The History Of Rock Part Alpha and Omega aka You Got No Secrets To Conceal

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I've still not decided (see yesterday evening's poll) about what to do with the P&J results, but it struck me reading epicharmus' suggestion of a poll of polls (the very thought!) that it's frustrating the the Village Voice didn't do singles/tracks polls before 1979. How can the opinion of Poptimists towards older music be best assessed?

Not like this, probably. What we have here is a poll based on the most recent Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs Of All Time. I ran out of patience after a mere 45 songs so this is the much-pored-over cream of the "rock canon" in its single-tracked form (not in 'singles form' - a few weighty album numbers sneak in). I removed the tracks that also appeared in Pazz and Jop polls, for comparability purposes with the gigantic spreadsheet. In practise this was only THREE songs - can anyone guess which they were (without peeking at rollingstone.com)?

Anyway I thought it would be interesting to get some poptimists perspectives on the 'rock canon' as it has been handed down to us by J Wenner Esq and friends.

You get FIFTEEN picks from an inapt 45 tracks.


[Poll #907822]


The second 'week in pop' poll will appear tomorrow, for the selfish reason that I can listen to a few of the tracks in it before then.

Comments

PTS OF ORDER

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

- I haven't heard most of these. Only ticked about 8.
- One of those ticks was for 'Satisfaction'. I don't like the original but I do like the covers by Bjork/PJ Harvey, Britney Spears and Cat Power.
- Another of those ticks was for 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'. I have not heard the original but I love Leona Lewis's cover.
- Conclusion: bollocks to the rock canon innit.

Re: PTS OF ORDER

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I ticked 24 initially and broke them down. Last to go was Good Vibrations.

Re: PTS OF ORDER

[sbp.livejournal.com]

What rock (sic) have you been living under?

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

The Beatles songs on that seem really not representative of their best tunes, imo. That probably says more about me than about the poll, mind.

I may have to spend the rest of the afternoon listening to Bob Dylan.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Beatles have got the shaft here a bit.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Agree re: Beatlesband. None of their songs above are particularly inspiring or fun w/ poss exception of Help! - tho I have 0 idea why that is there and I Feel Fine is not.

Ballads

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Why do critics rate rock ballads quite so much?

Re: Ballads

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

because their a bunch of big girl's blouses?

also "most recent poll"? is it from 1988 or summat (ha, and if it wasn't for "born to run" it could be from 1981!)?

THEY'RE, obviously

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

sorry.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

About half of the above stuff I *really* love, but the other half = botherd.

Also I don't think I ticked anything from after 1970.

Conclusion: soul canon >>>>>>>>> rock canon.

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

Becoming canon carries a terrible price though. Is Yesterday a "good song" ? I don't even think I can answer that question - all I know is I could live v happily never hearing it again.

Info For The Lex

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Derek And The Dominoes is an alias for Eric Clapton and his mates. "Layla" is eleventy-seven minutes long and is about porking George Harrison's wife. It has a great big guitar solo.

correction

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

...is about porking George Harrison's wife while his guitar gently weeps...


obv.

Re: Info For The Lex

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

And a truly terrible acoustical version which 99% of teenage boys learning to play the guitar have attempted to play at some point or another because they can't afford an electric yet.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i really can't be @r$ed to vote in this, so here is an interview with Robert Xgau from the Higher Education section of today's grauniad (there is a great pic of him in the actual paper):

http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1990758,00.html

Other songs I was sad not to tick

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Righteous Bros
Heroes (not Bowie's best by a long way* but still good)
Hound Dog
J Cash
Tutti Frutti
Ike & Tina

*Golden Years wuz robbed!

Omissions

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Is "I heard It Through The Grapevine" one of the THREE? I'd be more confident here if you'd said you had omitted duplicates from NOW! polls rather than P&J (cos of Levis-related reissues innit). Whatever, it is the most grevious omission from this alleged "rock" "canon".

Is "Wonderwall" (another) one of the THREE?

What about "London Calling"?

Re: Omissions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"London Calling" yes. The other two are from 1991 and 1990.

"Grapevine" no - I'm sure it's in the top 500, can't be botherd to check though. Also if this had been a UK poll you'd see Bo Rhap in there I guess.

Meanwhile, In Britain

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The MOJO 1997 Top Singles Of All Time

(same rules apply re. P&J era removals)

Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane - The Beatles
Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Be My Baby - The Ronetts
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
Hey Jude / Revolution - The Beatles
River Deep Mountain High - Ike & Tina Turner
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Whats Going On - Marvin Gaye
Don't Worry Baby - The Beach Boys
Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix Experience
You've Lost That Loving Feeling - The Righteous Brothers
I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley
(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding
Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
Mr Tambourine Man - The Byrds
God Save The Queen - The Sex Pistols
Family Affair - Sly And The Family Stone
A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procol Harum
Dancing In The Street - Martha And The Vandellas
Summertime Blues - Eddie Cochran
That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly And The Crickets
When Doves Cry - Prince
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Stones
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
Paperback Writer / Rain - The Beatles
You Really Got Me - The Kinks
A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops
I Can't Stand The Rain - Ann Peebles
"Heroes" - David Bowie
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag - James Brown
Imagine - John Lennon
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Runaway - Del Shannon
Space Oddity - David Bowie
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Green Onions - Booker T And The MGs
Why Do Fools Fall In Love - Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers
Purple Haze - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers
Lets Stay Together - Al Green
Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman
Stay With Me - Lorraine Ellison
I Wan't You Back - The Jackson Five

[koganbot]

The second 'week in pop' poll will appear tomorrow, for the selfish reason that I can listen to a few of the tracks in it before then.

