68. The Beatles- I Am the Walrus (1967)



Total points: 269.28

Place in the 2005 poll: 39

Appears on: 7 ballots

Ranked by:

Ozphoenix (9)
Schleuse (20)
Schwah (2
Mitchell Stirling (31)
Michel (47)
Rune (116)
Miguel (146)

The list is fantastic and it’s getting better all the time (and this time Lennon couldn’t reply “can’t get no worse”). Our list is awesome.
Glad to see some of my favourites pop up now and then. And a lot of other songs that I didn’t vote but I love anyway (for instance “Don’t Worry Baby”, “Teardrop”, “Desolation Row” and, especially, “Fall on Me”).
And I want to point to the strong position of black music so far. Something quite unexpected seeing our previous lists like the 90s ones but really refreshing, And, of course, fair and justified.
So sorry but it’s hard for me keeping my eyes open. Time for me to go to bed. Returning to Lennon: it’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog, it’s been a hard day’s night, I should be sleeping like a log.

67. The Undertones- Teenage Kicks (197



Total points: 269.82

Place in the 2005 poll: 137

Appears on: 4 ballots

Ranked by:

Mark Propp (1)
Vgrd (2)
Otisredding (16)
Midaso (111)

And the list continues to amaze!

Awesome work as usual Moonbeam, but I'm really tired tonight and have to go to bed. I'll catch up tomorrow.


Unless you really want to try to do it well, I don’t think Orbison is the ideal karoeke artist. I know my limits and his high octave warbles are nearly impossible for anyone to sing. A drunken, unserious attempt at singing him wouldn’t be amusing to hear or watch.

Yes, but it is surely a lot of fun to read about it!

I love how many songs still made it that just missed my 200. I had about 300 songs that I was considering and around 10 of the songs in that 100 I cut made the list. This really is a good list.

66. Four Tops- Reach Out, I’ll Be There (1966)



Total points: 275.98

Place in the 2005 poll: 300

Appears on: 5 ballots

Ranked by:

Rune (3)
Otisredding (5)
Mark Propp (11)
Eduard (80)
Stammer (156)

I just took a shower and tried to sing in dreams (not too loud of course, to avoid waking up my kids and the neighbors)
I had to sart real low and finish in absolute falsetto but I made it !

I think we need a karaoke thread! I know I have a few stories to tell...

65. The Who- Won’t Get Fooled Again (1971)



Total points: 279.27

Place in the 2005 poll: 184

Appears on: 9 ballots

Ranked by:

Slush (11)
Rocky Raccoon (14)
Neoptolemos (2
Lonesome Panda (4
Rendle (76)
BillAdama (100.5)
Nicolas (142)
Mo (156)
Michel (172)

The four Tops !
So there are black music lovers after all on AM !

64. Big Star- Thirteen (1972)



Total points: 280.76

Place in the 2005 poll: 333

Appears on: 8 ballots

Ranked by:

Lonesome Panda (6)
Stammer (1
Dumbangel (40)
Greg (52)
Midaso (72)
Mo (7
Honorio (90)
John (102)

Comments:

Lonesome Panda: Well, to be fair it is the Elliott Smith cover that I listen to, most of the time. But give back to Chilton what is Chilton's (and Bell's). Thirteen is just the perfect teen-age love song, the purest love song ever. No drama, no exageration, no suffering, just sincerity and simplicity, and that's probably what makes it so precious.

63. The Verve- Bittersweet Symphony (1997)



Total points: 282.86

Place in the 2005 poll: 192

Appears on: 10 ballots

Ranked by:

Ajackson (
Neoptolemos (15)
Stammer (62)
Mitchell Stirling (70)
Midaso (84)
Pop Elton (89)
Ozphoenix (95)
BillAdama (100.5)
Eduard (133)
Toni (189)

My favorite Big Star song : I'm In Love With A Girl

1st : Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah !!!!!!!! (nothing to add to that Pete !)
2nd : I only knew the awful Claude François' cover of Reach Out I'll be there (J'attendrai), but the original song is wonderful ! I knew that lots of 60s french hits were just bad copies of american or english songs, but I did know neither that one nore runaway (which cover is less bad... but I'm not sure anybody could do worse than Claude François, except maybe Dalida or Joe Dassin).

