top ten songs of all time

[pablo_h]

Hard job to narrow it down, but that's what a local radio station is asking us to do.
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100_alltime/voting/

I haven't even gone trough any modern bands, blues, electronic or jazz yet, but already have a few to fit in their sometime.

short list so far for songs that have been very memorable to me, but I'm going to have to cut some of them out to fit in some of the stuff I remember later.

Andy Prieboy - Tomorrow Wendy
The Stooges - 1969
Bob Dylan - Hurricane
Velvet Underground, The - Walk On The Wild Side
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
XTC - Dear God
the rolling stones - paint it black

Still making my mind up on which tom waits, bowie, pink floyd and other favourite artists

Could anyone else come up with a list off the top of their head? Would you just pick favourites from you more listened to genre, significant songs from history across all genres, or just whatever is in your playlist?
Mines a mixture of songs that I just liked the first time I heard them and still like them decades later, nothing that broke any boundries or was technically impressive

edit:
david bowie - heroes
U2 - sunday bloody sunday
The beatles - come together

 

[dpm802]

Being virtually tone-deaf, and with no sense of rhythm, I appreciate songs with clever word-plays, tell a neat-little story, or send a particular message.

Some of my most listened to songs, not necessarily in any order:

The Hollies
Bus Stop
Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress

Pete Townsend, solo
Misunderstood

Steve Miller Band
Mary Lou
Gangster of Love
Don't Let Nobody Turn You Round

Little Feat
Time Loves a Hero
Spanish Moon
Old Folk's Boogy
Dixie Chicken

Grateful Dead
Sugar Magnolia
Truckin'
Friend of the devil
Mama Tried

The Rolling Stones
Beast of Burden

The Doors
People are Strange

This list is not all-inclusive, and subject to change.

 

[Corey]

Tough one, and so highly subjective. I could fill ten spots with Ween alone, but in the interest of variety:

Ween - Transdermal Celebration
David Bowie - Life on Mars
Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
Rolling Stones - Dead Flowers
Tom Waits - I Don't Want to Grow Up
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Radiohead - Paranoid Android
Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamond
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy

 

[Brodirt]

Are we supposed to post our favorite 10 or the songs we consider to be the greatest 10 rock n' roll songs of all time?

 

[rm71]

Here is a few I can only think of right now:

Led Zeppelin- Stairway to heaven
AC/DC – Long way to the Top
Deep Purple – Smoke on the water
Joy Division – Love will tear us apart
The Clash- Rock the Casbah
The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
The Beatles- A Little Help from my friends
Jackson Browne- Running on Empty
Bruce Springsteen- The River
CCR – Bad Moon Rising

 

[pablo_h]

You can do whatever you want. Yes, it's mainly going to be rock music since it's a modern radio station but for the purpose of the thread it could be any music.

The top ten music/flim/book is not something I would normally ask as a general conversation or fourm post. But due to this radio station asking it, and me thinking about it this afternoon, I'd thought I'd start the thread while I'm thinking about my choices.

 

[Corey]

Are we supposed to post our favorite 10 or the songs we consider to be the greatest 10 rock n' roll songs of all time?

Wouldn't that be somewhat one in the same? Sure, there are the same suck *** songs they constantly repeat on classic rock stations that they'd love to pass off as the "greatest", but something like that is completely subjective, and tend to be more along the lines of "most popular" rather than greatest. If you wanted to jump into classic rock DJ mode, then the list would be filled with overplayed detrius like LA Woman, Sympathy for the Devil, Stairway to Heaven, One, etc. They may be great songs with lots of plays, but in many cases, the deeper cuts on from an artists library are far superior to the stuff that gets the radio play. But then again, the stuff getting the radio play is often the stuff that strikes a chord with a larger target audience. It can go both ways, sure, but it's so completely subjective that greatest and favorite often are intertwined with the listener.

My nickel, with three cents change.

 

[Walter Sobchak]

Ooph, it's hurting me to even think about trying to compile this list without at least 3 more hours to do it and 4 more cups of coffee. There are too many genres and too many great songs to whittle it down. Whenever I answer one of these 'top 10' list questions I end up coming up with radically different answers every two hours or so.

I'm enjoying reading the responses, though.

 

[Dustinl]

Yes, highly subjective.

Here are mine in no particular order (off the top of my head, of coarse):

Copperhead Road- Steve Earle
El Paso- Marty Robins
The Road Goes on Forever- Joe Ely Version
Who Made Who- AC/DC
Anything But Mine- Kenny Chesney (WOW I can't believe I just typed that)
Suspicious Minds- Elvis
Sweet Caroline- Neil Diamond
I Can't Surf- The Reverend Horton Heat
Talking Heads- Once in a Lifetime
Margaritaville- Jimmy Buffett

DL

 

[Kratos]

Highly subjective, indeed. I'm with Corey. The songs that get the most airplay aren't necessarily the best. "Bodies" is the only track most people recognize from the first Drowning Pool CD, but I like a few other tracks just as much. The same can be said for many records.

 

[Brodirt]

I think favorite and greatest are clearly discernable standards. My ten favorite today is different than yesterday...I heard a new Chris Issac song yesterday and I can't get it out of my head, but its by no means the greatest anything. I hate The Beatles...I do acknowledge their greatness though....see what I mean?

Anyhow, I'll try and satisfy both sides of the coin:

Hallelujah. I think the Jeff Buckley version is best, but the Wainright or Cohen versions are close.

Hurt. The Johnny Cash version, but props go to Trent Reznor for writing such a great song.

Good Vibrations. Brian Wilson managed to take all the progress of the music of the 60s and turn into a feel good California pop tune.

