The song I took the title for the last post from — “Poncho and Lefty” — is one of those songs that, when I google it, I find people various people calling it the greatest song ever. This also happens with “Wichita Lineman”, “Aguas de Marco”, and “My Funny Valentine” and “Got To Give It Up”.
How about a thread on songs that are described as the greatest ever? Doesn’t have to be your favorite, though it could be.
The words “stairway” and “heaven” will both trip the spam filter for the rest of the afternoon.
Cris (without an H)
Tribute.
craigie
Mack the Knife
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols edition)
I could do this all day…
? Martin
Rhapsody in Blue
DougJ
@craigie:
Those are good choices.
seaboogie
@? Martin: as conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Yes!
Roger Moore
An die Freude (Schiller/Beethoven/Toscanini)
Baud
Anything by Nickelback.
(Spam filter test complete.)
BGinCHI
I agree with Wichita Lineman, for sure.
Also, in that mode, “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”
southend
@BGinCHI:
Beat me to it! (Cash’s version)
Roger That
Satan Gave Me a Taco.
MikeJ
13
palindrome
Emmy Lou Harris’s version – not the Willie and Waylon remake.
gbear
When I hopped in the car to go get a haircut this morning, Street Fighting Man by the Stones was playing on the radio and I’d forgotten just how much really great stuff there is going on in that song – Charlie’s drumming, Brian’s sitar, Nicky Hopkins on piano, Keith’s guitar intro recorded on a cheap cassette deck – just layer upon layer of cool. I’m willing to put this up as my greatest song ever for today. I won’t bother with posting a YouTube video of the song because the sound will probably suck.
Next greatest song ever: When I Get To The Border by Richard Thompson.
PST
Layla
Alex S.
The double A-side Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane
Good Vibrations
Bowie’s Heroes
Pink Floyd’s Echoes
southend
Girl From the North Country
DougJ
@gbear:
Almost every song on Beggars Banquet/Let it Bleed/Exile is a legitimate contender IMHO.
BGinCHI
“I Gave My Love a Chicken,” Animal House soundtrack.
Amir Khalid
@gbear:
Isn’t Street Fighting Man the one with Charlie playing on a portable practice kit, and no electric guitars at all?
Sticker
Re :Mack the Knife – it’s very strange that the English version is almost campy, but the German original (Mackie Messer) is so much darker. How’d that happen?
MattF
Hard to choose among the songs on this album:
http://www.folkways.si.edu/lucinda-williams/ramblin/american-folk-country/music/album/smithsonian
Oscarbob
The City of New Orleans. Kris Kirstoferson and John Prine described it as “the best damn train song ever”.
billgerat
Just about anything by Jimi Hendrix. Especially his blues version of Red House.
Anton Sirius
My vote for the greatest pop sing ever recorded always goes to Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.
JerryN
Stagger Lee has to be up there. From the web page:
I admit that I was unaware of feature film.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Freebird!!111ONE
More seriously, …
Jessica – Allman Brothers
Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel
Love Reign O’er Me – The Who
Cheers,
Scott.
David Koch
Baby Got Back
Good Vibrations (The Funky Bunch version)
Bust a Move
Me So Horny
trollhattan
@DougJ:
Now don’t you go off without’splainin’ why Sticky Fingers is conspicuously missing.
Amir Khalid
Do You Hear The People Sing? from Les Misérables
Into The Fire by Bruce
After The Gold Rush by Neil Young
Di Mana Kan Ku Cari Ganti by P. Ramlee — the most powerful evocation of bereavement I have ever heard
billgerat
@David Koch: We’re talking about music here.
Tiny Tim
Can we have a post-2000 (or whenever) version of this. Surely something written since I was 8 years old (1980) might make the list.
DougJ
@trollhattan:
It’s not quite as good, IMHO. I Got The Blues For You and Sister Morphine are problematic.
gbear
@Amir Khalid: I’m not sure what Charlie is pounding on, but it the biggest, whompingest tom-tom and bass drum sounds ever. The intro sounds like electric guitar, but it may just be a highly processed acoustic. Again, the song is so highly layered that there’s probably a little of everything. I’d have to go listen to it again on my stereo…
DougJ
@Tiny Tim:
Nope, nothing good since 1980. Same for movies.
the Conster
Wichita Lineman totally yes, and the best karaoke song ever. Poor Glenn Campbell
America – Simon & Garfunkel. That opening harmonizing hum gets me every.single.time. I want that song played for me at my memorial service.
MP
Ripple
Bring it on Home to Me (off Live at the Harlem Square Club)
Tangled up in Blue
Wish You Were Here
Willin’
gbear
Maybelline by Chuck Berry.
Jacel
Days by Ray Davies. No matter whether the Kinks or anybody else performs it, it sounds a message from the heart. It’s the song that is actually what many people expect Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah to be, until they look closely at Cohen’s lyrics.
Anoniminous
Lotte Lenya – Moon of Alabama
Brubeck – Take Five
Squirrel Nut Zippers – Kraken
and I’ve hit the FYWP limit otherwise I’d link to Jimmy Lunceford – Jazznocracy.
(? Martin beat me to Rhapsody in Blue, darn him.)
