Wednesday, June 16, 2010

That's Entertainment - Rolling Stone and other best of lists


I'll cop to something right here and now - I love lists, especially when it comes to music. There is something about them that makes me want to download and experience the music involved, whether they be super official or on my friend's blogs. In fact, if you're looking for some good indie music lists, I recommend checking out Cousin Brandon's Mr. Hipster Blog (he also loves to talk about LOST), or 500 Rad Records, run by my friends RM Cresser and Pat Aguiar.

My taste generally runs a lot simpler than theirs - I go for cheesy power chords, melodies and just flat out heavy noise. I also like a ton of bad music that would be banned by anyone with a modicum of taste, like Limp Bizkit, Ke$ha, Paramore and The All-American Rejects. As a result, I've always been a big fan of the various lists done by Rolling Stone, since they generally contour to the generally margins of my acceptable taste.

The only place I generally don't overlap with them tends to be the artists documented as Jann Wenner's pet favorites from the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, I think a lot of the music from that generation tends to be overrated and beloved because of the inebriated nature of the listeners.

Regardless, I took a spin with their list of the 500 greatest songs as of December 2004, and found plenty of gems I had never heard before. For example, the title of this entry and the video linked at the top is "That's Entertainment" by The Jam, a solid British band. Other songs I "discovered" or remembered to get my hands on included:

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by The Beatles
"Maggie May" by Rod Stewart
"I've Been Loving You Too Long" by Otis Redding
"Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save The Queen" by The Sex Pistols
"Bring the Noise" by Public Enemy
"Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson
"Alison" by Elvis Costello
"Complete Control" by The Clash
"I'm Waiting For The Man" by The Velvet Underground

4 comments:

  1. I've never gotten very deep into the Rolling Stone top 500 but the top 100 is an awesome road trip playlist that everyone enjoys.

    Sound alikes are another fun music list.
    I'm sure you've heard the Pachabel rant.

    I am obsessed with drum intro from You Can't Hurry Love being ripped off.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw5RkzbHb-w
    These are are commonly labeled as Lust For Life ripoffs which makes it more amusing.
    They include Are You Gonna Be My Girl, Last Nite, Walking on Sunshine, Maneater, Ballroom Blitz, and various less popular songs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pachabel rant? I'm not sure... I've tailed off when it comes to listening to Adam, just because I find the quality of the ACP and ACS to be so inconsistent.

    I'll check out that drum intro tomorrow, when I'm not so bummed out about the Celtics. sigh!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The chords from Pachelbel's Canon (the graduation song) are found in at least 15 popular songs.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

    ReplyDelete
  4. hahaha, Nice! I love stuff like that. I'm into techno, so I love the stuff on YouTube that shows you where like Daft Punk got all their samples from:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJPdVVOmbz4

    ReplyDelete

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