good catch, thanks



also a good point

Hear the drummer get wicked


#63.



Public Enemy - "Welcome to the Terrordome"
(539 Points, Eight Votes, Two #1 Votes)

Year: 1990

US Chart Position: #15 R&B / #8 Dance / #3 Rap

UK Chart Position: #18

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #21 (year), #132 (decade), #947 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #247

AMG Says: "Arguably the production peak of the Bomb Squad and one of Chuck D.'s best rapping performances ever, Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terrordome" is a complete sonic apocalypse, driven by samples from no less than three James Brown tracks plus the shimmering, paranoid guitar line from the Temptations' "Psychedelic Shack." Recorded for 1990's Fear of a Black Planet, "Welcome to the Terrordome" begins with just a few seconds of horns before launching into an incredibly dense production that lasts most of the track. And from his first words, "I got so much trouble on my mind," Chuck D. admits he's going to speak out on a number of topics. Conjuring raps that are almost as dizzying as the production, Chuck presses the point with dozens of internal rhymes: "Lazer, anastasia, maze ya/Ways to blaze your brain and train ya" or "Sad to say I got sold down the river/Still some quiver when I deliver/Never to say I never knew or had a clue/Word was heard, plus hard on the boulevard/Lies, scandalizin', basin'/Traits of hate who's celebratin' wit Satan?" Even while he's rapping, the Bomb Squad and Terminator X drop countless samples and end the song with the oft-sampled "come on, you can get it-get it-get it" from the underground disco classic "I Got My Mind Made Up" by Instant Funk. Listening to most any Public Enemy track was enough to make you think the revolution was here, but none of their tracks were more musically incendiary than "Welcome to the Terrordome.""

Ranked Highest By: Mad Clown & The Eyes (#1)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Fear of a Black Planet

Greatest song lyric of all-time


#62.



U2 - "One" / "Lady With the Spinning Head" / "Satellite of Love" / "Night and Day (Steel Remix)"
(539 Points, 7 Votes)

Year: 1992

US Chart Position: #10 / #1 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #7

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #4 (year), #9 (decade), #104 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #242

AMG Says: ""One" is among U2's finest recordings, with its lyrical simplicity, heart-rending vocal delivery, and evocative instrumentation. The song suggests an understanding and compassion between all people -- from partners and bandmates to the sick and suffering -- in its suggestion that "we get to carry each other." The single was in fact released to benefit AIDS charities and thus the lyrics can be interpreted as a direct line toward compassion for people with AIDS. The guitar sounds are unusually warm and soulful for U2, in part attributed to the use of an acoustic in addition to the Edge's empathic, electric lead throughout. The synthesizer sounds that come on slowly after the first verse and build steadily toward the end are subtle enough. Bono's vocal finally cuts loose with the lines "love is the temple, love the highest law..." as he answers the questions he poses throughout during the song's climactic sequence. "One" hit Top Ten in May of 1992; a video featuring Bono shot at Nell's nightclub in New York City enhanced the song's access to the masses. Additional song lore: It was reported that it is among Axl Rose's favorites; for the 1993 Presidential Inauguration, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills suggested collaboration on it to U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. -- the quartet performed it, calling itself Automatic Baby (an amalgam of the respective band's current album titles Automatic for the People and Achtung Baby). A rough cut of the song -- with a very out-of-tune Mills -- first showed up on the R.E.M. bootleg This Is It: Versions By the Royal Philharmonic ( Plays the Music of U2), Information Society ( We Will Follow: Tribute to U2), and others float around, but nothing compares to the "One.""

Ranked Highest By: Thresholdofrevelation (#9)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: One

fuck this band

I didn't vote, but......

I forgot what a great fucking song "Groove is in the Heart" is, great bass work

Really expected "One" would be higher, like Top 10, because it should be.

I have no idea how the song "One" goes. I have found this to be very odd for some time now.

Don't hold your breath too long
This tunnel is a Texas mile


#61.



Pavement - Watery, Domestic EP
(542 Points, Seven Votes)

Year: 1992

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #58

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

AMG Says: "Released between Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, the Watery, Domestic EP captures Pavement in a transitional phase, as the band began to abandon the static-laden guitar rock of their early recordings and started to move toward a cleaner sound. Most of the innovations of Watery, Domestic have to do with recording techniques, yet the songs are certainly fine. The cleaner production brings Pavement's inherent fractured melodicism into sharper focus, which benefits "Texas Never Whispers," the wistful "Frontwards," and the bright, nearly jangly "Shoot the Singer," but the slow grind of "Lions (Linden)" would have been mesmerizing regardless of the production, or the lack of it."

