I got my list down to 500, then 400, then 300. Then I had to have a drink. How do you monsters do this? I cut it to 200 and started crying. It's like murdering children! I got my list down to 125 songs and cannot cut any further, lest I cut myself. My list will contain my top 125 songs. I start by failing.Flack wrote:This is going to be harder than I thought. After sorting my list alphabetically by artist and playing around with it, I hit 100 songs somewhere around Danzig.
Here are my 100 favorite songs
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#79 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
This is another song that doesn't sound like any other song I've ever heard before. I am not the world's biggest Elton John fan or anything, but goddamn that's one indisputably talented so-and-so. (Our Dad did get one of his Greatest Hits when we first got a CD player. I remember having it on when my brother and I played Bump n' Jump on the Intellivision during winter while eating Hanover sourdough pretzels from the box. Er, not that this song is on that CD. It is not.)
I think Pinback said that the bass was really complicated for this, and I would like to believe that I remembered it correctly.
My understanding of what the song is about would be that it's about when Elton (or his lyricst, Bernie Taupin or both) started to become famous, perhaps? And their take on what "upper class" folk were like. Which we can agree here are all disgusting, so we've got that in common? Here's the song.
[youtube][/youtube]
This is another song that doesn't sound like any other song I've ever heard before. I am not the world's biggest Elton John fan or anything, but goddamn that's one indisputably talented so-and-so. (Our Dad did get one of his Greatest Hits when we first got a CD player. I remember having it on when my brother and I played Bump n' Jump on the Intellivision during winter while eating Hanover sourdough pretzels from the box. Er, not that this song is on that CD. It is not.)
I think Pinback said that the bass was really complicated for this, and I would like to believe that I remembered it correctly.
My understanding of what the song is about would be that it's about when Elton (or his lyricst, Bernie Taupin or both) started to become famous, perhaps? And their take on what "upper class" folk were like. Which we can agree here are all disgusting, so we've got that in common? Here's the song.
[youtube][/youtube]
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#78 Our Song - Spill Canvas
I like this one as it's just sooooo catchy and they do mix the song up a lot. The drum beat that plays right before the chorus is one of the ones my first musical keyboard could do. I think I used it on (checks stats) 56 thousand songs I wrote for my band in college. :/
The video is great and the Spill Canvas seem like pretty cool guys.
[youtube][/youtube]
I like this one as it's just sooooo catchy and they do mix the song up a lot. The drum beat that plays right before the chorus is one of the ones my first musical keyboard could do. I think I used it on (checks stats) 56 thousand songs I wrote for my band in college. :/
The video is great and the Spill Canvas seem like pretty cool guys.
[youtube][/youtube]
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#77 Come Sail Away - Styx
Billy, you forgot to link to this one on your countdown so far.
[youtube][/youtube]
Billy, you forgot to link to this one on your countdown so far.
[youtube][/youtube]
Last edited by Ice Cream Jonsey on Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#76 Medicated - National Product
I wish these guys got bigger, they would have been good ambassadors of pop punk to the rest of the world. They at least sound like adults. I think they just made the CD that this song was on ("Luna," I believe) and then never made another album. So that sucks.
As someone who would spend his entire life medicated if he could get away with it, I have a great deal of sympathy for those that choose the same. Enjoy.
[youtube][/youtube]
I wish these guys got bigger, they would have been good ambassadors of pop punk to the rest of the world. They at least sound like adults. I think they just made the CD that this song was on ("Luna," I believe) and then never made another album. So that sucks.
As someone who would spend his entire life medicated if he could get away with it, I have a great deal of sympathy for those that choose the same. Enjoy.
[youtube][/youtube]
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I have at least two Elton John songs on my list, but this is not one of them. I think his greatest hits album is required owning for all dads.Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#79 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
This is another song that doesn't sound like any other song I've ever heard before. I am not the world's biggest Elton John fan or anything, but goddamn that's one indisputably talented so-and-so. (Our Dad did get one of his Greatest Hits when we first got a CD player. I remember having it on when my brother and I played Bump n' Jump on the Intellivision during winter while eating Hanover sourdough pretzels from the box. Er, not that this song is on that CD. It is not.)
I think Pinback said that the bass was really complicated for this, and I would like to believe that I remembered it correctly.
My understanding of what the song is about would be that it's about when Elton (or his lyricst, Bernie Taupin or both) started to become famous, perhaps? And their take on what "upper class" folk were like. Which we can agree here are all disgusting, so we've got that in common? Here's the song.
When my wife and I moved in together she said "welllll now that we're living together I guess we should combine our CD collections." She owned roughly a dozen CDs and I think all of them were Bette Midler except for one, Elton John's Greatest Hits. I had like 200 CDs at the time, none of them from Elton John or Bette Midler. I think I let her mix the Elton John one in with mine and told her to put the Bette Midler ones in another room. Baby steps.
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#75 Out of Touch - Hall & Oates
This came out on their album "Big Bam Boom" which was juuuust about the end for them being however you want to classify them in the world of popular music. I think it still holds up very well.
One thing I like about Out of Touch is thinking about what it would be like to play the instrumental version of what Daryl is singing. He's hitting a lot of different notes and articulating things in a way where each line sounds different than the others. Nobody really sings like that in the rest of the music I listen to. If a person was going to memorize the lyrics to a typical H&O song and have it sound right, you had to commit to it.
[youtube][/youtube]
This came out on their album "Big Bam Boom" which was juuuust about the end for them being however you want to classify them in the world of popular music. I think it still holds up very well.
