Yesterday, I saw where TIME magazine had released their All-TIME 100 Songs. First of all, what the hell does TIME magazine know about music? It actually wasn’t bad and worth a quick read. Noticeably absent however were the Clash, Cheap Trick – how do you not have a John Prine song on that list? I was pleased to see Johnny Cash, Metallica, Woody Guthrie and a few other surprises included. The problem was the sample size, I think. Plus, they chose songs as far back as the 1920’s (I don’t see the point). AND how does Missy Elliot warrant inclusion on any list?
Rolling Stone recently released a similar list but expanded it to the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Ambitious. Not entirely inaccurate. But they lost all credibility when Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone shows up as #1. Great song, phenomenal even but the “greatest”? Because it shares the name of your once-relevant publication?
Reading through these lists today, especially this last one, I began fixating on the concept of “greatest”. It’s a very subjective term, no? I don’t feel that music can be catalogued in that manner. I get it. I understand the need to make these kinds of lists. I make lists – hell my life is a constant organizing and reorganizing of lists of things to do, people to see blah, blah, blah. I need that order. I have to have a list. How else can anyone expect to keep all the balls that life is, successfully airborne at all times otherwise? If I could remember 1,000 songs (and I can by the way – remember the lyrics, where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard it!) I wouldn’t put them into a directory. That’s not what music is – not what it is supposed to be anyway. I don’t think we can put a label on the “greatest” song ever.
It changes.
Music is undoubtedly way too personal to publish an inventory of songs in order of importance or merit. My greatest song certainly isn’t yours…and it might not be mine tomorrow or even five minutes from now. Music exists in the “is” not the “was". It’s what I hear right now, what that song makes me feel right now or remember right now or whatever it does right now that makes it the greatest song ever (right now). There is no possible way to determine the “greatest song of all time” in my opinion. (But if you could, I’m pretty sure it would be by the Clash.)
In the spirit of not placing preference on any one particular song and in an effort to not diminish the quality or validity of the next song you hear, I give you the next (10) songs in my iPod.
Enjoy.
These kids blew me away the first time I heard them – reminded me of an amped up Minutemen. The story goes that they all were given instruments for Christmas (2) years prior to recording this album. I’ve been playing guitar for nearly (25) years and still can’t hit some of their changes. The first (2) CDs were outstanding but they fell off the deep from there. Experimental. Non-committal. Very disappointing. But the first (2) were awesome – stellar live as well.
Probably one of the best covers ever recorded. It makes you want to jump around and bounce off of things. That don’t suck.
One of the truly great Seattle bands. I never listened to them when they were current. By the time I stumbled onto their music Wood was already dead. I think they only cut the one album before he passed. That’s a shame. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament went on to Pearl Jam fame. Never saw them live, obviously, but I hear they were incredible. Great song – captures their moment.
I saw Cave at the Variety Playhouse recently and he’s still got it. Always kind of a “scary guy” crooner, he re-invented himself with his latest project Grinderman. Not what I was expecting but I can say now that I saw Nick Cave! This song is fairly representative of most of his work. Dark. Lyrical. Good, good stuff this. I feel like it’s always Halloween at his house. An incredible talent. An incredible story in this song. And as a bonus he’s singing with a strangely hot PJ Harvey. (I know, right?)
Solid band. I’ve always been a sucker for a three-piece. I’ve always had a thing for girls who play bass too. (Blame Kim Deal for that.) I’ve listened to the rest of their music and it’s not bad. It’s just not really good. This song represents a shift in my thinking about music actually. I once thought that if the album as a whole wasn’t good then the song lost power. Not true. I do admit that they quickly lost favor with me based on their association with those ridiculous Twilight movies however. Sell-out move right there.
Never mistake me for a hippie. And for the record I detest bands of the ilk that Phish represents. I just don’t buy it – selling grilled cheese out of the back of mom and dad’s SUV? Please. (Trust fund baby) In spite of how I feel about the genre, and “following” a band, this is a fantastic song. It’s about the song after all, right?
What a song and what an artist. Stevie has more talent in his two blind eyes than I do in my whole fully functional body. It makes me wish I would try harder.
I couldn’t admit it to anyone I knew at the time but this was my favorite song in the summer of 1991. (I love the randomness of my iPod.)
Speaking of smoking hot guitar players. Wow! Brody scares the shit out of me. I like that. Sadly, her band was a flash in the pan. She was married to Tim Armstrong (Rancid) and when that ended, the Distillers basically did too. That second album was the deal though.
Everything he freaking speaks or thinks is poetry of the highest order. Absolutely invented cool. And that voice is stunning gold. If you don’t know Leonard Cohen then you have a gigantic void in your music, in your art…in your life. He’s that important. This old Canadian is still doing his thing at 77 – if I live as long as he, I could only wish to be half as cool.
I came to know him in New Orleans at the Erin Rose on Conti Street. At the time, this bar was mostly inhabited by a random mix of punks and freaks and an occasional adventurous tourist - a perfect dive bar. They had an incredible juke box (and air conditioning) filled with songs and bands that I’d never heard. I spent too many salty Saturday afternoons there in ‘95. Those punks loved L.C. It’s bizarre what you can learn from a true punk musically. Cohen shared space in that juke box with Johnny Cash, Jonathon Richman, Patsy Cline, Iggy Pop and was in similar rotation. I think you have to pay attention always: there is music you might have missed.
The bullshit that is out now is 95% forgettable and a waste of your time. I know that sounds like some old dumbass, but sadly it is true. Do you really think that Lady Gaga has any musical and / or historical merit? Kelly Clarkson? Drake? Katy Perry? Insert name here? The answer is a resounding no. Most “artists” today do not. It makes me sad.
To plagiarize an idea of Mark Twain’s – if Leonard Cohen doesn’t go to heaven when he dies, I want to go where he went. If you take nothing else from anything that I’ve said, take Leonard Cohen. You owe it to yourself to look into his words. Just listen. I never cease to be shocked.
That is all (for now).
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