Yes, I voted for The Four Tops. I've felt bad for almost only voting for black artists in the Survivor game, but this should be proof enough that I actually like music by black people. Although I don't really like labelling music like that.

62. Neil Young- After the Gold Rush (1970)



Total points: 282.95

Place in the 2005 poll: 143

Appears on: 6 ballots

Ranked by:

Nicolas (10)
Fred (12)
Mitchell Stirling (15)
Miguel (17)
Anthony (114)
Ajackson (121)

Aw man, I was hoping that Who song would end up higher. Now all we have left is Baba O'Riley and maybe My Generation?

And what's with that Harry Potter video for Thirteen?

Neoptolemos : My generation was 168 !

Oh, we had My Generation already. I ctrl+f'd for The Who, but they're listed as Who, The. Doh.

Just Baba the guru then.

Sorry about that Harry Potter vid... There's really no excusing it, is there?

"My Generation" was already listed at number 168!

61. The Smiths- How Soon Is Now? (1984)



Total points: 285.07

Place in the 2005 poll: unranked

Appears on: 8 ballots

Ranked by:

Ajackson (6)
Stammer (7)
Midaso (16)
Rocky Raccoon (9
Rune (123)
Mo (144)
Otisredding (159)
John (16

Great to see a song you helped make it to the top 100..

My #286. Man this list is awesome.

60. The Eagles- Hotel California (1976)



Total points: 288.05

Place in the 2005 poll: 135

Appears on: 8 ballots

Ranked by:

Giuseppe (14)
Rocky Raccoon (26)
Dumbangel (33)
Neoptolemos (37)
Ozphoenix (39)
Nicolas (63)
Andre (71)
Pop Elton (84)

One thing I love about this list is that the formula is such that a single high placement can really boost a song! Seeing "1999" in the top 100 makes the list, for me!

the song you love (like me) or hate (like Moonbeam I guess)
On 8 ballots but no lower than # 86

59. Radiohead- No Surprises (1997)



Total points: 289.10

Place in the 2005 poll: 247

Appears on: 7 ballots

Ranked by:

Honorio (10)
Ozphoenix (1
Mo (21)
Eduard (23)
Pop Elton (33)
Schwah (135)
Greg (17

Comments:

Honorio: Morrissey said in his song “Panic” that we should hang the DJ “because the music that he constantly play it says nothing to me about my life”. Songs are pieces of the other’s lives that only gets its true sense when are integrated in yours. That’s why I’ve decided that “No Surprises” talks about my life. About my job that slowly kills me. About my pretty house and my pretty garden. About my life with no alarms and no surprises.

58. Chuck Berry- Johnny B. Goode (195



Total points: 292.20

Place in the 2005 poll: 93

Appears on: 11 ballots

Ranked by:

Neoptolemos (14)
Rocky Raccoon (21)
Mark Propp (33)
Ajackson (46)
Nicolas (4
Andre (8
Giuseppe (97)
Eduard (18
Ozphoenix (189)
Honorio (194)
Mo (200)

Comments:

Rocky Raccoon: A killer '50s groove, it's one of the few songs of early rock 'n' roll that I really like.

57. The Velvet Underground & Nico- Sunday Morning (1966)



Total points: 295.72

Place in the 2005 poll: 25

Appears on: 12 ballots

Ranked by:

Rendle (21)
Midaso (33)
Andre (41)
Honorio (46)
John (56)
Stammer (75)
Eduard (76)
Mo (107)
Giuseppe (119)
Toni (137)
Lonesome Panda (151)
Miguel (196)

Comments:

Honorio: My favourite Velvet song, a pretty moody song from an awesome album. I always thought that Nico was the singer but I was puzzled some months ago when I read that Lou Reed sang the song with a falsetto. I didn’t believe it initially but the more times I listened to the song the more I realized that this voice didn’t come from the icy blonde German beauty but from Lou-Lou. Quite disturbing.

