This is a cut and paste of what I have from my personal blog originally posted here. to access a copy with links to examples of most of the songs click on the link above to see original article.
A little of my music opinion:
The 25 Songs of the Rock Era you must hear before you Die
When magazines or television shows try to tell you the best songs of whatever era and end up with either Bob Dylan or Nirvana being at number one, they are failing you on so many levels. The level of quality is purely subjective. I have read in magazine that both Yes, Electric Light Orchestra, and Supertramp are some of the worst band ever and that some of their songs are on the worst ever list. Anyone who actually believes that also believes that bimbos interviews in Maxim are how most women really are. Take Maxim Blender, Spin, Rolling Stone and any other music magazine and throw them out the window. They are written by old loser hipsters who have no clue what is good.
See, I think that in order to have a compressive list, you have to keep it small. There can be no list of 500 best songs ever or 100 best albums ever because you can never truly be comprehensive enough to cover all genres that people may like, especially when you consider the post modern bias towards things most recent.
So what I have done is compiled a list of the songs that I think every person should hear at least once before they die. What makes this list is songs that inspire a shift in mood or help you through darker or happier times. In order to say "you must hear this song before you die" you are saying that by hearing this song, that the person who hears it will never forget it and if they hear it again, they smile, or weep, bob their head or list their heads from side to side, close their eyes, or feel their eyes open with excitement, drive fast or slow it down to a crawl. These songs are not judged on artistic achievement or value, but on what they do to you in the stomach or in the brain. These are the songs that make you cry over an ex or feel delighted that said ex got fat. These are the songs that bring you back to your wife or make you decide that its time to end it.
I will go through each song, and keep in mind these are in no particular order. Some of these are my favorite songs of all time, but mostly they are songs that have emotionally affected me and that I feel my friends and any other readers should hear before they die. And I will explain why for each song and what situations may apply to the listening of each song. I will also provide Youtube links for the tracks available. (REACH THEM BY CLICKING THE TITLES OF THE SONGS.)
Each song is from the post rock era, meaning that they are not all rock, but were all made after Chuck Berry invented what is now called Rock'n'Roll. There are some rap songs and country songs on the list. And some artists appear more than once and sometimes songs from the same album.
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1. Sad Eyes-by Robert John
This is one of those songs that almost doesn't have a translation to reality. You could imagine no situation that this song could be happy, especially if it applies to you. A guy is telling a girl that everything is over and that it is time to say goodbye. The only time I think this song can apply to you is if you just broke up with someone you really loved. I think a couple that has gone through a break up or a long time apart and gotten back together could listen to this song and feel misty-eyed together. I know that hearing the song after one of my break ups actually got me holding back tears as I drove to my parents house one day. Robert John sings it in a wonderful falsetto and the piano manages to catch the melancholy subject of the song. It might not be accessible to everyone, but you should definitely hear it before you die. Even if you don't care for the song, you get it. The anguish and despair of the subject raises questions about what inspired the song and who it may have been written for:
Sad eyes, turn the other way
I don't wanna see you cry
Sad eyes, you knew there'd come a day
When we would have to say goodbye
2. Let Me Get This Right-Ne-Yo
This may seem like a surprise entry on the list, but I assure you, if you have never heard this song, you are missing out on an experience. While many people will quickly dismiss this as a possible mandatory R&B entry by someone who really doesn't listen to that much R&B, I assure you: give the song a good listen. It you don't feel your emotions rise immediately and think about that person you love most, then you simply don't have a soul. If you are single you will just hope you can feel the emotion that the song inspires. This is the song that could get you to ask out the girl or guy that you have been too afraid to ask out. It is also that rare song for someone you have been friends with for a while but now want to take it to the next level with. It throws caution into the wind and that is something to appreciate from a song. I also like that it is the first song on a remarkably underrated album. Just for the sake of telling someone about the amazing talent that Ne-yo is, is good enough reason to put this song on this list.
3. Sweet Surrender-Bread (no link to song available. Best to sample on Amazon.
This is that song I wish I could play more often. It's the song you play when you have just realized you love someone or that they love you. This is a wedding song also to some extent. It's also a song about compromises, agreeing that each person in the relationship can give and take but that ultimately the most amazing thing is realizing when you have found the right person.
But mostly it is just a song that makes you want to fall in love. It's not even my most favorite Bread song, but it sure as hell is a moving one. You have to smile when you hear it and any song that makes you smile with such delight belongs on this list.
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps-The Beatles
George Harrison was the best Beatle. Don't believe me? Well then listen to the ****ing song! I don't know why this one has always gotten me. Maybe it is because of the sexual provocative nature injected with the way Harrison says the words when in actuality it is a song about how people have let the world turn to hell.
