I’m doing my reader’s blogs a day early, because something very exciting is happening: Can’t Explain will announce its number all-time pop song of all time tomorrow. I also wanted to get this post up before he announces his number 2 song, because that way I am twice as likely to have one of my picks (below) show up. You can see the list so far here. I have a bad feeling that it will be something by the Who based on the blog’s name. If it were up to me, given what’s on the list and not on the list so far and the general aesthetic being praised here, I would go with either something by Aretha Franklin (probably “Chain of Fools” or “I Never Loved A Man”) or something by Smokey Robinson (“Tears Of A Clown” or “Ooh Baby Baby”) because there’s nothing of theirs on the list yet, or possibly “Walking On Sunshine”, “Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain”, or “She’s Not There”.
In other reader blog activity:
- Athenae has a new book out about Irish pubs of Chicago.
- This isn’t a reader blog in the usual sense, but James Joyner comments and links here, and he has a very good post on the question of whether libertarians do, or should, care about corporate abuse of power.
- Moderate Urban Champion has one of the most interesting pieces about architecture and lay-out in a mid-sized American town that I’ve ever read (I may be biased because it’s in the same general area where I grew up).
Who have you been blood-libeling on your blog? And what do you think will/should be Can’t Explain’s pick as the number one pop song of all time?
cleek
beatles – something
don’t know if it’s been on there yet, if at all. but any list which doesn’t have it is Dead To Me! (!)
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Something by Michael Jackson. Is Thriller already on the list?
I have not accused anyone of using the blood of Christian babies as a baking ingredient, but lately I have insulted control freaks, Beck, Palin and assorted elected Repubs (not in the same post).
guster
I’ve got a book coming out next month. I doubt my research was as fun as Athenae’s, though.
I haven’t been blood libeling anyone. Too busy mixing the blood of goyisha children into my nightly Manhattan.
JRon
Just starting my own book, so it’s gonna take a while. I do promise to use the n-word in it, however.
Waldo
Call it a hunch, but i noticed Susan Boyle has yet to appear on the list …
Alex S.
I’d like to see “River Deep, Mountain High” by Ike and Tina Turner – oh, and “Something” is a great choice, too.
TR
Staple Singers, “I’ll Take You There”
c u n d gulag
What’s wrong with The Who? They had a lot of great songs. Maybe none worthy of number one, but…
In the end, all of these lists are subjective, but I love reading them anyway.
I looked at the list, and I see Led Zep’s already on there. I pray the #1 isn’t “Stairway to Heaven!”
It’s the most overplayed “great” song of all time. And, living in NYC, the rock stations almost always in their yearly “Greatest of all Time” schtick’s chose that song. The only reason to listen in any year was to see if that year, they didn’t choose that fucking tune.
I’ll take “Imagine” and take the heat.
It’s anti-war, anti-wealth, and agnostic/atheist – and you can ‘imagine’ anything you want. I’ll keep what I imagine a secret – OK, it involves Hally Berry, but that’s as far as I go…
JRon
Of all time? Hmm, I’d say either Mel Torme’s ‘You and the night and the music,’ or ‘Boys from the County Hell’ by the Pogues.
Athenae
Thanks for the mention, Doug!
A.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
As for the song I think SHOULD be #1 … Can’t pick one. It’s like trying to pick your VERY best friend.
Not a Prince fan [ducks] but I could also see one of his songs taking the top spot.
I don’t even consider it Zepplin’s best song. And after working in a store in that sold guitars I’m in favor of jail time for people who play the first five chords unless they have the ability to play the whole thing.
Chris
The guy in the comments section who said “the things that make Libertarianism unique from liberalism or conservatism are the very things that make Libertarianism unpalatable” has it right, methinks. Also:
Let’s be honest; how many people do you know who are actually libertarian? In my experience, almost all of them are either – wait for it – liberal or conservative. You’ve got your people who call themselves libertarian because they really, really believe in free markets and hate the welfare state… but when you ask them about abortion, gay marriage, or foreign policy, they’re actually okay with big government on at least one of those three (usually all three). And you’ve got your people who call themselves libertarian because they believe in gay marriage and legalizing marijuana and all that, but they’re actually okay with big government when it comes to environmental regulations and foreign aid and… you get the picture.
For the purposes of this discussion, I’m not criticizing environmental regulations or pro-life politics or the rest of those things. I’m pointing out that they involve the government doing something that you think requires their intervention, rather than letting the individual(s) figure it out for themselves. And that’s not libertarian. Period.
Nobody who calls for libertarianism has ever meant it. It’s always a call to abolish the government programs you don’t like, while preserving the ones you like. In other words, it’s either liberalism or conservatism or a variation thereof, and I’d rather not waste time pretending otherwise.