56. Sex Pistols- Anarchy in the U.K. (1976)



Total points: 301.76

Place in the 2005 poll: 27

Appears on: 8 ballots

Ranked by:

Honorio (9)
Rocky Raccoon (1
Midaso (34)
Schleuse (43)
Michel (4
Henrik (53)
Stammer (56)
Rune (124)

Comments:

Honorio: “Know what I mean? / I wanna be anarchist / Get pissed / Destroooyy”. Crisis. Unemployment. Torn clothes. Hair spiked high. Dyes. Piercings with safety pins. A of anarchy. Swastikas. Pogo. Fast rhythms. Powerful guitars. Distortion. Combative lyrics. Provocation. Scandal. Easy money. Swindle. Excitement. Defiance. Row. Anarchy. Anger. Rage. Fury. Punk.

I keep thinking "Hey, didn't I vote for that?". But turns out it's just outside the top 200 or I considered putting it in.

55. Elliott Smith- Waltz #2 (XO) (199



Total points: 302.88

Place in the 2005 poll: unranked

Appears on: 7 ballots

Ranked by:

Lonesome Panda (1)
John (2)
Rune (35)
Fred (7
Andre (87)
Schwah (12
Mo (130)

Comments:

Lonesome Panda: My favourite song ever : even though I don't recognize myself in the lyrics, it seems like this song has been written for me, every single note or intonation sounds perfect. I can explain (well, would be easier in French but I guess I would be able to do it in english) why Elliott Smith is my favourite singer or why Either/Or is my favourite album, but it seems harder to explain why this is my favourite song ever. It just is !

54. The Rolling Stones- Paint It, Black (1966)



Total points: 303.15

Place in the 2005 poll: 87

Appears on: 10 ballots

Ranked by:

Rocky Raccoon (22)
Rendle (24)
Rune (34)
Giuseppe (39)
Ajackson (43)
Neoptolemos (51)
Michel (53)
Mo (117)
Ozphoenix (153)
Lonesome Panda (15

Comments:

Rocky Raccoon: I love the Eastern influence, and was anyone as dark as the Stones this early on in rock history?

53. LCD Soundsystem- All My Friends (2007)



Total points: 305.52

Place in the 2005 poll: unranked

Appears on: 8 ballots

Ranked by:

Slush (5)
Rendle (13)
Lonesome Panda (17)
Moonbeam (30)
Mitchell Stirling (84)
BillAdama (100.5)
Schleuse (164)
Michel (18

Comments:

Lonesome Panda: Everything is perfect about this song, the lyrics, the production, the music… I am always impressed by how it goes crescendo from a calm start to the final explosion.

Moonbeam: A frenetic piano loop acts as the engine for the juggernaut of "All My Friends", the album's behemoth of a centerpiece, whizzing the listener through the twists and turns of life. The instrumentation slowly builds with a melodic bass line that would make New Order proud and some starry percussion that conjures the magic of Bowie's "Teenage Wildlife", before setting the stage for this heartfelt tale of the ache of aging. The story starts innocently enough with blissful nostalgia, but gradually evolves into a manic concession of how quickly life slips away. A wide emotional breadth is cast, with healthy doses of glee, dejection, desperation, defiance, majestic grandeur, charmed reminiscence and self-deprecation churning in the cauldron. Five years spent trying to get with the plan are mirrored by five more in attempts to reconnect with friends, which quickly become ten years dropped "as fast as you can" and a midlife crisis fomenting a 3-month trip to France. Every lyric here is a winner, succinctly cutting and as visceral as the searing guitar wails that intensify the mood. There is no catharsis to be found here and the exasperated pleas of "if I could see all my friends tonight" are left unresolved as the locomotive percussion slowly chugs to a halt. And that, my friends, is a moment that can be better described by the vision of my jaw agape than by any words that could emanate from it. Wow.

2 videos! The first is the music video, and the second is a clip that contains the full version of the song.

52. The Rolling Stones- (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (1965)



Total points: 305.68

Place in the 2005 poll: 31

Appears on: 8 ballots

Ranked by:

Rocky Raccoon (2)
Neoptolemos (7)
Henrik (43)
Ozphoenix (51)
Nicolas (70)
Andre (85)
Mo (135)
Midaso (146)

Comments:

Rocky Raccoon: Could be the theme song of rock 'n' roll, or at least a dissatisfied generation that changed the outlook of the world. P.S. Keith Richards' guitar riff that sounds more like a horn section is great.