Ranked Highest By: Turd Ferguson (#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe

Um, can I get a "fuck yeah."

"Shoot The Singer" = totally awesome. Much like the three other songs on there.

serious?

Yeah, serious.

I like to think that if I heard it, I would go, "Hey, it's this song," but I feel fairly confident in my knowledge of what U2 songs I have or have not heard. And I'm sure I've heard it as some point or another. Not enough, though.

Da Inner Sound, Y'all


#60.



De La Soul - "Me, Myself & I"
(553 Points, Nine Votes)

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #34 / #1 Dance / #1 R&B / #1 Rap

UK Chart Position: #22

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #10 (year), #96 (decade), #599 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #444

AMG Says: "A surprisingly club-oriented production, "Me, Myself & I" was just one of the highlights on the debut album by alternative rap sensations De La Soul. While Posdnuos contributes a set of somewhat disinterested raps, Prince Paul and Mase mine the record crate for a few elements of any good disco or jazz-funk production from the '70s -- screaming P-Funk synthesizer lines, outboard soul vocals, a precise guitar line straight out of a George Benson LP, and breakbeats complete with conga and heavy cymbal work. As happened several times on Three Feet High and Rising, the production often overwhelms the vocal but "Me, Myself & I" remains one of the most easily enjoyable tracks on one of the best hip-hop albums of all time."

Ranked Highest By: Stphone (#7)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: 3 Feet High and Rising

You should check it out, i get the idea you would love it or hate it. I was really getting into music when it came out and it was a huge song, even in 4th grade I could tell how beautiful it was. I like the music but I'm sure the lyrics meant nothing to me at the time. And it's kind of the opposite now, i still love the music but the lyrics mean more. I dont know that the lyrics would mean much to a high schooler. I dont mean that as an insult and when I was younger i hated when people said shit like, "when your older you'll appreciate it more", but I think it's true for that song, like the movie "Sideways". I tried to find it on hype-machine, but couldn't. And the Mary j Blige cover is awful IMO.

All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever


#59.

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Qfqao2mjbAY"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Qfqao2mjbAY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Tears for Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
(560 Points, 11 Votes)

Year: 1985

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #2

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #37 (year), #394 (decade), #2034 (all-time)

AMG Says: ""Everybody Wants To Rule the World" sounds like an entirely different band than the mopey British duo that recorded 1983's pretty but pained The Hurting. It's big, and anthemic, and it sounds, for lack of a better descriptive term, American. Clearly, this song was designed for one main purpose: to crack the US charts in a big way, which it in fact did. Opening with a pealing guitar curlicue (and featuring not one but two hard-rocking guitar solos), the song dismisses the band's weedy synth-pop roots in favor of a more muscular sound. The middle eight could come out of a Def Leppard song! Lyrically, the first album's obsessions with Arthur Janov's primal scream therapy are jettisoned in favor of a more elliptical set of concerns. Frankly, the lyrics don't come together particularly well, but they sound good, and the chorus is a terrific singalong. This is one of the best pure chart pop singles of 1985."

Ranked Highest By: The Good Dr. Bill (#7)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Songs from the Big Chair

Yeah, 80-71 is better than the rest of the poll."Ask" is better than all of those.

Nice to see the DI. Anyone got "The Long Dance" handy? Easily my favorite DI. Oh man

don't worry, i've never heard it either.

<a href="http://diunderground.com"><img border="0" src="http://diunderground.com/show_banner/divault250x250.gif" width="250" height="250"></a>

D.I. - "The Long Dance"

Thanks. That's the jam.

nah you'd know it if you heard it

one looove
one bloood
one liiife
you got to do what you should

I disagree with the notion that Paves wouldn't get what the lyrics are about. That's just silly. The song is about being un-faithful. That's a pretty easy concept for anyone. The pain of being cheated on, yeah, I got that when I was 16 - which is how old I was when One came out.

Back when it came out, the song was widely believed to be about a gay son telling his father he had AIDS (an interpretation that was also fueled by one of the song's three videos, and the fact that part of the proceeds of the single's sale went to AIDS research).