Armagideon Time. The Clash is the least appreciated greatest rock band of all time. If you can't find the ripples of this song still running through today's music you need to open your ears.

Driver's Seat. Sniff n' The Tears. A one hit wonder song that defines the music of the 80s.

Smell's Like Teen Spirit. Nirvana. Kurt Cobain woke up pop music and showed us that everything old is new again and pop still had places to go.

Under Pressure. Queen with David Bowie. My favorite classic arena rock song.

Paranoid Android/Subterranean Homesick Alien. Thom York and Radiohead prove that they're probably the only band good enough to spoof a Dylan title instead of covering a Dylan song. 2/3 of the way through when the song explodes the band shows that experimental modern rock music can be as hard as anything that came before too.

Sweet Child of Mine. Guns n' Roses. Wow does that guy playing guitar sound incredible. How does this band combine the hardest rock with the popest pop?

Stairway to Heaven. It is the greatest rock song of all time.

 

[pablo_h]

Tough one, and so highly subjective. I could fill ten spots with Ween alone, but in the interest of variety:

Ween - Transdermal Celebration
David Bowie - Life on Mars
Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
Rolling Stones - Dead Flowers
Tom Waits - I Don't Want to Grow Up
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Radiohead - Paranoid Android
Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamond
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy

Wow, when you're not talking about ween you seem like an interesting person
Bowie, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and the Stooges are all in my short list somehow too.
Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia, great song, I find myself singing the chorus or tapping away to that song all the time, very memorable, but not top 10 for me by a long way

Brodirt:
"Hallelujah. I think the Jeff Buckley version is best, but the Wainright or Cohen versions are close."

"Hurt. The Johnny Cash version, but propr go to Trent Reznor for writing such a great song."

They were in my short list too.

Even though thinking of your favourite top 10 songs is hard, and yes it may change from day to day, if it was extended to top 20 or 50, I wonder how close peoples lists would be?
Make you think how many decent artists/bands and songs really are out there if there's a lot of over lap in short lists for top 10 or even top 50 considering how much rock music has been produced.

 

[Dustinl]

Under Pressure. Queen with David Bowie.

Great song, Brodirt!


DL

 

[Bayou Rob]

Here are my top ten....talk about eclectic!

Back in Black - AC/DC
You got another thing Coming - Judas Priest
Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Angry American (Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue) - Toby Keith
One - MetallicA
The Game - Motorhead
Another one Bites the Dust - Queen
Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
American Badass - Kid Rock
The Dance - Garth Brooks

 

[Walter Sobchak]

Brodirt,
That's a good list. I really like every song on there.

I could live the rest of my life without hearing Stairway To Heaven, only because I wore out my turntable as a kid playing it, but it does deserve to be up there as one of, if not THE, greatest rock tune of all time. Even if you don't like the song, the mechanics, lyrics, and Plant's vocals make it too good to gloss over.

It's nice to see people giving Jeff Buckley props out here. He's so good on Hallelujah.

Cash's ver. of Hurt is great. I think the fact that he lived the pain and sang it from so deep within really makes it all the much better.

The Clash's Armagideon Time is one of the best cover songs in the history of music, IMO. Damn I love The Clash.

Sniff N The Tears...oh man. I had that song on ROCK 80, the K-Tel classic from my childhood! Still love it.

 

[Brodirt]

Brodirt,
That's a good list. I really like every song on there.

I could live the rest of my life without hearing Stairway To Heaven, only because I wore out my turntable as a kid playing it, but it does deserve to be up there as one of, if not THE, greatest rock tune of all time. Even if you don't like the song, the mechanics, lyrics, and Plant's vocals make it too good to gloss over.

It's nice to see people giving Jeff Buckley props out here. He's so good on Hallelujah.

Cash's ver. of Hurt is great. I think the fact that he lived the pain and sang it from so deep within really makes it all the much better.

The Clash's Armagideon Time is one of the best cover songs in the history of music, IMO. Damn I love The Clash.

Sniff N The Tears...oh man. I had that song on ROCK 80, the K-Tel classic from my childhood! Still love it.

I figured Driver's Seat would be a real mind bender.

Walter...EVERYONE loves The Clash, thats why I said they are the least appreciated greatest band.

I have three more, that are really my three FAVORITE songs...so much so that when I got married and we had a DJ instead of a band (because both the wife and I HATE poor cover bands) we put a slip in our invites for everyone to pick their 3 favorite songs and we would give all the requests to the DJ before hand so he could plan a set list...my three picks (which of course were all played) were Son of a Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield, Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet and Candy by Iggy Pop.

 

[Brodirt]

Wow, when you're not talking about ween you seem like an interesting person
Bowie, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and the Stooges are all in my short list somehow too.
Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia, great song, I find myself singing the chorus or tapping away to that song all the time, very memorable, but not top 10 for me by a long way

Brodirt:


Even though thinking of your favourite top 10 songs is hard, and yes it may change from day to day, if it was extended to top 20 or 50, I wonder how close peoples lists would be?
Make you think how many decent artists/bands and songs really are out there if there's a lot of over lap in short lists for top 10 or even top 50 considering how much rock music has been produced.

My daughter did her science fair project this year on emergence, we never gave thought to how the theory would apply to favorite songs. I bet your right, the lists would be more similar than you might suspect.

 

[Kratos]

Girlfriend? I didn't know anybody else liked that song! "Son of a Preacher Man..." We used to listen to that at my college job at Taco Bell when we closed, via the Pulp soundtrack.

 

[Brodirt]

Girlfriend? I didn't know anybody else liked that song!

Girlfriend has my favorite song ending of all time.

 

[Todd G]

Sloop John B by the Beach Boys. Brian Wilson knew how to produce a pop song.