Tom Levenson
In this outlaw Country vein…Guy Clarke: Dublin Blues.
Poncho and Lefty as Townes VZ does it.
Emmy Lou Harris doing Deeper Well
Johnny Cash doing Hurt (and so much else)
John Prine with Hello in There; Paradise, so many more….
Been on a Mark Knopfler kick for a while, and I’d find it hard to choose between Romeo and Juliet, Sailing to Philadelphia and all…but Brothers in Arms just works every time.
As above…could do this all day.
PS, if, as Trollhattan suggests, we’re going to go all Sticky Fingers on y’all, tell me there’s a better song on that album than Wild Horses…(Dead Flowers?)
BGinCHI
@efgoldman: Good Vibrations? Really?
I admit to being the only person in the world who thinks the Beach Boys are hugely overrated. But you know, taste varies.
The melancholy in Wichita Lineman is outta sight.
trollhattan
Blue Bayou by either Roy or Linda.
El Paso is grand story-telling.
Anoniminous
@Anoniminous:
And then I put in another link. (grrrr)
SteveM
Dark End of the Street.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Damn near anything off of My Aim Is True or Trust.
“What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding?”
Much of Leonhard Cohen’s work comes up in these discussions.
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: That’s my fave too.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
GOAT(s):
Orion by Metallica.
Spanish Key by Miles Davis.
Peace Walker main theme by Akihiro Honda for the game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
My favorite of all time:
Harvester Of Sorrow by Metallica.
DougJ
@Tom Levenson:
I really love Dead Flowers. It may be my favorite song ever.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Tom Levenson:
Yes, “Dead Flowers.”
David Koch
Oh shit, I forgot:
California Love
Hypnotize
Gin and Juice (White House version)
DougJ
That said, various live versions of Dead Flowers are much better than the one on Sticky Fingers.
BGinCHI
@the Conster: Try the WL version by The Scud Mountain Boys.
I also heard REM do it during sound check many years ago. Holy firjoles.
SteveM
Since 1980, I’d probably go with Radiohead’s “Creep.”
Litlebritdifrnt
When I was 14 I was driven to my Uncle’s pub every weekend to wait tables. He had an 8 track tape player in the pub and of course the tapes played on a loop. Glen Campbell’s greatest hits was one of the tapes that would be played continuously. It was a great pub in a tiny village called Lindale at the edge of the Lake District. There was a creek that fed down from the snow covered fells that cooled the beer cellar. There was an apartment out back that me and my mum (the cook) used to sleep in with our dog. Danny died up there one weekend and he is buried with my Uncle’s fat beagle Rex.
Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I can sing every single word of Glen Campbell’s then 8 greatest hits including Witchita Line Man which I still love to this day. My second favorite is “Everyday Housewife” simply because it describes such a simpler time in life, when a wife stayed home, and wore a “house dress”.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@SteveM: “Fourth of July” by X.
ETA: “Conversation on a Barstool” by Marianne Faithfull, which edges out her “Ballad of Lucy Jordan.”
the Conster
@BGinCHI:
Exactly. So much pining! It’s a perfect song.
That’s why I love S&Gs America so much too – melancholy.
Amir Khalid
@gbear:
I just checked the song’s Wikipedia entry:
gbear
@Tom Levenson:
Sister Morphine with Ry Cooder on slide guitar. Killer.
So many great songs listed here. Even a shoutout for my beloved Kinks.
MikeJ
Hazy Shade of Winter
Come the Revolution, You Belong to Me
John Revolta
Five words,dude-
In-a-Gadda-da-Vida.
TG Chicago
I think we need a thread about how the release of Bowe Bergdahl proves how weak Obama is.
I imagine the wingers will be crowing about how Obama negotiated with terrorists! but anyway it’s good that Bergdahl is headed back to the States.
Amir Khalid
@gbear:
Sister Morphine has that terrifying lyric:
Why does the doctor have no face?
uila
Divided Sky
Joel
No Woman, No Cry
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Okay, why is FYWP preventing me from replying to MikeJ?
@ MikeJ: If we are doing Mercer, doesn’t “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” come into play?
MikeJ
@BGinCHI:
I’ve got it on a bootleg. Look around for REM Covering Them. It’s all covers from soundchecks/encores.
Another song on that album that hasn’t been mentioned, Roadrunner.
Since somebody asked for a song since 1980 without actually mentioning any themselves, how about Whisper by Morphine.
DougJ
I should also mention “For the Good Times”, especially the Al Green version.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
“Many Rivers to Cross.” Just as with Rob Gordon in High Fidelity, that song is to played at my funeral.
russell
if you’re talking townes van zandt my vote is for “tecumseh valley”.
if you’re talking john prine my vote is for “far from me” or “paradise”, maybe “christmas in prison”.
and yeah, no electric guitars on street fighting man, my understanding is that it’s acoustic on some kind of crap cassette player, recorded in a hotel room.
and yeah, wichita lineman is a great, great song. there’s no way it should work – seriously, a song about the existential love-angst of an electric utility lineman? – and it does.
holy crap there are a lot of good songs. how about:
zevon “accidentally like a martyr”, or maybe “my shit’s fucked up”
elvis (not that one, the other one), “alison”
graham parker “endless night” or “stupefaction”
patti smith “dancing barefoot”
p j harvey “victory”
JCJ
Da da da ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha by Trio
Engel by Rammstein
Amerika by Herbert Grönemeyer
Nie Wieder by Ulla Meinecke
? Martin
@Anoniminous: Yeah, 2nd place is a long way from that song in my view, probably because in my mind the song represents everything that is wonderful about New York City. It’s one of those songs that sounds like the place where it was born, it’s where I grew up and became exposed to jazz. Its a very grounding piece for me.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I am a huge X fan.