5. Every Little Kiss-Bruce Hornsby
Oh what a painful song. If you have ever loved someone who was a phone call away but thousands of miles away you the pain of this song. Every one of us, no matter how much time we spend with friends has those moments where they wish they could grab that person they love and watch the sun set with them, or simply go on a walk, and nothing would bring more comfort than their company. But you have to work and they have things to do. And you love them, but nothing meets that feeling like their presence. It's a beautiful song by one of the most under appreciated artists of the late 20th century.
6. Ramble Tamble-Creedence Clearwater Revival
Like nothing else CCR ever did. I usually change the station when CCR songs come on because a lot of them sound too much alike and are played too often. Ramble Tamble is a seven minute mostly instrumental song that doesn't even seem to have any real message than "**** it, let's make a long ass song where we jam to hell out." And damn does it work.
7. Swayin' To The Music-Johnny Rivers
Not many people know that this is actually a cover song because Johnny Rivers owns it outright and having heard the original, I would have to say that I am glad he made it so popular. Rivers voice was made to sing songs like this and is a lot better than his more country-ish songs about food on the table and the bad side of town and all that other stuff. It's about love, which in case people are not realizing, is what a lot of these songs have to do with:
As we dance together in the dark
There's so much love in this heart of mine
You whisper to me and I hold you tight
You're the one I thought I'd never find
Slow dancing, swaying to the music
Slow dancing, just me and my girl
Slow dancing, swaying to the music
No one else in the whole wide world
Sorry, you just can't beat cheesy **** like that. No one else in the whole wide world.
8. Gone-Kanye West, Cam'ron, and Consequence
Why many people, even so-called Kanye fans, may not even have a clue what this song sounds like is because it was never on the radio. Perhaps it was played in some clubs, but I really don't know. Any TRUE Kanye fan would love this song and should know exactly what I am talking about. What makes the song though is not the rapping, but the amazing riffs created under Jon Brion's amazing production on this track. Lyrically speaking, it is nothing special, but musically it is one of the most driving tracks I have ever heard. People who actually listen to Kanye more than is on the radio probably love this song and listen to it more than most of his other songs.
9. Running On Empty-Jackson Brown (LIVE VERSION!!!)
Emphasis on the word running. If you like running the slide guitar at the end of the song should totally do it for you. Lyrically, the song is haunting. When I listen to it, I think will think of old times. It's just one of those songs that can evoke all kinds of different memories in those who listen to it. And simply put, it is just a good song. It is definitely one of the ones on this list that crack my favorite list as well as my must list. Jackson Browne's music my itself can have its own list, but this song is definitely a standout.
10. Inside Looking Out-Grand Funk Railroad (AMAZING LIVE VERSION!!!)*Warning, it is a long song and you MUST hear the whole thing*
The single best guitar work in any song. A prison song, and a remake, but AMAZING!
11. The Rain Song-Led Zeppelin (LIVE VERSION!!!)
One of LZ's slower songs. Purely melodic and sad. Don't know what else to say. Zeppelin was perfection for a long time and this song proved it.
12. Someone Saved My Life Tonight-Elton John
I could write pages about this song and even how it ties in to my favorite moments in a Stephen King novel (Wolves of the Calla). But if you want to find the reason why you must listen to this song simply listen to the lyric "you nearly had me roped and tied" where Elton John's voice breaks just a little bit and how it ropes and ties you into the song. That lyrics pulls you in and doesn't let you go until the end where it goes like 'someone saved someone saved someone saved my life tonight.' Many people don't like Elton John. I call those people stupid. This song shows why.
13. Driving Sideways-Aimee Mann (Sadly, no good examples on-line)
The ULTIMATE sing while you drive song. As if the word 'driving' in the title wasn't a hit. A perfect illustration, lyrically speaking, of how ****ed up a relationship can make you feel. This is also a wonderful break up song sure to inspire much self-righteousness and pride for the dumpee, was he or she flies down the highway screaming the lyrics with the windows open.
14. New Slang-The Shins
I thank God that I have never see Garden State, yet still know this song as a favorite. I discovered The Shins by simply hearing their Chutes Too Narrow album as I shopped in a Barnes and Noble and I was immediately hooked. So naturally I picked up the old album as well. The somber melody of this song is instantly gratifying, and the singing is what you would come to expect from a Shins song, and by that I mean: amazing.
