10 best songs you've ever heard

[yovargas]

7. Subterranean Homesick Alien -Bob Dylan

You mean "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

"Subterranean Homesick Alien" is the (far better ) song by Radiohead.


Funny you should bump this as I was just considering trying to extend my list to Top 20. Oddly, I'm finding the next 10 are even harder then the first 10.

[PrinceAlarming]

Ooops. That's up there too.

Those are in the top 20 in my MP3 player.

[The_Hutter]

The Boxer
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Let it Be
A HORSE WITH NO NAME
American Tune
Here Come The Sun
Turn! Turn! Turn!
THE monkee theme song
I want it that way
The Sound of Silence

[Griffon64]

This list is picked from a big "core" of favourite songs that tended to stay favourite, and I also decided to only include one song from each artist/band, where there was more than one. Also alas, no classical music ;-)

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Bad Day - R.E.M
Spieluhr - Rammstein
Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
1492: Conquest of Paradise - Vangelis
Live the Life - Michael W Smith
Here comes the weekend - Moody Blues
With or without you - U2
The sound of silence - Simon and Garfunkel
Passacaglia - Secret Garden

[MithLuin]

Oooh, I don't know that Moody Blues song - I'll have to find it. My favorite of theirs is "Our Guessing Game" on Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.

[yovargas]

Been wanting to take a shot at #11-20 for a while. Oddly, this was far more difficult then my Top 10 and I feel much less comfortable with it, but here's what I came up with for 11-20 in no particular order.


Hallelujah - multiple artists, pick your favorite
National Anthem - Radiohead
Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
Imagine - John Lennon
Losing my Religion - REM
Your Song - Elton John
Break on Through - The Doors
Ghost - Neutral Milk Hotel (this artist deserves a FAAAAAR wider audience then it has)
Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones
There There - Radiohead


Radiohead is the only artist with three songs in my Top 20 (Though The Stones came close.)

[baby tuckoo]

I'll take the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah, though Cohen's is fine.

[yovargas]

*yov don't like Buckley's voice*

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

There are far too many fantastic songs for me to narrow it down to a top ten. However, after discovering this song in early 1988 it remains #1.

THE SIGH

Poem: Thomas Hardy
Music: Gerald Finzy

Little head against my shoulder,
Shy at first, then somewhat bolder,
And up-eyed;
Till she, with a timid quaver,
Yielded to the kiss I gave her;
But, she sighed.

That there mingled with her feeling
Some sad thought she was concealing
It implied.
- Not that she had ceased to love me,
None on earth she set above me;
But she sighed.

She could not disguise a passion,
Dread, or doubt, in weakest fashion
If she tried:
Nothing seemed to hold us sundered,
Hearts were victors; so I wondered
Why she sighed.

Afterwards I knew her throughly,
And she loved me staunchly, truly,
Till she died;
But she never made confession
Why, at that first sweet concession,
She had sighed.

It was in our May, remember;
And though now I near November,
And abide
Till my appointed change, unfretting,
Sometimes I sit half regretting
That she sighed.


(To here a sample go to THIS PAGE at Amazon.com. It's track 7 on Disc 2.)

The first four verses are in the key of G major. However, it modulates to E major for the final verse, which also has a different melodic scheme. Accompanied by the bittersweet sentiment of the poem, it's really quite striking.

[vison]

Gee. Thomas Hardy. One of my faves.

O, Griffy, "Gerry Rafferty" and "Baker Street"!!!! One of the best things ever recorded. The guitar solo and the sax solo are so wonderful I can hardly bear to listen to it, yet I do, over and over and over again. A heart breaking song that has a really intense personal meaning for me.

Also, Gerry Rafferty's other song on the same album (City to City), the first one, The Ship (?) is also exquisitely beautiful.

Almost any Simon and Garfunkel.

The Eagles: Desperado.

[yovargas]

If I were asked to come up with 10 great recordings, my answer would be different and would include several from the current decade.

