This list is getting so big that I've stopped counting. I don't want to number them past the top ten, but they're arranged with the ones I like better at the top, and I've sacrificed some ordering precision by mostly bunching songs by the same artist. The year is the recording date when I'm sure of it, otherwise the release date. I'm in the process of converting titles into YouTube video links.
Also check out my Favorite Albums plus Hawkwind.
the top ten
1. Big Blood - Song For Baltimore (2007)
I'm not linking to my own video because this is a challenging song and you have to work up to it. To my ear, this discordant screeching is so intensely beautiful that listening to one second can make me feel alive for hours. It's the happiest song of all time, the most spiritual, and the heaviest vocal performance. It feels like looking at the sun.
2. Orphans & Vandals - Argyle Square (2009)
This is about a guy's life in the city and how he wants his lover to move there. The best art takes something seemingly ordinary, and represents it in such a way that it seems unspeakably wonderful.
3. Joanna Newsom - En Gallop (2004)
At first I thought this was all about Newsom's unearthly vocal performance, but after listening to covers, I think it's also great songwriting. See below for the uncanny similarities with Wall Of Voodoo's "Back in Flesh".
Much more Hawkwind at the bottom of the album page. The vocals are over at 2:15 and the buildup and jam that follow have never been matched. Wait for the blastoff at 3:26.
5. Big Blood - Water (2011)
Colleen Kinsella shows off her impossible voice for 12 minutes. David Lynch could not make a movie good enough for this.
6. Orphans & Vandals - Terra Firma (2009)
The most intense song I've ever heard, after I realized it's about a suicide.
7. Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy (live 1978)
Their most epic song, with five different versions released on different albums, but the one on
Some Enchanted Evening is on another level.
A perfect song, with the best ever opening line, "I want to hold the hand inside you."
9. Beat Happening - Indian Summer (1988)
Sometimes a simple song sounds better than a complex song ever could. Beat Happening were masters at stripping it down, and this is their timeless classic.
10. The Kinks - Strangers (1970)
My favorite Kinks song is by Dave Davies. Ray is the brains of the Kinks but Dave is the heart.
more from my favorite band
Big Blood - The Rise of Quinnisa Rose (2007)
Big Blood are a married couple from Portland Maine. They compose and record songs at home, very quickly, with no attempt to make money. Since 2006 they have put out close to 200 songs, of which about 40 sound better to me than almost anything.
Big Blood - Oh Country (2008)
Their prettiest song. And check out this
live video.
Big Blood - Destin Rain (2010)
Is this weird song even better than I think it is?
Big Blood - Adversaries and Enemies (2007)
From the same album as Song For Baltimore, with the same magic in the vocals. (Even I don't like the intro.)
Big Blood - Indang Pariaman (2007)
After they were my favorite band, I went through all their stuff to see if I missed anything good, and I still missed this bizarre and haunting cover of an Asian folk song.
Big Blood - The Grove Is Hotter Than An Ocean's Oven (2007)
A vocal tour de force about ecological disaster.
Big Blood - No Gravity Blues (2007)
The simpler the song, the higher the stakes. Check out the note at 1:44.
Big Blood - Creepin' Crazy Time (2010)
Great psych rock, and probably their most accessible song for younger people.
Fire on Fire - Squeeze Box (2008)
Fire on Fire was a side project with both members of Big Blood and some other people. I love the sound of the choruses. It's like doom chamber rock.
Big Blood - The Queen and Her Court (2012)
Here they show what they can do with conventional song structure.
Big Blood - Go See Boats (2015)
The lyrics are based on something their kid said at the ocean. Editing a child's chatter into poetry is a good metaphor for the whole creative process.
Big Blood - Run (2011)
Their first song to hit 10,000 on YouTube.
Big Blood - Away Pt III (2014)
Most of their music is shared on the
Free Music Archive, but this is from one of the five EP's and albums that are not: 'Lectric 'Lashes (2008), Dead Songs (2010), Micah Blue Smaldone split (2012), Radio Valkyrie (2013), and Unlikely Mothers (2014).
