Favorite Songs

Rather than a ranking, I've been arranging the songs into playlists at the top, with unfiled songs below for my own reference. Scroll to the bottom for my top 20 in chronological order. Also check out my Favorite Albums plus Hawkwind

The Light Behind The World

My flagship playlist, now 100% weird!

Rex Holman - Come On Down (1970)

Beat Happening - Indian Summer (1988)

Exuma - Thirteenth Sunday (1972)

Big Blood - Full of Smoke (2006)

The Garbage and the Flowers - Carousel (1992)

Big Blood - Adversaries & Enemies (2007)

Exuma - Baal (1970)

Big Blood - Song For Baltimore (2007)

Beat Happening - Secret Picnic Spot (1990)

A history of my musical taste

Gordon Lightfoot - Don Quixote (1972)

On long car trips, my dad would play Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Diamond, and this was my favorite.

Blondie - Heart of Glass (1978)

At the time I loved the vocal melody of the chorus, and now I admire the crystalline soundscape of echoey low notes and high vocals.

Men At Work - Down By The Sea (1982)

The first band I really got into, and this was not my favorite song at the time, but now I think it was their best.

Asia - Time Again (1982)

Yeah, this sounds lame now, but it was briefly my favorite song for its blend of prog-rock complexity and heavy pop, and it wasn't just me -- this was the number one album of 1982. Soon I was listening to better prog rock, like early Genesis and...

Rush - Cygnus X-1 (1977)

I got obsessed with Rush in high school and bought all their albums. Now I think this is their best song, but at the time I thought it was another epic from the same album, Xanadu.

Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love (1980)

This whole album felt like higher quality music than I had previously been listening to, and I still love this song, especially the long guitar solo at the end. (For a while I thought their Love Over Gold album was even better.)

Pink Floyd - Two Suns in the Sunset (1983)

It's too melodramatic for me now, but I listened heavily to Pink Floyd's The Final Cut.

Wall Of Voodoo - Lost Weekend (1982)

Their Call of the West album was a new level of weirdness for me, and I loved it. Another great song is Factory. Later I found out they took most of their sound from the song Machines by Lothar and the Hand People.

Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy (live 1978)

At some point in high school I got into Blue Oyster Cult, and this song stood out for its gothic lyrics and powerful crescendo.

Hawkwind - Motorway City (1980/1983)

My perennial second favorite band for more than thirty years. Now I like their filthier stuff, but this smooth and catchy song from their Zones album was an early favorite. See the Hawkwind section of my albums page.

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

My hipper friends were already into R.E.M., but I didn't like them until I heard this unearthly masterpiece. Whistle as the wind blows to the lee.

Beat Happening - Indian Summer (1988)

In college in Seattle, I heard this song when Beat Happening opened for Billy Bragg and immediately bought their Jamboree album, which was much weirder and more real than anything I'd heard before. I still love them, and this is still my favorite of their many great songs.

Camper Van Beethoven - June and All Her Favorite Fruit (1989)

I had been following this band since their first album, and their fifth, Key Lime Pie, blew me away with its complex, luminous music and poetic lyrics. These two songs blend together, and All Her Favorite Fruit was my favorite at the time, but June was the one I played louder, and a bigger influence on my musical taste.

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. At the time it was a radical sound, and a milestone in grunge.

Hammerbox - When 3 is 2 (1991)

This was the first heavy song with female vocals that I really liked.

Chris Stamey - Something Came Over Me (1988/1991)

Chris Stamey was a huge follower of Alex Chilton, and this beautiful song helped me get into...

Big Star - September Gurls (1973)

The bit starting at 1:25 is like nothing before and not much since. At first my favorite Big Star song was The Ballad of El Goodo, later it was What's Going Ahn, and now it's Kangaroo.

The Muffs - Lucky Guy (1993)

I heard this on college radio, immediately bought their debut album, and became obsessed with the Muffs for years, for their catchy songwriting, tight fuzz guitar, and especially for Kim Shattuck's voice. Her best screaming is on Ethyl My Love, and Upside Down is a great song from their third album.

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You (1993)

This was the only time I really liked a new popular song. When I sing along with it, I feel like a mournful howling canid.

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

For years this was my number one, but it faded into the background when I discovered Big Blood. Another great Jeff Mangum song is this informal live version of Little Birds.

Mono - Yearning (2005)

For a long time I stopped discovering new music, except that for a while I was into post-rock.

Big Blood - Song For Baltimore (2007)

Extremely raw, extremely schmaltzy, and extremely epic, with my favorite singer's most intense performance and lyrics like a fairy prayer, this song owns me. I discovered Big Blood in 2014 through Graceless Lady, and have since decoded and devoured most of their massive and varied discography. For much more, see my Big Blood fan page, Ecstasy and Doom.

Orphans & Vandals - Argyle Square (2009)

My girlfriend has highly developed taste in music, which sometimes overlaps with mine, and nowhere more than this song, and another called Terra Firma, from an obscure one-album project by London singer-songwriter Al Joshua. Here's her top 100 from a few years back.

Nisennenmondai - Mirrorball (2008)

With support from cannabis, I've been exploring increasingly challenging psychedelic jams, and this one is on another level. While the hypnotic riff takes front and center, the drums, bass, and second guitar flutter around it like birds.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Great Fugue (1826)

I'd like to get more into classical music, but so far this is the only thing I've heard that I totally love, both densely creative and so wild that it almost sounds like free jazz.

Witches of the Pinspecked Void Soundtrack

Read it here.

Hawkwind - Infinity (1979)

The Creatures - Pluto Drive (1989)

Fad Gadget - Lady Shave (1981)

Big Blood - Sequins (2007)

Orphans & Vandals - Incognito (2009)

Camper Van Beethoven - Surprise Truck (1986)

Windhand - Orchard (2013)

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

The "song from space" was inspired by another song, but this is way more accessible.

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

My favorite lyrics.

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)

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)

Les Filles de Illighadad - Eghass Malan (2017)

Now I'm looking for more African music that's this psychedelic.

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

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?)

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. - 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.

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.

Moondog - Torisa (1995)

I named a character after this hypnotic crescendo. This and the next 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.

Rachel Flowers - Piano Phase (2011)

The best performance of the most hypnotic composition ever.

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.

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.

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 other people.

Second Tier

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.

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

Their happiest song.

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.

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 - Portobello Belle (1978)

Like Skateaway, this is a beautiful song about the divine feminine. It's not as precise or 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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.