At year-end I put together my list of the top 100 songs of 2010, culminating here. As is always the case, the clock hadn't turned to February before there were several new-to-me songs I realized I had missed that merited consideration. Below are my ten favorite songs that weren't on my list at year-end but that might make a revised list today. Certainly the top two tracks would have broken the top 40.
Top 10 Songs of 2010 that weren't on my year-end list (as of May 2011 - subject to revision!)
"On Feathers and Arrows (on Burnt Pine)" / il gato / All These Slippery Things"
"And I'll remember your life / as I change mine / and forget all your forests of evergreen / because I'll survive / just fine / with burnt pine"
"Nothing Can Kill the Grimace" / Mixtapes / Maps
"And I'm not saying that I'm any better / but at least I do all my dumb shit at home / 'cause everyone's the same, and everyone is lame / but they can sing bad songs and dance ironically"
"Trust" / Generationals / Trust EP
" My friend / Olivia / said to me"
"Right Direction" / Dirty Diamonds / Monster Ballads
"For the first time / in a long time"
"I Was a Teenage Anarchist" / Against Me! / White Crosses
"Don't you remember? / When you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire"
"Digging Holes" / Icarus Himself / Mexico "Terrible things that I know and I know"
"Land Majestic" / Anni Rossi / Heavy Meadow
"I am / an ant / stuck in / the cement"
"Water Hymn" / Painted Palms / Canopy EP <no lyrics>
"Kites" / Geographer / Animal Shapes
" And my love is so quick / like the legs of my kids"
"Clockwatching" / Belleruche / 270 Stories
"Put them back in the backseat / your dues have long been paid"
If you have ever wondered what is the worst year in modern popular music history, the answer (without question) is 1976. The year is a wasteland of below average efforts from mediocre bands. Even the greatest artists of the era released lackluster albums during the year. There is a reason that 1977 has such resonance in music circles as The Clash, The Sex Pistols and others rose to tackle the mediocrity of disco and bland rock. In Pitchfork's top 100 albums of the 1970's, 1976 had one single album (The Ramones debut) which is a statistical impossibility. 1977 had 15 albums on the list.
Which is not to say that I don't like the songs below. It's simply that my #1 song of 1976 might not make the top 10 in other years.
Grooveshark playlist is at the bottom.
Top 10 Songs of 1976
"Step by Step" / Jesse Winchester / Let the Rough Side Drag"
"Cause Jacob's golden ladder / get's slippery at the top / and many a happy-go-lucky saint / has made that long long drop"
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" / Blue Oyster Cult / Agents of Fortune
"The candles blew then disappeared / the curtains flew then he appeared <more cowbell>"
"Love's in Need of Love Today" / Stevie Wonder / Songs in the Key of Life
" Don't delay / send yours in right away"
"American Girl" / Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers / Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
"After all it was a great big world"
"Golden Years" / David Bowie / Station to Station
"I'll stick with you baby for a thousand years"
"Johnny Was" / Bob Marley and the Wailers / Rastaman Vibration "Johnny was a good man"
"Memory Motel" / The Rolling Stones / Black and Blue
"What's all this laughter on the 22nd floor?"
"Judy is a Punk" / The Ramones / The Ramones "Oh, I don't know why / perhaps they'll die"
"Take the Money and Run" / Steve Miller Band / Fly Like an Eagle
"He ain't gonna let those two escape justice / he makes his livin' off of the people's taxes"
(so wonderfully terrible)
"Cocaine" / JJ Cale / Troubadour
"When your day is done and you got to run"
No groups, so acts like the Sam & Dave, the Staple Singers and Sly and the Family Stone, etc. aren't eligible.
Stevie Wonder was excluded as, unlike many below, his musical skill set extends well beyond both his singing and the soul genre itself. Otherwise he probably would have been #2.
A quick word on my #1. Not that it means anything to put a label on it, but to me the plane crash that killed Otis Redding is the most tragic music death of all time. The murders of Cooke and Gaye were terrible, but they got a chance to record their best music. Hendrix and Cobain were talented and had great music ahead of them, but they had a hand in their own demise. No one's career was cut short so early and so tragically, in my mind, as Otis's. He was only 26 and had recorded "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" just three days previously. It is impossible to listen to the live studio sessions from that day (on the album "Remember Me" but not, unfortunately, on Grooveshark) and not wonder what was to come and what was lost over Lake Monona that night.
Otis Redding
Sam Cooke
James Carr
Marvin Gaye
Solomon Burke
Wilson Pickett
Al Green
Aretha Franklin
James Brown
Dusty Springfield
Clarence Carter
Ben E. King (post Drifters)
Bobby Womack
O.V. Wright
William Bell
The Grooveshark playlist includes one of my favortie songs from each artist.
John Darnielle and the Mountain Goats are a personal favorite and one the most interesting groups working today, especially for someone obsessed with lists. I have nearly 400 Mountain Goats songs across dozens of albums, EPs, and unreleased tracks. The list opportunities are endless (top "Going to..." songs, top non-Tallahassee Alpha Couple songs, top Panasonic rx-ft500 songs, top use of song titles that don't appear in the lyrics, etc.) but let's start with something simple: With the release of All Eternals Deck, please find below my personal ranking of the Mountain Goats long players, including The Extra (G)Len(n)s.
The rankings show that I am not firmly in either the pre-2002 or post-2002 camp. My favorite MG albums weight towards the more recent output, but so do the least compelling. I used the All Music Guide definition of his LPs (so Nine Black Poppies counts but Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg does not) and I have included the Shrimper compilations.
The playlist at the bottom has my favorite song from each album. The tracks on the playlist aren't necessarily the source of the quotes, as noted.