51. Bob Dylan- Subterranean Homesick Blues (1965)



Total points: 307.82

Place in the 2005 poll: 107

Appears on: 9 ballots

Ranked by:

Neoptolemos (13)
Schwah (15)
Ozphoenix (19)
Otisredding (35)
Rocky Raccoon (46)
BillAdama (100.5)
Schleuse (103)
Andre (122)
Rune (170)

And there it is for today! Some more surprises (LCD Soundsystem, Big Star, Robert Wyatt) vying with some revered classics. And it doesn't stop here...

Great row as usual, I hope there are some more surprises, even if all my top 10 is now done...
but I think in particular of a song that I would have expected between 100 and 200 but which has still not appeared yet... and i'm quite sure Jonah, Fred and Michel ranked it high, so this one will be a real surprise to me (and a good one, I love this song, it's my #91 and it keeps growing on me)

Wow, 2 very high ones gone for me there. Another great 25 Moonbeam. Thanks.

Satisfaction dropped 41 spots on your list Henrik, how come?

A couple firsts:

All My Friends that high? That's my first time I've had to do a double take.

I was kind of expecting Waltz #2 to finish top 20. There's my first real disappointment.

Panda, I think Dry the Rain might be the song you have in mind? It made a surprisingly very high sshowing in the 90s poll. We'll see.

"All My Friends" belongs! It is the most pleasant surprise of the poll for me, and I expect its love here will not wane with time.

"I expect its love here will not wane with time."

I do. Maybe not with you, but I bet that it's not in the top 100 the next time we do this.

Moonbeam:

As a token of my appreciation to you for putting this list together, I dug up this link to a cartoon by Keith Knight about Prince that you might enjoy:

http://dir.salon.com/story/comics/knig/2004/03/31/knig/

I don't know if you've heard of Keith Knight, but there you go.

I'm thinking Prince made other cameo appearances in his cartoons, but can't remember when. I like how he draws him!

Enjoy.

That's three out of my top five so far (four if you count Rock DJ way down in the 300s) and I know that the other one is going to show up in the top 50. I'm happy...but maybe that's because I'm listening to "All My Friends"

Observation #1: D'oh! I can't believe I forgot Johnny B Goode!

Observation #2: Guh. I *abhor* Stan and everything Eminem. He manages to simultaneously write a song around his own ego-trip (The compassionate star, tragically does not respond to the manic fan's letter in time), and capitalize on his fans' obsession with casual violence.

WOW the 10th best song on OK Computer,No Surprises makes the list - does this mean the 9 songs better than it will be still to come?

Hmm...it's the third best song for me and a bubbling under. Only Paranoid Android and Lucky are better IMO.

Satisfaction dropped 41 spots on your list Henrik, how come?

While I know the love for Rolling Stones increased for some of you during bracketology, mine decreased just a little bit. And I didn't want to end up with almost exactly the same list as in 2005. However, I still think that "Satisfaction" is the core of rock, with one of the best guitar riffs ever. Maybe it will move up again for our next poll...

With all these surprises, which expected top songs are not on the list??????????????????

I am pleasantly surprised that my favorite song, In Dreams, has reached #70. One song that can only sing Roy Orbison (well, John tried on karaoke and found that it is impossible). The instrumental arrangement is precious. The images play back in Blue Velvet recovered this song for the story. Mr. Orbison: olé y olé y olé.

Nothing doing tonight?

(Honorios info on who sings The Velvet's Sunday Morning is a stunner. I wouldn't have guessed it).

Some people actually don't realize it's Lou?

But it's obviously a male voice with an American accent! Sounds nothing like Nico's voice.

Really? I have never thought that was Nico. It sounds nothing like Nico. It sounds like Lou Reed. I've heard other people say that before too, but I don't get how you can confuse that voice with Nico's.

A stunner? I never thought it was Nico, because her accent is so distinctive in every song she sings.

When I first heard it, I thought it sounded a little funny, not like the Lou Reed I was familiar with from Walk On the Wild Side, but still eerilingly similar. What I realized was that he had a distinctive speak-singing that out regardless of high or low his voice sounded.

It doesn't really sound falsetto either. It sounds like Lou Reed....

Well, I realize you're all right and that there's no trace of the characteristic Nico accent. And now that you spell it out, it does sound like Lou. I must be growing deaf (very slowly, though -- having listened to the bloody album for 20 years). Or dumb. Or sumpin. Just seemed such a very Nico'ish song.

