So what are we supposed to take away from this? That Rolling Stone is with “isn’t it”, and what’s it seems strange and scary to them? Hell, I’ve known that my entire adult life.
Alright, in the spirit of revisionist history, you’re the editor in chief of Rolling Stone magazine. Besides “sell it all and establish a libertarian rock’n’roll commune in the South Pacific,” what do you do? What if the shareholders come back and tell you “no, five of those songs have got to stay”?
In short: revise the Rolling Stone Top 20. Keep at least five songs from the list and place them where you think they belong; fill out the rest with your picks.
- Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
- Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
- Paranoid Android - Radiohead
- Black - Pearl Jam
- Respect - Aretha Franklin
- Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
- Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
- Hey Jude - The Beatles (first release on Apple - told the label to stick it, added in “nah nah nah,” and made a ton of money proving 3 minutes was a glass wall)
- Rocket - Smashing Pumpkins
- Basket Case - Green Day (performed CPR on the corpse of punk+pop; fans may prefer other tracks, but this was the breakout hit)
- Won’t Get Fooled Again - The Who
- London Calling - The Clash
- Wave of Mutilation - The Pixies (die hards can pick a better tune; this is just my favorite of theirs)
- Head Like a Hole - Nine Inch Nails (for its novelty at the time, I rate it “greater” than many arguably better tracks from Downward Spiral)
- Crossroads - Eric Clapton
- Space Oddity - David Bowie
- Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
- When Doves Cry - Prince
- Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
- Like a Prayer - Madonna (just edged out “Desire” or “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2).
Isn’t this one of the reasons why Rolling Stone made the 6’13" “Like a Rolling Stone,” released three years earlier, their number one?
- “Good Vibrations,” The Beach Boys
- “Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson
- “Yesterday,” The Beatles
- “London Calling,” The Clash
- “Who Are You,” The Who
- “Back in Black,” AC/DC
- “Stayin’ Alive,” The Bee Gees
- “Every Breath You Take,” The Police
- “Insane in the Brain,” Cypress Hill
- “Pride,” U2
- “Corduroy,” Pearl Jam
- “Black Dog,” Led Zeppelin
- “Fortunate Son,” CCR
- “Respect,” Aretha Franklin
- “Everything is Everything,” Lauryn Hill
- “Cordelia,” The Tragically Hip
- “Cecilia,” Simon and Garfunkel
- “Born in the U.S.A.,” Bruce Springsteen
- “Gimme Shelter,” The Rolling Stones
- “Once in a Lifetime,” The Talking Heads
A somewhat different tack, from National Public Radio:
The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century
In alaphabetical order so as not to give a #1 slot to anyone, and including all genres. (Granted, “Rapper’s Delight” is as far as it goes down the hip-hop trail, but for NPR it’s a start.) Includes links to RealAudio commentaries on all 100 pieces; it’s a pretty interesting series.
…thus making Hey Jude the abolutely most overrated song, ever.
Not really much. It’s just a thread serving like bookmark sandwiched in between a whole host of Star Wars & LOTR threads.
Missing In Action:
What?!? Where the Hell is…
“Money”, “Time” - Pink Floyd
“Sultans of Swing”, “Brothers In Arms”, “Money For Nothing” - Dire Straits
“One” - Metallica
Just one damn song from Garbage
Garbage is barely even remembered now outside their fanbase. Why would they deserve a spot on the list?
Eminem and Dr. Dre saved hip-hop and pop music from becoming like classical music: inoffensive dinosaurs. Not a single song on the list from either of them?
So now hip-hop and pop music are offensive dinosaurs? 
Out of 500, one of these songs: “Special”, “Only Happy When It Rains”, “Stupid Girl”, “I think I’m Paranoid” (well engineered songs) would have been in there if they didn’t have such a crappy distribution of people to sample with, let alone missing 2 big Pink Floyd songs and totally missing Dire Straits all together.
There are too many ridiculous choices on that list for me to bother commenting on any of them. However, my list would definitely have started with Frank Zappa’s “Watermelon in Easter Hay,” followed by the Beatles’ “Across the Universe.” And I would have included some Devo, and some spastic Japanese stuff like the Ruins’ exquisite Praha in Spring and “Cucumber Surrender” by eX-Girl, surely one of the greatest bands of the past decade.
My list would be heavy on the Beatles, perhaps more so than the RS one. But hey, it would be heavy on every band I like. Attempts to water these lists down so they’re “objective” are always half-assed and pathetic.
Of course, arguing about these lists is as useful as… well, arguing on the internet ( 
), but it’s still damned fun!
The two things that struck me most about this list (I bought the magazine to help me through a 3 hour layover today) was:
- How they completely ignored funk (had plenty of rap, hip-hop, country (even Dolly Parton made the list!) and even disco, but no (or very, very little) funk).
- Elton John’s first listing was at #136. :rolleyes:
And yes: it’s overplayed and overhyped and everybody gets sick of it after the 500th hearing, but “Stairway to Heaven” really is a top-20 song. To see it behind “Let It Be”, “Be My Baby” and “God Only Knows” is… silly.
And SOMEBODY obviously turned in a list comprised fully of Al Green songs… how else to explain the fact that he has as many listed as Marvin Gaye? And, speaking of Marvin, where’s “Mercy, Mercy, Me”?
They’re still around – next album slated for release in April of next year.
They asked the respondents to list their 50 favorite songs of all time… which is a bit different from having them list what they think are the greatest songs of all time.
I really don’t have a problem with the top-10, though I would remove “Imagine” and “Hey Jude” and replace them with “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Stairway to Heaven” (or “Jailhouse Rock”) respectively.
I’ll give the first five songs to the songs on the list, but afterwards…
6. I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones
7. Respectable - Rolling Stones
8. Cop Killer - Body Count
9. Bad Guy Reaction - Rezillos
10. Living For The Depression - Flipper
11. Sex Beat - Gun Club
12. Tunnel of Love - Wanda Jackson
13. Within You Without You - Beatles
14. God Of Thunder - Kiss
15. One Reporter’s Opinion - The Minutemen
16. Dissipate - Flop
18. Kiss of Death - Split Lip Rayfield
19. Ace of Spades - Motorhead
20. Ode To Joy - Beethoven
but only because I’m it’s 3:10 am and I’ve been drinking.
Never said they were gone, but for a lot of people, they are forgotten. I’ll be looking forward to the new album.