Self-Renewing Thread: The Greatest Song of All Time

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

This thread is for when you hear a song - maybe on the radio, maybe one you already had, maybe while out dancing - and it gives you that incredible rush where for a minute you think you'll never be able to put into words how great great GREAT the song is, and you just want to spend a suspended eternity feeling good about the song and so on. NB as we'll see in the first example, it need not be something that bowled you over with emotion; it can be something that just amused the shit out of you.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Yesterday I heard the greatest song of all time. I had just dropped my wife off at work.
I was flipping through radio stations and I landed on the new country station. As I do sometimes, I thought to myself: "your bias against this music is based on a bunch of stuff besides actually listening to it, and besides, lots of people whom you respect have been writing about interesting stuff going on in country music." So I let it play. There is a ton of pretty accomplished Pro-Toolery going on, I must say. And then I heard the greatest song of all time. This is its chorus:

The drinkin' bone's connected to the
Party bone
the party bone's connected to the stayin'-out-all-night-long
and she won't think it's funny, and I'll wind up all alone
and the lonely bone's connected to the
drinkin' bone

Oh yeah.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Lovely idea, John. :-)

Relistening to J.C. Chasez's "ADIDAS" today reminds me how perfect and right the combination of synth hook and beats are for me, because when *both* work it's like this endless propulsive shimmering future that just does not stop and will not end, it takes me out of myself. As nice as the acoustic guitar start is, when the full arrangement comes in, I'm gone.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Three tracks have made me feel this way recently:
'People Get Real' Saint Etienne I heard it out and then when i came home i played it continuously the organ parts are beautiful
'Life Turned Her That Way' James Carr great noise great lyric
'Walk Between Raindrops' Donald Fagen off-key frothy joy love the part where the backing singers go ooooooOOOOOOOO!!

― pete s, Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been writing blurbs about love songs for a Stylus feature, and today I got round to doing "Wichita Lineman". Man, it's the daddy of all longing, whether you take the lyric as 'whine' or 'wine', either inerpretation is beautiful, the strings are AMAZING, Glen's voice is great, Jimmy's Hammond is like some alien instrument (Glen dragged it into the studio cos the demo was 'perfect' and he wanted that sound again), and then, at the end, those drums....... perfect, just absolutely fucking perfect. And all in 3 minutes and 6 seconds.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I was compiling a CD for a friend recently (we both did one for the otehr), of stuff we loved lots, stuff that the other person might not be too familiar with, and stuff that we ourselves are playing all the time at the moment.

I got on to including a couple of Motown tracks, and besides the obligatory Stevie Wonder, I just had to add on The Velvelettes' "Needle In A Haystack". What an utterly perfect pop song, you hear the guitar slide in and out of the two chords at the beginning and you already know its going to be perfect, no matter what they do next. And it is.

I was in a club last night playing indie/"retro"/"mod" stuff, as well as old Motown records and other soul stuff, and requested it. The DJ agreed with me that this was a great record and HAD to be played, and he would make it the first song of his set. I presume he was being sarcastic as he used it to soundtrack the inaugral "switching on of the house lights" event. Ne'ermind.

― Colin Cooper, Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Something about Glenn Danzig's voice in "Hybrid Moments" by the Misfits, soaring giddily about the slaughter..."Ooooooh, Baby, When You Cry...", sung with such incongruous, macabre joy, while the rest of his devil-locked brood hammer away. It's just such a thing of absurd beauty and I cannot stop myself from smiling when I hear it.

Similarly, Billy Duffy's chiming guitars in "She Sells Sanctuary" by the Cult (especially in the chorus bits, where there's a satisfying acoustic twelve-string "ka-ching-ching") strikes as one of the most perfect songs of all time.

And then of course, there's "Eighties" by Killing Joke, which is everything I'd ever wanted from a band/song/sound in one perfect, menacing, bludgeoning-yet-melodic blast.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:51 (twenty-two years ago)

The riff to "She Sells Sanctuary" is amazing. It sounds even better if you're off your face on cheese dip.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

So true, Nick, but what doesn't? The perfect, most-finally cooked fromage slathering bolsters virtually any/every experience, I find.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 24 January 2004 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Alien kidnapper.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Saturday, 24 January 2004 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

...and we're coming for you next, Southall.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 24 January 2004 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

'..most-finally cooked fromage'

As in a prisoner's last meal?