I never thought "Sunday Morning" sounded like anyone but Lou. Then again - and I think I'm echoing a previous thread here - until I bought the CD reissue of the Velvets' self-titled third album I honest-to-God had no idea that the lead vocal on "Candy Says" was by Doug Yule, not Lou. This despite the fact that I have always been aware that Yule sang four songs on LOADED. I suppose I just couldn't fathom the idea that Reed could give the most beautiful song he ever wrote to someone else to sing. Particularly someone who, judging by the way he dominates the credits on LOADED, proved to be a first-class douchebag. (Not that Reed isn't one too, of course.)

But I have another lead singer mystery. Not a quiz, I truly don't know. Who's singing Armenia City in the Sky, the opening track on The Who Sell Out? It sounds a little Keith Moonish to me.

If Nico had sung "Sunday Morning":

Zunday marning, brings de don in,
Itz juss a ressless fillink,
By my zide,
Irly doning, Zunday marning,
Itz juss de wested yerz so closs behind...

I get it ...

Jonah, isn't that just Roger using his infrequently deployed higher register on "Armenia"? I've always been fascinated by the fact that they chose to open an album with a song not written by Townshend or any other member of the Who - it was written by Townshend's buddy John "Speedy" Keene, soon to be the driving force behind Thunderclap Newman of "Something in the Air" fame. But that's not Speedy singing "Armenia".

When I heard Sunday Morning for the first time, I had never listened to any other Lou Reed song, and already in that listening I thought it was sung by a man.

I also remember that in the first times I listened to the VU & Nico, as I didn't even know anything about the band and its components, I was impressed by that singer's capacity of changing his voice in every song, once I didn't know that was Nico who sang some tracks. In other words, for a time I thought that it was Lou Reed singing like a woman in "Nico's" tracks!

Sorry guys, no songs for today, but I'm very entertained by the Nico/Lou Reed discussion! I always find "Femme Fatale" hilarious with the "what a klon" part. Klon?!

I promise an update tomorrow at the latest.

What other songs has Daltrey deployed the higher register? That song sounds so different, but I guess I'm beginning to hear it.

I think I have difficulty making out the singers out quite a few songs. In the liner notes to Quadrophenia it talks about each Who member singing a different theme. But "Is It Me?, For a Moment", supposedly sung by John Enstwhistle, sounds at parts clearly like Pete Townshend and at other times like Daltrey.

I'm also pretty sure Keith Moon has both a heavily accented gravelly vocal (Bell Boy, Tommy's Holiday Camp), but does he also have the high voice, such as at the beginning of Bell Boy ("The beach is a place where a man can feel, he's the only soul in the world that's real"). That vocal sounded similar to I Need You, a Moon-written song from the album A Quick One.

I'm a little obsessed with figuring this out know that it's been brought up.

Jonah, you're on the right track regarding Moon -- he "sings" (a generous term) lead on "I Need You" and "Tommy's Holiday Camp", the two non-instrumental Who tracks that he wrote, and he also quite touchingly embodies the Mod gang leader gone respectable on "Bell Boy" (effectively switching back and forth between a Cockney gurgle and his more typical wistful near-falsetto).

As far as I know, the "Is It Me for a Moment" theme is -always- sung by Daltrey, although it's been a while since I listened to QUADROPHENIA. I don't think Entwistle actually wrote or sings lead on any of the album's songs; he more than makes his presence known, though, via his astonishing bass work and brilliantly overdubbed brass charts.

Aw, c’mon, boys… The ethnocentrism, always the ethnocentrism of Anglo-Saxon people… I don’t want to offend nobody, but is it not enough to have the 99.9% of songs and album lists sung in the same language? And the few non-English musicians that reach the acclaim usually need some help, being Peter Gabriel with Youssou N’Dour or Ry Cooder with Buenavista Social Club (by the way, God bless you, Peter and Ry). But are we, non-English speaking people, even supposed to indentify the different accents in English? Of course I can distinguish if the singer is from Argentina, Mexico and Andalucia singing in Spanish, but not in English. So I don’t feel any guilt for not noticing the difference between German and American accent.
And about the voice I can’t agree neither. Nico has a low voice tone, a quite masculine tone similar to Lou Reed, but Lou sang “Sunday Morning” with not exactly a falsetto but with a gentler, higher, feminine tone. In my opinion he made such a perfect imitation of Nico’s vocal style that he confounded many people. At least two, Snusmumrik and me.
And no, we’re no deaf. Not me at least. The othorhinolaryngologist explored me on Monday and my audiometry was perfect. I was really happy to see no hearing impairment after so many years of listening to music so loud. About being dumb…

Well, you just need to watch a few movies to get the hang of accents.

