100 Great Rock Tunes
I'm going to start organizing my 100 Greatest Rock Tunes. You are encouraged to make suggestions and discuss those suggested. Here are 9 to prime to the pump: Bruce Springsteen - born to Run, Bruce Springsteen, Thunder Road; Bob Seeger - Turn the Page; Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody; The Beatles - Hey Jude (not necessarily my favorite, but a classic, I might actually prefer Paperback Writer); The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (my favorite); The Who - Love, Reign o'er Me; The Who - You Better you Bet; The Police - Synchronicity.
On Facebook I've already been offered:
10. Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight (I'm not so sure about this one, actually)
11. Billy Joel - Piano Man (hard to argue, but I'm not sure it's my favorite)
12. Billy Joel - A New York State of Mind
13. Billy Joel - Downeaster Alexa
posted by Mark Terry at 4:48 AM
6 Comments:
I thought I posted this but I see that no comments have been posted so if you just haven't moderated you can weed this out, but just in case, before I forget, I'll post again.
Last year I started to write a blog listing my favorite rock songs. But I abandoned the effort when I realized the list changed day by day and hour by hour. I mean, John Lennon -- Imagine...oh wait, Instant Karma....etc. (Well there are two for your list) And speaking of the Beatles, they wrote so many great songs and such a variety, how do you choose? Is there a typical Beatles song? Hey Jude would be way, way down my list. It was certainly interesting but I prefer something like Help. I also loved George Harrison's first solo album and for him I would choose perhaps All Things Must Pass.
Probably my list would be skewed further into the past than yours. I think the music we hear when we're younger tends to affect us more. Here are a few suggestions: You Really Got Me, the Kinks' revolutionary early sixities heavy metal/punk before its time and, on the other side of the spectrum the same bands' gorgeous ballad Waterloo Sunset. And how about the early Doors' classic Light My Fire? It seems rather odd to me that both the Beatles and the Doors' later work seems to have retained more popularity than their early stuff. (Although "later" involves the passage of a few years. Those sixties bands were incredibly creative)
And how do you choose from songs by the Stones (Gimmer Shelter?) of Credance Clearwater (Bad Moon Rising?) I realize a list of 100 would include more than a single song by groups but in a lot of cases how would you limit your choice to five or ten even?
I did listen to a lot of punk/new wave too and I would definitely have Blitzkreig Bop by the Ramones on any list of great rock songs. Although you could substitute any number of Ramone's songs as they are similar! Then there's Anarchy in the UK from the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks album one of the best albums ever.
Most of my feedback has been coming on my Facebook and, somewhat ironically, from my brother (the music prof). He threw in a lot punk, which might make his list, but not mine. I've never warmed up to the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. A friend of mine tried to get me into glam punk and I just couldn't get into it.
I'll update the list in an day or two. Pretty interesting to do it, though, because you start thinking about one artist, and it leads to another. And if you pull up YouTube for a reference, then you go, "Oh, yeah, them. I have to..." I'm not really a Van Halen fan, but I said you have to consider them. So I'm thinking Panama, then on YouTube I see Welcome to the Jungle by Guns-n-Roses. I'm not a GnR fan, but I think that's a great tune.
My bro was saying, do you want to include surfer tunes? You start with the Beach Boys, then you start going way off on a tangent.
By the same token, my son asked if I would include blues guys. He's a huge fan of Robert Cray. But if I include Robert Cray, then I have to include Stevie Ray Vaughn (my brother said the same thing; he also said if he was making a blues list he'd fill it up in a very short period of time).
We got going a bit on versions of songs, too. I mean, Jimmy Hendrix - Along the Watch Tower - his version or Dylan's? For that matter, what about I Shot The Sheriff??? Hendrix, Dylan or Clapton?
I think it's fun to think about anyway.
I guess my list would include a lot of do wop stuff from the fifties -- yeah, as a matter of fact my 70th birthday was Monday and my definition of Oldies is "pre-Beatles."
However, moving into more recent music, how about something from Simon and Garfunkel (They've All Come to Look for America -- or Mrs. Robinson -- or 59th Street Bridge Song -- or Bookends -- or... well, I could think of another five or six quite easily) and as a solo performer, how about Simon's Kodachrome?
Bob Dylan -- Blowing in the Wind -- Hard Rain's Gonna Fall -- It's Alright Ma -- etc.
Janis Joplin -- Piece of My Heart -- Me and Bobby McGee.
For the Who, I sort of prefer some of their earlier stuff like I Can't Explain, or I Can See For Mile and Miles. Also Pure and Easy (I think it's on Odds and Sods but it was originally done for Who's Next and got cut, I believe). Also, I love Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting. Queen: Stone Cold Crazy and Keep Yourself Alive. How about Bowie's Suffragette City? Mott the Hoople's All the Young Dudes or All The Way From Memphis? Then there's the 70's stuff like Deep Purple (Smoke on the Water, Highway Star, Burn, My Woman From Tokyo), Zeppelin (Black Dog, Rock and Roll, Houses of the Holy), and I suppose you could toss in Black Sabbath (Iron Man or Paranoid). Bad Company? Which leads to Paul Rogers and Free (All Right Now)... Man, you can just keep going and going...
I just went over to your page on FB and checked out the suggestions there. Some thought provoking suggestions. But a lot that, while they're good songs, wouldn't make *my* top 100. I like Eric's suggestion for Kinks - You Really Got Me is one of those seminal rock tunes. (All Day and All of the Night is pretty good too.) I saw Come Together mentioned and that's a good choice for the Beatles...And Your Bird Can Sing? Back In The USSR? Glass Onion? Stones have so many great tunes it's hard to choose. Jumpin' Jack Flash was the standard back when I was playing in the 70s. Honky Tonk Women and Brown Sugar are great rock tunes. It's Only Rock and Roll is great, too. I was always partial to Love Me Two Times by the Doors. Maybe I'll try one of my own on my Rambler blog on JS...
For that matter, what about I Shot The Sheriff??? Hendrix, Dylan or Clapton?
That's a Bob Marley song. Hendrix was dead by the time it was written, and I'm pretty sure Bob Dylan never recorded it.
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