching it over to AM”

#282.




Son Volt - Windfall
(868 Points, 5 Votes)

Release Year: 1995

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Trace

Songmeanings.net Comment: "i think the meaning is pretty straight forward...a cross country road trip maybe...or at least a long drive...maybe on tour of somthing." - danoooo

Rank in Round One Voting: #172

Ranked Highest By: Rob Gordon (#5)

“Now you know I'd try”

#281.




Buffalo Springfield - Expecting to Fly
(869 Points, 4 Votes)

Release Year: 1967

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Buffalo Springfield Again

All Music Review: One of Neil Young's most beautiful and graceful early compositions, "Expecting to Fly" was indeed a surprise to many listeners, especially juxtaposed along such scathing compositions as "Mr. Soul." Young's sense of craft and the ability to accurately convey the bittersweet emotions of the end of a relationship are positively spellbinding. Built around extremely simple and subtle chord changes, and a melody and feel that recall the early work of Tim Hardin (both Stills and Young were huge fans), it's one of Young's finest early works. Recorded with session arranger Jack Nitzsche during one of the periods when Young had temporarily left the Springfield, it was and is (for all intents and purposes) his first solo work. The recording and Nitzsche's string arrangement (which has been described as " Phil Spector on acid") fit the song's grandeur and sense of grace perfectly. Young was to explore similar emotional avenues with orchestral arrangements down the road, but "Expecting to Fly" is possibly his finest work in this idiom.

Rank in Round One Voting: #408

Ranked Highest By: Campaigner (#4)

“So good”

#280.




The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
(871 Points, 14 Votes)

Release Year: 1985

Chart Peak: #45 (UK)

Found On: Psychocandy

All Music Review: With its "Be My Baby" drum beat that sounds as if it is crying out from a torture chamber, this feedback and drone-soaked, Phil Spector wall-of-sound-gone-sour number opened the Jesus & Mary Chain's important 1985 debut album, Psychocandy. The early single and "buzz saw guitar" number was a defining track for brothers Jim and William Reid and the noise pop genre. Its refrain is a sweet as sugar "just like honey" with a high background vocal attached; the line preceding it is a bit more harsh: "Eating up the scum is the hardest thing for me to do." Sweet irony is the name of the Mary Chain's weird game; drink it in and it goes down just fine.

Rank in Round One Voting: #50

Ranked Highest By: farawaysoclose (#23)

“I'm going to cut you into little pieces”

#279.




Pink Floyd - One of These Days
(872 Points, 5 Votes)

Release Year: 1971

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Meddle

All Music Review: "One of These Days" is an instrumental composition used as the lead-off track of Pink Floyd's album Meddle. It begins with the sound of wind and two alternating bass guitars playing single-note parts through an echo chamber and expands to include a recurring organ figure, drums, and finally aggressive lead guitar playing. Three and a half minutes into the six-minute track, drummer Nick Mason is heard declaring, "One of these days, I'm going to chop you into little pieces" in a distorted voice as the music builds ominously, only to recede back to the sound of wind. Pink Floyd first played the song in France on June 12, 1971, more than four months before it was released on record. Upon the release of Meddle on October 30, 1971, "One of These Days" became a favorite of FM radio programmers, its spacy sound seeming to typify Pink Floyd's style. The album spent more than a year in the charts and eventually sold over two million copies in the U.S., helping to set the stage for The Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd was seen performing the song in an empty amphitheater in the 1972 film Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii. The group continued to play "One of These Days" in its shows of the early '70s, but later retired the song. It was reissued as the lead-off track of the compilations A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1983) and Works (1985). After Pink Floyd was reorganized in the early '80s, the band reintroduced "One of These Days" on its tour promoting its 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and used it as the lead-off track of the second CD of the resulting concert album Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988). It was also featured on the video Pulse (1995), which chronicled the tour promoting 1994's The Division Bell, though it was not included on the Pulse CD.

Rank in Round One Voting: #188

Ranked Highest By: Montana (#5)

“Wait 'till their judgement day comes, yeah!”

#278.




Black Sabbath - War Pigs
(873 Points, 11 Votes)

Release Year: 1971

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Paranoid

Songmeanings.net Comment: "BLACK SABBATH WAS JUST ANOTHER SWEET ASS BAND FROM THE 60/70's! PROTESTING THE WAR!!" - IMJM4371

Rank in Round One Voting: #126

Ranked Highest By: Eskimo Kisses (#9)

“The crowd had rushed together tryin' to keep warm”

#277.




Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop the Rain
(878 Points, 12 Votes)

Release Year: 1970

Chart Peak: #2 (US)

Found On: Cosmo's Factory

All Music Review: While Creedence Clearwater Revival is justly hailed as the ultimate roots rock band, and many of their songs were celebrations of Americana or all-out fun rock'n'rollers, they also made their share of thoughtful, serious songs that reflected social concerns of their era. "Who'll Stop the Rain" is unquestionably one of the best of these. It was, too, a pretty big hit, as part of a double-A-sided single with "Travelin' Band," though the fun-loving "Travelin' Band" was the more popular. "Travelin' Band" was also explicitly derivative of 1950s rock'n'roll, which "Who'll Stop the Rain" certainly wasn't, its melancholy melody and acoustic textures owing more to folk-rock. In the manner of many folk-rock songs, it starts with a ringing acoustic guitar riff, though the backing throughout is more in the manner of a road-tested roots rock band than that heard on more standard folk-rock recordings. "Who'll Stop the Rain" has sometimes been interpreted as a veiled protest against the Vietnam War, which in 1970 seemed like an endless quagmire of disaster. That it could be, with its fatalistic but slightly angry mood, and images (particularly in the title-chorus) of a rain that seems impossible to stop. But really, the words could be more universal in their images of mysteries and troubles that seem impossible to solve. This could be stretching it, but maybe the final verse, with its references to music, large crowds, rain, and crowds trying to keep warm, could be about the Woodstock Festival. It's sometimes forgotten because they didn't make the film or the original soundtrack, but Creedence did play there. The striking line about five-year plans and new deals wrapped in golden chains indicates a cynicism about political plans and promises in general. So it's an intriguing lyric, but to focus on that might be underselling the song's considerable musical charms. It has one of John Fogerty's most gentle melodies, yet a singable and memorable one that he invests with passion (particularly in the latter part of the verses), and one with yet another rousing, hooky, almost spiritual harmonized chorus. It's also sprinkled with nice touches like a moody chord progression in the instrumental break that appears nowhere else in the song; the way the harmonized chorus briefly becomes a cappella the last time it's sung; and the half-minute fadeout, reinforcing the central motif of a rain that goes on and on and on.

Rank in Round One Voting: #458

Ranked Highest By: ghostfromthepast (#5)

“It is believing”

#276.




The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
(879 Points, 10 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Release Year: 1966

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Revolver

All Music Review: "Tomorrow Never Knows" was the most experimental and psychedelic track on Revolver, in both its structure and production. This was not a song that could be easily sung by a rock group live, as the special effects and tape manipulation that were integral to the tune could not be re-created on-stage. In addition, there was a conspicuous absence of the riffs and verse-bridge-chorus-dominated construction that had colored virtually every original Beatles composition before 1966. The underpinnings of "Tomorrow Never Knows" were a single-tone drone, influenced by the group's growing interest in Indian music, and unforgettable stop-start, stuttering drum patterns by Ringo Starr. Eerie high-pitched seagull-like chanting was in the background throughout; principal composer John Lennon had actually envisioned the sound of monks chanting, and if this effect was not precisely what he had in mind, it was equally memorable. The lyrics were psychedelic, which is not just a critic's assumption: some of the words were adapted from Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Regardless of the source, the lyrics were philosophical, existential, sometimes inscrutable reflections on the state of being: a heavy subject for popular music, whether in 1966 or any other year. It would be difficult to assign an interpretation to the Beatles' own viewpoint as seen through "Tomorrow Never Knows," since the words are themselves a kaleidoscopic shift of thoughts and feelings, sometimes seeming to advocate passive relaxation and acceptance, at others intense karmic exploration, and at others advising unconventional intuition (as in the exhortation to listen to the color of one's dreams). There's way too much going on in the production of the track to detail in one paragraph: readers are advised to consult Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Recording Sessions for full details of the tape loops, organ, honky tonk piano, wine glass, and Leslie speakers employed to conjure the dreamlike ambience. Bits worth noting, however, are the final verse, in which Lennon's voice suddenly takes on an interstellar intercom-like quality; the alarm-like noise heard just as Lennon starts that final verse; the berserk gyrations of the riffs, as such, in the instrumental break, which sound like a tape being threaded through the machine on varispeed; and Lennon's insistent repetitions of "of the beginning" at the end, which puts things on a somewhat more tranquil note before everything winds down in a cacophony of chants and piano. One would think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one of the most uncoverable of all Beatles songs, but actually the new wave raga- rock group Monsoon (with singer Sheila Chandra) did a credible version in the early '80s.

Rank in Round One Voting: #30

Ranked Highest By: skamatrix (#1)

Yes on this.
I forgot about this song, and how it's the best thing ever.

Another damned solid batch of tunes. Interesting to see the difference between Round 1 and final rankings. Looks like "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Just Like Honey" lucked out.

Also, the more I think about it, Tomorrow Never Knows is a fucking solid tune that is criminally low on this list.