Greatest Songs of All Time!

Every few years, Rolling Stone puts out one of those "Greatest _______ of all time" lists. It's usually selected based upon whichever particular era the current writers are nostalgic about. In a few years, it's going to be all Nirvana crap.

So, in the finest tradition of the worst music magazine around (not true, actually. Blender is much, much worse), I'll pick the best five songs I can think of off the top of my head. This will, of course, be immensely biased towards what I've been listening to over the past few days, so it's really just a list of songs I like. The first four are in no particular order.

5) Texas Flood

There's nothing quite like this song playing on the radio when it's the middle of July, 11:30 PM, 95% humidity, 87 degrees out, and you're driving around H-Town. One of the greatest Texas blues songs by one of the best bluesmen to ever live. I have a friend who thinks SRV was the best guitarist ever. He's probably wrong, but he's not far off.

4) YYZ

Rush is one of those bands that the music media never really got. That's a product of Geddy's voice, Neil Peart's general stand-off-ish nature, and their inability to be seen as anything other than another nerdy progressive rock band. In truth, Peart was sometimes able to actually examine interesting topics with his lyrics, and he and Geddy Lee are among the three best drummers and bassists to ever play. Lifeson is a critically underrated guitarist, as well.

Rush's best strength has always been their artistic prowess with their instruments, and while I love virtually all of Rush's efforts (not the first album, nor Caress of Steel), their instrumentals have always stood out. YYZ is probably the best of the Rush instrumentals. I love everything about this song, most of all the plywood part. And as an aspiring bassist (read: terrible bassist), Geddy's lyrical bassline is what all bassists aspire to produce.

3) Message in a Bottle

The Police were remarkably similar to Rush in a lot of ways. First, they had a singing bassist. Second, their lyrics were often pretentious explorations of non-rock-song material. Third, they were loved by science fiction nerds (Rush for 2112, the Police for Sting's appearance in Dune).

For their second album, the Police put together a pretty good collection. But Message in a Bottle stands above everything else. And it's a pretty evocative song.

2) Closer to the Heart

Probably Rush's finest song ever. Absolutely fantastic, and it's even better live. Anybody who says differently is either a fucking liar or is deaf. Oddly enough for a band that usually produced songs in the 5 to 6 minute range, their best was also one of their shortest.

1) Sultans of Swing

The best song ever written. I can't really describe it. Features one of the best guitar solos ever. Just such a smooth song.

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I watched (off and on) the shitty game the Astros put in today. I can't really blame them - nobody but Lance and Wiggy is any good.

Hunter answers the "What's you favorite song?" question, which I've seen about eight times now.

First of all, Hunter, the song was actually written by Afrika Bambaataa way back before either of our times. Second, your love for Rage makes my Junior-High self like you that much more. And even my friends who hate Rage Against the Machine (virtually all of them) agree that their cover of Renegades of Funk was their best song.