Songs

The lower half of this page is for my own reference, and I've been converting the top into playlists rather than a ranking. Scroll to the bottom for my top 20 in chronological order. Also check out my Favorite Albums plus Hawkwind, my girlfriend's top 100, and my unhinged Big Blood page, Ecstasy and Doom.

The Light Behind The World

Rex Holman - Come On Down (1970)

Beat Happening - Indian Summer (1988)

Hawkwind - Hurry On Sundown (1970)

Exuma - Thirteenth Sunday (1972)

Big Blood - Adversaries & Enemies (2007)

The Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow (1967)

Neil Diamond - Soolaimon (1970)

Melanie Safka - Lay Down (1970)

Big Blood - Song For Baltimore (2007)

This schmaltzy chthonic epic is my God.

Beat Happening - Secret Picnic Spot (1990)

The song I want played at my funeral.

Space Hammer

Originally I tried to fit my two favorite songs into the same playlist, but Space Is Deep requires a whole different supporting cast than SFB.

The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs (1967)

Silver Summit - Child (2012)

Big Blood - Creepin Crazy Time (2010)

The Creatures - Pluto Drive (1989)

Hawkwind - Seven By Seven (1971)

Big Blood - Away Pt III (2014)

Windhand - Orchard (2013)

Hawkwind - Lord of Light (1972)

Big Blood - Our Love Will Still Be There (2017)

Hawkwind - Space Is Deep (1972)

Wait for the blastoff at 3:26.

Space Elf Convergence

Loreena McKennitt - Tango to Evora (1991)

Cocteau Twins - Pandora (1984)

Big Blood - Indang Pariman (2007)

Joanna Newsom - Peach Plum Pear (2004)

Big Blood - Don't Trust The Ruin II (2007)

Joanna Newsom - En Gallop (2004)

Big Blood - No Gravity Blues (2008)

Lora Logic - Martian Man (1982)

Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl (2002)

This is the twee Stairway to Heaven.

Big Blood - Destin Rain (2010)

Song for Song For Baltimore

Approaching my favorite song on a smoother path.

The Cranberries - Dreams (1993)

Big Blood - Go See Boats (2015)

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You (1993)

Big Blood - Oh Country (Skin & Bones) (2008)

R.E.M. - Belong (1991)

Big Blood - The Rise of Quinnisa Rose (2007)

Melanie Safka - Ruby Tuesday (1970)

Big Blood - Song For Baltimore (2007)

Coyote Pack Howl (2013)

Best of the 2010's

Excluding Big Blood, and in chronological order for now.

Red Fang - Wires (2011)

Great video!

Advance Base - Summer Music (2012)

Diane Coffee - Green (2013)

Doctopus - Wobbegong (2014)

Esben and the Witch - No Dog (live 2014)

Play it loud.

John Matthias - Pre-Loved / Vintage (2014)

Timber Timbre - Grand Canyon (2014)

Your Friend - Bangs (2014)

Her most distinctive song, but Tame One is also great, and the band Living Hour has a similar sound.

Benjamin Clementine - Cornerstone (2015)

Sheer Mag - Fan The Flames (2015)

The Parrots - No me gustas, te quiero (2016)

Heimat - Pompei (2016)

The Molochs - Charlie's Lips (2017)

Suicide Playlist

Leigh Ann helped me put this together for the blog and I archived it here. My favorite argument against suicide is that certain moments are worth staying for. From a 2016 reddit thread: "A sunny spring day, and the rain clouds were moving in. I went past a daycare where a little girl was dancing around, away from all the kids, by herself. You just never know, I thought to myself. What if I had killed myself, all that long time ago."

Big Star - What's Going Ahn (1973)

Nothing here about dying, but it's very sad, and it leads into the next song, by a band that sounds a lot like Big Star's third album.