15. Turn That Heartbeat Over Again-Steely Dan
You just have to hear the way these guys sing this song. The harmonies are the best part, but Donald ***en hits every note PERFECTLY in this song. And the song also has a menacing quality about it. The guitar and piano have a way of telling you "yeah, *******, I just poisoned your wine." Don't know another way to put it. Just listen to the song breaks every time before the lyrics kick off again with that "dah, dah-dum, dah duuuuuuummmm." It just gives me goose bumps every time.
16. Old School-Steely Dan
Anybody who has ever left a town, a situation, an event and has ever thought "wow, the people there sure did suck, glad I moved on with my life," should LOVE this song. All you need do is listen to it, and you will know why. I don't know if "Guadalahara won't do" but I do know "I did not think the girl could be so cruel" and I am "never going back to my Old School." Damn, if this lyrics don't make me feel like they are my biography.
17. Cosmic Dancer-T.Rex (LIVE VERSION!!!!)
I can guess that most on here have never heard of T.Rex except for maybe "Bang the Gong (Get it on)." But this song is a wonderful introduction to an amazing man and his music. But the reason it is on this list is that you must hear it before you die. Why? Because it might just make you miss childhood, it might make you miss your folks, or it might just make you appreciate good music. Listen to the WHOLE thing.
18. Carefree Highway-Gordon Lightfoot
Another one of those songs where you are driving with the mountains to your left, perhaps with a friend in the car, but likely alone. The past has sucked before but life is good now.
But occasionally you get that feeling of what could have been, or how things might have turned out and you think that still you are happy just being on this planet, still breathing and still able to have your peace with the world. I first heard it when I was in Camp Pendleton and a lot of crappy things had happened to me in the years before and I was happy just to be on my own, 19 years old, not a clue in the world, but still wondering who the hell this Gordon Lightfoot was.
19. Strange Magic-Electric Light Orchestra
I have the title of this song tattooed on my back. Need I really say more? No, but I will anyway. The song speaks of a transcendent person who can make amazing impressions on you and there is no logical explanation to the way they do things. In other words: a psycho like me.
20. Vicious World-Rufus Wainwright
Thought that maybe we'd fall in love over the phone
Thought that maybe I'd really love being alone
Everybody but Heaven knows how I was wrong
These are the opening lyrics to Vicious World and there can be few words so true. Long distance love versus just deciding to remain single. And doesn't that just SUCK? What choice are you to make? Risk losing someone you might be perfect for or put up with the pain of distance? It's one of those questions there is no real answer for. A truly depressing song (and to be honest it feels all too relevant) and Rufus Wainwright sings it brilliantly.
21. If You Could Read My Mind-Gordon Lightfoot
Probably the saddest song on the face of the planet.
When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail
And you wont read that book again
Because the endings just too hard to take
Seriously, does it get any more depressing than that? Basically the song says, "I love you, but I am going to fail you miserably and you will know it." I get upset just thinking about listening to this song. Maybe I should just call this the all-depressing list.
22. Crystal-New Order
This was the song that New Order did to prove they were still relevant and it blew my mind when I was living in Japan and saw the video for it. Sadly this video also spawned The Killers as we know them today, who tried to capture the sound and idea from that video. But still, New Order blew me away when I heard this song. And seven years later, this song still blows me away.
23. Castles in the Air-Don McLean (LIVE VERSION!!!)
This is a strange song. It's a "**** you for being a bitch" song while also being a song recognizing that you wish you could forget about said bitch. It has a strange melancholy feel to it and it makes you forget that he sang such tripe as American Pie.
24. Lido Shuffle-Boz Scaggs
THE ultimate driving song. If you change the station when Lido Shuffle comes on, you should be decapitated with a spoon. No joke, the licks in this song are proof that music gets worse and worse as years go by because there are very few bands who could actually anything close to as awesome as this song.
25. Might Tell You Tonight-Scissor Sisters (don't mind the horrible video)
This song didn't get added to this list until 5:30 this morning as I was returning from an 8-mile run, thinking how nice it would be to just let myself fall deeply in love, rather than worry about fear and such things. I walked slowly back down the street as the sun was just starting to add some light to the morning and the song filled my body with calmness.
Something was getting across from the song, a patience, a sense of well-being with how life currently is, and yet still a longing for how life could be. It was the perfect song for my mood: contemplative. "I just might tell you tonight that I love you," was what I kept hearing, and what it meant to me right then was that love is possible at all times, with the ones who want it most with and in any situation. We can't predict when that strongest of the good emotions comes through, but when it does, we think about how to get on with our futures. It set my good mood for the rest of the day.
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And that is the list. I may add some honorable mentions later, but that is it.
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07-05-2008 10:45 PM