Bono, though, has been coy about it, just saying that it can be interpereted many different ways.

I dunno what he sat down and had in mind when he wrote it, but what came out-- as it happens often with him-- are pretty vague platitudes, which, when combined with his bombastic vocal delivery (and quite often some pretty great music), tend to give people who want to find deep meaning in his words the idea that its there (see also: chris martin) but, in a sense, he's actually saying a whole load of nothing. his strength is how confidently he gets across his lyrics and sells the idea that lines like "it's a beautiful day" or "one life with each other/ sisters, brothers" or "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" or "she moves in mysterious ways" are not only not trite but are actually deep and meaningful.

I'm a bad boy 'coz I don't even miss her
I'm a bad boy for breaking her heart


#58.



Tom Petty - "Free Fallin'"
(573 Points, 11 Votes)

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #7 / #1 Mainstream Rock

UK Chart Position: #64

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #7 (year), #83 (decade), #549 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #405

AMG Says: "Opening with a heartfelt strum on a twanging 12-string, Tom Petty takes on yet another one of his small-town, slice-of-America stories. As for the melody, it was producer Jeff Lynne who suggested that Petty stick to the simple chord progression that plays over and over throughout. Aside from a middle breakdown, there is very little else to the song except a swooping bass line chipped in by Lynne. Petty claims in his liner notes to the box set Playback that this is yet another one of his songs with lyrics that fell out in a tumbling, stream-of-consciousness first take. The pair agreed in the studio that were Petty to take his voice up an octave for the line, "Now I'm free," that it would add an extra oomph to his freedom cry. True enough. Petty relates a story about the lyric, "the vampires walking through the valley": Axl Rose asked him, "Where did you get that line about the vampires in the valley?" "When I'm driving I sometimes see these shadowy-looking people just off the sidewalks." Petty didn't offer up an answer. This is yet another one of his hits that found an audience among listeners closer to his own children's age than to fans in his own age bracket. With the help of a high-rotation video on MTV that captured the free-spiritedness of adolescent life depicted by kids on a skate ramp, the song hit Top Ten in January 1990."

Ranked Highest By: Chocothunder (#10)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Full Moon Fever

"Hey Baby"


#57.



R.E.M. - "Man on the Moon"
(581 Points, Ten Votes)

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: #30 / #9 Top 40 / #4 Mainstream Rock / #2 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #18

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #4 (year), #62 (decade), #527 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #227

AMG Says: "The only R.E.M. song to inspire a major motion picture ( Milos Forman's biography of Andy Kaufman, starring Jim Carrey), "Man on the Moon" is one of the group's most popular and enduring songs. A tender tribute to the often misunderstood conceptual comedian, the chorus obliquely addresses the ongoing belief in some fans' minds that Kaufman did not die of cancer in 1984, but merely went into hiding in preparation for his biggest prank, reappearing unexpectedly at some unknown future date. (The references to Elvis Presley, one of Kaufman's idols, tie the conspiracy theories about his own supposed "disappearance" into Kaufman's, and also give Michael Stipe the opportunity to demonstrate one of the very worst Elvis impersonations ever, not once but three times.) It seems like a deeply odd subject for a Top 30 pop hit, but the lyrics, particularly in the yearning and incredibly effective two-part chorus, are so evocative and beautifully sung -- this is almost inarguably Stipe's pinnacle as a singer -- that the specifics matter less. The lyrics are set to a genuinely beautiful tune on which all the members of the band are at their instrumental peaks, with Peter Buck's poignant slide guitar fills a particularly masterful addition. This is a truly lovely, near-perfect song, one of R.E.M.'s most enduring achievements. The movie, unfortunately, wasn't that great."

Ranked Highest By: Citizen (#6)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Automatic for the People

It's gonna bring you down


#56.