― omg, Saturday, 24 January 2004 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

And then of course, there's "Eighties" by Killing Joke, which is everything I'd ever wanted from a band/song/sound in one perfect, menacing, bludgeoning-yet-melodic blast.

I gotta say this surprises me. "Eighties" was the moment at which I thought "this isn't the Killing Joke whose t-shirt I used to wear" - i.e., not a band making music that it supposes people might hear thirty years down the line and still be newly stunned by. "Requiem" is the Killing Joke song whose first chorus gives me the "this is why they invented music" feeling.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, 24 January 2004 23:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Sister Sledge's We Are Family album, title track, first three minutes pass in a blur of familiarity but then slips into an extended meditation on bass riff, joy and handclaps which might just be the most perfect Chic moment ever i.e. my soul feels like it's been turned into champagne.

And then the song after it has a FLUTE!!! It gets no better than this.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Sunday, 25 January 2004 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The Frogs' "Out of the Mist" aka "Drugs" -- specifically this live version I'm listening to, because it's over the top, it's ridiculous, it's sloppy and it's the best song multipart Queen-style seventies hit ever done by anyone anywhere (including Queen).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 January 2004 02:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I heard the Notwist's "Pilot" for the first time last night on the radio. I downloaded it today and have listened to it about 50 times straight.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 25 January 2004 03:24 (twenty-two years ago)

The guitar riff at the beginnig of Zep's "Achilles Last Stand". Manages to be both stately and weirdly touching. I just re-heard it recently after years of not hearing it, and... I was floored.

And right now, the song playing is New Porno's "Testament to Youth in Verse" and the part where the band near-a capella's "the bells ring no, no , no.." made all the hair stand up on my neck. It's glorious.

― David A. (Davant), Sunday, 25 January 2004 03:27 (twenty-two years ago)

recently i have felt this way about:

Automatic by The Pointer Sister
2-15 by Bonnie prince Billy and the Marquis de Tren
Same by Dani Siciliano
Soul Divine by Amp Fiddler

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 25 January 2004 03:38 (twenty-two years ago)

The part of "Quick One" from where the guitar first comes in up to the "we have a remedy" section -- Townshend playing his nice jangly bits, Entwistle taking what to any other band would be the world's simplest bass duties and turning the part into a fucking Rush song, and Moon seemingly going stark raving mad but actually doubling up with Entwistle the whole time.

― aleksandr supertramp (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 January 2004 03:52 (twenty-two years ago)

The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray
17 Minutes of Kick Ass!!!

― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Awesome.

Have you seen the version on "Rock & Roll Circus"? I watched it the last time I took acid which was like 6 years ago now, I think, and it was just fucking breathtaking how on fire they were. One of the most intense performances I've ever seen!

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

argh. x-post w/ jody.

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

i mean, the reply was to jody.

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Although it would have been way fucking cool if the Velvets had done "Sister Ray" on "Rock & Roll Circus".

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you seen the version on "Rock & Roll Circus"?

Of course! One of their finest moments.

― aleksandr supertramp (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Nope Haven't Seen It
How Can I See It?

― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0079400/

― aleksandr supertramp (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I've Seen This.
It Was On IFC Yesterday.
And The Day Before....And The Day Before.....And The Day Before.
It Was Pretty Good

― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I Agree

― aleksandr supertramp (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Broheems you watched Jethro Tull on acid? No wonder it's been 6 years since you've tripped! I think I'd end up trying to squeeze my cat into the discman if I experienced that. Betcha loved Yoko though. Notice how thoroughly IRRITATED Keef looks throughout the Dirty Mac's bit with Yoko (and on 2nd thought, how nauseous the audience looks?) Full Marks Yoko!

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The greatest song would have to be by a one-hit wonder artist for their not being able to top it.
So I vote for the Troggs' "Wild Thing"
OK, two-hit wonder.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 25 January 2004 04:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Hehe, I liked the Tull performance on there! But yeah, Yoko rules all. That was totally fun. Friggin' Clapton plays on that too, doesn't he? I can't remember, I haven't watched it since. They need to put that thing on DVD!

