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, and my girlfriend's top 100.
(the top ten plus)
1. Big Blood - Song For Baltimore (2007)
To most people this sounds terrible, but to my ear it's the happiest and most spiritual thing ever, so beautiful that listening to a few seconds can make me feel alive for hours. Instead of crowding their other songs here, I've spun them off to a separate
Big Blood page.
1b. Big Blood - The Rise of Quinnisa Rose (2007)
They're my favorite band by such a wide margin that I like a song by their number two singer-songwriter better than anything by anyone else.
I write all about Hawkwind
here. These are probably the worst lyrics on this whole page, but they're over quickly and then there's a buildup and jam that have never been matched. Wait for the blastoff at 3:26.
3a. Orphans & Vandals - Argyle Square (2009)
About a guy's life in the city and how he wants his lover to move there. Like Monet's wheatstacks, this song takes something ordinary and makes it seem unspeakably wonderful.
3b. Orphans & Vandals - Terra Firma (2009)
Like Song For Baltimore, an epic and intense song about the light beyond the veil, but this is about a suicide.
4. Joanna Newsom - En Gallop (2004)
At first I thought this was all about Newsom's unearthly singing, but after hearing covers I think it's also great songwriting. Like many of my favorites it's about the feeling of a better world through the cracks of this one. "Palaces and storm clouds, and the rough straggly sage and the smoke, and the way it will all come together, in quietness and in time."
5a. R.E.M. - Belong (1991)
Interpretations of this song are all over the map. I think the sea is a metaphor for the oneness of all life, to which we will all eventually return, and while modern society cuts us off from that, we can find a similar belonging with people we love. So basically Song For Baltimore but not quite as happy.
Again, this is about a better way of being that we lose touch with in this world, and the dream of getting it back. On lyrics sites the line is "Whistle as the wind blows
with me", which is wrong. I used to think it was "through the leaves" but now I think it's "to the
lee".
6a. 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.
Along with Big Blood's Time Stands Still, this is the song I want played at my funeral.
Start to finish, the best musical performance ever. I don't have it ranked higher because for me there's no spiritual dimension.
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?
8a. Camper Van Beethoven - June (1989)
This is like the key to my musical taste. I love the whole vibe, and also how all the vocals are in the first half and the second half is a crazy jam. The violin is by Don Lax. On the album this song happens to bleed into the next one:
I don't like the lyrics as much as I used to, but the music is incredible. Violin and electric guitar have never sounded so good together.
Normally I don't even like emo, but you never know where lightning will strike. Bear the weight of yourselves lightly and keep your eyes on the road.
10. The Gathering Field - Lost In America (1996)
Another 1996 song that blows away its mediocre genre, in this case truck-commercial mainstream rock.
The spoken word bit is embarrassing but this is their most creative and intense song. It almost never happens that musicians with great technical skill are able to really let go.
I've probably heard it a thousand times and it still sounds as good as ever. Notice how the lead-in to the guitar solo is in a weird time signature to put you off balance.
Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy (live 1978)
Over the years they've released five different versions, 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."
Band of Horses - The Funeral (2006)
Nothing else this sad rocks this hard. Following interpretations on songmeanings.com, I think it's about heroin addiction.
The Kinks - Strangers (1970)
By Dave Davies. Ray is the brains of the Kinks but Dave is the heart.
The most beautiful crescendo outside of Big Blood and Hawkwind.
Windhand - Orchard (2013)
I want to like doom metal, but it rarely has such good vocals and songwriting.
This makes Bohemian Rhapsody sound like children's music.
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. How can people compare this to the Velvet Underground without noticing how much better it is?
Sigur Rós - Svefn-g-englar (Sleepwalkers) (1999)
My favorite foreign language song, unless you count
this.
These are probably their best lyrics. "September's coming soon, I'm pining for the moon, and what if there were two, side by side in orbit around the fairest sun?"