Guns n Roses - "Welcome to the Jungle" / "Mr. Brownstone"
(583 Points, Ten Votes)

Year: 1987

US Chart Position: #7

UK Chart Position: #67 / #24 in '88

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #18 (year), #92 (decade), #586 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #131

AMG Says: "By 1987, mainstream rock had been watered down to buffoonish party bands like Poison, and innovative hard rock groups like Metallica were still largely shunned by most rock radio stations. So when "Welcome to the Jungle" hit MTV that fall, the song was instantly noticed; its gritty, swirling, angry sound was a huge contrast to the cartoonish pop-metal prevalent on most pop/rock radio stations. The guitar work on "Welcome to the Jungle" was unapologetically loud, wailing, and unpolished -- so much so that it's surprising the song was ever selected for radio in the first place. Depicting (and warning of) the ugly underbelly of the streets of L.A. -- a stark contrast to the city's bright and shiny image, which was already being broken down in hip-hop music -- "Welcome to the Jungle" evoked feelings of dread, frustration, and fear that only come from experience. Axl Rose's abrasive, screeching voice had a sneering, well-worn quality to it as well, which perfectly complemented the song and lyrics like "If you want it you're gonna bleed but it's the price you pay." It's hard to doubt Rose's raw honesty, and that helped make "Welcome to the Jungle" (and Appetite for Destruction) a major hard rock breakthrough."

Ranked Highest By: Diesel (#16)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Appetite for Destruction

Could life ever be sane again?


#55.



The Smiths - "Panic"
(585 Points, Seven Votes)

Year: 1986

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #11

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #14 (year), #172 (decade), #1006 (all-time)

AMG Says: "Whether it was for the benefit of additional press coverage or simply the result of his romantically rebellious soul, Morrissey drummed up loads of controversy with nearly every step in the heyday of the Smiths. "Panic" saw Morrissey rebelling via music. Misguided members of the British press interpreted the song as a racist stand against black music, but theirs was a ludicrous claim, based only on their own stereotyping of a race and of dance culture. If Johnny Marr is to be believed, "Panic" was written after he and Morrissey took offense to British DJ Steve Wright playing Wham's "I'm Your Man" immediately following a news flash about the Chernobyl catastrophe. "Panic" is Morrissey and Marr asking what fluffy radio tunes mean in a modern existence. Morrissey speaks directly to his listeners, name-checking cities like Leeds, Dublin, and Dundee, boldly reinforcing that the Smiths make music that says something to them about their lives unlike the songs from "the blessed DJ." Whether it's part of a somewhat juvenile motif or not, "Panic" is a wholly compelling song from start to finish. When Morrissey repeatedly calls out "hang the DJ" with backing vocals from young children, it's hard not to be impressed by the band's swagger and style. The song reached number 11 on the U.K. charts and was collected on the U.K. compilation The World Won't Listen and the U.S. compilation Louder Than Bombs. Derek Jarman's promotional video for the song was extracted from his short film The Queen Is Dead, which basically amounts to a collection of three Smiths videos."

Ranked Highest By: Voodoodaddy (#9)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Louder Than Bombs

RIDE
THE
TIGER


#54.



The Pixies - "Gigantic" / "River Euphrates"
(599 Points, Eight Votes)

Year: 1988

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #93

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #7 (year), #67 (decade), #427 (all-time)

AMG Says: "From their first full-length release, Surfer Rosa, "Gigantic" is one of the few songs in the Pixies' catalog that features the lead vocals of Kim Deal. The song hints at the skewered pop sensibilities that Deal developed during her tenure with the Pixies and perfected later on songs like "Cannonball" for her next band, the Breeders. Like many songs by bandmate and Pixies leader Black Francis (aka Frank Black; Charles Thompson), the lyrics of "Gigantic" are more than a bit idiosyncratic. In this case, the lyric is unabashedly about sex, specifically with a particularly well-endowed man. It is just barely veiled in a metaphor -- if you want to call it that -- for humor's sake: "Gigantic/A big, big love." "Gigantic" offers a change of pace from Francis' obsessions. Deal once offered her perspective on the different styles, "Do I write the same kind of songs as Charles? No! Get outta here! I don't care about the Bible! I don't care about UFOs! Who wants to know about that stuff?" No song celebrates and captures erotic joy better than "Gigantic." It begins softly -- a simple bass line and cross-stick drum pattern, with Deal delivering the lyrics in a sultry Julie London-esque vocal style -- before it explodes with the abrasive guitars of Joey Santiago and Francis in a Pere Ubu-like squalor. The production, by Steve Albini, former Big Black honcho and budding producer to the alt-rock stars ( Nirvana, Bitch Magnet, Cheap Trick), is like most of Albini's other work: 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 had an identifiable sound that has impacted a large segment of the music recording industry. Surfer Rosa was one of his first well-known projects aside from his own bands, and he had a large influence on the sound of the record as well as the Pixies' subsequent direction. Though the band was already well-left of center, Albini accentuated its edgy art-rock leanings to add another level of interest to the band's pop traits."

