THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES....
Every one of these songs means something to me. Whether it's a lyric, a harmony, a chord change or a memory attached to it, these 10 songs all deserve to be in my Top 100 for one reason or another.
This list is flawed. The songs are just about perfect. But as expected, and as predicted by some of you, this task is daunting and will no doubt haunt me. What have I missed? Can I really include (insert song title) and not (insert song title)? Nevertheless, after considerable thought, and relentless editing, these songs make the cut.
These songs are sequenced in optimum playing order, not by rank.
We are down to the Top 100. Now, we have a ball game. And this ball game, by the way, is getting more difficult as I countdown.
41-50
Street Fighting Man- The Rolling Stones
This track has so many things going for it, even the Stones couldn't do justice to it live. The special tuning on the guitar. The SOUND of the guitar. The snare cracks. The SOUND of the snare. The maracas. The swish of the hi hat. The high harmony on the last chorus. It doesn't even sound like it belongs on "Beggars Banquet!" It's lightning in a bottle.
Baby, Baby (I Still Love You)- Cinderella
I first heard this by Jules Shear. Good version, but I had no idea what I was missing until I heard this version on Rhino's "Girl Group Box." A powerhouse vocal from Margaret Ross. Could be my favorite "girl group" record.
Sunrise- The Who
"You take away the breath I was keeping for sunrise" was my favorite Townshend lyric for a long time, until I saw an acoustic performance from the 2000's where he explains how he wrote this song for his mother. THAT certainly changed the vibe. Still, this is a beauty. A fave from my fave album, "The Who Sell Out."
It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference- Todd Rundgren
The first time I heard the opening piano chords I felt like I had known this song my whole life. This is Todd doing his best Todd, and a song that 50 years later, still knocks me out.
Rain- The Beatles
This is only the second appearance by The Beatles on this list. Not choosing 40 Beatles songs is one of the most difficult parts of this project. But this track seemed like a no-brainer. Ringo's drumming, of course. Paul's bass playing. The harmonies. This is one of those records that sounds like nothing before it. And it was a non-LP b-side! We should all have non-LP b-sides this amazing.
Comin' Back To Me- Jefferson Airplane
A Marty Balin tour de force. One of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs ever written.
Atlantic City- Bruce Springsteen
One of my favorite movies of all time becomes one of my favorite songs of all time. This has been rearranged a number of times in concert, from a big Seeger Sessions Band version to the rare acoustic piano takes from 1996. But it's the original on "Nebraska" that remains the most effective.
"There's winners and there's losers and I'm south of the line."
American Tune- Paul Simon
I've always loved this song and I've always been moved by this song. But something shifted in a very big way when I heard it performed by Allen Toussaint just a few months after Hurricane Katrina. This song was never the same for me.
Happy- The Rolling Stones
That riff is unbeatable! That chorus, too! This song, Keef's vocal, the groove on the coda! This song makes me very happy!
All The Young Dudes- Mott The Hoople
We all know the story by now. Mott's life saved by David Bowie and this track. But as much as I love this track, without the guitar run that opens the song, it's a whole other ball game. And that, my friends, is all Mick Ralphs.
22 comments:
Only 2 Beatles songs has made the countdown so far?
Only two...so far.
SO FAR! :-)
Great list. I've got to check out the Cinderella, which at first I thought must be from the hair metal band of the 1980s. Ha!
Street Fighting Man -- "This track has so many things going for it, even the Stones couldn't do justice to it live." Ha again! Great line.
How did you keep from including 40 Todd songs? I really don't know how I'd handle the Beatles and the Dylan and some others on a list like this. I would freeze up with indecision.
Rain -- released just a few weeks after I was born! A b side! Truly insane that this is a B side and in a way, a weird way, it's a perfectly reasonable choice as a B side for the Beatles. I mean, Paperback Writer is a tremendous single and right before it is Day Tripper and right after Eleanor Rigby. No wonder this got lost in the shuffle. And I always wrongly think of it as a George song despite John's vocal. It just has a George vibe to me due to the vaguely Indian vocal arrangement? I never even heard it until Past Masters came out on CD.
