There are some songs I like on here…
Julian Cope - Charlotte Anne
Lou Reed - Dirty Blvd.
The Replacements - I’ll Be You
Elvis Costello - Veronica
XTC - The Mayor of Simpleton
Camper Van Beethoven - Pictures of Matchstick Men
…but in the end I went with XTC in a close call. I almost voted for Julian Cope instead because how often am I gonna have that option?
I went with Love and Rockets. So Alive has that TRex/Get it On feel, and when the girl singers kick in during the outro, I just love it…
Good list and lots to choose from…
I chose the bittersweet, gorgeous “Veronica”, by Elvis Costello (with an assist by Sir Paul McCartney). Rounding out my top five from this list: “I’ll Be You”, “Charlotte Anne”, “Fascination Street”, and “Dirty Blvd.”.
Voted for Mayor of Simpleton, which was also supported by a great video with a teen-crush girl doing Diana Rigg Avengers homage.
Not on the list but would have voted higher the songs from these 1989 releases:
NIN - Head Like a Hole
Nirvana - Blew or About a Girl
Concrete Blonde - Happy Birthday
Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
It’s interesting looking at various 1989 lists. It’s like a switch is being switched between “early-alternative” (Costello, REM, etc) and “grunge”.
I’ma let you finish, but The Cult’s Ciao Baby is the best 1989 song of all time, of all time!
Oh crap, is that the year of “Sonic Temple”? I love that album, though I think their precise genre is actually “guys concerned with their own looks and wearing leather pants, who in a weird coincidence made fantastic music”.
I voted for “Love Shack” but really, could just as easily have voted for “Channel Z.” They’re both fun and subversive songs in different ways.
The Cult opened for Metallica towards the end of Metallica’s Damaged Justice tour. While I, too, really dug Sonic Temple (and Electric before it), the Cult put on a really terrible show. At the time I thought they might’ve just had an off night; but no, when Palladia broadcast a concert of theirs several years ago, they still were absolutely no great shakes live.
(Oh, and sorry for the thread hijack.)
I didn’t realize it was a cover, of a Status Quo song (1968).Amazingly timeless – sounds to me like it could have been recorded in 2014.
It could also pass for an INXS song.
I really dig ‘Stand’ as a song. It’s just so fun and goofy and the fact that REM did it is amazing.
But in the end it’s ‘Veronica’. A brilliant, brilliant pop song covering some real pain.