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 25 January 2004 05:14 (twenty-two years ago)

John, that song you mentioned in the first post brought my brother and i great comfort on our new year's road trip. To know it is to love it.

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Sunday, 25 January 2004 08:33 (twenty-two years ago)

"What Tom Said About the Girls" by The Blow.

It presents a legit feminist critique but does so with empathy, with humor, with grace. It defies expectation by also standing on its own as just a great song, apart from alleged didactic intent. And everyone I've played it for likes it instantly.

http://www.krecs.com/mp3/theblow_whattomsaidaboutthegirls.mp3

― Kevin Erickson, Sunday, 25 January 2004 11:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't think i'll ever have it back but the feeling i just felt listening to the stockholm monster's 'terror' uh... it started as pangs of recognition ("clunky pixies bass sound", "haha this is like wilco's 'heavy metal drummer' i hate that song" &c.) and settled into some weird wow. as of this moment, the song i'm listening to now is the second best song in the world ever (stockholm monster's 'terror') but a few minutes ago i felt i genuinely heard the best.

― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 25 January 2004 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

ok it just segued into strawberry switchblade's 'since yesterday', i might have to re-write my entry.

― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 25 January 2004 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"Heavy Metal Kids" .. todd rundgren still remembered as the best surprise random walk in the bar to the intro of said song on jukebox moment in my life and will forever hold it dear.
that said, "Wichita Lineman" or for that matter, "Up, Up, and Away" are top choices here,. here.

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Sunday, 25 January 2004 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

for me that song right now is "Falling and Laughing" by Orange Juice. my first exposure to this band came at a party last night with that song, and since then i've downloaded it and listened to it obsessively.

― jonviachicago, Sunday, 25 January 2004 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)

cozen I have had that experience with "Terror" and also with the following Stockholm Monsters songs: "Where I Belong," "Five O'Clock," "How Corrupt Is Rough Trade?" and the B-side, "Kan Kill!" and also "Miss Moonlight"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 25 January 2004 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

alma mater here i come!

― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 25 January 2004 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

"This is the most perfect song ever recorded."
- Me, yesterday morning (okay, waking afternoon), on "Five O'Clock"

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Sunday, 25 January 2004 19:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a somewhat similar experience with the "Drinkin' Bone" song. I was driving through the Nebraska panhandle (don't ask why, and don't try this at home), scanning through the radio stations. I stopped on this song, not believing my ears (and also because there was only one radio station I could pick up). I did not know whether to be amused or horrified. Mostly, I was amused I guess.

After the song ended, the DJ EXPLAINED it. "Remember that song you used to sing about the ankle bone being connected to the shin bone and what not? Well, that there was sort of a take-off on that concept...." etc. So I guess I heard the annotated version of the Drinkin' Bone song.

Greatest Song of All Time? Not really. Oddest radio experience of all time? Maybe.

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Sunday, 25 January 2004 19:23 (twenty-two years ago)

the "Drinkin' Bone" song made me whisper a quick but heartfelt prayer to God for a Bone Thugs n Harmony revival where they announce their latest member, Drinkin' Bone, who takes the stage with a lampshade over his head and hiccups his way through "Crossroads"

why I heart ilm endlessly: most of my life I have been almost entirely alone in loving the Stockholm Monsters, but here I can share their great wonder with others who are similarly smitten

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 25 January 2004 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

They're a spiffy band they are. And I still smile at how excited yer got when I mentioned I had met Shan Hira. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 January 2004 20:56 (twenty-two years ago)

"be my baby" - the ronettes

― sean marvin (williamtell), Sunday, 25 January 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Obviously this will change daily, but the most recent transcendent experience I had was with Anita Ward's classic "Ring My Bell" - that single syndrum at the top of each bar, that tinkly glockenspiel simulating the titular bell, and Ms. Ward's impossibly-high, near-incomprehensible vocal = Purrr-fection! Probably the last great disco song before the death of the term 'disco' (cause the music itself never died, of course.)