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline?
DougJ
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I almost did a post about that the other day. Maybe my favorite part of the book!
BGinCHI
@gbear: Was going to suggest something off “Village Green…” but couldn’t pick just one….
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Terrifyingly is the perfect adjective.
My Morphine by Gillian Welch is an ideal companion piece.
JerryN
Wow, so far no Beatles or Motown. I’ll go with “A Day In The Life” and “My Girl”.
BGinCHI
@russell: For GP it’s gotta be “Stick to Me” or “Discovering Japan.”
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@russell:
The Up Escalator is a great album from start to finish.
janeform
Danny Boy
Angel From Montgomery
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I love GP. He was my first Brit rock/pop hero. Before I ever heard Elvis C.
I still love Stick to Me best, but I’m ecumenical.
trollhattan
Hard to pick just one XTC piece, so I’ll go with Chalk Hills and Children.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@DougJ: You are a Clash and EC aficionado and a Nick Hornby fan as well? Get out of my head, man.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
(Trigger warning: grammar Nazism.)
The adjective is “terrifying”. “Terrifyingly” is an adverb.
BGinCHI
@janeform: Is this the first mention of Angel from Montgomery????
That might be my top pick.
Fuck, what a song.
gbear
@russell: The TVZ song that always grabs me is ‘Highway Kind’. So many of his songs are haunting (especially given his personal history), but that one always stops me in my tracks.
Now to change directions completely: I Can See For Miles by The Who.
trollhattan
@JerryN: In My Life.
Ronnie Pudding
Pancho and Lefty really is the greatest song ever. But does anyone really say that about Wichita Lineman?
EDIT: apparently people do. Anyone remember that episode of News Radio?
Lynn Dee
That’s Pancho and Lefty, not Poncho and Lefty. A poncho is a sleeveless wrap thing.
AMinNC
Jessica – Allman Bos.
I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – Otis Redding
Song for My Father – Horace Silver
Exile on Main St.(pick one) – Stones
Russian Easter Festival Overture – Rimsky-Korsakov
MikeJ
@JerryN:
I always preferred Stax to Motown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBWZFcQa7f4
BGinCHI
@Ronnie Pudding: Smart and handsome men have been doing it for almost an hour.
Keep up.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@JerryN: I prefer Stax to Motown.
Otis with “Try a Little Tenderness” for example.
ETA: Or Hi Records. Ann Peebles with ” I Can’t Stand the Rain.”
poliwog
Song to the Siren. Any version, though This Mortal Coil pretty much blasted it into the stratosphere.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/nov/17/song-to-the-siren-classic
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
What are you, Ukrainian?
Will blame tablet auto-complete, and exit, stage right.
angelfoot
@Jacel: Waterloo Sunset is a great one by the Kinks.
BGinCHI
I wish I still had all my records/cds from the 80s Flying Nun label out of NZ.
Damn.
gbear
@BGinCHI: My fave on that album is Big Sky (by a mile). Someone posted Some Mother’s Son from the Arthur album last weekend as the best Memorial Day song. Was that you?
billgerat
TROLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO…..
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Who does this treachery?
I shout with bleeding hands.
angelfoot
@trollhattan: Love on a Farmboy’s Wages always get stuck in my head, but too many good ones to mention.
janeform
I’m “undefined” above
Was ETAing some more of my favorites:
Ombra Mai Fu (Lorraine Hunt Lieberson version)
Say a Little Prayer (Aretha version)
Thunder Road
Codex (Radiohead)
Separator (Radiohead)
There are so many more.
Joel
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Anoniminous
@? Martin:
If you like Gershwin you should take a listen to Kurt Weil and Hanns Eisler (his non-political stuff.) Neither, IMO, is quite as good as Gershwin but they get there.
We can thank Ross Gorman for the opening clarinet glissando in Rhapsody. He was goofing around during rehearsals and Gershwin heard it, fell in love with it, and told him to play it that way at the concert.
MikeJ
@BGinCHI: I love the Chills.
SatanicPanic
@BGinCHI: Good Vibrations is a good song but then production sucks- too obviously spliced together. Sloop John B or Wouldn’t It Be Nice or even I Get Around are better.
Edit- or Don’t Worry Baby
recurvata
This is an impossible and endless thread. Nevertheless, a few entries, by no means inclusive…or is that exclusive?
