Republican Music Police
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
The Twenty Best Rock Songs Ever
#20 is least best, #1 is most best and other numbers correspond accordingly.
#20 The Libetines - Time For Heroes:
The impetus for this list. Really, it's shocking that a non punk song from this recently could make the list, but the way they cut time throughout the song and bring it back with the drums, to the "Cherish you" part, to the truncheons, englishmen in baseball caps, and young lungs coughing up blood, it shouldn't come as much a surprise this is one of the best rock songs ever.
#19 The Smoking Popes - Megan
It took me about three months of listening to this song to figure out that he was singing a.) about a dead girlfriend, and b.) about trying to get run over by a train "to take [him] back to [her]". That just makes it more interesting...although a killer melody and a great descending chord progression would have made this song great even if it were about, say, grasshoppers, or tipping on four vogues.
#18 The Promise Ring - Scenes From Parisian Life
Even though it's not even two minutes long, the harmonies the chords play with themselves, the winding melody, and the unparalleled opening lines ("The sun comes out a little later/ so you can drink a little longer/ and I wish I had a dream last night/ so half the time you'd be here") show that a song need not be fully formed to be fully realized.
#17 Saves The Day - Jessie and My Whetstone
Might as well get all the emo out of the way right now, but this is really just pop-acoustic guitar and a very interesting and easily sympathetic story. Watching documentaries until morning, falling out of love and back in and back out and back in and counting all the headlights to make sure that you're all right.
#16 The Replacements - Kiss Me on the Bus
Perhaps the most exuberant exhortation for affection in pop history. "If you really knew how I felt/ you wouldn't act so adult/ hurry hurry, here comes our stop." For all my indiscretions in all too public places, on a bus has never been one of them. I think that bird has flown, alas. Westerburg, sing me home.
#15 Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
Do you suppose it's only by association that this song makes me think of London? I swear there's something in this song that is inherently about that dark, rainy city. Maybe it's just such a dark, rainy song. But that whole "Bell's at the church tower chime," makes me think only of St. Paul's. And the whole "Did you rush to the phone to call home," is another can of worms I don't want to get into. But that trembling vibrato that wails out the introduction to the last verse is showstopping. Showstopping.
#14 New Order - Let's Go (Nothing For Me)
What? Three notes, two chords? And they got ALL THIS out of it? One of the simplest great songs ever. So much fuck off in this song. The inimitable line "It didn't hurt me too much to find you were seeing someone else all of this time." Ultimate '80's cocaine-cool.
#13 Madonna - Like a Prayer
Can you imagine if Madonna had come up in the 90's after someone else had been Madonna. That is, what if Fiona Apple or Sarah MacLaughlin had written this song? Can you imagine how goddamned awesome it would be? But a good song is a good song even with the overblown production of 1980's mainstream pop.
#12 The Smiths - This Charming Man
One of the most danceable songs ever written about ambiguous sexual identity. I remember being drunk off my ass at Notting Hill Arts Club and how the whole place would just fucking explode when this song came on. "I would go out tonight...but I haven't got a stitch to wear. . . "
#11 Sunny Day Real Estate - Rodeo Jones
From the opening bass riff to the end wear Jeremy Enigk belts the motherfuck out of "So I wait/ for imagery/ waiting for someone/ blind / woe to my dreams/ my eyes were saved/ wait for me there." or whatever the fuck he sings, and finally just gets every single ounce of throat into the Rodeo Jones repeat at the end this song is an overdramatic, Shakespearean epic about...a space cowboy? I don't know what the fuck that means, but this was the last great song they'd ever make.
#10 The Zombies - She's Not There
There's a really shitty triphop cover of this song on the Kill Bill 2 soundtrack and I don't really know who performs it. But the subtlety of the original, slinky, mysterious, with a killer bassline and the best organ solo I've ever heard is what makes this such a damn good song.
#9 The Cure - Lovesong
I confess, I was at a shitty strip club and this song came on during a table dance and my whole was never quite the same. With one of the most haunting keyboard riffs I can think of, this song is all atmosphere, and cuts through the chaff on the almost ambient Disintegration.
