^ Los Lobos is writing the songs Americans don't want to write.

Los Lobos ARE Americans.

you must be wrong, cause they're brown & stuff

Chill, weasel-boy. That is one happy album. Possibly the only happy album I like.


So do I! But listen to "Diamonds" anyhow, it's actually good in a honky-fied Congotronics kinda way.

I despise this song & the album it came from

I despise you and your big orange head.

They have nothing that'll ever capture your heart
They're just thorns without the rose
Be careful of them in the dark


#224.



Tom Waits - "Downtown Train"

Year: 1985

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #23 (year), #267 (decade), #1452 (all-time)

AMG Says: "The street-poet and boho balladeer side of Tom Waits is on full display on this urban hymn. "Downtown Train" tackles the alienating anonymity of city life while simultaneously capturing the old romance of New York City and the potential small-town neighborhood feel of areas like Brooklyn. This romantic song about pursuing a love has some trademark sharp and quintessential Waits lines like "I'm shining like a new dime," which seem old-fashioned in a warm and welcoming way, like the well-worn catch phrases your father or grandfather might toss around. The verses of "Downtown Train" are chock-full with more concrete and evocative images than all of the contemporary Top 40 pop hits combined; images like "another yellow moon has punched a hole in the nighttime," "The downtown trains are full/With all those Brooklyn girls/They try so hard to break out of their little worlds," and "you wave your hands and they scatter like crows" ring of Ira Gershwin and Cole Porter. The song is a perfect modern pop structure, somewhat rare for Waits in this era when he was moving away from the folk-jazz troubadour persona and a little more towards the avant-garde."

Ranked Highest By: Saskadelphia (#16)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Rain Dogs

NOBODY expected that song to make it so big. It was surreal.

Personally, I do prefer "Ball of Confusion", among a bunch of other tracks from Seventh Dream and Express.


Rod Stewart massacred that song...nearly ruined it irreparably.

I was thinking exactly this. If not for Rod's version, I probably would have voted the original higher.

Rod's the antichrist.

"Downtown Train" is amazing.

as are so many Waits songs

I listened to a Love & Rockets album one time. Not surprisingly, the only good song on it was "So Alive." A mighty good song, yeah. Anyways.

Don't stop like the hands of time


#223.



Soul II Soul - "Keep on Movin'"

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #11 / #1 Dance / #1 R&B

UK Chart Position: #5 / #31 in '96

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #13 (year), #111 (decade), #678 (all-time)

AMG Says: "This track was released in 1989 and it was the right time. London-based Soul II Soul, with its writer, arranger, and producer Jazzie B., brought to mind a richer American sound, the full-bodied, well-orchestrated style of music from artists such as Barry White, an influence of Jazzie B.'s. Caron Wheeler was the perfect vocalist for this. With a vocal that is both bittersweet and hopeful, the timbre meshed well in the mix and she was arguably the group's best mouthpiece. Then there are the lyrics. While this doesn't veer far from a pedestrian "feel OK if not good" ethos, the hook, "Yellow is the color of sunrays," really gives this the edge. Why? It's simple, slightly spacey and phonetically pleasing. "Keep on Movin'"'s strong musicianship seemed to give their American R&B counterparts the go ahead to actually put melodies in their songs. By the early '90s this song and style was copied by a countless amount of producers with the Soul II Soul ringer, Sybil's "Don't Make Me Over" being the best. While the same themes and production style was revisited on Soul II Soul's "Back to Life," this is Soul II Soul at its melodic and artistic peak."

Ranked Highest By: Bobzilla (#10)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Keep on Movin'

Not surprisingly, if that was the only Love & Rockets you ever heard.


That's a damn shame--throwing away a perfectly good white boy like that.

Yellow is the colour of sunrays.

I hope that means "Back To Life" made it.

"Tom's Diner" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Soul II Fucking Soul

Don't let your love of a band ruin a perfectly good joke.

Yer kidding me. Not that I necessarily disagree, but I thought you would feel much differently than that.

"Tom's Diner" [whatever the sign is for "wouldn't have existed without"] Soul II Fucking Soul.

I don't know what Soul II Soul is.

"Tom's Diner" is awesome. Suzanne Vega is awesome. Solitude Standing is boss.

Tricky wasn't in Massive Attack.

And what's this about 3D??


Waaaaaay too low.