Getting Mighty Crowded, Elvis Costello
Rock Lobster, B-52s
Pictures and Paintings, Charlie Rich
Lie to Me, Dirty Looks
Everchanging Moods, Style Council
Blitzkrieg Bop, Ramones
Could go on for a while
SatanicPanic
Ballroom Blitz is the best rock and roll song I can think of
Honus
Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog. Every second of that record is perfect. If you would hear it today for the first time your reaction would be “what the fuck was that”
JerryN
@trollhattan: Yeah, it was hard to pick just one. We’re also missing anything from Stax. “Dock of the Bay” in particular. There have been so many mediocre covers that it’s easy to forget how good the original is. (and I see that I was beaten to the punch)
Jim
52 Vincent Black Lightning by Richard Thompson. Actually, anything by Richard Thompson.
gbear
@JerryN: For Motown, my fave is ‘Reach Out’ by the Four Tops. That whole album is good.
Higgs Boson's Mate
“Mary hatte ein kleines Lamm”, as performed by the Vienna Philharmonic, Simon Rattle conducting.
scav
@MikeJ: Oooh, I admit a Simon & Garf from that period would rank extremely high on my list, but which exact one? ow.
Jim
52 Vincent Black Lightning by Richard Thompson.
gogol's wife
@Anoniminous:
Rhapsody in Blue is a song?
BGinCHI
@gbear: Great cover of Big Sky by Yo La Tengo on “Fakebook.”
That was not me, alas.
Craigie
Satisfaction
Tears of a Clown
Venus (original, of course)
MikeJ
@Craigie:
Shocking Blue or Frankie Avalon?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
“Thirteen” by Big Star (it barely edges out “September Gurls” in my mind).
Honus
Also, too I saw her standing there by the Beatles.
Honus
And brown sugar.
trollhattan
@gbear:
Four Tops definitely my favorite Motown act.
Now, how about I Got You (I Feel Good)?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
“Libertango” by Grace Jones – with Sly and Robbie as the rhythm section.
Wag
Since 1980
U2. One or anything from Under a Blood Red Sky
REM. driver 8
Heads. The Lady Don’t Mind or RiL
New Order. True Faith
David Koch
Hot in Herre
Push It
Walk This Way
Funkee Ko Medina
I swear suburbanites are boring
angelfoot
Who knows Where the Time Goes is a timeless classic.
charles pierce
1) Over The Rainbow
2) Blind Willie McTell — Bob.
3) Desperadoes Waiting For A Train — Guy Clark (Hi, Tom!)
4) I Can See For Miles — The Who
5) Kyrie — From the Missa Solemnis
annagranfors
At the moment, though I’d argue bitterly with myself a few minutes from now:
40s–I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry–Hank Williams
50s–The Girl Can’t Help It–Little Richard
60s–Waterloo Sunset–The Kinks (or Out In The Street–The Shangri-Las)
70s–Teenage Kicks–The Undertones
80’s–Gigantic–Pixies (and eff you, Frank, for selling it to AT&T) (or…and probably moreso…I Will Dare–The Replacements)
90’s–Nothing Sacred–Jonatha Brooke
00’s–Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)–Arcade Fire
10’s–Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1–M.I.A. (yeah, it’s a mixtape. Whatevs.)
Lots of great picks above, though…do this again next week and I’ll have a different song for every decade.
gogol's wife
testing — I’m not able to comment
It won’t let me respond to MikeJ who read my mind about a great clip of Johnny Mercer and Evelyn Poe in Old Man Rhythm. I love you, Mike J!
trollhattan
Wracking my brain for the best John Hyatt song, but can’t settle on one.
Slow Turning will do.
jame
Tangled Up in Blue
angelfoot
@gbear: When I Get To The Border is y favorite song off one of my favorite albums ever.
angelfoot
@trollhattan: Feels Like Rain.
? Martin
@efgoldman: OP says nothing about pop song, just songs.
gogol's wife
@gogol’s wife:
For some reason, addressing MikeJ doesn’t work for me. “Come the Revolution, You Belong to Me”! Greatest song ever!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@David Koch: “Push It” is a candidate. I would call Run-DMC’s “Walk This Way” a cover. The other two? No. But “Straight out of Compton” and “Fight The Power” belong in the mix. As does “The Seed (2.0).”
@gogol’s wife: The disappearing reply thing happened to me the other day. Adding my parenthetical seems to have cured it.
Emma
Laura (with or without lyrics) from the movie of the same name
Speak Low from A Touch of Venus
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
Dancing in the Streets
Honestly Now by Harry Connick Jr.
Any part at all of Bethoven’s Missa Solemnis
Tommy
@jame: Not saying the best song, but Tangled Up in Blues, well one I could listen to on a loop for days if not weeks.
MattF
@gogol’s wife: Y’know, that happened to me a few days ago. I thought it was my DSL modem going haywire, but come to think of it, I was trying to reply to MikeJ.
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
It won’t let me respond to him either. I wrote him five eager replies about “Come the Revolution.” Did you watch that clip? It’s mind-blowing.
But if we’re being objective, Delvig’s Elegy is the greatest song ever written. I don’t even know who wrote the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ZRNJW7zL4
NobodySpecial
Gods, where would I start?
“An American Tune” – Paul Simon.
“One In Six” – Maggie’s Dream.
“I’ll Be There” – Jackson 5.
“Hong Kong” – Gorillaz.
“Something About You” – Level 42.
Seconded is “Every Little Thing She Does” by the Police.