Atlantic City and American Tune -- not even in the Top 40! Overwhelmingly good. I suddenly think if I did a list Id have Slip Sliding Away because it's a single separate from a great album and I think of it as a single. Maybe that's my way into this idea. Songs that stand outside the album experience for me.
All The Young Dudes -- funnily enough, I've just been discussing and thinking about Mott The Hoople. What are the chances?
Can't wait for the Top 40. I mean, the obvious Dylan of Like A Rolling Stone or Tangled Up In Blue or...ha just as I wrote this I realized what Dylan you would choose. Duh! And anyone reading the blog should be able to predict the Dylan in your Top 10! I'm heading to my bookie now to place a bet.
I'm loving that these are coming out more quickly than I expected. As always there are selections where I nod in agreement and others where I go 'huh' and have to go take a listen. The best part is trying to guess what's going to be on the subsequent lists or maybe even more importantly what hasn't made the cut. As always, it starts me thinking about my own list and what I would and wouldn't include. I always give up after a few minutes. It's just too hard which is why I really admire what you're doing and for providing loads of fun and great music.
Love 'Rain' and 'Atlantic City'. Rain is one of my favorite Beatles songs, it's just perfection.
This might be my favorite group of songs so far, and thank you for Comin' Back to Me, a gorgeous performance, a song that moves me beyond words. Thanks for doing this (also, I know how hard it is to keep Beatles songs out of these things!)
Coming Soon....the TOP 40. Can we resurrect Casey to count 'em up? Living in Oregon for so long, I've lost the vibe from 'Rain' I had growing up in Burbank, where I believe there was an
ordinance banning the stuff. Here in the Northwest, it's a frequent fact of life, so nobody runs, nobody hides their heads. We just buy a helluva lot of Gore-Tex.
You left out Nicky Hopkins piano on the fade-out of Street Fighting Man.😎
"This song was never the same for me." In what way? How did it affect you? Is there any recording of his cover? It's an incredibly beautiful, powerful, emotional song.
My next set I broke down into a set of 25-50. Starting to get to songs I can’t live without. As a point, while I do mention that (so far), not a lot of Sal’s songs made my top 150 — his are all (mostly) great songs that I am not tired of, but they don’t rise to my personal level of perfection. None of this set of Sal’s are on my list — at all. It would be interesting to hear from others about their choices — maybe when Sal posts his top 10 others will too? :-)
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher -- Jackie Wilson. Literally one of the most uplifting songs in the world. I’ve never heard a bad version of this that hasn’t brought a smile to my face.
Town Called Malice -- The Jam. Interesting random placement in the list considering the bass-line isn’t too far off from the previous song (OK, maybe it’s just a minor-chord rewrite of the former song when it starts..), Paul Weller and the boys in their struggle after struggle…
Walk Away Renee -- Left Banke. In the years before the internet, the lyrics to this song were indecipherable to me — and I thought it sounded like nothing else out there. Once I figured out the lyrics — it made it that much better of a song. Slightly higher for me than for Sal, but close enough!
Divorce Song -- Liz Phair. A gut-wrencher. Brutal lyrics. Leapt off the album the first time I heard it (along with “Fuck and Run” and still hits hard every time I hear it.
Cinnamon Girl -- Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Bring out the guitar. The infamous one-note solo! The bridge! Another warm-up song for me and always gets turned up when it comes on.
Absolutely (Story of a Girl) -- Nine Days. One of the two songs from the 2000s remaining on my list. I overuse the words “perfect PowerPop song” a lot when talking about songs on my list. One thing I love about this song? The changing of the words in one of the choruses. It’s little things like this that make it a standout. It’s got a clever use of chords and is insanely catchy.
Silly Love Songs -- Paul McCartney & Wings. Some songs I love because of the melodic bass line. I still find it amazing that he can play it and sing at the same time. What’s wrong with that?
Rocks Off -- The Rolling Stones. I was late to Exile. I’m one of those people that thought for a very long time that the Stones had only a small number of (admittedly excellent) singles. I have distinct memories of being in college and that each of my roommates had a disparate album collection. One day, we all sat around and played our favorite (at the time) songs from albums that we were fairly sure the others hadn’t heard before. One of them put on Exile and I perked up to this opening track — when the horns kicked in to cover up what is (let’s be honest) a chorus that’s impossible to sing along to unless you take yourself out of the groove— that’s when I got what the Stones were all about. Undeniably my favorite Stones song.