Top Mountain Goat Albums
All Hail West Texas (2002)
"900 cc's of raw whining power / no outstanding warrants for my arrest" (Jenny)
Tallahassee (2002)
"I am drowning / there is no sign of land / you are coming down with me / hand in unlovable hand" (No Children)
Heretic Pride (2007)
"And I feel proud to be alive / and I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives" (Heretic Pride)
The Sunset Tree (2005) "On the day my lung collapses / it's not gonna be much different" (Song for Dennis Brown)
We Shall All Be Healed (2004) "Drop your seeds there / let them go / let them all go" (Cotton)
Bitter Melon Farm (1993-1996)
"In the impossibly large office of the death-dealing physician" (The Bad Doctor)
Sweden (1995)
"And you tell me that Hercules died burning consumed by an article of his own clothing / that's something I'd rather not be reminded of" (Deianara Crush)
Martial Arts Weekend (as The Extra Glenns) (2002) "Our love is like Jesus / but worse" (Going to Marrakesh)
All Eternals Deck (2011) "It's so good to learn that from right here the view goes on forever" (Never Quite Free)
Zopliote Machine (1994)
"And I know that you're wearing a wire / but as the sun becomes a blazing orange ball of fire / I lose interest in this and other such inconsequential questions" (Orange Ball of Love)
Undercard (as The Extra Lens) (2010)
"And the last thing / I saw before falling unconscious / was your right hand / tracing a heart on my thigh / and I thought / my God, what an infantile gesture / and I thought / my God, what an indescribable high" (How I Left the Ministry)
Full Force Galesburg (1997)
"We knew we'd hit the mother lode" (Twin Human Highway Flares)
Nine Black Poppies (1995) "Sun flashing red and then orange and then opting for secession" (I Know You've Come to Take My Toys Away)
The Coroner's Gambit (1995) "And you gathered your hair behind your head / like god was gonna catch you by the pony tail" (There Will Be No Divorce)
Ghana (1993-1996)
"There are no pan-Asian supermarkets down in hell" (Golden Boy)
Nothing For Juice (1996)
"Die hard / die kicking / old habit of mine" (Waving at You)
The Life of the World to Come (2009)
"And I am witness / to your life and to its worth" (Matthew 25:21)
Protein Source of the Future ... Now! (1993-1996) "I've got something I need to tell you / I can feel your smile burning through / and I am leaving you, and I am sorry" (Omega Blaster)
Get Lonely (2006) "And I stood there like a businessman waiting for a train / and I got ready for the future to arrive" (Woke Up New)
Continuing the march towards the best of 2011 (in 5 year increments), here are my top 10 songs of 1971. Because it was fun to compare in 1966, here were the Billboard top 5 of 1971:
1) "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night
2) "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart
3) "It's Too Late / I Feel the Earth move" by Carole King
4) "One Bad Apple" by Osmonds
5) "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by Bee Gees
1971 represented a pretty great mix of music as the original soul and rock sounds of the late 60's were still in full swing while the "classic rock" sound associated with the 70's was underway as well. My list includes one of my 10 favorite songs of all time at #1 (one of the very few Stones songs without Keith) and a ridiculous string of amazing intros at #2 - #7 (from the classic hooks of "Bang a Gong" and "Mr Big Stuff" to the Wes-Anderson-evoking "Queen Bitch"). Also, two of the biggest one-hit soul wonders in King Floyd and Jean Knight.
Grooveshark playlist is at the bottom (without the John Lennon song).
Top 10 Songs of 1971
"Moonlight Mile" / The Rolling Stones / Sticky Fingers
"I am just living to be lying by your side""
"Groove Me" / King Floyd / King Floyd
"Uh / ohhh sookie sookie now"
"Bang a Gong (Get it On)" / T. Rex / Electric Warrior
"Well you're built like a car / you've got a hubcap diamond star halo"
"Baba O'Riley" / The Who / Who's Next
"I don't need to fight / to prove I'm right"
"Mr. Big Stuff" / Jean Knight / Mr. Big Stuff "Who do you think you are?"
"Ace of Spades" / O.V. Wright / A Nickel and a Nail and Ace of Spades
"From the the nine to the ten / you just can't win"
"Sweet Hitch Hiker" / Creedence Clearwater Revival / Hold On, I'm Coming "She was runnin yeah yama heada heah / do you wanna holler thinking would you care"
(or something)
"Oh Yoko" / John Lennon / Imagine
"My love will turn you on"
"Tiny Dancer" / Elton John / Madman Across the Water
"When I say softly / slowly"
A very literal spring-themed playlist for the rainy day here in the Bay Area.
"Spring and a Storm" / Tally Hall
"...many people think that's where you go when you die / do you? / well I think you return to obscure / or wherever you where, before you were / but I won't let you lose yourself in the rain"
"Rain" / Bishop Allen
"cause if its ever gonna get any better / its gotta get worse for a day"
"Rain On" / Woods
"Oh, how the days will rain on you"
"Wet and Rusting" / Menomena
"It's hard to take risks / with a pessimist"
"Sonic Bloom" / The Polyphonic Spree
"When love gets inside of you / it makes me invincible"
"King of Carrot Flowers, Part I" / Neutral Milk Hotel "Each one a little more than he could dare to try"
"3,000 Flowers" / Destroyer
"Scars where its talons used to be"
"Blue Bird" / The Rosebuds
"While natures radio / plays music in our home"
"Dry the Rain" / The Beta Band
"Choking on the vitamin tablet / the doctor gave in the hope of saving me"
"She's A Rainbow" / The Rolling Stones
"Have you seen a lady fairer?"