The final song on Green, and I think their next album, Out Of Time, was just exploring the territory opened up by this song.
This has even happier music and sadder lyrics than "Tom Dooley". The narrator is unreliable: his hometown is the depressing place and it's his life that's being wasted.
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (1974)
Jimmy Page was the best riff composer of all time.
Led Zeppelin - Rock And Roll (1971)
I think this is Robert Plant's best vocal performance.
Cocteau Twins - Pandora (1984)
Esben and the Witch - No Dog (live 2014)
This awesome live video has the best sounding version of the song.
Stamey has put different versions on three albums, and the best is the one on Fireworks.
Camper Van Beethoven - Lulu Land (1986)
Their best written song was written by David Lowery's otherwise unknown roommate, Paul McKinney. "In Lulu Land the walls are soft and dark, in Lulu Land your secret heart is in command, in Lulu Land."
Their happiest song.
Camper Van Beethoven - Surprise Truck (1986)
Nothing else this fun rocks this hard.
Second only to Surprise Truck in being noisy and fun.
It's hard to say why I like this so much better than their more popular and ambitious songs. Maybe because it's so authentically happy.
"How strange it is to be anything at all." This song was once my number one, but I lost interest in Neutral Milk Hotel when I discovered Big Blood.
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.
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)
Yo La Tengo - Spec Bebop (1997)
The best stoner track ever. 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. More than one person has told me this is their favorite Hawkwind song.
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.
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.
My favorite post-rock band is almost post-human. If you put all music on a primitive-civilized spectrum, coyote packs are at one end and the other end is Mono.
Rush - YYZ (1981)
If this had soul, it would crush any jazz. Since I have it ranked higher than any jazz, I guess I don't care that much about soul.
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.
Nothing else this trippy rocks this hard.
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.
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
Sting's songwriting was a trick to get people to listen to the genius of Summers and Copeland, which was never better than this.
One of the deepest roots of my favorite newer jam music. I classify this (along with Big Blood's A Watery Down II) as space lounge music.
Moon Hooch - Bari 3 (2014)
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.
It took me about ten listens to recognize this as their greatest song.
The first half is the scaffolding and the second half is the rocket.
Probably their best written song.
"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.
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."
Best breakup song ever. Check out this awesome
analysis on songmeanings.com.
I love the verse about the birds.
Outside of Big Blood, this is my favorite thing to sing along with.
Like some of the songs at the top of my list, this is about the tension between the world of spirit (Johanna) and the world of flesh (Louise).
On a good stereo the final harmonica solo is the heaviest thing Bob Dylan has ever played, and it draws emotion from the lyrics.
I'm a sucker for a repeating vocal crescendo, and this is a weird one.
Corndolly - Come Out (1992?)
Happy lesbian love song by a forgotten Illinois band.
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 have to go back to "Like a Rolling Stone" for a song that's both this good and this influential. After listening to 90's rock inspired by Nirvana, it's incredible to listen to this and hear how much better it is.
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 on which Cobain and Novoselic play guitar and bass. Lanegan is covering a Leadbelly version of an old folk song called In The Pines.
Red House Painters - Katy Song (1993)
Mark Kozelek's masterpiece.
Originally from his tinny-sounding first album, Gary Numan's best written song sounds
much better live in the movie
Urgh! A Music War.
Red Fang - Wires (2011)
The best rock video I've ever seen.
Your Friend - Tame One (2014)
Taryn Miller is a promising singer-songwriter with great backing on this track by other Lawrence Kansas musicians.
Your Friend - Bangs (2014)
The studio version is better than this live version but it isn't on YouTube yet.
Galaxie 500 - Flowers (1988)
This is what reverb was invented for.
Bone Cellar - Dryrot (1994)
Great obscure Seattle band. David Gilmour can't touch this guitar solo.
The full-length version rocks like nothing else in the 90's.
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.
If this counts as a country song it's my favorite.
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.