This Charming Man (New York Vocal version) -- The Smiths. Another one of those songs I wish I could hear for the first time. Johnny Marr’s ringing guitar lines sounded like nothing else out there. The New York Vocal version — which I remember first hearing on some “left of the dial” alternative radio program in the middle of the night in college — is my go-to — because the song is longer and makes me want to dance to it longer! The 2:43 single version is not enough!
I'm Not In Love -- 10cc One on Sal’s list — but higher on my list. I can’t add much more to what he said. It’s an amazing production for mid-70’s radio. The story behind how they created this song is fascinating.
Rick,
The TV images of the devastation in New Orleans after Katrina, driving with a friend through the Lower 9th less than 6 months after the floods and seeing it all up close, and then seeing a displaced Allen Toussaint with Elvis Costello & the Imposters and hearing Toussaint perform this song, just gave the song a different meaning...to me. Toussaint was barely able to get out the line "I'm just trying to get some rest." There wasn't a dry eye in the Beacon Theatre and that includes all the people on stage, including Costello.
Toussaint recorded it for his "American Tunes" album ten years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb_22Aj4qn4
Thanks, Sal, for sharing the link and for sharing your feelings about the song. Just listened to the YouTube video, extraordinary. That last line, 'that's all, I'm just trying to get some rest' has always been the clincher. So powerful.
So Paul Simon was 32-ish when he recorded American Tune. Joni Mitchell was 23 when she did Both Sides Now. Bob Dylan was 21 when he wrote Blowin' In The Wind (a song I wouldn't criticize but which is not to me hugely meaningful yet probably springs to mind for others). It raises the question of who wrote the most profound, wise song at the youngest age.
American Tune really is the sh-t.
And for me Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927 stopped being a piece of history and started being ripped from the headlines reporting after Katrina as well.
Now we're getting serious.
Randy
I'll echo others' comments and say this is a great group of tunes. Rain, Happy, American Tune and Comin' Back to Me are among my favorites by each of those artists (though like most people here I'd have a hard time narrowing down my favorite Beatles or Stones songs). The only song on this list I didn't know was the one by Cinderella, and it's a great one. The Brill Building still holding their own, though not for much longer...
Marc
Great list. As much as I love Toussaint's version of American Tune, John Boutte's version also kills.
All on my Top 100. Thanks for bringing up cuts that I haven't had on rotation for a while.
The Cinderellas (not to be confused with Cinderella, totally different head) were a Brill Bldg backup and demo group, alternatively known as The Honey Bees, The Palisades, and The Cookies ("Chains", "I Never Dreamed") usually depending on who was singing lead.
Increasingly, your choices are songs I have, myself; I can't say where they'd fit on a list of favorites, since I'd never take on such a task. Best I could do is Day In The Life and Working Class Hero battling back-n-forth for Number One.
Coincidentally, earlier this morning I listened to Afghan Whigs' cover of Rain (done in a session at KCRW, and done well, even tho Dulli expresses his concern ahead of time that the drummer won't get it right). I'm not the fan of RL Jones that you are, but one of the two songs I have by her is her cover of Comin' Back To Me, which I too love in its original iteration. Hers is harrowing, in the best way.
(The other RL Jones song I have, which I got just a couple months ago, is her cheeky cover of Nagasaki).
C in California
I may not do lists but there's a lot of my favourites tunes in there nonetheless. And I'm certainly with you regarding the movie Atlantic City - was Burt Lancaster ever better? Interested to see what makes your top 40. Cheers!
Another fine list! That's the first I've heard of Cinderella, "Baby Baby" is as good as the rest of the girl groups. "Comin' Back To Me" has always been a favorite.
I could make a list of 40 Stones songs that could double as my 40 favorite songs of all time. I could make a list of 40 Beatles or Springsteen songs that would double as my 40 favorite. that's what makes this list so fun. Thanks for this!
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