Flack's Top 125 Songs

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Post by Flack »

118. The Breeders - Cannonball

In the 90s, nothing was required the make sense. This is a ridiculous song about a cannonball. Maybe it has a deeper meaning. Maybe it doesn't. You can learn how to play this song on the guitar in about 4 minutes.

For those who don't know, that's Kim Deal (from the Pixies) singing and playing lead guitar, with her twin sister Kelley on rhythm. Original guitarist Tanya Donelly co-founded Throwing Muses, and left this band to start Belly. Both Kurt Cobain and Steve Albini called the Breeders' album "Last Splash" one of their favorites, and Nirvana even took the Breeders out as an opening act. The band infamously imploded when Kelley Deal was busted for drugs in 1995. The band occasionally reunites and is rumored to be back in the studio, but they never recovered from the original split.

"Cannonball" is on the list because it's a catchy tune, but also because if I had never heard it I never would have known about Kim Deal. If it weren't for this silly song about a cannonball, I would never have discovered the Pixies, and Frank Black, and Steve Albini, and a million other bands down this rabbit hole. God bless cannonballs.

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Post by Billy Mays »

I am probably about as big of a Kim Deal fan as it gets. She was also in The Amps. I have been wanting to put this song on my list as well.

A thing or two on nature.

Post by A thing or two on nature. »

pinback wrote:Nobody is reading your list, because you completely misunderstood the purpose of the lists, and are doing it wrong.
Nobody is participating in my list because you guys are mainly a group of bitter cunts.

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Post by Flack »

117. Black Sheep - The Choice is Yours

There was a lot of mindless rap hitting radio waves in the late 80s and early 90s. Occasionally, rappers with something interesting to say actually came along. Do you want to listen to people with something to say, or pointless drivel? The choice is yours.

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116. Huey Lewis and the News - Heart and Soul

As the days and weeks go by, you will begin to see entries that are as much about a band as much as they are about a song. Except for a few rare exceptions, I tried to keep the list to one song per band.

I'm not a Huey Lewis and the News purist. I had a couple of their albums in the 80s because it was the 80s, and everyone who lived through the 80s ended up with one or two Huey Lewis and the News albums. I'm pretty sure I didn't buy them... they just kind of showed up. I have the greatest hits on my phone.

Huey Lewis and the News make easy to digest music, but as I looked through their greatest hits, each song is just a little too "something." "If This Is It" is just a little too doo-wap. "Stuck With You" is just a little too sappy. "Hip to Be Square" is just a little too zesty. And I'm too burned out on "The Heart of Rock and Roll" (which gets played hourly on every 80s radio station) and "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time" from Back to the Future. In a way, this song picked itself.

"Heart and Soul" starts off with some innocent sounding keyboards and a straight forward back beat with no hint of what's about to come. In the bridge you get a hint of the bass, and just as the chorus kicks in... where did those guitars come from? Before you know it, it's over, and we're back to keyboards and the News.

In the middle of the song we get a short breakdown with hand claps (again, it was the 80s) and a guitar riff before the big finale. This time the heavy(ish) guitars stay and we get another riff laid over the top of them.

It's not the greatest song in history, but it's a little less polished and goofy than some of the News's later work, and I like it for that. It's one I don't skip when it comes on, I'll put it that way.

[youtube][/youtube]
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Post by Flack »

Huey Lewis was actually #116. If anyone will have mercy on me and fix that, I'd appreciate it.

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115. Destroid - Raise Your Fist

Jolt Country is known for its sick drops, and so is Destroid. I blew all the speakers out of my wife's car with this song and have never felt more proud about anything in my life.

According to Wikipedia, Destroid consists of three people named Excision, Downlink, and former Pendulum drummer KJ Sawka, with collaboration from Space Laces and Ajapai. I have never read anything that made me feel older. It makes me think of a Saturday Night Live skit or something.

"Dinner's ready, David."
"Dammit Mom I told you to call me Excision now!"

Unless you have subwoofers the size of Tdarcos's swollen nuts there's no way your speakers can handle this song. This song drops harder than a 64 Impala with flakes in the paint.

