From Worst to Best

Here is a list - in no specific order - of my take on the best songs of all time. You saw my take on the worst, now for the best --

Now, I know there's no Led Zeppelin or Elvis or Pink Floyd or U2. I left off two excellent songs "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "American Pie," but they could just have easily made the list.

Here is what I came up with.


“Sympathy for the Devil” - The Rolling Stones

Lyrically, it is brilliant. I often use this in class a long with “Young Goodman Brown.” How many rock songs do you know that reference the Kennedys, Pontious Pilate, Troubadours, Anastasia, and Nazis?

“Hotel California” - The Eagles

Talk about perfect lyrics. I know there was some talk of it being about Satan worshipping and other ludicrous stuff of that nature, but that foolishness has faded. This song is always relevant. I know it was written during the ‘70’s, but how perfectly it fits the indulgent and wasteful times in which we live right now. That final line, “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave” and then the guitar solo, are unforgettable.

“King of Pain” - The Police

Again, brilliant lyrics. That piano is haunting. The repetition of the first verse is a great touch. What imagery. Now, Nickelback could never write anything close to this –

“There's a little black spot on the sun today
It's the same old thing as yesterday
There's a black hat caught in a high tree top
There's a flag-pole rag and the wind won't stop”

And that’s just the first verse.


“Suite Judy Blue Eyes” - Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

This song seems so simple, yet it is incredibly complex. It is actually a suite of several songs gelled together. Each develops the theme of love and loss even though musically the are not quite the same.

“For What It's Worth” - Buffalo Springfield

The guitar alone gets this song on the list. This song fits the protest movement perfectly. I can’t think of a song that is better suited for its historical context, or one that conveys the mood of the times better than this one.

“Sweet Child O' Mine” - Guns N Roses

Maybe the best rock song to come out of the ‘80’s. Slash’s riff borders on ridiculous at times as the song opens, but the lyrics are beautiful and real. Though at its core it’s a cliche love song, the way G-N-R pull it off is reminiscent of how the mighty Zeppelin are able to pull off classic songs about the same type of overworked subject matter.

In the hands of far lesser bands like Poison or Motey Crue or Skid Row, this would have descended into typical crotch rock that dominated the ‘80s, but that is what makes G-N-R the best band to come out of the ‘80’s. If only Axl had not been a psycho.


“Cult of Personality” – Living Colour

Lyrically similar to “Sympathy for the Devil.” This song made me interested in history. It also has one of the strongest riffs in all of rock. When guitarist Vernon Reid unleashes it on the listener, they feel like they have been assaulted. Then the lyrics, which are quite intelligent, kick in and the listener isn’t sure what the hell is going on.


"Moondance" - Van Morrison

The lyrics are perfectly matched with the music and tempo.

That first verse gets me every time –

“Well, its a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
‘neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I’m trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the nights magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush”

Again, Nickelback or Steven Taylor could never pull that off.

Every time I listen to this, I see the leaves turn and feel the familiar nip of autumn.

“Jeremy” - Pearl Jam

I know “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana gets all the credit for ushering in the grunge movement of the early 90’s and killing the hair bands of the 80’s, but it was this song, and its incredible video, that, at least for me, marked the death of all those bands I had followed so religiously as a kid.

Here was a song so original and dark and intriguing that I didn’t know what to think. I just knew it was brilliant.

I like to use the analogy of art when talking about the music shifts from 70’s through the ‘90’s. I think of rock in ‘70’s like those paintings of dogs sitting around a bar playing cards or shooting pool. The rock in the ‘80’s was more akin to the crude artwork one might find scrawled on a bathroom wall. The grunge movement was more like abstract art. It was dark and misunderstood.
Even the lyrics that Pearl Jam included on their liner notes were vague, often just a few lines from a song or maybe just a chorus.

The video, which depicts a young kid being picked on by his peers and shunned by his parents who eventually kills himself in front of his classmates, was also abstract and vague.

It was unlike any video I had ever seen. It was the total opposite of the usual rock videos of the ‘80’s where the bands – take your pick from Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant, Whitesnake, and so on – either played live or packed the video as full of overly enhanced blond bimbos as possible.

No wonder after this song broke, Pearl Jam’s Ten would go on to sell roughly 10 millions copies.

Just check out the video here –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gskAeWgEExk


“Don’t Stop” - Fleetwood Mac

For Kristie this song is forever linked to Bill Clinton’s inauguration. However, that was how I rediscovered it. After watching VH1’s behind the music on Fleetwood Mac, they showed the band playing this at Clinton’s inauguration and was reminded of how great a song this in. The lyrics are nothing special, but as a whole, this song is about perfect. Listen to it, and then try to get it out of your head.

Photograph – Def Leppard

Maybe the most perfect pop-metal song of the ‘80’s. If Leppard had not released this, we would never have heard of Ratt, Dokken, Poison, Black and Blue, and the thousand of imitators that mimicked it later in the decade.

While neither the lyrics nor the music are exceptional, together they create the perfect hard rock song. When you through in Mutt Lang’s perfect production, it is a classic.

This was the song that marked Leppard’s rise in the ‘80’s. It was also this song that helped a hard rock band like Leppard sell enough copies to be mentioned right along with other big artists of the time – all of them absolutely not rock and roll – like Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson. In fact, had it not been for Jackson’s monster Thriller, Leppard’s Pyromania would have hogged the #1 spot on the Billboard charts.




“Like Suicide” – Soundgarden

The last track on their classic Superunkown. It is an epic that is a total assault on the listener. You have Chris Cornell’s watery and raspy voice chanting the ominous lyrics while Matt Cameron pounds away on the drums and Kim Thayil, maybe the best guitarist of the grunge movement, unleashes a hellacious riff. The lyrics are pure poetry and the songs builds to a crescendo that is more complex and powerful than anything to come out of either the ‘80’s or the ‘90’s.

I always thought Cornell was the best lyricist. Check this imagery out –

“Bit down on the bullet now
I had a taste so sour
I had to think of something sweet
Loves like suicide
Safe outside my gilded cage
With an ounce of pain
I wield a ton of rage
Just like suicide”

I don’t know what the hell that means. But it perfectly sums up all of the angst and flannel and Doc Martens that were the mid to late ‘90’s.

“Hurt” – Johnny Cash

The only cover song that made it. The Nine Inch Nails version is upsetting and painful. Cash’s version, and its phenomenal video, are hauntingly beautiful. This is one cover – a long with Hendrix’s “All Along the Watch Tower” – that is equal, if not superior to, the original version.

What a way for Cash to cap his career.

“Lady Madonna” – The Beatles

I know, I know. Everyone loves “Yesterday” or “Let it Be” or “Hey Jude.” But this song has been stuck in my head ever since I heard it when I was just a kid. There’s something about the piano and rhythm that just got inside my skull. The lyrics are great. Even Kenzie can rock out to this one. And she doesn’t even have higher order thinking skills yet. But there is something so basic and primitive in this song that even a four and a half month old can recognize it and coo and smile.