Windhand - Orchard (2013)
This doom metal band is now my number two musical obsession.
My favorite happy love song. Stamey has put different versions on three albums, and the best is the one on Fireworks.
Band of Horses - The Funeral (2006)
No other sad song rocks this hard. Following interpretations on songmeanings.com, I think it's about heroin addiction.
Sigur Rós - Svefn-g-englar (Sleepwalkers) (1999)
Easily my favorite foreign language song.
Orphans & Vandals - Metropes (2009)
Thematically this is like an old Kinks song that cynically mocks the elite, but it's darker and much more powerful.
This makes Bohemian Rhapsody sound like children's music.
My favorite emo song and it's not even close.
"How strange it is to be anything at all."
Neutral Milk Hotel - Little Birds (1998)
Live version, for years available only as a bootleg. I'm not sure whether the 2011 box set contains this or another version.
Camper Van Beethoven - June (1989)
I love it when all the vocals are in the first half and the second half is a crazy jam.
Violin (by Don Lax) and electric guitar (by Greg Lisher) have never sounded so good together.
Their happiest song.
Camper Van Beethoven - Surprise Truck (1986)
No other song rocks this hard while still being fun.
Camper Van Beethoven - Klondike (?)
R.E.M. - Belong (1991)
Are all my favorite R.E.M. songs by Mike Mills?
Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks (1971)
The section starting at 2:25 is almost on the level of Song For Baltimore.
Led Zeppelin - The Battle of Evermore (1971)
Why is it, when Led Zeppelin took rock to the next level, everyone imitated them, but when they took folk to the next level, no one imitated them?
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (1974)
Jimmy Page was the best riff composer of all time.
Esben and the Witch - No Dog (live 2014)
Awesome live video!
The full-length version rocks like nothing else in the 90's.
This exceptional mainstream rock song somehow escaped being in commercials and soundtracks.
I've probably heard it a thousand times and it still sounds as good as ever.
One of the catchiest songs ever.
A song about a car, with epic guitar.
Galaxie 500 - Flowers (1988)
This is what reverb was invented for.
Their greatest song combines the musical discipline of their second album with the sadness and off-the-rails beauty of their third.
His greatest lyrics, including the best rhyme in English: "I lost my St Christopher now that I've kissed her." I follow Bones Howe's interpretation, that Matilda represents all the women who catalyzed the failures of homeless men.
(instrumentals and jams)
Nothing else this trippy rocks this hard.
Yo La Tengo - Spec Bebop (1997)
I love Yo La Tengo, but if they could play like this, why didn't they play like this all the time?
Multilayered and peaceful, with epic oboe.
The Voyager space probes recorded electromagnetic signals from around the solar system, and back on Earth these were converted into sound. Collages of these sounds were released as NASA Voyager Space Sounds, separated into ten 30 minute tracks from different places, and also as Symphonies of the Planets, with different planets blended into five 30 minute CD's. All the prettiest and spookiest stuff, mostly from the rings of Uranus, is on CD 1.
Electric Moon - anything (2010-present)
Well, they have a few early tracks ruined by vocals, but in general Electric Moon can improvise better space rock than anyone else can play. Here's an hour-long
video of one of their live albums.
Believe it or not, I love Bob Dylan's voice. Somehow he also did one of my favorite instrumentals. From the soundtrack to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Mono is my favorite post-rock band. A bunch of their songs are almost this good.
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Gathering Storm (2000)
GYBE took the slow buildup to a whole new level. My other favorites include East Hastings and Moya.
Brilliant lo-fi electronica band. This is their prettiest song.
Beautiful long jam with a perfect beat. It took 40 years for someone to improve on The Velvet Underground's "What Goes On".
The Velvet Underground - What Goes On (1969 live)
The first part with vocals is nothing special, but the jam for the last six minutes is unprecedented and all-important in the history of my favorite music.
The best example of the motorik beat, and my favorite background song.
So far, my favorite track that is unquestionably jazz.
Moon Hooch - Bari 3 (2014)
Slowly building up a jazz section here...