Money - You Look Like A Sad Painting On Both Sides Of The Sky (2016)

Benjamin Clementine - Cornerstone (2015)

Again, the lyrics don't mention a suicide, but I like that interpretation.

Carissa's Wierd - So You Wanna Be A Superhero (2002)

That edge in her voice is so unsettling.

Badly Drawn Boy - A Minor Incident (2002)

The band has said that the lyrics are a suicide note from a mother to her son.

Bob Dylan - Ballad of Hollis Brown (1962)

The best known version is not on YouTube, but this is pretty close.

Violent Femmes - Country Death Song (1984)

This is so similar to Ballad of Hollis Brown that it's almost a cover, and a really good one.

The Decemberists - We Both Go Down Together (2005)

Clearly about a suicide, but I can't imagine the Decemberists ever being that unhappy.

Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails (2007)

About the poet John Berryman, incorporating the traditional song Sloop John B, made famous by the Beach Boys.

Get Well Soon - If This Hat Is Missing I Have Gone Hunting (2008)

I love that weird crescendo.

Band of Horses - The Funeral (2006)

About living on the edge of death as a heroin addict.

Orphans & Vandals - Terra Firma (2009)

A long and challenging song that I didn't appreciate until listening several times.

Nick Drake - Saturday Sun (1969)

This must be the saddest song possible, because it also has so much beauty.

Unlisted Top Tier

Orphans & Vandals - Argyle Square (2009)

A beautiful, beautiful song that I just haven't been able to fit into a playlist.

Exuma - Baal (1970)

This song needs to anchor a playlist, but I can't find anything with the same sound that's anywhere near this powerful.

David Bowie - Space Oddity (1969)

This makes ordinary music sound like it was recorded with a cat sitting on the microphone. Every sonic texture is sharp-edged and beautiful, the mix is airtight, and the high keyboard and electric guitar, at 2:30 and again at 4:00, are brighter than the sun.

Neil Diamond - Holly Holy (1969)

It's not about a chick named Holly -- it's about the plant, and the earth, a perfect crescendo about the unity of nature and the divine.

The Promise Ring - A Picture Postcard (1996)

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. (Thanks Troy.)

The Gathering Field - Lost In America (1996)

Another 1996 song that blows away its mediocre genre, in this case heartland rock. (Thanks Patricia.)

John Cooper Clarke - Valley Of The Lost Women (1978)

This unearthly masterpiece has Clarke's best lyrics and best backing music.

Corndolly - Come Out (1992?)

Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy (live 1978)

Camper Van Beethoven - June (1989)

This song is the key to my musical taste. After lyrics like 19th century poetry, it explodes in a whacked out violin solo by Don Lax.

Camper Van Beethoven - All Her Favorite Fruit (1989)

unknown - Misirlu (1927?)

The Doors - My Wild Love (1968)

OOIOO - Ina (1999)

The Muffs - Eye to Eye (1993)

The Kinks - Strangers (1970)

By Dave Davies. Ray is the brains of the Kinks but Dave is the heart.

R.E.M. - Wendell Gee (1985)

Whistle as the wind blows to the lee.

R.E.M. - Superman (1986)

In the blend of sounds, this is like practice for their greatest song, Belong.

R.E.M. - Nightswimming (1992)

"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?"

R.E.M. - Don't Go Back To Rockville (1984)

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.

Orphans & Vandals - Metropes (2009)

This is like an old Kinks song that cynically mocks the elite, but it's darker and stronger. The bit from 3:30-3:42 should last five minutes.

Orphans & Vandals - Mysterious Skin (2009)

This makes Bohemian Rhapsody sound like children's music.

Sigur Rós - Svefn-g-englar (Sleepwalkers) (1999)

My favorite foreign language song, except for this.

Gravenhurst - Black Holes In The Sand (2004)

This is like the definition of psychedelic folk, unless it's Secret Garden.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998)

"How strange it is to be anything at all." This made me cry the first time I heard it, and for years it was my number one, but The Rise of Quinnisa Rose squashes it like a bug.