I love Gordon Lightfoot!
The most mature breakup song I've ever heard.
(lyrics)
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.
Violent Femmes - Never Tell (1984)
More like a collection of scraps than a song, but every scrap is intense and inspired.
Probably inspired by Bob Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown.
Dire Straits - Skateaway (1980)
Weird song about the ancient conflict between sedentary and nomadic culture.
Neil Diamond - Soolaimon (1970)
The catchiest song ever.
The second catchiest song ever.
The Beatles - Rain (1966)
My favorite Beatles song and Ringo's best drumming. I write more about the Beatles
here.
Did ZZ Top take their whole sound from this?
Harriet Wheeler was the hottest woman who ever recorded a great song.
(hits of the late 70's and early 80's)
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.
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (1980/1984)
Not a fan of their sound, but these are great lyrics. I like the
Stop Making Sense version best.
Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down (1979)
Of all the ways you could combine hard rock and disco, this is just perfect.
Queen - We Will Rock You (1977)
If you could send any song back in time, this one would have the biggest effect.
The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed (1981)
I love the noisy vocal harmonies, and this is one of those songs that keeps sounding better after hundreds of listens.
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (1981)
If you weren't there, you can't imagine how dark and spooky this sounded when it came out. Now that I think about it, so did Hotel California.
Gary Numan - Cars (1979!)
If you graph all the popular songs that sound like this, Cars is a huge outlier in how early it is and how good it is.
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (1978)
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.
Cheap Trick - Surrender (1978)
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill (1977)
It's in 7/4!
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight (1980)
I know it's been played to death, but this was strange and radical when it came out. Not only the best drum break ever, but the lyrics were improvised.
Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire (1982)
Blondie - Heart of Glass (1978)
Blondie - Dreaming (1979)
Featuring an over-the-top drum performance by Clem Burke.
U2 - Bad (1985)
The
live version from
Wide Awake in America.
The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang (1982)
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.
INXS - Don't Change (1983)
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)
Neil Young - The Needle and the Damage Done (1972)
A perfect song, and I love the unexpected quick ending.
Neil Young - Powderfinger (1979)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell on You (1956)
The songwriting is mediocre but the performance is one of the most interesting things in the 20th century. Instead of covering this, other artists should try to play their own music with this kind of energy.
The Old 97's - Valentine (1999)
Loudon Wainwright - New Paint (1972)
Uncle Tupelo - Black Eye (1992)
The best version of Kris Kristofferson's best song.
The best classic punk song, and my favorite band name.
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized (1983)
Second best classic punk song.
Flying Burrito Brothers - Sin City (1969)
The original alt-country band.
It's like a post-punk When The Levee Breaks.
Hawkwind - Infinity (1978)
"I met her in a forest glade, where starbeams grew like trees."
The live version on
Zones.
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.
The
Space Ritual live version.
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.
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.
Mind blowing cover of the Johnny Cash song.
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.
Kim Shattuck is the best screamer ever.
From their brilliant second album,
Leave Home.
This would make an awesome country song.
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 Safka - Some Say (1971)
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.
A decent new wave pop song followed by an incredible drone jam.
Loreena McKennitt - Greensleeves (1991)
Recorded accidentally in one take!
Teenage Fanclub - Alcoholiday (1991)
Antenna - Snakes (1991)
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.
The Shins - New Slang (2001)
Here's another
video showing the album cover references in that video.
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.
Great slow buildup!
Have A Nice Life - Earthmover (2008)
Decent vocals followed by a nice post-rock jam.
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.
The live version from
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.
Forgotten political song about how people are tricked into believing in the system that feeds on them.
A skilled vocalist and experienced recording engineer intentionally goes over the top with every mistake he has heard bad singers make. It's easier to unlock genius by trying to be bad than trying to be good, and Mauldin accidentally gave such an interesting performance that if he hit the notes it would approach Song For Baltimore.
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.