Hash Jar Tempo - Untitled 1 (1997)
From the album Well Oiled. This is perfect mellow space rock, and ahead of its time.
Retro Remix Revue - Gerudo Valley (2009)
The best version of my favorite video game track, composed by Koji Kondo for Zelda Ocarina of Time.
Yes - Würm (1970)
The best jam in prog rock, technically not a song but the last section of Starship Trooper.
Joanna Newsom - Sadie (2004)
"And all that we built, and all that we breathed, and all that we spilt, or pulled up like weeds,
is piled up in back; and it burns irrevocably."
It almost never happens that a great lyricist is also a great singer. This breakup song is an example of both.
I love the verse about the birds.
Bob Dylan - Girl From The North Country (1963)
The final harmonica solo is the heaviest thing Bob Dylan has ever done, and draws emotion from the lyrics.
Corndolly - Come Out (1992?)
Happy lesbian love song by a forgotten Illinois band.
Only Song For Baltimore is more spiritual.
Best song ever about sex. "Sting me, queen me, queen sting dream me, dream queen sting me, sting queen!"
One of my favorite songs to dance to.
Beat Happening - Tiger Trap (1992)
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
You probably have to go back to "Like a Rolling Stone" for a song that's both this good and this influential. Not only did it define the sound of 90's rock, the video defined the look of the 90's.
Nirvana - untitled (1993)
Eventually titled "Sappy", it was untitled in its original release (on the No Alternative compilation) and there was no title consistently attached to it from the beginning. Great metaphysical song.
Nirvana's famous live version is based on Mark Lanegan's version, with Cobain and Novoselic on guitar and bass. Lanegan is covering a Leadbelly version of an old folk song called In The Pines.
If I started a band, I would try to sound like the second half of this song all the time.
"Saw someone today who looked exactly like you, it's funny how the years go by." It's about meeting your ex, and missing what you had with the person they used to be.
Red House Painters - Katy Song (1993)
Your Friend - Tame One (2014)
Taryn Miller is a promising singer-songwriter with great backing on this track by other Lawrence Kansas musicians.
I'm a sucker for a repeating vocal crescendo, and this is a weird one.
Bone Cellar - Dryrot (1994)
Great obscure Seattle band. David Gilmour can't touch this guitar solo.
The Flaming Lips edge out Neutral Milk Hotel in the category of best band worst name.
I like the KEXP live version best, and made the video with a camera toss image I found on the internet years ago.
(songs with place names in titles)
Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City (1982)
This song is so sad that it took me years to understand it.
The Velvet Underground - Heroin (1967)
It's shocking how much this song still rocks. The studio version and the 1969 live version are equally good.
The Velvet Underground - Candy Says (1968)
Lou Reed used to say this was the best song he ever wrote, and I agree. Sung by Doug Yule.
This song has never been released or even bootlegged -- you can only hear it by watching the movie
Cutter's Way, and only the first verse plays clearly. I bought the dvd just so I could extract it for the video.
The second best song title ever, after Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun".
His best lyrics and his prettiest backing music.
Violent Femmes - Never Tell (1984)
More like a collection of scraps than a song, but every scrap is intense and inspired. This is the Violent Femmes' masterpiece.
Probably inspired by Bob Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown.
I love Gordon Lightfoot!
The superior Gord's Gold version of this song was cut from the CD and to this day has not been offered for sale in digital form. But it has been ripped from vinyl and it's on YouTube now.
I love the structure of this song: a simple 18 note vocal melody repeated 16 times with changing lyrics.
The most mature breakup song I've ever heard.
(lyrics)
Dire Straits - Skateaway (1980)
Red Fang - Wires (2011)
The best rock video I've ever seen.
Weird song about the ancient conflict between sedentary and nomadic culture.
Neil Diamond - Soolaimon (1970)
The catchiest song ever recorded.
The Beatles - Rain (2003)
My favorite Beatles song and Ringo's best drumming. I write more about the Beatles
here.
(radio hits)
A Flock of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song (1982)
The guitar work is beautiful and years ahead of its time, and I love the simple structure.