― Scott, Monday, 26 January 2004 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

"Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte" - Bob Hund

and I have no idea what they're singing about

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 26 January 2004 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

And then of course, there's "Eighties" by Killing Joke, which is everything I'd ever wanted from a band/song/sound in one perfect, menacing, bludgeoning-yet-melodic blast.

My inner goth pumps her fist in agreement, Alex....

Hard to choose, but seeing the FGTH episode (on Bands Reunited reminds me how great "Relax" was for its time. That was a near-perfect blend of catchy hook/social consciousness.

Obviously this will change in the next hour.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I was thinking recently that Basement Jaxx's "All I Know" was the loveliest thing ever, a shimmer of joy tying ribbons around my heart.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

A bunch of Young Marble Giants songs have recently revealed themselves as dangerously close to absolutely perfect.

― Nathaniel (Horbgorbling Slubberdegullion), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

"Crossroads" just came up on my mp3 player and it is so great I can hardly stand it. Everything about it just WORKS. Especially the bass, my GOD! Jack Bruce can't be human.

― musically (musically), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 02:49 (twenty years ago)

i love that j0hn never mentions the name of the top-10 country hit that he nominates as his first greatest song of all time, and that he doesn't mention the artist either. it's that moment when you first hear -- or notice -- the song or some stray lyric or melodic hook but before you know who or what it is that the song actually becomes the greatest song of all time. you obsess on it. you need to hear it again. you look for it. you find it, maybe a minute later, maybe an hour later, maybe a day later. you buy it, you download it or whatever, you play it a couple times, you smile a couple more times, and then it wears off and it is no longer the greatest song of all time. it's just a good song, the name of which you now know.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 03:06 (twenty years ago)

Nathaniel, you are correct. "Final Day" is, actually, The Greatest Song Of All Time.

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 07:26 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

The following songs always lead me to think, "...I think this may possibly be the greatest song OF ALL TIME!"

Wire - Two People in a Room
My Bloody Valentine - What you Want
New Order - Age of Consent

That is all - for now.

― Z S, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 03:52 (eighteen years ago)

in case anyone is wondering what the song j0hn is talking about at the beginning of the thread is, it's tracy byrd's "drinking bone"

― max, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 04:00 (eighteen years ago)

Right now it's "Oh You Pretty Things" by David Bowie, b/c it's witty, sardonic, has great chord changes, an awesome chorus, and it's simultaneously about science fiction, the generation gap and hot young women being hot and young.

― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 04:05 (eighteen years ago)

the local CBC morning show does (did? i think they stopped) an 'early bird request line', when at 5.50am they play some obscure requested song. in 2005 my partner was always up before me and would often leave the clock radio on. i'd often hear the news through my early morning haze and dream about it, or not dream about it, but always read the newspaper to confirm whether what i'd heard that morning was real or just a dream. anyway, one day i heard the greatest song of all time. propulsion, horns, incredible chorus, wow. it was by a band i'd never heard of, and for the next day i was convinced that i'd dreamed the whole thing. but i looked up and downloaded every hit by "swing out sister" and found that they did exist, and that You On My Mind was actually my favourite song ever.

― derrrick, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 04:16 (eighteen years ago)

Last time I was at the grocery store "Silver Springs" came on over the P.A. and I basically had to go into a pretend shopping mode, aimlessly pushing my cart down the aisle, eyes fixed straight ahead as I let the song wash over me. You cannot shop, ffs, when a song this good is playing.

― wanko ergo sum, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 15:15 (eighteen years ago)

Two Black Sabbath Songs tied for #1-"Supernaut" and "Into the Void"

― Bill Magill, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

I have been completely obsessed with X's "Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" for several months.

― Simon H., Wednesday, 31 October 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

Currently my favorite song of all time is PJ Harvey Missed.

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

"O Estrangeiro" from Caetano Veloso's Estrangeiro. It's the Greatest Song of All Time.

― ellaguru, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

"Moyo Wangu" by Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited. Please look out for this song, seriously, and you'll find that you can't help but agree with me. ;) The most perfect confluence of crippling melancholy and sheer fucking joy to be alive.

― Lostandfound, Thursday, 1 November 2007 06:47 (eighteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.