What would you say are the top ten best rock songs? Not necessarily personal favourites, but ones which you would say would be classified as such? Although many necessarily are cliche, off the top of my head and in no particular order, I'd say: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody or We are the Champions Alice Cooper - School's Out The Doors - The End The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction or Sympathy for the Devil Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild or Magic Carpet Ride Elvis Presley - Are you Lonesome Tonight or Hound dog. Black Sabbath - Iron Man The Beatles - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or A Little Help from my Friends or Yesterday I can't think of a tenth one, though. What say you?
cross off list: Alice Cooper- School's Out (or anything by Alice Cooper) Elvis Presley (NOT classic rock) Black Sabbath add to list: Eagles - Hotel California Jimmy Hendrix - Purple Haze Santana - Oye Como Va Creedence Clearwater Revival - Susie Q, I Heard it Through the Grapevine Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama Pink Floyd - ??? (I hate pink floyd but i'm sure that they would be on some sort of list of top ten rock songs of all time). Eric Clapton - Layla --- n.b. this crap is so subjective. but that's my input. it all depends where you live and who your friends are.
1. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen 2. Ace of Spades by Motorhead 3. Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd 4. Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden 5. Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd 6. November Rain by Guns N' Roses 7. Let It Be by The Beatles 8. Crosstown Traffic or Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix 9. Iron Man by Black Sabbath 10. The Trooper by Iron Maiden I know not strictly all 'rock' but seeing as what you define something as is subjective who cares? I missed off The Cure and Joy Division though! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
In no particular order: Don't Fear the Reaper, BOC Stairway, Led Zepplin All Along the Watchtower, Hendrix Friend of the Devil, Grateful Dead Pride and Joy, SRV Black Magic Woman, Santana Johny B. Goode, Chuck Berry Come Together, Beatles Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana I Love Rock and Roll, Joan Jett
Here are two great songs from every decade of rock music. (One from each of the half decades.) These are not my favorites because I wanted them to be songs that you're all familiar with. They are also not ones that are usually on Top Ten lists because most of them have already been listed. They're just some of the best songs of all time and I wanted you all to remember them. Maybe go dig them out and play them again. Enjoy. 1950s: Peggy Sue, Buddy Holly 1960s: Sunshine of Your Love, Cream 1960s: Piece of My Heart, Big Brother and the Holding Co. (Janis Joplin) 1970s: School, Supertramp 1970s: Jewish Princess, Frank Zappa 1980s: Stand or Fall, the Fixx 1980s: Jet City Woman, Queensryche 1990s: One of Us, Joan Osborne 1990s: Possession, Sarah McLachlan 2000s: Like a Stone, Audioslave
1: Unforgiven: Metallica 2: Schism: Tool 3: Staind: Silence 4: Seeing Red: Chevelle 5: Too Bad:Nickelback 6: In the End: Linkin Park 7: Trapt: Still Frame 8: Leave You Far Behind: Lunatic Calm 9: Another Brick in the Wall: Pink Floyd 10: Hot Hot Hot: The Cure.
Well okay. But the album version has a cute intro that puts it into a much better perspective. Then how about "Saint Teresa" off the same album? That is the favorite of the true Joan groupies. But not the one that made her famous. Or became the theme song of a TV show. It's one of about two hit songs ever made that uses a mandolin. The other is "Sonny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin.