(video)
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (1980/1984)
Not a big fan of their sound, but these are great lyrics. I like the Stop Making Sense live version best.
(video)
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (1978)
I love soft hits of the 70's and very early 80's.
(video)
Journey - Don't Stop Believing (1981)
They should sing this at sports events instead of the national anthem, because it's the best song to show off a great voice.
Queen - We Will Rock You (1977)
Everybody loves this because it's primal and timeless.
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (1981)
If you weren't there, you can't imagine how dark and spooky this song sounded when it first came out. Now that I think about it, so did Hotel California.
Cheap Trick - Surrender (1978)
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill (1977)
It's in 7/4!
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight (1980)
Not only the greatest drum break ever, but the lyrics were improvised!
The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed (1981)
One of those songs that you don't appreciate until you've heard it hundreds of times and you notice it keeps sounding better.
The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends (1990)
(video)
Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire (1982)
The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang (1982)
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)
Here's a
video of a rare alternate version with violin.
Donna Summer - I Feel Love (1977)
Growing up in the 70's I took disco for granted, but looking back, it was the last interesting thing to happen in pop music. No hit song has ever been this hypnotic.
Culture Club - Karma Chameleon (1983)
Possibly the best vocal melody of the 80's.
Blondie - Heart of Glass (1978)
Blondie - Dreaming (1979)
Featuring an over-the-top drum performance by Clem Burke.
Simon and Garfunkel - The Boxer (1969)
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long (1980)
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl (1967)
It's on every list!
Scorpions - Still Loving You (1984)
My favorite hair metal song.
Don Henley - Boys of Summer (1984)
I know he's a bad person and the lyrics are dumb, but I love the way it sounds.
Neil Young - Helpless (1970)
(video)
Neil Young - The Needle and the Damage Done (1972)
A perfect song, and I love the unexpected quick ending.
Neil Young - Powderfinger (1979)
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush (1970)
The Old 97's - Valentine (1999)
Loudon Wainwright - New Paint (1972)
(video)
Uncle Tupelo - Black Eye (1992)
(video)
Johnny Cash - Sunday Morning Coming Down (1970)
The best version of Kris Kristofferson's best song.
(video)
Dead Kennedys - Kill The Poor (1980)
The best classic punk song, and my favorite band name.
(video)
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized (1983)
Second best classic punk song.
Flying Burrito Brothers - Sin City (1969)
The original alt-country band.
(video)
U2 - Bad (1985)
The live version from
Wide Awake in America.
(video)
The Black Angels - Young Men Dead (2006)
(video)
Hawkwind - Infinity (1978)
"I met her in a forest glade, where starbeams grew like trees."
(video)
Hawkwind - High Rise (1978)
I can only find one
video of the best version and it cuts off early.
Hawkwind - Motorway City (1980)
The live version on
Zones.
(video)
Hawkwind - Running Through The Back Brain (1980)
With vocals by Michael Moorcock and drums by Ginger Baker, this is space jazz! One of the first Hawkwind songs I heard, and the one that took me the longest to get.
(video)
Hawkwind - Lord of Light (1972)
The
Space Ritual live version.
(video)
Cracker - I Want Everything (1993)
(video)
Cracker - I'm So Glad She Ain't Never Coming Back (2006)
(video)
Wall Of Voodoo - Lost Weekend (1982)
I was heavily into Wall of Voodoo in the 80's. Later I found out they took most of their sound from the song "Machines" by Lothar and the Hand People.
(video)
Wall Of Voodoo - Back In Flesh (1981)
Joanna Newsom's "En Gallop" is sort of a cover of this. They have the same theme: the conflict between the world of spirit and the money economy. They use the same uncommon meaning of the word "flesh", for how your body chains you to an unpleasant material world. And the riff near the beginning of "En Gallop" is almost the same riff that starts at 2:09 in this
video.
Wall Of Voodoo - Ring of Fire (1980)
Mind blowing cover of the Johnny Cash song.