Ranked Highest By: BobtheSquid (#11)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Surfer Rosa

I'm your only friend
I'm not your only friend


#53.



They Might Be Giants - "Birdhouse in Your Soul"
(600 Points, 11 Votes)

Year: 1990

US Chart Position: #3

UK Chart Position: #6

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #14 (year), #100 (decade), #762 (all-time)

AMG Says: "Although their major-label sojourn ended in tears, the opening moments alone of 1990's "Birdhouse In Your Soul" prove that the added recording budget that came with the jump from tiny Bar/None Records to Elektra was well worth it. Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley's production, rather than smothering the song, brings out John Flansburgh and John Linnell's knack for dynamics and arrangement. The panoramic shifts back and forth from the quietly building verses into the instantly memorable singalong chorus would not sound nearly as impressive without the crystalline production. The song takes every advantage of the duo's increased financial resources, to the good. Lyrically, it's one of the group's finest efforts, a tune sung from the point of view of a nightlight that posits itself as the listener's guardian angel. Thanks to the inventive video, insanely catchy chorus and clever lyrics (initially obscure but easy to figure out, thereby making a generation of high school students pride themselves on their ability to "get" the song), "Birdhouse In Your Soul" was They Might Be Giants' breakthrough into the mainstream of early '90s alternative music."

Ranked Highest By: Freddie Freelance (#6)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Flood

...

Never heard it before now. The sound effects detract, I think.

Beat is for Eric B. and LL, as well, hell
Wax is for Anthrax, still it can rock bells


#52.



Public Enemy - "Bring the Noise"
(622 Points, Ten Votes)

Year: 1987

US Chart Position: #56

UK Chart Position: #32

Acclaimed Music Ranking #3 (year), #24 (decade), #174 (all-time)

Ranked Highest By: Citizen (#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Most of the Smiths singles from 1986 were tossed off while tQiD sat on the shelves and they sound like it. Sorry Ben. What is "Panic" doing this high? (You want "The Draize Train" up as well?) Is it only the Smiths song for non-fans to come now?

"Golden Lights", I mean C'mon.

Speaking of Manchester are there 3 Stone Roses singles to come?

I don't know what else to say
I'll say it anyway


#51.



A-Ha - "Take on Me"
(692 Points, 12 Votes)

Year: 1985

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #2

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Thresholdofrevelation (#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Hunting High and Low

The Bad Dr Bill?

And the way I feel tonight
Well I could die and I wouldn't mind


#50.



The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Head On"
(636 Points, 11 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #2 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #57

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

AMG Says: ""Head On" is one of those joyous, fist-pumping pop songs that's weirdly juxtaposed with a dark lyric about inertia; it's taken from the Jesus and Mary Chain's Automatic (1989). Could the singer simply want to muster the courage to talk to a girl, or is it a paralysis-making decision about whether to cop some drugs? No matter, the lyric is craftily universal/ambiguous. With its poppy, lightweight beat, "Head On" falls into the revved-up/amped-up Beach Boys-style song the Mary Chain made (they also specialized in Spector-ish Wall of Sound and pure noise). There's an incessant new wave snare beat, a snarling, teenage vocal, and a drum and bass breakdown. It is blueprint post-punk in the tradition of Joy Division/ New Order; around the time of its modern rock radio popularity in the early '90s, alternative band of the moment, the Pixies, were already covering it."

Ranked Highest By: No Magnets (#1) (also ranked #3 by Rob Gordon)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Automatic

from Bring The Noise to A-Ha?

Wtf?

Where did the Anthrax/P.E. version place?

Ha. I think Bill has the holiday on the brain. My Smiths file is called "#055. The Smiths - Picnic.mp3."

lol I'm not fixing that

why didn't The Smiths ever sing about nice things, anyway

Countdown to Aggy posting lyrics to "Picnic" on Tuesday.

Why the fuck is "Birdhouse In Your Soul" so high, goddamnit.

You betcha. Great song though - good to see it up there.

Dude. "You Can Call Me Al" was on our list. We've lost all credibility.

I more excited for the next singles poll. The oldsters won't even know what to vote for! Sure, yeah, we'll be stuck with Pete Yorn and a few REM singles and Wilco or whatever, but the rest is going to be sweet. Download the remix of R. Kelly's "Step in the Name of Love." Then vote for it.