I would call this a selfless reason, actually.

Clueless when it comes to black music

[koganbot]

I'd say that the quick impression that some of you have that this list does better by rock than soul is wrong. It's just that late '60s soul is less embarrassing (and less represented on this list) than late '60s rock. But - even bearing in mind that the Stoners knew that they had 450 spaces to make up for their cowardice at the top - I'd say that the mid '60s white* picks do better by the black tradition of group vocals than the black picks do. "Dancing In The Street" is mostly Martha, leaving "People Get Ready" as the only real black group-vocal representative and it's maybe - I don't know - the tenth best Impressions song or something? (I'm not an Impressions aficionado, and this is a gap I want to make up sometime.) The Stone top 45 is a very white rock take on black music. It applauds wailing and shouting while passing over crooning and harmonizing.

(*I'm counting the Ronettes as white, since multiracial Ronnie looked white, and most of the input into the music was by white people, though I can understand why some would disagree here.)

Anyway, as for the nonshowing of funk, hip-hop, and disco... [starts sputtering].

(But Lex, it's not the fault of the music they choose that Stone used it to reinforce certain blinkers.)

Re: Clueless when it comes to black music

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

as for the nonshowing of funk, hip-hop, and disco

I thought Rolling Stone was a rock magazine? I assume they have a readership that generally likes perhaps three genres maximum (rock, country and some AOR pop). I'm surprised that there is as much soul in the list above as there is. I'm sure a Mixmag 'greatest songs of all time' poll would be a lot different to a Modjo poll and rightly so - otherwise their readership will lose faith in them. I feel like I'm pointing out the obvious here somewhat but again, correct me if I'm wrong.

Before I even look at the poll...

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

...let me just say that for the last few years I have found even picking up RS painful - I'd much rather leaf through a straight celebrity mag than read their stale regurgitations of the canon. And now I will vote...

SHOCKTIMISTS!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I would not have predicted a Dylan lead before the poll started!

(I love it, and I ticked it, but it's not the best thing here and I'm still surprised)

Re: SHOCKTIMISTS!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I would have used the word "disgusted" in place of "surprised". I thought 'Respect' and 'Be My Baby' would have been way out in front :(

Thoughts

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

"Imagine" and "Layla" are not impossibly my two least favorite songs of all time.

Pretty good selection of Rolling Stones songs here. Not their absolute best work, but hell "Satisfaction", "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Gimme Shelter" are certainly 3 of their best singles. I'd have expected to see, say, "Paint It Black" or "Under My Thumb" or whatever, but it's not terrible (unlike, say, the Elvis selections).

I find the idea of Bob Dylan winning a poptimists poll inherently humorous on a few levels, but I did vote it for best.

Re: Thoughts

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

The lack of country music on this, except for a token Johnny Cash song that's probably not one of his ten best, is a bit disappointing to me. Come on, "Blue Eyes Cryin In The Rain" or "He Stopped Loving Her Today" or SOMETHING else could have made it.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Coming in late, here, but there's a lot of songs on this list that I like, but very few that I love. Don't know if that's to do with the specific picks, or to do with some of them feeling worn out through hearing them too often, or to do with them being bound up with so much ideological baggage (some polemical, some heritage). Whatever, it's not really my era, so most of this stuff comes to me through some kind of looking glass.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I had the same feeling - loads of ticks, then the whittling down involved not so much "God how can I get rid of [x]" as "But I know [x] is really good."

Exceptions: the Stones tracks cos I'm listening to the Stones a lot currently. "Born To Run" because Bruce always makes me smile. "Dancing In The Street" because I might actually dance to it if I heard it.

THE JUDGE IS THE DECIDER

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i am obv more pro the "goilden age of rock and roll" in porinciple than in fact -- in argt w.youngsters i always big up chuck berry and little richard but i never really actually want to listen to em

i prefer the very contrary ornery bob to his TUBEWAY ANTHEMS

i like the stones bcz they are THE PORTABLE KOGAN -- he completely turned me round on em and thinking abt them is thinking about him

"in yr life" is one of my favourite beatles songs

too much of this soul is "the only one i heard by this famous soul guy so must tick it to prove i am not a bigot": "field-day for ethan" material

i hate the beach boys

the live version of layla is the best -- it is like a YEAR LONG and goes into a whole months-worth of vietnamese drone-style wailing

""heroes"" is prob bowie's MOST SENTIMENTAL SONG hence i wub it most -- "my deathless period" is like 76-82 anyway; i honestly prefer "London Calling" (actually my fave clash song anyway) to 95% of these

simon&garfunkel i have very strong parents-loved-this associations with, but i always found bridge a bit impersonal THE JUDGE

I Can Turn The Beatles Into The Stones

[koganbot]

These are my top 15 Beatles songs:

1. She Loves You
2. You Can't Do That
3. Not A Second Time
4. Ticket To Ride
5. I Want To Hold Your Hand
6. Yes It Is
7. You Really Got A Hold On Me
8. Anna
9. Don't Bother Me
10. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
11. Money
12. Girl
13. It's Only Love
14. A Day In The Life*
15. I Am The Walrus

*But this is not as good as Deep Purple's "Hush" or Jimi Hendrix's version of "Hey Joe." It might not be as good as Lisette Melendez's "A Day In My Life (Without You)", either. (Also, listen to Brie Larson.)