Maude
Please may it not be You Light Up My Life.
D. Aristophanes
The number one pop song of all time is the Bible, silly! Duh!
joe from Lowell
“Heard it Through the Grape Vine”
Tim
It’s entertaining to read lists like this, but the idea that such diverse songs, so many of them completely awesome in their own way, could actually be meaningfully compared, contrasted, and rated, is pretty silly.
They are all completely wonderful; and don’t need to be put shoe horned into a false hierarchy.
I have to say, I am a Madonna freak, and to me it’s weird to see one of her weakest singles, “What It Feels Like For A Girl,” as the only one of her songs included. My god, man, what about “Like A Virgin,” “Into the Groove,” “Papa Don’t Preach,” “Like A Prayer,” “Cherish,” “Vogue,” “Take A Bow,” “Ray Of Light,” and on and on…?
joe from Lowell
Oh, wait a minute.
Here you go.
gex
My blog is not political, at least not yet. I just started drawing last year, so some of my scribbles are up there. barbyau.com
I have been blood libeling this cat: facebook.com/photo.php?pid=269456&l=b44c439759&id=1601743291
c u n d gulag
@Maude:
Maybe it’s “The Year Chicago Died.” Or, “Honey.”
I’ll stop. I’m getting nauseous.
We should start talking about the WORST rock songs evah!
MikeJ
Best pop song of all time? No question. September Gurls. They do so much.
Moderate Urban Champion
Yes, thanks very much DougJ for spreading my work to a wider audience.
As far as that list, what I want to know is taking into account everything else on it, how did Beck get to #14??
As far as the Top 2, the list seems to be sorely missing any Jackson 5…
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@MikeJ:
I was your butch until we touched.
Cheryl Rofer
A commenter here the other day reminded me of something that keeps going through my head: there was another group of people before our modern-day libertarians and Tea Partiers who believed that the state would just wither away.
That didn’t go so well, did it?
Edit: And there’s several very good comments on it.
JPK
DougJ, thanks as always for your link. The blog name actually comes from Mott the Hoople, not the Who, but the #1 is not by either of them or by any of the others you guessed (though remembering “Ooh Baby Baby” certainly gives me pause). Also, it won’t post until Monday. I agree with everyone who says the exercise is monumentally silly and vaguely meaningless. That it is — but fun to listen to the music again and compare anyway and dig around for something to write about them. I’m also painfully aware that the list is far too Boomer-centric. I guess that’s just me. Down the line I have plans for a 100 Other Songs list, those that were never Billboard hits in the U.S. I’m sure that will be at least as exciting, and possible even include songs after 2001.
jacy
My song – Julie London’s version of Cry Me A River.
Blog – I wrote about Lady Moosebeth yesterday, but then so did everybody and his brother.
asiangrrlMN
I will be blood-libeling La Palina, but with a twist. Mebbe. Can’t give it all away for free (before you read it for free). If this is not the best pop song ever, I will be blood-libeling JPK and Can’t Explain next.
Draylon Hogg
It will be How I Wrote Elastic Man by The Fall.
In the town they’ll stop me in the shoppies
Verily they’ll track me down
Touch my shoulder and ignore my sick red faced smile
And dope mission
And they will ask me
They will ask me
What’s the top ten list of top ten lists going to be?
Draylon Hogg
Sweet And Dandy by The Maytals
IrishGirl
I just posted some thoughts on the rise of The Tea Party and how too many liberal bloggers and commentators have gotten it wrong. drangedinaz.wordpress.com/
In re: to the Pop song evah, I’m betting it will be something from Michael Jackson, unfortunately
Lawnguylander
The greatest pop song ever is either ABC by the Jackson Five, Hey Ya by Andre 3000, Eye Know by Lawnguyland’s own De La Soul or a mash up of Big Boi and the Black Keys, Backup Pistol. Not going to link to it from my phone but google it. It’s awesome and so are 3 of the other mashups the guy did from both artists’ last CDs.
ChuckBerryIsGod
No Otis? No Aretha? No Jerry Lee? No Sly? No Public Enemy? No Cee-lo Green (F*ck You)? No Chuck Berry? Really? No Chuck Berry? Without whom this list would not exist? And yet there are 2 Tommy James and the Shondells songs (that are not even their best – Hanky Panky, Crimson and Clover)? Two Petula Clark songs and yet the only Dusty Springfield song is with the Pet Shop Boys? Petula has as many entries as the Beatles? Kung Fu Fighting on the list? I pronounce this list a sham. No question mark needed.