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

Re: Omissions

[koganbot]

Er, "Vogue"? (I can't imagine 'em having the guts to put "Groove Is In The Heart" in the top 50.)

Re: Omissions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

More clues:

- it's a rock song.
- it's a song by an act who doesn't otherwise appear in the Top 50.

Re: Omissions

[koganbot]

That kind of knocks it down to "Roam" and "Been Caught Stealing." I'll go with "Roam" (which I like, but it's an awful strange choice for a top 50). Unless you're counting "Nothing Compares 2 U" as a rock song, which makes a little more sense than "Roam" (though I prefer "Roam").

Re: Omissions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

OK, I should have said, it's a rock song in the same way "Hey Jude" or "Heroes" are, i.e. it doesn't actually 'rock' really.

Re: Omissions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh knackers, I got the date wrong. Sorry for that wild goose chase. It's 1991 anyway.

Re: Omissions

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

EMF - "Unbelievable" "Losing My Religion"!

Re: Omissions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

No actually! Though that just missed the cut-off.

Re: Omissions

[koganbot]

"Enter Sandman"? It just can't be "Mysterious Ways." It can't be. (I don't dislike "Mysterious Ways," but I can't imagine Stone thinking that their readers would let them get away with that as their top U2 track. And the top of this list is probably about pleasing readers.)

Re: Omissions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I will put you out of yr miseries, since you've hit the right band. It's U2's "One".

Re: Omissions

[koganbot]

That was in the '92 poll (though its release may well have been '91). Damn, I was hoping for "Enter Sandman" as a sign of... well, I won't say courage, but of something a little bit off the main drag of Grizzled Classics. My guess is that Sheffield had nothing to do with this list, and that if Levy did, he was holding his nose throughout. Does anything like "Cars With The Boom" or "Two Of Hears" sneak into 451-500?

Re: Omissions

[koganbot]

"Two of Hearts," that is.

Re: Omissions

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

No. Not a thing. No surprises.

When this list came out I remember thinking it was a very deliberate, strong, They-Shall-Not-Pass restatement of the 60s/70s-oriented, rock-oriented Rolling Stone brand, because as you say normally one or two surprise elements sneak in, but not here. It almost felt like a reply to Spin, Blender, the Internet, whatever - "Nope. This is still what matters. Always was. Always will be."