Word to that. Here's hoping 'In The Neighborhood' is, like, # -5464. My pick for what should be US national anthem.

Also, I assumed that Waits' 'Downtown Train' was a cover. Silly me.

Very true. And without Gang of Four we wouldn't have The Rapture, and without Pere Ubu, we wouldn't have had, I dunno, Big Black. That's the great thing about art--you don't always have to get it right the first time out.

Re: TS's post

"In The Neighborhood" was '75-'84, silly.

Amazing song, though.

Yes he was (at least for the first two albums). Or at least he was a part of the collective, whatever.

3-D got busted for kiddie porn a while back, around the same time Pete Townshend did. Was eventually acquitted I think.

Yeah, this is kinda low, though it just missed the cut on my list so I can't quite complain. That reminds me, though--does anyone have the remix of this song that basically removes the rhythm section? I had an mp3 of it like a hafl-decade ago (it was how I first heard the song) and it was significantly awesome, though the original is probably better on the whole.

Oh yeah!

Well, I hope it was high.

3-D was arrested on suspision of child sex offenses under Operation Ore which was heavily critised for forcing companies to give credit card details of people who had bought legal pornography via companies who were also offering peadophilic images on other sites. Secondly most computers will keep a cache of images from pop-ups even if the pop-ups themselves are blocked.

Del Naja was also in the middle of a rather vocal protest about the immenent invasion of Iraq. I'm sure it wasn't a co-incidence.

All the charges were dropped.

Tricky was never part of Massive Attack; he just guested on a song or two.

He was part of the Wild Bunch, but it'd be like saying Sleepy Brown is actually in Outkast.

Also, re; 'Symphony Of Destruction': this just keeps getting better and better. First heard it when I was 12, too. Bought the album on two formats, and absolutely ate it up on Guitar Hero (what a great game that is!). And still, just been loving it tonight.

Does anyone remember the Trent Reznor remix? That fucking ruled, and was actually the first version of the song I heard.


[edit] Oh HAAAAA. I should have read yer whole post, GDB. That's the remix I was on about. I think it's on here somewhere...

[edit again] This has a lot of rhythm section stuff, just different. Still the one?

if you can find it, I'd love to hear it again

It looks like you're saying the Rapture is better than Gang of Four, but you couldn't possibly be saying that.

Sigh.

did I miss something where everyone went insane or what

nah, just that my Rapture >>> Go4 opinions are fairly well documented elsewhere on the board

oh

I'm relatively new so idk

anyway GDB how could you think such a thing

Sigh.

That was somewhere in 1999-2000, around the time this message board first began.

because it's true, obv. Go4 got the template down solid but they couldn't write songs or grooves for shit (with a couple exceptions--you know the ones). The Rapture can do both.

I know the ones, they're called Entertainment and Solid Gold.

Everyone knows James Chance = godfather of dance-punk, anyway.

Well you might as well commit suicide


#222.



My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise EP

Year: 1988

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #17 (year), #156 (decade), #915 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #669

Ranked Highest By: Falling and Laughing (#6)

Not Available on Amazon

"Drive It All Over Me" is a cool song.

I'm so numb, can't even react


#221.



Dinosaur Jr - "Start Choppin"

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: #3 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #20

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Ranked Highest By: No Magnets (#9)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Where You Been

On some days, "Start Choppin" is my favorite Dinosaur Jr. song ever.

Megadeth - 'Symphony Of Destruction' (Trent Reznor Remix)

Here it is, just got done listening to it. This version is really long; I remember, when I heard it on Tommy Vance's Friday Night Rock Show (yep, the original 'TV on the radio'), and my tape from that show, that it ended four minutes in. On the 'OF DE-STRUK-SHUNN!' shout. This version goes on for another five minutes, and gets quite odd. The last minute, especially, is insane. I don't know if this is the original remix, or a re-tool, but I imagine it's the former.

Anyway, enjoy!

"Start Choppin" is awesome because falsetto is the best kind of singing there is.

Yeah, and guitar solos are the best additions to any songs ever sometimes.

It worked for 'Get The Funk Out'!

I always liked this cover. Who is the model in the photo?
It almost looks like Kim Deal.

But I don't think Go4 was trying to make people dance like The Rapture is trying to do, they just happened to have grooves from time to time.

Remember when St. Park had this as his avatar? I thought he was a girl because only girls have avatars of girls, really.

and I assumed you were an elf, paves.