Neutral Milk Hotel - Little Birds (1998)

This "not finished" informal live version is probably the best thing Jeff Mangum ever recorded.

Big Star - The Ballad of El Goodo (1972)

Big Star - September Gurls (1973)

Basically an upgrade of the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset: sadder, deeper, and more raw. The bit starting at 1:25 is like nothing before and not much since.

Big Star - Kangaroo (1975)

For years I thought this song was shit, but with the help of Big Blood's Haystack I finally understood its barely focused chaos.

Chris Bell - I Am the Cosmos (1975?)

To my knowledge, the only song with this stunning symmetrical structure: first verse, different verse, chorus, solo, chorus, different verse, first verse.

The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends (1990)

Harriet Wheeler was the hottest woman who ever recorded a great song. "The only thing I ever really wanted to say, was wrong, was wrong, was wrong."

Galaxie 500 - Blue Thunder (1989)

Dean Wareham sings like Adam Sandler but in this song it somehow makes an epic guitar crescendo even better.

Instrumentals and Jams

Yo La Tengo - Spec Bebop (1997)

Is it pronounced Space Bebop? If you think it's boring, try it on marijuana.

Nisennenmondai - Mirrorball (2008)

Like Spec Bebop this is inspired by krautrock, but takes it in a different direction, toward space jazz. The complexity is mind-boggling.

Moondog - Torisa (1995)

I've never been into classical music, but I absolutely love this track because it has a hypnotic rhythm and gets gradually more epic. This and the one below are from the Rare Material double CD, the first half of which was a 1995 album called Big Band.

Moondog - Invocation (1995)

Ten minutes of primal space rock with a barrage of low horns playing the same two notes over and over. These remind me of two Hawkwind songs -- Invocation is like Space Is Deep and Torisa is like Wind of Change.

Hawkwind - Wind of Change (1974)

With inspired sonic layering and Nik Turner jamming on oboe, this is what the climax of Space Oddity might sound like stretched out to four minutes.

Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen (2007)

No other instrumental is this pretty and this raw.

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.

Moon Duo - Love On The Sea (2009)

Sort of a cover of What Goes On.

Bob Dylan - Main Title Theme (1973)

I love Bob Dylan's voice, and somehow he also did one of my favorite instrumentals. From the soundtrack to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Mono - Yearning (2005)

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.

Symphonies of the Planets 1 (1992)

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.

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.

The Police - Voices Inside My Head (1980)

Sting's songwriting was a trick to get people to listen to the genius of Summers and Copeland, which was never better than this.

Neu! - Hallogallo (1972)

One of the deepest roots of my favorite newer jam music.

Too Many Zooz - Dima (2014)

Have you ever seen a band complain that the audience wasn't giving them enough attention? The Beatles didn't do it so nobody should. Too Many Zooz started out in NYC subways trying to earn the attention of distracted listeners, and their music never wastes a second.

Moon Hooch - Bari 3 (2014)

Sons of Kemet - Inner Babylon (2013)

Yes - Würm (1970)

The last section of Starship Trooper. It's no Space Is Deep, but it's still the best jam in prog rock.

Covers

Retro Remix Revue - Gerudo Valley (2009)

The best version of my favorite video game track.

Dick Dale - Misirlou (1962)

The 1927 version above is the original or close to it.

Wall Of Voodoo - Ring of Fire (1980)

Also the guitar solo covers and improves the Our Man Flint movie theme.

Mark Lanegan - Where Did You Sleep Last Night (1989)

Nirvana's famous live version is basically a cover of this, which covers a Leadbelly version of an old folk song called In The Pines.

R.E.M. - Crazy (1987)

Originally by Pylon.

Galaxie 500 - Listen, The Snow Is Falling (1990)

Originally by Yoko Ono.

