Here are my 100 favorite songs

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#69 The Difference (Calming Down) - Mystic Crock

This is electronica (and also in Cyberganked) and a good example of how I find music today. The creator of Braid said that he licensed the music for Braid by going to ilicensemusic.com. For $90 you can grab 10 songs for your project. This is a pretty good deal in my experience. Mystic Crock creates this ethereal sort of sound cloud. Listening to The Difference (Calming Down) and realizing that I could license it for not much money made me decide to not be as strict about Cyberganked having an exclusively dubstep soundtrack.

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#68 I Ain't Gonna Take it This Time - Hall & Oates

This is a moodier, more down-tempo Daryl Hall and John Oates. They were in a weird place with their 1991 album "Change of Season." (It is the one that had So Close, which I think was the most famous from it.) It was kind of soft rock but they had a reputation of just being 80s pop, so I dunno how many dads were getting their stuff. Change of Season pretty much marked the end of the duo charting high, they wouldn't release another album together for six more years.

I once saw a girl strip to this in what remains one of the most singularly erotic experience of my entire existence. Enjoy, everybody!

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#67 Want You Bad - Offspring

Two notes about the video for this song:

1) Whoever did the casting for the girls in this video deserves an Academy Award. Jesus Christ. I had an office when this song came out and I setup a second monitor just to have it on repeat.

2) The blonde guy (not Dexter, but the actor -- I guess by this time the band got too old to play the characters in their own videos) would be the one dude I would try to cast as Yehoweh Porn if I were ever to make a movie of Fallacy of Dawn and needed to hire professionals.

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#66 Hook - Blues Traveler

I have nothing against Blues Traveler. They are obviously a supremely talented band that would be clearly embarrassed by having to slum it on this BBS. This is a great song and I don't know if I could name another one by them that I dug. This one kicks ass and always reminds me that we are in a far worse place with the death of Ken Ober. I don't think he reached his full potential, I think he would have been great in the age of Twitter. Poor Ken. :(

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#65 In the Cold - Acceptance

Acceptance made one album (Phantoms) then split up. Phantoms is my favorite album ever made. This gives them a huge "what if" quality. Not a bad song on it, it got me right at the time in my life where I needed it. You should not go out and get the CD though, because it was one that Sony put a fucking rootkit on.

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Post by Billy Mays »

dubstep


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It's accurate.

Quite accurate.
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#64 You Can Do Magic - America

Things I love about this song:

1) The percussion might be my favorite percussion in any song in the world. The snare is very subdued, the bells extenuate the song's theme and the cymbal rolls fit so well.

2) I have been trying to figure out who sang on You Can Do Magic. Nothing on the Internet flat-out tells me. It was either Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell or Dan Peek and I think Dan Peek had left the band. Usually the writer sang for America songs, but this wasn't written by any of them. Regardless, I'm fascinated by 80s songs where the singer is putting in a vocal performance soooo beyond anything on the radio today. The guy singing this would be the Freddie Mercury of 2016 if he had another hit.

3) I love magic as a topic, but there's all these little things like starting a verse with the word "and." I think the whole line is "And when the rain" (etc). That's a cool, confident thing to do, to get away with and only works when you have a hit.

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#63 Dancing Through Sunday - AFI

You guys like your power metal. I get that. I hesitate to call this song punk rock, as opposed to pop punk, because punk rock is all about attitude and the worst thing AFI ever did is tip 18% once at a Denny's for extremely poor service.

This is what a song sounds like to me when I want to play it as loudly as possible and proclaim that anyone listening who doesn't like it is too old. It even ends on an ultra-positive line. "YEAH!!" Yeah, indeed, AFI.

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#62 Two Princes - Spin Doctors

The Spin Doctors gained an unfavorable reputation, which really sucks because half the country is as obsessed with pot like they clearly were when they were coming up.

This is an iconic pop punk song, you have to give it that. It should be illegal to not smile when the opening to this song surprises you. I actually have a lot of ideas for things that should be illegal, and if you don't mind I'd like to drag this stool onto stage and tell you about each on-- hello? Hello?

Ah, here's the song.

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#61 Empty Garden (Hey, Hey Johnny) - Elton John

Much like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I defy anyone to say with authority what the chorus to this one is. He just builds up to this amazing experience while giving you a beautiful metaphor for his dead friend. (I assume. I don't know if Elton and Bernie knew John Lennon, but that doesn't really matter. Everyone alive "knew" him.) I wish all her songs were like this.

I know, when I am being serious, that Elton John has more talent than most of the other bands on this list. I get that. There are definitely songs of his that are plodding (Benny and the Jets) and I hate those so much. They always seem to be played when you can't escape them either, like at a tire shop, evening out with the Grundersons, or an Elton John concert. I hate those kinds of songs- but I respect him.