#8 The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Brian Wilson's voice is a little emasculating, but on this track he hits the exact notes he has to hit. The lyrics are completely affecting as well, something Wilson achieved throughout his career with surprising infrequency. "I may not always love you/ but as long as there are stars above you/ you'll never need to doubt it." The natural extension of album opener Wouldn't It Be Nice and a better song, too.
#7 Bob Dylan - Queen Jane,Approximately
Whether this is about Joan Baez doesn't really interest me. What makes this my favorite Bob Dylan song is the way the piano winds around one of his gravelliest vocal performances (which is saying a lot). The whole "I know better than you know, and you'll see that soon enough," thing that makes "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Positively 4th Street" so good is in full force here. Basically, a love song saying, "give it time; you'll come around, and I'll still be here."
#6 Jim Croce - Operator (That's Not the Way it Goes)
I have a theory that this song is about a guy who loses his girlfriend become of his cocaine habit ("give me the number if you can find it/ so I can call just to tell them I'm fine/ and to show/ I've overcome the blow"). Most likely I'm reading too much into it, and "the blow" is just his girlfriend running off with his "best old ex-friend Ray." Either way this is one of the saddest songs I can think of and the finger-picked arpeggios that line the rhythm don't hurt at all.
#5 The Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane
By far the coolest song by the coolest band imaginable.
#4 Buddy Holly - Everyday
You know you're a genius when all it takes is a set of drumsticks, a standup bass and a motherfucking xylophone to record one of the best songs of all time.
#3 Guns 'n' Roses - Rocket Queen
Besides all the rock and all the roll and all the everything, the way it switches from 80's metal to 50's doo-wop is something I can't even begin to fathom.
#2 Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee
If Operator isn't the saddest song around, it'd be this one. The way her voice breaks on the "somewhere near Salinas, oh Lord, let him slip away" part is tragic. If Jeff Buckley has the best voice of any man, then Janis has the best voice period and this song is her magnum opus.
#1 Jawbreaker - West Bay Invitational
Fuck all of you. This is the best song of all time. That's all.
#20 The Libetines - Time For Heroes:
The impetus for this list. Really, it's shocking that a non punk song from this recently could make the list, but the way they cut time throughout the song and bring it back with the drums, to the "Cherish you" part, to the truncheons, englishmen in baseball caps, and young lungs coughing up blood, it shouldn't come as much a surprise this is one of the best rock songs ever.
#19 The Smoking Popes - Megan
It took me about three months of listening to this song to figure out that he was singing a.) about a dead girlfriend, and b.) about trying to get run over by a train "to take [him] back to [her]". That just makes it more interesting...although a killer melody and a great descending chord progression would have made this song great even if it were about, say, grasshoppers, or tipping on four vogues.
#18 The Promise Ring - Scenes From Parisian Life
Even though it's not even two minutes long, the harmonies the chords play with themselves, the winding melody, and the unparalleled opening lines ("The sun comes out a little later/ so you can drink a little longer/ and I wish I had a dream last night/ so half the time you'd be here") show that a song need not be fully formed to be fully realized.
#17 Saves The Day - Jessie and My Whetstone
Might as well get all the emo out of the way right now, but this is really just pop-acoustic guitar and a very interesting and easily sympathetic story. Watching documentaries until morning, falling out of love and back in and back out and back in and counting all the headlights to make sure that you're all right.
#16 The Replacements - Kiss Me on the Bus
Perhaps the most exuberant exhortation for affection in pop history. "If you really knew how I felt/ you wouldn't act so adult/ hurry hurry, here comes our stop." For all my indiscretions in all too public places, on a bus has never been one of them. I think that bird has flown, alas. Westerburg, sing me home.
#15 Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
Do you suppose it's only by association that this song makes me think of London? I swear there's something in this song that is inherently about that dark, rainy city. Maybe it's just such a dark, rainy song. But that whole "Bell's at the church tower chime," makes me think only of St. Paul's. And the whole "Did you rush to the phone to call home," is another can of worms I don't want to get into. But that trembling vibrato that wails out the introduction to the last verse is showstopping. Showstopping.