Just for that crack I'm filling my list with "Adult Alternative."

The light, the heat
I am complete


#49.



Peter Gabriel - "In Your Eyes"
(650 Points, 11 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Year: 1986

US Chart Position: #26 / #1 Mainstream Rock

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #25 (year), #268 (decade), #1457 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #189

Ranked Highest By: Diesel (#1)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: So

whoa, ben spoke too soon (or maybe right on time)

And I know I was wrong
When I said it was true


#48.



The Cure - "In Between Days" / "The Exploding Boy"
(659 Points, Ten Votes)

Year: 1985

US Chart Position: #99 / #39 Dance

UK Chart Position: #15

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #9 (year), #183 (decade), #1051 (all-time)

AMG Says: "One of the great pop songs from the 1980s, "In Between Days" has the Cure concocting an irresistible combination of musical elements for an undeniably energetic single: danceability and emotion, organic and acoustic instruments with synthesized textures, ebullience, love, desperation, and regret. The beat is insistent, the bass and guitar lines slinky, the melody infectious, hummable, and a bit sad. The song is for those who like the bitter with the sweet and who are capable of dancing, feeling, thinking, and singing at the same time.

At the time -- 1985 -- "In Between Days" was at once comfort food for the soul and a challenging new sound that made sense of a myriad of disparate influences. To be sure, the rubbery lead bass line was almost straight out of New Order bassist Peter Hook's playbook. And the grounding in warm, human, and friendly acoustic sounds of techno-synth also represents a give and take between the Cure and such colleagues. The driving beat -- all overdubbed layers of drums and nonstop 16th-note guitar strumming -- can have its source traced to Spanish and Brazilian (and subsequently African) roots. The beat is so danceable that there is no need for sequencers, samples, or beat boxes -- though "In Between Days" was successfully remixed for the 1990 collection Mixed Up.

Robert Smith wisely allows the arrangement to go around one full time, establishing the various musical hooks and themes, before entering with the song's beautiful melody and harmony. He offers a poignant, vulnerable, almost Dylanesque lyric of regret and plea for forgiveness: "Yesterday I got so old I felt like I could die/Yesterday I got so old it made me want to cry/Go on, go on, just walk away/Go on, go on, your choice is made/Go on, go on, and disappear/Go on, go on, away from here/And I know I was wrong when I said it was true/That it couldn't be me/And be her in between without you."

Though the song and the LP Head on the Door were the biggest commercial breakthrough in America for the band, the record oddly failed to crack the Top 40, a lack of commercial success that belied their status as pop stars overseas and the impressive and ever-increasing cult-sized audience they had cultivated in the States."

Ranked Highest By: jdubs3 (#7)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Head on the Door

For the love of cock. You guys are fucking retarded.

What, specifically, is this song supposed to be guilty of?

Being less good than about 5000 other songs. Approximately.

i hope i voted for "head on"... i probably didn't cos i'm an asshole. but it's a really really cool song.

oh well.

You give it all
But I want more


#47.



U2 - "With or Without You"
(662 Points, 11 Votes)

Year: 1987

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #4

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #6 (year), #49 (decade), #331 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #118

AMG Says: "U2's The Joshua Tree was the album that elevated the band into worldwide stardom, comprised of songs that shed a light on the band's more personal leanings, much like an introspective voyage into the group's innermost beliefs, both spiritual and philosophical. Instead of casting their viewpoints about the world around them as they'd done in the past, they looked inward, and created some of best contemplative music ever to surface. From it came "With or Without You," U2's first number one hit, which regained that position for three straight weeks in the spring of 1987. Gleaming with the production work of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, "With or Without You" has Bono unleashing all his vocal power, moving from a soft, subtle intro and middle to an explosive burst of unyielding energy toward the end. The Edge's astute but assertive guitar work creates a momentous rhythm that builds ever so slightly, while the tune's discerning air sounds almost church-like as it slowly unravels. Bono's poetic deftness, when examined closely, reveals that "With or Without You" isn't a love song at all, but one tinted with the enlightening effects of soul searching and the desire for spiritual redemption. Even though this track, as well as the rest of the songs from The Joshua Tree contain deep, analytical implementations, it's the band's wisely orchestrated balance of sharp lyrics and skillful musical arranging that made the album, and its introductory track, so momentous."

Ranked Highest By: Musicgurl (#2)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: The Joshua Tree