There's a thing about the video I'd like to point out: there are some really, really long shots in this. A lot of people were still figuring this out in the 80s. I think one of the reasons music video started giving you scenes that were less than a second in length is because of how awkward it is for someone to sing and be on the camera for longer. However, almost the entire last third of this video is a continuous shot of Elton and it's not awkward at all. For whatever reason (good directing!) he knew enough to not stare down the camera like David Braben hitting the launch button for the new Elite.

And regarding John Lennon, I would have put him first when it came to ranking the Beatles, in that thread, before Pinback left. Without John Lennon the Beatles are an earlier Squeeze. The most important person in any given band that matters is whoever makes the squares the angriest.

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#60 Nevermore - Queen

Ahhh, let's just put a 90 second song on our album which reminds everyone halfway through that we have the best singer of all-time. We'll get into the glam in a bit, but when he's no longer with us let's make sure it hurts.

It still fuckin' hurts.

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Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#64 You Can Do Magic - America

2) I have been trying to figure out who sang on You Can Do Magic.
It was written by Russ Ballard, who would later go on to produce the group. Question solved. Only he's not one of their singers. Shit! Gotta keep looking. Or listening, in our case. So let's get an earwitness and see if we can solve this mystery. We could even play "Magical Mystery Tour" while we're listening. :) Oh no we can't; that was the song I dropped from my list because the version by America wasn't on YouTube, only the one from The Beatles.
Nothing on the Internet flat-out tells me. It was either Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell or Dan Peek and I think Dan Peek had left the band.
By 2011 he'd left the earth too, and we could get away with blaming him, since he isn't around, he can't tell us we're wrong! But, I think if we use our ears we can find the real Keyser Sose. Three steps.

1. Check out "Sister Golden Hair" and listen. Just the first ten seconds (after the 18-second opening) to get the singer's voice. It's very similar.
[youtube][/youtube]

2. Especially check out "Daisy Jane" and it is the same as both.
[youtube][/youtube]

3. Wikipedia says Beckley wrote both and the group usually had the songwriter do the lead vocals. Q.E.D. I think we have enough evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" to name Gerry Beckley as guilty of performing "You Can Do Magic." Especially compare his singing of the title to "Daisy Jane." Consider the "a" sound in both or all three.

As far as I'm concerned, ten seconds of vocals convinces me all three are the same person, and in this case, it's not just "beyond a reasonable doubt" but "beyond a shadow of a doubt." But you have ears, all three links are here, play from each and see whether or not you agree.

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So, what's your verdict?
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Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#62 Two Princes - Spin Doctors

The Spin Doctors gained an unfavorable reputation, which really sucks because half the country is as obsessed with pot like they clearly were when they were coming up.

This is an iconic pop punk song, you have to give it that. It should be illegal to not smile when the opening to this song surprises you. I actually have a lot of ideas for things that should be illegal, and if you don't mind I'd like to drag this stool onto stage and tell you about each on-- hello? Hello?
Not debating whether this is a catchy song or not but... pop punk?
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It's pop punk until Pinback comes back.

Also AC/DC is now synthwave and Mozart's oeuvre post-deafness is ganga rap.
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#59 Take on Me - a-ha

We have an "oldies" station which plays songs from the late 70s, 1980s and some in the 1990s here in Denver, if you needed another reason to think yourself wretched and old.

/looks in mirror, sees gray beard for No-Shave November, turns off mirror, breaks radio

Best music video ever made. I think that's a fairly uncontroversial statement, but Christ, this place lately. Also one of the top songs to sing along at the top of your lungs when there is a nine-year old in the car. He wasn't embarrassed.... yet. Uncles singing don't do team damage.... yet.

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Post by Billy Mays »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#59 Take on Me - a-ha

Best music video ever made. I think that's a fairly uncontroversial statement, but Christ, this place lately.
It's a nice video, I don't think anybody would argue that.

I also don't feel anybody here argues just for the sake of arguing, there is just a large burden of proof on statements sometimes. That is just healthy dialogue, you don't need to depict us all as monsters.

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Billy Mays wrote:I also don't feel anybody here argues just for the sake of arguing
Paul? Paul Darcos? You gonna sit here and take that, buddy?

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ICJ wrote:
Billy Mays wrote:I also don't feel anybody here argues just for the sake of arguing
Paul? Paul Darcos? You gonna sit here and take that, buddy?
I have nothing to argue about except that you're confusing my names. Paul Robinson is my "real" name, "Tansin A. Darcos" is my nom de plume and my registered fictitious name, as I once pointed out to everyone on Caltrops: http://www.caltrops.com/pointy.php?acti ... pid=164566 it is registered with the State of Maryland.

The only thing I have an issue with was that Jonsey posed the question that he did not know who was the singer on America's You Can Do Magic and I proposed based on my own research it was Gerry Beckley. He never said if he agreed or if he thought I was wrong.
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It Mays be obvious but the previous item was a reply that I thought was to Billy, not to Jonsey.
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