Really. You people make me sick. ( Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) But how could you POSSIBLY pick Joan Osborne over, say, Ozzy Osborne (Crazy Train, with possibly the hottest guitar licks ever?) or Kurt Cobaine? Nevermind changed what rock music was. And it gets trumped by a marginal singer/songwriter? Ugh. You need to rent a copy of High Fidelity, and spend a weekend with some Joe Cocker albums. Is this a challenge? Hmmm... Of course you're not talking about anything but rock music---if we were talking hit country songs (or folk, or ANY other type of music), then it would be easy to come up with examples. Battle of Evermore, Led Zepplin. Hey Hey What can I do? (Zepplin cover by Hootie and the Blowfish) Maggie May (Rod Stewart) Losing my Religion (REM) Little Ghost (White Stripes) Some song by STYX (Boat on the River? I can't remember) Green Day on the 2000 Album (WarningPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Nickle Creek (can be excluded because they are a cross-over from country/bluegrass) So, maybe all of these songs aren't hits, but a few of them are. Maybe we should start a new threadPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
holy wars-megadeth for whom the bell tolls-metallica godzilla-BOC iron man-black sabbath carry on my wayward son-kansas riders on the storm-the doors six degrees of inner turbulence won't get fooled again-the who since i've been loving you-led zeppelin time-pink floyd
Sorry, but I tried to make it clear that I was listing those songs because they might be forgotten, not because I think they are better than others. "Blizzard of Ozz" is one of my all-time favorite albums and Randy Rhoads was a star who I still miss. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Ozzy's solo tours until Randy was dead but he always hires stellar guitarists. I'd quibble and nominate the last four of his albums with Black Sabbath as his best work, but he's become more accessible since then. My wife never liked Sabbath and her favorites are "Suicide Solution" and "Flying High Again." If I had listed my favorite songs from each of those decades the odds are that most people wouldn't remember them. Quicksilver's "The Fool" from the 1960s? Gentle Giant's "On Reflection" from the 1970s? Or if I had listed the songs which I, as a professional musician and amateur musicologist, believe to be "the best" by some hopefully acceptable criteria, I would have been wasting time and space by duplicating titles that are already posted on this thread. The only one I don't find in a quick scan is Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee," a profound piece of sociology explaining that the 1960s simply had to end because our women were forced by biology to grow up even though we'd rather still be hitchhiking and sleeping in crash pads. Frell Janis Joplin for gender-bending it and obliteraing the message--a woman who chose to opt out of the growing-up process. Dude I agree with you although I thought both Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were better at grunge and as a Californian I'm loyal to the Stone Temple Pilots. Again, I was trying to avoid arguing over which band is "best" since there are probably fifty that are equally good by any objective measure including popularity and it comes down to personal taste. I was just trying to revive some really good tunes that seem to have dropped off everyone's playlist. My intention was not to "trump" anything and I apologize for not expressing myself more clearly. Nonetheless I don't think a consensus of critics would call Joan Osborne marginal in either her singing or her songwriting. "Saint Teresa" and "Pensacola" may not put her in a league with Sandy Denny and Joni Mitchell, but they are very good songs and very good performances. I've never understood his popularity but I'm sure it's my loss. I hope my love for Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Cream, Pink Floyd, Judy Collins and a dozen other staples of Classic Rock will redeem me for that slight. Chill dude, we have no argument here. I remember "Evermore," "Maggie May," and "Religion." Apparently I'm too much of a girl-singer fan to have thought of them when I was trying. I probably have that Styx album but it doesn't spring to mind. Nickel Creek is not rock and roll in my book but who cares. But as you suggest, those two and the other songs, which I haven't heard, might not qualify as "hits." Homer and Jethro made a number of crossover songs in the 1950s, all with mandolin. They were sort of the Weird Al of country music, re-making silly versions of big hits.
i dont really think that nevermind changed rock music that much, grunge has fizzled out over the years. dont get me wrong i have more than a couple of nirvana cds but i have always had an issue with people who say that they changed the course of rock. ozzy on the other hand did although i have to say i prefer jake e.lee to randy, but hey thats just IMHO
Grunge added new motifs to music that are now part of the catalog, and that's all that counts. It was a little too narrow of a format (i.e. not enough new motifs) to spawn a subgenre. But "grungy" guitar tones and "grungy" singing have become quite common. The grungy sounding "infrared noise" of groups like Korn and a hundred others (I haven't seen anyone else coin a term for that sound and I think it's an accurate description) can be heard in songs from all over the rock spectrum. As for the vocal style, Nickelback and Creed could easily be called "grunge lite." I'm not sure what motifs Ozzy specifically added to the rock catalog, but Black Sabbath was regarded as one of the architects of heavy metal, on a short list with Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple. Americans liked to include Blue Oyster Cult, one of my favorite bands (pre "Reaper"), but I don't hear their particular influence in metal any more. As far as I'm concerned, the first heavy metal song was "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, and no one else ever calls it that.
Fraggle--- I think you took my comments too seriously. I was being a bit sarcastic, but perhaps it didn't come off that way. I hate not talking about things with PEOPLE, who understand voice inflections and such. My keayboard, as of yet, has been unable to do this. Oh well. You do have impeccable taste!
"Me and Bobby McGee" is pretty good, but my favorite Kristofferson song is "Loving Her was Easier". Absolute poetry.
"In matters of taste, there can be no dispute." F that. The list is incomplete without a Van Halen track.