Sixth or seventhed is “Wichita Lineman”.
“Poor Side Of Town” – Johnny Rivers.
Tons more, if I was to ruminate on it.
? Martin
@annagranfors:
Actually, it was sold to Apple, who was cobranding with a number of the carriers. You know, Apple, the largest music retailer on earth and who now has two of the biggest music producers as executives. iTunes has about half the annual revenues of Google.
If you’re going to sell out, at least sell out to the folks that move most of your music.
Gin & Tonic
Take the ‘A’ Train.
JerryN
Tom Waits’ “San Diego Serenade”. Springsteen’s “Sandy”. For something current, Jason Isbell’s “Elephant” may be the saddest song I’ve heard lately.
And how can we forget the John Prine / Steve Goodman collaboration on the “perfect country and western song”, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name”. :-)
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): “Straight outta Compton, ” not “Straight out of Compton,” you whitebread idiot.
LT
Wichita Lineman? Fucking hell.
vtr
The best version of “Poncho and Lefty” is Townes’ and it’s not even the best song he ever wrote.
September – Shins
Cinnamon Girl – Young with Crazy Horse
I Want To Be Happy – Lester Young with the Nat Cole Trio.
gbear
@angelfoot: My younger (54yo) sister recently died of what I can best describe as ‘death by lifestyle’. That song was the only song I could listen to that put her death into perspective, but I didn’t dare play it for my other sisters or her family. They would have been pissed.
LT
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Pretty sure it’s “Strayht owta Komtn,” yo.
the Conster
@JerryN:
Norwegian Wood. My favorite, because melancholy and ennui.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): You and Mike J. were both having the Yutsano issue the other day. I tried a test reply to each of you several times, FYWP.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: There’s a version that’s done by an women’s a cappella (“barbershop”) group called Ambiance that is absolutely spectacular. First heard it on Ron della Chiesa’s defunst afternoon show called “Music America.” I will never forgive WGBH for pulling that program off the air.
Tommy
@@NobodySpecial: For me here is one. Franklin’s Tower with the Dead. I’ve been to hundreds and hundreds of concerts in my life. My first was the Dead. Solider Field. 1988. Chicago. This song just seemed to play on repeat …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEniyvOtETc
Joel Hanes
Summertime, from Porgy and Bess.
As covered by, well, nearly everyone.
All You Need Is Love
Because John Lennon
trollhattan
@angelfoot:
Good one!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@LT: I am going with what it says on the album.
Joel Hanes
@MP:
I like your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
angelfoot
@gbear: Wow, sorry about your sister, gbear.
Ripley
The Books. ‘The Lemon of Pink’
Post-1980 stuff, so turn down the volume on your hearing aids.
bg
@BGinCHI:
I agree w/ BGin CHI – Sunday Morning Coming Down
Crazy – Patsy Cline or Willie Nelson version
You Were Always on my Mind – Willie Nelson
Walk the Line – Johnny Cash
trollhattan
Unknown Legend, Neil Young (or a dozen others. )
xenos
@BGinCHI: Agreed on Prine’s Angel from Montgomery. Sung by Prine, for some reason, beats all.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
****** On the 7th Floor
It’s a song, and it’s great…Well, a great pile of shit.
Dcrefugee
Rare Earth’s live version of “Get Ready.”
Roger Moore
In the Mood
Master of Puppets
London Calling
MikeJ
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): That’s right up there with Makin’ It.
Tommy
I recall being a kid. Early 70s. I used to steal away into my father’s study to listen to his 3-4 eights tracks on his headphones. I know to this day the three were Johnny Cash, Jim Croce, and John Denver. I’ve also thought many years as a youth, heck an adult, not a bad group of three to listen to as a kid. Heck my father and I have not a lot in common, but the “Man in Black” we exchange his music as often as we exchange anything. I mean Johnny “Fucking” Cash.
Now off to listen to a little John Denver.
Nunca El Jefe
Well, I am very out of touch with the general sensibilities on this music thread, but will still push my picks:
Hurt – by either NIN or Cash
Rusty cage – Soundgarden
And my all time fave for ever and ever and ever and ever:
Pushit – Tool
No links, sorry, this is from my phone. As for nothing good since the 80’s: suck it hater. Metallica’s covers of Tuesday’s Gone and Astronomy are unbelievable.
gogol's wife
@MikeJ: And while we’re talking about Old Man Rhythm, there’s this one, with the young, charming Betty Grable leading a lovely quartet (also including Evelyn Poe):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em4t4RCyE-o
Commish
Ripple.
Gimme Shelter.
25 or 6 to Four.
Sweet Jane (Alternate Outro).
Me and Bobby McGee.
but especially…
Like a Rolling Stone, by Hendrix at Monterey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4fyxECpOl0
angelfoot
Tom Wait’s “Take it with Me” should be a standard.
MikeJ
@gogol’s wife: Did you catch it when it was on the other day?
gogol's wife
@MikeJ: Yes, that was the subject of my five impassioned messages to you that didn’t work because I can’t reply to you. It was fabulous! Johnny Mercer is a god.
The film in general was fabulous — I love the art deco dorm rooms with balconies.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@MikeJ:
“This time in life I’m fakin’ it”. Truly bad stuff.