Loreena McKennitt - Greensleeves (1991)

Improvised in one take, and its rawness makes it sort of her best song.

Big Blood - Vitamin C (2007)

Originally by Can.

Steve Mauldin - The Abominable O Holy Night (199?)

It's easier to unlock genius by trying to be bad than trying to be good, and this masterpiece of badness must be what Song For Baltimore sounds like to ordinary people.

Second Tier

Camper Van Beethoven - She Divines Water (1988)

A weird brief epic about the eternal feminine, and a taste of the heights they'd reach on their next album.

Camper Van Beethoven - Good Guys and Bad Guys (1986)

Their happiest song.

Camper Van Beethoven - Klondike (199?)

And their weirdest song.

Chris Stamey - Something Came Over Me (1988)

Stamey has put different versions on three albums, and the best is the one on Fireworks.

Carissa's Wierd - Drunk With The Only Saints I Know (1998?)

It took me a bunch of listens to hear that their best songs are the ones with both lead singers harmonizing on a repeating chorus.

Carissa's Wierd - One Night Stand (1998?)

Continuing in chronological order, this is the "hole in my head" song.

Carissa's Wierd - Blessed Arms That Hold You Tight, Freezing Cold and Alone (2001)

The "long goodbyes" song.

Carissa's Wierd - Phantom Fireworks (2004)

The first half is the scaffolding and the second half is the rocket.

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."

Joanna Newsom - Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie (2004)

Best breakup song ever. Check out this interpretation by MisterPuzzles.

Joanna Newsom - This Side of the Blue (2004)

I love the verse about the birds.

Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind (1975)

I can never resist singing along with this. YouTube only has the New York version that was correctly cut from the album.

Bob Dylan - Visions of Johanna (1966)

Like many of my favorite songs, this is about the tension between the world of spirit (Johanna) and the world of flesh (Louise).

Bob Dylan - Girl From The North Country (1963)

On a good stereo the final harmonica solo is the heaviest thing Bob Dylan has ever played.

Bob Dylan - One More Cup Of Coffee (1976)

Rocketship - I Love You Like The Way That I Used To Do (1996)

After REM's Belong, this is the song I'd play to convince aliens to not exerminate humanity. (If I wanted them to do it, I'd play We Are The World.)

Beat Happening - Pajama Party in a Haunted Hive (1989)

"Sting me, queen me, queen sting dream me, dream queen sting me, sting queen!"

Beat Happening - Teenage Caveman (1992)

One of my favorite songs to dance to.

Beat Happening - Tiger Trap (1992)

Dire Straits - Skateaway (1980)

Their most magical song.

Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love (1980)

Their most ambitious and epic song, and one of the best guitar solos ever.

Dire Straits - Portobello Belle (1978)

Like Skateaway, this is a beautiful song about the divine feminine. It's not as precise and complex, but the whole sound on Communique has a depth that's not on any of their other albums.

Dire Straits - Lady Writer (1978)

Sultans of Swing has a great guitar solo, but otherwise this leaves it in the dust.

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.

Hammerbox - When 3 is 2 (1991)

I played this loud and often in the early 90's.

Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (live 1984)

Not a fan of their sound, but these are great lyrics.

Neil Diamond - I Am The Lion (1970)

Weird song about the ancient conflict between sedentary and nomadic culture.

U2 - Bad (live 1985)

Gary Numan - Down In The Park (live 1980)

Originally from his tinny-sounding first album, Gary Numan's best written song sounds much better live in the movie Urgh! A Music War.

Devo - Gut Feeling (1978)

This is like Space Is Deep backwards, with an incredible rising jam in the first half, and pretty good vocals in the second.

Hüsker Dü - 59 Times The Pain (1985)

Bob Mould's best songs are the saddest, and Grant Hart's best songs are the happiest...