I'd be curious to hear the list as I don't have any sense of what the difference between a song and a recording would be.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

I'd be curious to hear the list as I don't have any sense of what the difference between a song and a recording would be.

When someone in my high school band would call a piece we were performing a 'song', the band director would correct them saying, "A song is music set to a poetic text and sung". So perhaps a 'recording' would include instrumental music?

Or perhaps a recording would be a particular performance of a song, as opposed to the song in general without regard to the interpretation of a particular artist.

[narya]

[shameless plug]
My brother is a radio producer, and has a program called Undercurrents that is an overnight filler for the Native American Radio Service. You can stream the program every night from midnight to 8 AM Eastern (America) time. It's on right now. He mixes the oldies but goodies from the last few decades, plus two Native American contemporary artists per hour. You can find it here: http://www.nv1.org/programs.html

The playlists are here: http://web.mac.com/radiocamp/iweb/Under ... lists.html

It's pretty eclectic. The next half hour, for example, is:
Mariposa (en Havana), Si Se, Latin Lounge
What Child Is This, Dan Crary, Christmas Around The World
Babylon World, Casper Loma-Da-Wa, Honor The People
Baby Please Don't Go, Them, Good Morning Vietnam
Biolgical Clock, Cocoa Tea, Cocoa Tea Save Us Oh Jah
Within You Without You, THE BEATLES, LOVE
Fields Of Gold, Sting, Ten Summoner's Tales
Sore Brown Eyes, Howie B Turn The Dark Off

My top 10 songs aren't likely to show up here (they were all written by Bach) but I enjoy listening to it every so often to expand my horizons, with out commercials. And to hear my brother's voice.

[/shameless plug]

[baby tuckoo]

The distinction I was trying to make is, perhaps, not best illustrated by the term "recording", but I couldn't think of an alternative. And I still can't. It refers mostly to instrumentals, pieces that are primarily sonic, not oral or lyric. Better word, anyone?

[samwarg]

I love music too much to name 10 favorites. You'd have to allow me at least a hundred. Skimming over the previous posts, I saw multitudes of songs mentioned that I really like. Here are a few of my favorites right off the top of my head--- "All along the watchtower" and "Hey Joe" as performed by Jimi. "Riders on the Storm" and "Backdoor Man" by the Doors. "Manish boy" by Muddy Waters. "A day in the life", "Yesterday", and "Get Back" by the Beatles, "Crossroads" by Cream. "Layla" and "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton. "Starship Troopers" and "Don't Kill the Whale" by Yes. "Mediteranean Sundance" by Al DeMeola. "Don't think twice, it's alright" as performed by Peter, Paul and Mary. "Vincent" and "Empty Chairs" by Don McLean. "Rocky Mountain High" by Joe Walsh. "Little bit of sympathy" and "Day of the Eagle" by Robbin Trower. "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "A Salty Dog" by Procol Harum. "Pancho and Lefty" by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. "Laundramat" by Rory Gallagher. "Stranger on the Shore" by Jan Akerbilk. "Theme from A Summer Place" by Henry Mancini. "Thanksgiving" by George Winston. "Moonlight Sonata" Beethoven. Better stop while I can. I like music A LOT.

[yovargas]

All those classic artists and you can't find a slot for The Stones?

[samwarg]

I'm sure I missed at least 50 artists, sorry. Jumping Jack Flash and It's only rock and roll are definately two of my favorite stone's songs.

[yovargas]

That's better.

[baby tuckoo]

"Theme from A Summer Place" by Henry Mancini. "Thanksgiving" by George Winston. "Moonlight Sonata" Beethoven. Better stop while I can. I like music A LOT.

Good stuff all around, except that Max Steiner wrote the theme from "A Summer Place." Doesn't sound like his usual bombast, but it is.

[samwarg]

I hadn't meant that Henry Mancini wrote it, but that it was he who performed it. Then again, maybe I've got it confused with the "Theme from MR Lucky". I liked that one too. the early sixties were a while back. I might be better off to name favorite artists rather than songs.