Here is the song as it appears on the album:

[youtube][/youtube]

And here is a clip of the band performing this song "live." Yes, I am a cranky old man who laughs at people performing things "live" by pressing buttons and clicking on their mouse. The light show is awesome and I would go to this show not only for the sick drops but also to watch all these guys die of heat exhaustion.

"Someone call 911, Frank passed out!"
"Who?"
"Space Laces!!"

[youtube][/youtube]
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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Clearly, we're gonna need the ability to edit posts for this. So I'll try to get that going.

Also, like Flack, I'm down with Huey Lewis and the News, though looking at it I don't have one of their songs on my list. They covered the jazz song "Slammin'", which may be my favorite jazz song.
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Post by Flack »

114. Duran Duran - Rio

There was a time when it seemed like Duran Duran would be the Beatles of the 1980s. Everything they touched turned to gold. For a while the band was better known for their hair, outfits and videos than their music, but if you really want to know what made Duran Duran so incredible, listen to songs like "The Reflex" or "Hungry Like the Wolf" through a good pair of headphones. The separation, layers and harmonies are much more advanced than the average teenage girl ever knew (or cared about).

"Rio," however, stood above the others. I switched from guitar to bass when I realized I would never amount to anything more than a fairly incompetent rhythm guitarist. Four strings seemed easier to master than six. If you listen to Rio, right around the 3:10 mark (halfway through the sax solo), John Taylor kicks into this slap bass riff that blew my mind even back then. I've listened to this song a hundred times on a hundred different stereo systems and there's not a one where this moment doesn't shine.

There's a second reason this song makes the list. I was in eighth grade when I saw her for the first time. She was leaning against the stadium railing, where our class occasionally went after lunch. The wind was whipping her dark hair, forcing her to tuck it behind her ears. She was laughing and I was staring longer than I should have been; she caught me, and smiled back. She was my Rio, dancing on the sand. When I hear that song, that song is her.

[youtube][/youtube]
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113. R.E.M. - It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

So, spoiler alert -- I don't care much for R.E.M. (the band, not the stage of sleep). With songs like "Man on the Moon," "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" and "Losing My Religion," I felt like the band was constantly reminding me that they were smarter than I was. Even songs like "Stand" and "Orange Crush" seemed deeper than I'm willing to go with my pop music.

"It's the End of the World..." was different. Yes, there were those little "inside" references (all the people mentioned in the song have the initials L.B., for example), but it was more straightforward than a lot of the band's other songs. The video was weird but not too weird, and (fortunately) didn't feature the band at all. Just a kid going through an old house looking at random things, and skateboarding at the end. And really, as a teen, that's what I thought the end of the world would be like -- me, looking at things left behind by other people, and skateboarding.

I feel fine.

[youtube][/youtube]
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Post by Flack »

112. N.E.R.D. - Lapdance

It almost doesn't seem fair to let producers form bands because they're so good at building hit tracks. I love the dirty guitar riff on this song. I also love that, unlike most of R.E.M.'s songs, I know exactly what this song is about.

[youtube][/youtube]

* BONUS TRACK *

No Bloodhound Gang tracks made my top 125 songs, even though I have three or four of their albums on my phone. Here's one that makes me laugh, and the only other song on my phone that ALSO has the word "lapdance" in it: "The Lapdance is always better when the stripper is crying."

[youtube][/youtube]
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Flack wrote:113. R.E.M. - It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

So, spoiler alert -- I don't care much for R.E.M. (the band, not the stage of sleep). With songs like "Man on the Moon," "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" and "Losing My Religion," I felt like the band was constantly reminding me that they were smarter than I was. Even songs like "Stand" and "Orange Crush" seemed deeper than I'm willing to go with my pop music.

"It's the End of the World..." was different. Yes, there were those little "inside" references (all the people mentioned in the song have the initials L.B., for example), but it was more straightforward than a lot of the band's other songs. The video was weird but not too weird, and (fortunately) didn't feature the band at all. Just a kid going through an old house looking at random things, and skateboarding at the end. And really, as a teen, that's what I thought the end of the world would be like -- me, looking at things left behind by other people, and skateboarding.

I feel fine.