#14 New Order - Let's Go (Nothing For Me)
What? Three notes, two chords? And they got ALL THIS out of it? One of the simplest great songs ever. So much fuck off in this song. The inimitable line "It didn't hurt me too much to find you were seeing someone else all of this time." Ultimate '80's cocaine-cool.
#13 Madonna - Like a Prayer
Can you imagine if Madonna had come up in the 90's after someone else had been Madonna. That is, what if Fiona Apple or Sarah MacLaughlin had written this song? Can you imagine how goddamned awesome it would be? But a good song is a good song even with the overblown production of 1980's mainstream pop.
#12 The Smiths - This Charming Man
One of the most danceable songs ever written about ambiguous sexual identity. I remember being drunk off my ass at Notting Hill Arts Club and how the whole place would just fucking explode when this song came on. "I would go out tonight...but I haven't got a stitch to wear. . . "
#11 Sunny Day Real Estate - Rodeo Jones
From the opening bass riff to the end wear Jeremy Enigk belts the motherfuck out of "So I wait/ for imagery/ waiting for someone/ blind / woe to my dreams/ my eyes were saved/ wait for me there." or whatever the fuck he sings, and finally just gets every single ounce of throat into the Rodeo Jones repeat at the end this song is an overdramatic, Shakespearean epic about...a space cowboy? I don't know what the fuck that means, but this was the last great song they'd ever make.
#10 The Zombies - She's Not There
There's a really shitty triphop cover of this song on the Kill Bill 2 soundtrack and I don't really know who performs it. But the subtlety of the original, slinky, mysterious, with a killer bassline and the best organ solo I've ever heard is what makes this such a damn good song.
#9 The Cure - Lovesong
I confess, I was at a shitty strip club and this song came on during a table dance and my whole was never quite the same. With one of the most haunting keyboard riffs I can think of, this song is all atmosphere, and cuts through the chaff on the almost ambient Disintegration.
#8 The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Brian Wilson's voice is a little emasculating, but on this track he hits the exact notes he has to hit. The lyrics are completely affecting as well, something Wilson achieved throughout his career with surprising infrequency. "I may not always love you/ but as long as there are stars above you/ you'll never need to doubt it." The natural extension of album opener Wouldn't It Be Nice and a better song, too.
#7 Bob Dylan - Queen Jane,Approximately
Whether this is about Joan Baez doesn't really interest me. What makes this my favorite Bob Dylan song is the way the piano winds around one of his gravelliest vocal performances (which is saying a lot). The whole "I know better than you know, and you'll see that soon enough," thing that makes "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Positively 4th Street" so good is in full force here. Basically, a love song saying, "give it time; you'll come around, and I'll still be here."
#6 Jim Croce - Operator (That's Not the Way it Goes)
I have a theory that this song is about a guy who loses his girlfriend become of his cocaine habit ("give me the number if you can find it/ so I can call just to tell them I'm fine/ and to show/ I've overcome the blow"). Most likely I'm reading too much into it, and "the blow" is just his girlfriend running off with his "best old ex-friend Ray." Either way this is one of the saddest songs I can think of and the finger-picked arpeggios that line the rhythm don't hurt at all.
#5 The Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane
By far the coolest song by the coolest band imaginable.
#4 Buddy Holly - Everyday
You know you're a genius when all it takes is a set of drumsticks, a standup bass and a motherfucking xylophone to record one of the best songs of all time.
#3 Guns 'n' Roses - Rocket Queen
Besides all the rock and all the roll and all the everything, the way it switches from 80's metal to 50's doo-wop is something I can't even begin to fathom.
#2 Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee
If Operator isn't the saddest song around, it'd be this one. The way her voice breaks on the "somewhere near Salinas, oh Lord, let him slip away" part is tragic. If Jeff Buckley has the best voice of any man, then Janis has the best voice period and this song is her magnum opus.
#1 Jawbreaker - West Bay Invitational
Fuck all of you. This is the best song of all time. That's all.
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