But, seriously:
Louis Armstrong Stardust
and
Johnny Mercer On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
gbear
@angelfoot: I vented a lot about it on BJ. In hindsight, it just seems so stupid.
Tommy
@Commish: Huge Hendrix fan. I know this might raise many flags, but my favorite song by him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4MEEC5RSU
Machine Gun …..
Jay C
Good news and bad news today: the good part:
SGT Bowe Bergdahl, the last (only) US military POW held in Afghanistan was freed today .
Bergdahl, of Hailey, ID had been held prisoner since June, 2009/ He was exchanged for five Taliban high-rankers who had been held at Guantanamo Bay: they were turned over to officials in Qatar (who had helped broker the deal).
The bad news? In among all the outpouring of support and gratitude for Sgt Bergdahl’s release: who, do you think, has decided to piss on the parade by griping about the President’s negotiations? Well, if you guessed “Republican lawmakers”, you’d be correct! Oh, and the alternative answer of “John McCain” would also be right.
ETA: Ooops, wrong thread, sorry.
gogol's wife
@Jay C:
It’s got a nice beat, you can dance to it. :)
barbequebob
@DougJ:
agree, they are not in same class as rest of that album.
But, look at Exile, except for “Happy” rest of side 3 (original vinyl double LP), is equally weak (Just wanna see his face, let it loose, )
I’d say all four of those Stones Golden era albums belong in same category.
Steeplejack
@Emma:
Laura is on TCM again tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. EDT.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Yeah, but they pulled that program when he was barely into his 50’s. You could just hear his love for that genre of music in his announcing/narration, in a way that didn’t come through (at least to me) when he was doing Tanglewood or opera. I bought lots of CD’s because of that show.
A Ghost To Most
Dixie Chicken (live) – Little Feat
Into the Mystic – Van Morrison
Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who
Steeplejack
@WaterGrrrl!:
A (hopefully temporary) fix is to change their name slightly in the “reply” link in your message (as I’ve done here with your name to illustrate).
annagranfors
@Martin:
Thanks for the correction, Martin. I don’t watch US television so much, so my personal most-hated corporation erroneously sprang to mind.
But I’m *done* with the Pixies anyway. Their seemingly eternal “reunion tour” was awful when I caught it at the Greek Theatre in LA a few years back–the band were playing the hits half-heartedly, and seemingly every audience member was drowning out the vocals by singing themselves (~75% out of tune). I can’t blame…in fact applaud…Kim Deal’s defenestration from the band.
But once upon a time, I saw ’em playing the Roxy in ’88 (?), and they were godlike. Gods all die, though.
debbie
Wow, 187 posts and not a single Muddy Waters song. As much as I like lots that’s been mentioned here, no one’s come close to feeling the music as Muddy did.
LT
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): YOu killz dah funnyz. Yo.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@annagranfors: I was nervous about seeing Strummer with the Mescaleros in the late 90s for fear of being disappointed. Joe, however, did not disappoint. I am iffy about seeing the Replacements this fall for the same reason.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@debbie: How much of it was the song and how much was Muddy? The thread is about the songs themselves. Not that Willie Dixon didn’t write some good ones.
Thoughtful David
As a big fan of someone as obscure as Townes Van Zandt, I’m sometimes surprised to see that there actually are others of us out there. Glad to see ya!
So, my vote for top No. 1 has to be Pancho and Lefty, the TVZ version. The Emmylou Harris is ok, but the Willie Nelson is an atrocity.
For No.2 I’ve got a shout-out for another one already mentioned (non-TVZ): City of New Orleans. Incredibly evocative song.
Some others, including some oddballs:
Just My Imagination (Cranberries)
Just What I Needed (Cars)
Someday Soon (Judy Collins)
Resurrection Fern (Iron and Wine)
Sugarcane (Missy Higgins)
EL
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: extra votes for Solsbury Hill.
Also for One.
Kris Collins
For jazz tunes, I think the consessus would be “Lush Life” by Billy Strayhorn (not Duke Ellington, as many people believe.) My choice for best version is without question Johnny Hartman singing the tune accompanied byJohn Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. It is sublime! A close second, in my opinion, but not mentioned as often as “a greatest ever” is “Angel Eyes,” especially the 1958 Sinatra version, also sublime.
PopeRatzy
Mannish Boy – Muddy Waters
PopeRatzy
@debbie: I was shocked, shocked I tells ya!
Steeplejack
There is no one greatest song. There are a bunch that come pretty damn close.
Roy Orbison, “Oh, Pretty Woman.”
Jazz: Oliver Nelson, “Stolen Moments.”
By proxy for Little Boots.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Hmm. Not sure I can separate the musician from the music. If there’s a song that life is put on hold to let me listen to it, then it’s that specific version. Hearing someone else singing it is always a letdown.
jake the anti-soshal soshalist
Rank Stranger The Stanley Brothers
Jeffro
Banged and Blown Through – Saul Williams
Ordinary – The Alternate Routes
Spring and By Summer Fall – Blonde Redhead
More Than This – Roxy Music
Low Lying Dreams – Deathfix
AkaDad
The first thought that popped into my head was, “Nobody thinks Wichita Lineman is the greatest song ever.” Apparently I was wrong.
