When acts/artists write their signature track, what then?

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Some acts go for ages searching for the one truth that is their own. And some manage it early.

U2 - I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

So, this is the track that says it all for them. When Dylan wrote "Jokerman", and DireStraits did "Romeo and Juliet", it was amazing that they hadn't actually written/recorded/issued the track long before.

What other tracks have that 'this is me' about them?

(did that make any sense?)

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Faith No More - Epic

― mei (mei), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

lack Sabbath - Black Sabbath

Straight out of the gates!

― mei (mei), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Saxon - Denim And Leather

― Siegbran (eofor), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Tears For Fears said all they had to say with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." For an encore all they had in them were increasingly elaborate productions with ever-diminishing returns (though I adored "Sowing the Seeds of Love," it really was production over content).

― Joseph McCombs, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"jokerman" is dylan's signature track??

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 13:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought "Head over Heels" was their 'one'. But yeah.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 13:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I suppose that you're supposed to hang yourself right before your tour to the states.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Blue Nile - "Tinseltown In The Rain"

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Pulp - Common People

Subsequent band reinventions produced some supplementary fun, but this is the one that everyone needs.

― Atnevon (Atnevon), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

yea, jokerman?

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

FNM "Epic" NOTM.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

NOTM whatsoever.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess they just write some more songs about other things. most artists who sustain themselves over more than 10 years will write a few signature songs.

- talking heads had "psycho killer" and "once in a lifetime"
- dylan had about 50 signature songs (id say his career has been uniquely predicated upon writing signature songs)
- scott walker had a few on scott-scott4, and then a couple on climate/tilt

etc

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"once in a lifetime" is a great example of a signature song, in that it captures, and defines, talking heads in both its sound and its message. it comes pretty damn close to encapsulating exactly who they are and what they do.

i'm not sure any other song mentioned on this list does the same thing.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Boston - More Than a Feeling

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

back up a second - JOKERMAN?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I would've said "Like A Rolling Stone" (and I still wouldn't have been right)

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

dylan signature songs - 61-75

blowing in the wind
the times they are a-changin
subterranean homesick blues
mr tambourine man
positively 4th street
like a rolling stone
i shall be released
tangled up in blue

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

bowie signature songs - 66-78

changes
ziggy stardust
suffragette city
rebel rebel
sound and vision
heroes

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The Jokerman thing was more a "I can't believe he's got this far without writing a song called that" point.

It's a sinature track inasmuch as no-one else could have been the author.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Meshuggah - Future Breed Machine
King Crimson - Red (one could say 21st Century... But Red is far more representative of their career as a whole)

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 13:11 (twenty-one years ago)

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