[youtube][/youtube]
I prefer this version.

[youtube][/youtube]
I don't have to say anything. I'm a doctor, too.

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Post by Flack »

That's pretty much what I sound like singing it.
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Post by Jizaboz »

Flack wrote:114. Duran Duran - Rio

...

There's a second reason this song makes the list. I was in eighth grade when I saw her for the first time. She was leaning against the stadium railing, where our class occasionally went after lunch. The wind was whipping her dark hair, forcing her to tuck it behind her ears. She was laughing and I was staring longer than I should have been; she caught me, and smiled back. She was my Rio, dancing on the sand. When I hear that song, that song is her.
I TELL YOU SOMETHING I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING I TELL YOU SOMETHING I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING

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Post by Flack »

111. Masters of Reality - Domino

Well, this seems silly. I can't believe there are 110 songs I like better than this one.

When this album came out in 1989, "stoner rock" wasn't really a thing yet -- and to be fair, the Masters of Reality (despite naming themselves after a Black Sabbath album) aren't really stoner rock. But Chris Goss, the band's lead singer and guitarist, went on to produce albums for Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, and is often referred to as the grandfather of the genre.

On the far south side of town there used to be this shitty hole in the wall record store with a stage in the back big enough to hold three people, but only if two of them were conjoined twins. The owner of the store was roughly five foot tall and had long, frizzy hair with a mustache to match. I started going there right after I got my license and it felt like an independent store run by a failed musician from the 70s, which in retrospect is exactly what it was, I'm sure. Occasionally when I would try to buy something the guy would hand me a different album and say, "buy this." Sometimes I didn't and sometimes I did. Master's of Reality self-titled debut album is one of the albums he asked me to buy, and I did.

There are songs on this list that I'll hope you listen to all the way through, but this one's easy -- if you don't love it by the 20 second mark, you might as well kill it. And yourself.

[youtube][/youtube]

Paint me a picture
And make it the devil
We'll run down the hole if
The roof ain't level
Domino's fallin'
Black spiders spinnin'
The white gloves flashin'
And I ain't winnin'

Domino
Domino
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Post by Flack »

110. The Runaways - Mama Weer All Crazee Now

I have discovered many bands early in their careers, but the Runaways are not one of them. The only version of this song I was familiar with twenty years was Quiet Riot's. I was a fan of both Joan Jett and Lita Ford, but I didn't discover the Runaways until... the late 90s? The early 2000s? Maybe it was even later than that. I have no excuse. Girls, I messed up.

I love this song, but how high can you rank a cover tune with only a couple of chords? Plus, let's face it -- I like the video more than the song. These women are in their 50s now and there's not a one of them I wouldn't marry today... well, except drummer Sandy West. She's dead. But Jackie Fox on bass, with those bangs in her eyes? Are you kidding me?

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Post by Flack »

109. De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays

I wish I had a better story for this song. I just like it. Also I love Vinia Mojica's voice (the girl who sings the chorus). If this song has a deeper meaning than roller skating on Saturdays, I don't know what it is.

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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

I, too, like what I have heard from De La Soul. I wish ... I wish my list were longer, Flack.
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108. Deadsy - The Key to Gramercy Park

This became one of my favorite songs about four seconds after hearing that wicked low guitar tone, which isn't a guitar at all. It's a ztar, a MIDI controller that looks like a guitar (you'll see it in the video). The band was founded by Phillips Exeter Blue I -- real name "Elijah Blue Allman," the son of Gregg Allman and Cher, which makes him Chaz Bono's half-brother. The band was originally signed by Jonathan Davis (Korn) and this video was directed by Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit). Despite those facts, it's still pretty great.

[youtube][/youtube]

* BONUS *

For all your Rush fans, here's a better version of Tom Sawyer.

[youtube][/youtube]
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Post by Flack »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I, too, like what I have heard from De La Soul. I wish ... I wish my list were longer, Flack.
I bought De La Soul's new album a month or two ago. Unfortunately one of the things that made them so great was their intricate weaving of samples, and it's too expensive to do these days. It was good, but I didn't love it. Also, it didn't have Q-Tip on it like Saturdays did.
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