I’m surprised that nobody mentioned “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Most everyone knows it and likes it, and I’m also surprised how many people chose “Tangled Up In Blue.”
The comments seem to be more of a my favorite song(s) than a greatest song(s) list.
I think it would interesting to see a list of people’s perfect albums, where they believe every song on it is good.
There’s a reason why the 4th song on Led Zeppelin’s 4th album is considered one of the greatest songs ever. It’s a great song. Fact.
Wally Ballou
Hoagy Carmichael for the win.
Stardust
PopeRatzy
Boom Boom – John Lee Hooker
Juke – Little Walter
Dust My Broom – Elmore James
St. James Infirmary – Just about anyone
Born Under A Bad Sign – Albert King
Call It Stormy Monday – T-Bone Walker
How Blue Can You Get – B.B. King (Live At Cook County Jail)
There is NO greatest song. Just awesome sauce poured over the the sonic joy of music you like.
Although the Mark Knopfler solo in Sultans of Swing on Live Alchemy may be the closest to perfection there has ever been.
Just One More Canuck
@MP: @Oscarbob: For me it’s between Ripple and City of New Orleans
A couple of years ago my daughter (then 7 was in the car with me late one beautiful fall afternoon, and Ripple came on the radio. After the song was over, she said “I like that song – it sounds like they were singing about today”
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Grrrr! :-)
gogiggs
@John Revolta: wait a minute, that sounds like rock and/or roll.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
Which song are you talking about?
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Hey, you’re a “grrrl power” type!
debbie
@PopeRatzy:
The very song I was thinking of. As an underager in 1971 (maybe 1972), I sat at a front row table at Paul’s Mall in Boston and heard this and many other songs. But Mannish Boy is the only one I still remember.
PopeRatzy
@JerryN: Amongst all those versions of Stagger Lee the one that always stood out for me was New Orlean’s Cousin Joe. He rather embellishes the story even further and makes it his own. (Playing Now)
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Neil Young’s Heart of Gold is one, Beastie Boys’s Fight for Your Right is another. So is Lou Reed’s live version of Sweet Jane with the Intro. If they come on the radio, I stop working and grab the headphones. If I’m driving, I roll up the windows and bellow along. I should probably pull over.
Then life returns.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I was just being silly. Plus, it was fun to say grrrr!
Rex Everything
Greatest song ever? That’s EASY: “Sugar Babe” by the Youngbloods.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
I mean which Muddy Waters song, but I see it appears to be “Mannish Boy.”
PopeRatzy
@debbie: I cannot think of any riff that more defines a musical genre than the simple line of Mannish Boy.
Shane in Utah
“Cee Cee Rider Blues” (aka CC Rider, See See Rider, Easy Rider)
“Devil Got My Woman”
“Strange Fruit”
“Long Black Veil”
“Folsom Prison Blues”
“Rock and Roll” (Velvet Underground)
“Rebel Rebel”
“Sympathy for the Devil”
The entirety of Shoot Out the Lights and Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I know.
Rex Everything
@Kris Collins: HELL YES to that recording of Lush Life. How about Joe Williams’ recording of Come Rain or Come Shine with Count Basie WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shelley
I’ll Be Seeing You.
“Cathedral bells were tolling, and our hearts sang on…
Was it the spell of Paris, or the April dawn?”
Bob In Portland
There is no greatest song ever. That being said, “Motel Matches”, or Lee Fields’ “I’ll Go To Jail”. Or “Hold On Tight” by T-Bone Burnett.
Thoughtful David
I think a great song has to be evocative, like good poetry. It has to make you *feel* that you’re there, and it has to say something about the human condition. That’s only one part: the performance has to be great too.
That’s why one of my nominations is “Someday Soon.” I grew up in West Texas, and if you’re not aware of it (;-), rodeo is a Thing out there. The song evokes that very well–the people, the young man just out of the service, looking for his fun, the young woman’s conflicted feelings, her pa’s reaction. I know those people, they were all around me growing up.
Then there’s the performance. Collins’ voice is so clean. The key shifts are amazing, into minor key and back. And then when she skips up a register at the end…amazing.
And that song isn’t even be my top pick.
Lymie
Joan armatrading Love and Affection
Linda ronstadt Different Drum
Doors Light My Fire
MikeJ
@Lymie:
That’s a great cover. I’m a big fan of Nesmith’s solo stuff.
gogol's wife
Carlos Gardel, Por una cabeza.
mainmata
“A Day in the Life” by the Beatles. Many other songs also qualify but as a particular young’un it had a profound impact on my sensibility.
Lymie
Ripple, also a contender
WaterGirl
@Mike J: This cover of Different Drum by Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet is even better. Omnes posted it a few weeks ago.
Lymie
Our hospital just started a fund raising campaign called IMAGINE and every time they discuss it I am stuck with the John Lennon ear worm. Gah
Porco Rosso
Louis Armstrong singing How Long Has This Been Going On.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
No one song for me, and many I like have been mentioned, so I’ll just throw these out there:
Rally Round – Steel Pulse
Mister Magic – Grover Washington Jr.