One thing I like about Out of Touch is thinking about what it would be like to play the instrumental version of what Daryl is singing. He's hitting a lot of different notes and articulating things in a way where each line sounds different than the others. Nobody really sings like that in the rest of the music I listen to. If a person was going to memorize the lyrics to a typical H&O song and have it sound right, you had to commit to it.
[youtube][/youtube]
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I've had similar team-ups, but in each case, the girl's taste in music was much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, muchFlack wrote:I think I let her mix the Elton John one in with mine and told her to put the Bette Midler ones in another room. Baby steps.
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When my dad and I take road trips together we always have a discussion about what music we're going to listen to. It has to be something we both like. I like all of this music but he doesn't like much of mine. Over the years we've built up about a dozen albums that have become our "road trip" albums. Styx's Greatest Hits is one of them.Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#77 Come Sail Away - Styx
It's tough to listen to this song and not hear Cartman singing it, but Styx still brings it.
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I found it challenging for two reasons:Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#79 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
I think Pinback said that the bass was really complicated for this, and I would like to believe that I remembered it correctly.
1. The chord progression is endless, and almost never seems to repeat.
2. Tangentially, it's got a very strange song structure -- there's not one single hook you can call the "chorus". It feels like a bunch of choruses just strung together.
I mean, you're gonna say, "Well, obviously, the part that begins 'So goodbye, yellow brick rooaaaad, where the dogs of society howwwl...' is the chorus! It's got the name of the song right in it!"
But as that part moves ahead, you get to this part:
"...Finally decided my future lies, beyond the yellow brick ROOOOOO-OOOOHHH-OOOOOAAAD. LAAAAALAALALAALAALAAAA..."
Wait, is THAT the chorus? What the hell is going on here? And why does the key keep changing and why is every single chord ever invented in this goddamn thing??
It's a very complicated song, in my opinion.
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#73 Chocolate - The 1975
I thought I was getting in on these guys before anybody else did. Then I realized that this song was all the radio stations played for much of last year. I've heard some covers of this, but unless they are trying to do a Matthew Healy impression the song doesn't work because you can understand all the words. My take is that this song is beautiful because you cannot understand all the words. (At least on first listen.)
This band has a sort of nostalgic way of looking at the past, which makes their name fitting, though I'd be surprised if any of them were alive in the 70s at all.
[youtube][/youtube]
I thought I was getting in on these guys before anybody else did. Then I realized that this song was all the radio stations played for much of last year. I've heard some covers of this, but unless they are trying to do a Matthew Healy impression the song doesn't work because you can understand all the words. My take is that this song is beautiful because you cannot understand all the words. (At least on first listen.)
This band has a sort of nostalgic way of looking at the past, which makes their name fitting, though I'd be surprised if any of them were alive in the 70s at all.
[youtube][/youtube]
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#72 Dreamtime - Daryl Hall
This is from Daryl Hall's solo album, "Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine." There isn't a bad song on it. Maybe he didn't need John Oates???? Kidding. This is a fairly 80s-style song that nobody makes any more. I think the one flaw is using a string instrument throughout instead of a guitar but what do I know. (Besides an encyclopedic knowledge of all Hall & Oates songs.)
[youtube][/youtube]
This is from Daryl Hall's solo album, "Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine." There isn't a bad song on it. Maybe he didn't need John Oates???? Kidding. This is a fairly 80s-style song that nobody makes any more. I think the one flaw is using a string instrument throughout instead of a guitar but what do I know. (Besides an encyclopedic knowledge of all Hall & Oates songs.)
[youtube][/youtube]
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#70 Did It In a Minute - Hall & Oates
I heard this for the first time when I bought "Private Eyes" (the CD) on CD. It was apparently a radio single that I just somehow missed. That doesn't seem remotely possible. It's not like I was doing things when this was released. I guess it just didn't get play in Rochester, which all Rochester denizens can be thankful for.
It possibly epitomizes the rhyming title sub-subgenre of pop, which is important to let people know you're not screwing around, like when a girl puts her hair in a ponytail before taking your shorts off.
[youtube][/youtube]
I heard this for the first time when I bought "Private Eyes" (the CD) on CD. It was apparently a radio single that I just somehow missed. That doesn't seem remotely possible. It's not like I was doing things when this was released. I guess it just didn't get play in Rochester, which all Rochester denizens can be thankful for.
It possibly epitomizes the rhyming title sub-subgenre of pop, which is important to let people know you're not screwing around, like when a girl puts her hair in a ponytail before taking your shorts off.
[youtube][/youtube]
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That's so weird. I know I owned this album on cassette and I don't remember this song at all. Is it possible I got the only copy that was missing this song? Probably not. You can see why this H&O song wasn't as popular as some of the others, but it was still enjoyable.Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#70 Did It In a Minute - Hall & Oates
I heard this for the first time when I bought "Private Eyes" (the CD) on CD. It was apparently a radio single that I just somehow missed. That doesn't seem remotely possible. It's not like I was doing things when this was released. I guess it just didn't get play in Rochester, which all Rochester denizens can be thankful for.
It possibly epitomizes the rhyming title sub-subgenre of pop, which is important to let people know you're not screwing around, like when a girl puts her hair in a ponytail before taking your shorts off.
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Nobody remembers it! According to this, it peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. I think that was the chart we all knew as kids, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Did_It_in_a_Minute
I dunno. It's Wikipedia, so maybe I just edited that in.
/puts two fingers to nose
/disappears from room
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Did_It_in_a_Minute
I dunno. It's Wikipedia, so maybe I just edited that in.
/puts two fingers to nose
/disappears from room
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