Hüsker Dü - Books About UFO's (1985)

Hüsker Dü - Hardly Getting Over It (1986)

Hüsker Dü - She Floated Away (1987)

Red House Painters - Katy Song (1993)

I don't like Mark Kozelek's lyrics or voice as much as I used to, but this song is brilliant, and someone should cover it.

Galaxie 500 - Flowers (1988)

This is what reverb was invented for.

Bone Cellar - Dryrot (1994)

Great obscure Seattle band, with one of my favorite guitar solos.

Bone Cellar - Lost in the Light of Day (1995)

Pulp - Common People (1995)

The full-length version totally rocks!

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize? (2002)

The Flaming Lips edge out Neutral Milk Hotel in the category of best band worst name.

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)

I like the KEXP live version best, and made the video with a camera toss image I found on the internet years ago.

The Velvet Underground - Candy Says (1968)

Their best written song. Sung by Doug Yule.

Jack Nitzsche - Old Enough To Know (1981)

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.

Warren Zevon - I Was In The House When The House Burned Down (1999)

The second best song title ever, after Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun".

Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind (1970)

Of all the stuff my parents played when I was a kid, only Gordon Lightfoot has stuck.

Gordon Lightfoot - Farewell to Annabel (1972)

The most mature breakup song I've ever heard. (lyrics)

Gordon Lightfoot - Affair on 8th Avenue (1975)

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.

Gordon Lightfoot - Cobwebs and Dust (1970)

I love the structure of this song: a simple 18 note vocal melody repeated 16 times with changing lyrics.

Gordon Lightfoot - Carefree Highway (1974)

Violent Femmes - Never Tell (1984)

More like a collection of scraps than a song, but every scrap is intense and inspired.

Violent Femmes - I Held Her In My Arms (1985)

The Pogues - A Pair of Brown Eyes (1985)

The Beatles - Rain (1966)

My favorite Beatles song and Ringo's best drumming. I write more about the Beatles here.

Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky (1969)

Did ZZ Top take their whole sound from this?

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)

Neil Young - Love And Only Love (1990)

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell on You (1956)

The songwriting is nothing special but the performance is one of the most interesting things in the 20th century. Instead of covering it, other artists should try to play their own compositions with this kind of wild intensity.

The Old 97's - Valentine (1999)

Loudon Wainwright - New Paint (1972)

Johnny Cash - Sunday Morning Coming Down (1970)

The best version of Kris Kristofferson's best song.

Fear - Let's Have A War (1983)

The best classic punk song.

Dead Kennedys - Kill The Poor (1980)

The second best classic punk song, and my favorite band name.

Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized (1983)

The third best classic punk song.

Flying Burrito Brothers - Sin City (1969)

The original alt-country band.

The Black Angels - Young Men Dead (2006)

It's like a post-punk When The Levee Breaks.

Cracker - I Want Everything (1993)

Cracker - I'm So Glad She Ain't Never Coming Back (2006)

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.

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.

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.

The Muffs - Ethyl My Love (1995)

Kim Shattuck is the best screamer ever.

The Muffs - Upside Down (1997)

Ramones - Oh Oh I Love Her So (1977)

From their brilliant second album, Leave Home.

Ramones - Questioningly (1978)

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.

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.

Le Tigre - The The Empty (1999)

Ween - Baby Bitch (1994)

S.C.U.M. - Whitechapel (2011)

10,000 Maniacs - My Mother The War (1985)

There are heavy bands that have great soft and pretty songs, but how often does a soft band make a great noisy song? And why did they back away from this sound instead of pushing it farther?

The Shins - New Slang (2001)

Here's another video showing the album cover references in that video.

Toy - Dead & Gone (2012)

This is like the new wave Space Is Deep.

Have A Nice Life - Earthmover (2008)

Again, pretty good song, great jam.

Bob Geldof - I Don't Like Mondays (1981)

The live version from The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.

Timbuk 3 - Just Another Movie (1986)

Forgotten political song about how people are tricked into believing in the system that feeds on them.