Headin’ Home – Joshua Redman Quartet
Boomerang – Marcus Miller
Anoniminous
@gogol’s wife:
Rhapsody, “a free instrumental composition in one extended movement, typically one that is emotional or exuberant in character.”
Song, “a musical composition suggestive of music meant to be sung.”
So … why not? Granted it is a long song at 15 -17 minutes; Iron Butterfly’s “Ina goda davida” is considered a song and it’s 17 minutes plus.
Digital Amish
Well this thread was pretty much done with ‘Mack the Knife’ on comment #2.
‘Stand By Me’ Ben E. King
It’s all about context. Today was warm and sultry. Late in the afternoon I was sitting on the porch drinking a beer. The neighborhood kids dinking around out on the road. The iPod spits out Springsteen’s ‘Girls in Their Summer Clothes’. Best song ever at that moment.
FLURDMAN
thunder road Bruce
hurt done by johnny cash not nine inch nails
stinger
Songs that get me choked up, no matter how many times I hear them — I call that great:
Abraham, Martin, and John – Dion
A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
Danny Boy — pretty much anyone
Mack
“Tattooed Love Boys” Of course, I’m a HUGE Pretenders fan.
Also, too, anything by DaDa. Seen them live twice, I’d pay big bucks to see them again.
Digital Amish
@stinger: Leaving on a Jet Plane – Peter, Paul and Mary. Every time.
StringOnAStick
Hmm, I sing and play for giggles, and Pancho and Lefty is one I’ve been tempted to work up but wondered if only I loved it; guess not. I do a version of Blame it on Cain that always gets applause – love Elvis C.
Votes from me for:
Romeo and Juliette – Dire Straits
Sandia Blanca
“I scare myself” by Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks.
“Moondance” by Van Morrison.
Any song by Gordon Lightfoot.
Joel
This is still a “favorite” song thread, to be honest.
MvR
@BGinCHI: You’re not the only one who knows the Beach Boys are overrated.
I know it too.
bago
I was always fond of dracul, myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynBgM795efo
It’s songs like this that make you want to put on silly clothes and dance.
texasdem
@seaboogie: Love Rhapsody in Blue, but if you want a Gershwin song, I’d go with Summertime, from Porgy and Bess.
sxjames
Well, if we are talking American songbook classic pre R’nR…
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Listen to Eva Casidy’s version, and be sure to have a hanky handy).
Summertime from Porgy & Bess
Post 1955….
A Day in the Life
Bridge Over Troubled Waters (the last of the ‘spoon-moon-june’ tin pan alley songs)
Desperado – Eagles
MvR
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): One band I missed that I’ll always regret is the Clash, but I never got a chance before they kicked out Mick Jones, and then it wasn’t the Clash anymore.
Rex Everything
@texasdem: But Not For Me, for me.
PhilbertDesanex
Yea, favorite songs
Joan Armatrading ‘Barefoot and Pregnant’
John Phillip, Me And My Uncle (kills his uncle for the gold – how American)
Best Title: ‘Hold On I’m Coming” – Sam n Dave
Final: Over the Rainbow – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Tehanu
“Georgia on my MInd” Ray Charles. Nothing else comes close, but …
“Your Mother Should Know”
“Blackbird”
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
“Delirio” by Cesar Portillo de la Luz
“Meeting Across the River”
“Begin the Beguine”
Annamal
Perfect day to chase tornadoes-Jim White (or Corvette, or Handcuffed to a Fence in Missisippi or Bluebird)
Singapore-Tom Waits
This year- The Mountain Goats
In Liverpool-Suzanne Vega
J R in WV
Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash
anything by Duke Ellington
just too many good ones…
cleek
Beatles – Something
Cephalus Max
@DougJ: Ditto here. Sticky Fingers overall is not in the league of Let it Bleed/Exile, but Dead Flowers and Wild Horses still knock me on my ass with every listening, and I’d probably pick Dead Flowers as my all time fav song too. Not sure I’d call it the ‘greatest song’ though–just my personal favorite.
I’m surprised to see no Band love here… The Weight? Dixie? Stage Fright?
I can think of a few from London Calling that ought to be in the running too.
Ken T
To me, “Greatest Song” has to refer to something that can be and has been covered by a lot of different artists, not just a single version. So my list would include:
“Feels Like Rain” by John Hiatt
“When I Go” by Dave Carter
as well as seconds to “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”, “Rhapsody In Blue” and “The Weight”.
Digital Amish
Well waddayaknow. Woke up this morning and hit ‘Play’ on the ipod and came to the realization that “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by the Platters was the best song ever.
brantl
John Lennon’s Imagine
Peter VE
@Jim: 52 Vincent Black Lightning: red hair and black leather…. After the first song at an RT solo show, the person behind asks her companion: “Where’s the other guitarist?”.
LittlePig
Funny. “Wichita Lineman” led me right to “Gentle On My Mind”, for which I could make an argument.
Rufus T Firefly
Pancho and Lefty, Angel From Montgomery, Desperadoes Waiting for a Train and Ripple are all worthy contenders. There are lots of great records, but those are great songs.
beejeez
Whoa, whoa, whoa. We got this far without “Tangled Up in Blue” coming up?