As for the over-anglicanization, it's due to the fact that so many genres emerged or were crystalized in the English-speaking world, and then became popular all over.

And then there's the fact that the music journalists who inspired further generations were also mostly British or American. Their anti-foreign bias was funnily embraced by the Cool foreign journalists as well (and by music fans all over).

And then there's the internet, and the fact that it's predominantly in English. At this rate, English is going to be a truly universal language in some generations.

But yeah. More "foreigners" like us would have been nice.

Hey I hope my difficulty in identifying the four British Who members in their songs makes clear that I’m no expert in making out English singing accents, despite being a native English speaker.

But you could arguably say that Nico is one of the most off-putting English singing voices on any classic rock album. Whenever many famous musicians sing English, their local accent often disappears. It’s hard to separate how singers sound once you hear their interview voices, but on first listen it really sounds the same. Exception can be given to Lily Allen and a few others I’m sure. I was surprised when first hearing VU+N that Nico’s singing was so heavily accented. It was just another element to the music that made that album so universally revolutionary.

Nico’s singing English compared to anyone else’s singing English would be the equivalent, giving my limited knowledge of the language, of the contrast between the sounds of Mexican Spanish and Castillian Spanish (that’s the type of Spanish spoken in Spain, right?). I may be unfamiliar with most words, but it just sounds distinctively different.

But thanks for your perspective, and I would be eager to dive into more non-English music. I have to read your excellent essays during the 90s poll. I also really liked Miranda’s “Don”, one of my 40 or so favorite pop songs from 2006. Can you recommend anything along those lines? Pop music so catchy and fun, that completely understanding the lyrics almost don’t matter.

Just a quick question to anyone who knows..

How do I put a video in my post?

Go to a YouTube movie. See that Embed thing under "About This Video"? Copy-paste it in a post.

Jonah: thanks a lot for your comment. Just seen in youtube for the first time Miranda’s “Don” and I think I could find similar Spanish songs (the two first that came to my mind are “Diferentes” by Ellos or “Cerca de Shibuya” by La Casa Azul). You can youtube them but I will think of it and return later. Respect to my language Spanish is used against French or English while within Spain is used Castilian (castellano) against the other languages of Spain like Catalan (my native language), Galician or Basque.

Sinder Velvin: At this rate, English is going to be a truly universal language in some generations. Mmm, not discard completely that our grandsons ended learning Chinese and identifying the differences between Cantonese accent and Tibet accents.

Rune: just copy and paste the instructions that Henrik kindly send me: “On the youtube page, to the right of the video, there is a link to embed the video, although sometimes it says "embedding disabled by request". I didn't know how this worked either, just found this out”

I didn't get the joke about Chinese.

Sinder, as a joke it was obviously not funny… I was trying to point to the historical fact that the position of the English as the universal language (as you accurately point) is due to the economic preponderance of the US. This leading position of US led also to preponderance in other levels as cultural (maybe justified), ideological (absolutely arguable) and moral (unacceptable in my opinion). This is now (and the technological innovations had amplified it tremendously) but it wasn’t like that a century before and we don’t really know what will be a century from now on. I suggested China because it seems that the future belongs to them, and maybe a thriving economy could produce higher cultural exposure.
Anyway, we are always talking about bias against black musicians, but anyone of us voted for any musician from Asia?
Respect to Nico vs. Lou-Lou (and that’s the last thing I will say about it!) I wasn’t obviously talking about confusing accents. I was talking about confusing sexes. The Velvet Underground and all the Factory troupe that surrounded them pioneered (apart of many other things) the confusion of sexes of the world of today. Mo Tucker, Nico, Lou Reed, Candy Darling, Valerie Solanas, Holly Woodland… Girls looking like boys, boys looking like girls, girls singing like boys and, yes, boys singing like girls.