(video)
The Muffs - Lucky Guy (1993)
I was obsessed with the Muffs in the mid 90's. This is the only song that made me dance the first time I heard it.
(video)
The Muffs - Ethyl My Love (1995)
Kim Shattuck is the best screamer ever.
(video)
Ramones - Oh Oh I Love Her So (1977)
From their brilliant second album,
Leave Home.
(video)
Ramones - Questioningly (1978)
This would make an awesome country song.
(video)
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop (1976)
I didn't fully appreciate this song until I heard Yo La Tengo's instrumental version.
Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (1975)
Melanie - Some Say (1971)
(video)
Donovan - Atlantis (1968)
The first half is an embarrassing spoken word bit, and the second half, a fourteen syllable repeating chorus, is one of the best things ever.
(video)
Le Tigre - The The Empty (1999)
(video)
Ween - Baby Bitch (1994)
(video)
S.C.U.M. - Whitechapel (2011)
(video)
Toy - Dead & Gone (2012)
A decent new wave pop song followed by an incredible drone jam.
(video)
Loreena McKennitt - Greensleeves (1991)
Recorded accidentally in one take!
King Crimson - Indiscipline (1981)
(video)
Teenage Fanclub - Alcoholiday (1991)
Antenna - Snakes (1991)
10,000 Maniacs - My Mother The War (1985)
There are hard rock bands that have made great soft and pretty songs, but how often does a soft rock band make a great noisy song? As far as I know, this is the only one.
(video)
The Shins - New Slang (2001)
Genesis - Supper's Ready (1972)
The peak of 70's prog rock, taking up almost a whole side of the album
Foxtrot.
Pink Floyd - Echoes (1971)
Another whole-album-side song, from Pink Floyd's greatest album,
Meddle.
Rush - Cygnus X-1 (part one) (1977)
I was obsessed with Rush around 1983. Scroll down for more Rush on the guitar solos list.
Devo - Gut Feeling (1978)
Great slow buildup!
(video)
Have A Nice Life - Earthmover (2008)
Decent vocals followed by a nice post-rock jam.
(video)
Mat Kearney - All I Need (2006)
(video)
Sonic Youth - Schizophrenia (1987)
Chris Bell - I Am the Cosmos (1975?)
To my knowledge, the only song with this brilliant symmetrical structure: first verse, different verse, chorus, solo, chorus, different verse, first verse.
Bob Geldof - I Don't Like Mondays (1981)
The live version from
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.
(video)
Timbuk 3 - Just Another Movie (1986)
Forgotten political song about how people are tricked into believing in the system that feeds on them.
(video)
Top Ten Guitar Solos
1. Alex Lifeson, Rush - No One At The Bridge
The perfect guitar solo: short, carefully composed, and at the end of the song.
(video)
2. Mark Knopfler, Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love
Again at the end of the song, but with a long seductive buildup.
(video)
3. Dave Nothing, Bone Cellar - Dry Rot
Another beautiful long jam at the end of the song.
4. Buck Dharma, Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy (live 1978)
Like the solo in Stairway To Heaven, this rises from the main song to the thundering finish, but it's longer and better.
5. Huw Lloyd-Langton, Hawkwind - The Island
The entire song is a well-crafted two-part guitar solo, combining the solos in "The 5th Second of Forever" and "Dust of Time".
6. Brian May, Queen - We Will Rock You
One more: short, tight, end of song.
7. Alex Lifeson, Rush - Bacchus Plateau
From the same album side as "No One At The Bridge", just as pretty but not as tight.
8. Steve Hackett, Genesis - After The Ordeal
So quiet that you might not notice it's the most beautiful melody in all of prog rock.
9. Elliott Randall, Steely Dan - Reelin' in the Years
Radical because it anchors the song, filling every gap where there isn't singing.
10. Don Felder and Joe Walsh, The Eagles - Hotel California
It's on every list!
11. Marc Moreland, Wall of Voodoo - Ring of Fire
Starts with a variation on the "Our Man Flint" theme and progresses into epic distortion. Incidentally, the Concrete Blonde song "Joey" was written about Moreland.