Tim's Top Five:
This is more cerebral than my usual list, because a "great" greatest hits album is different from just being the album with the best hits on it. The Beatles 1967-1970 or Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle, vol. 1 might well be among the ten best albums ever "recorded" under that criteria, but who needs to own them? There's simply not much reason for them to exist, since all the albums they choose from are all basically worth owning anyway (though Chronicle was my entree into CCR, so I'm not complaining). A truly great greatest hits album is really, to me, only achievable by an artist that you surely don't want to own all their stuff. So, typically, they're going to cover a lot of albums (The Essential Simon & Garfunkel is great and all, but it also represents about 75% of their output), they're not going to have a lot of weak points (sorry, The Essential Paul Simon).
1. Johnny Cash - The Legendary Johnny Cash - don't get me wrong. I like Johnny Cash. I might well love Johnny Cash, and there are probably albums out there that I should own - Live at Folsom Prison, for instance. But this adequately captures everything I know of Johnny Cash's work and I really enjoy most everything on here. Notable omissions: I don't know of any. The Girl With The North Country (w/ Bob Dylan) from Nashville Skyline?
2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits
- The biggest problem with it is that it jumped the gun. Tom Petty put out one more decent album afterward, so it's missing songs from Wildflowers. After that, his work has been pretty disastrous, only a couple of songs worth hearing. There's some songs from Full Moon Fever that are worthy of inclusion, but weren't hits. So it's # 2. Notable omissions: You Wreck Me, Rebels,
3. Bruce Hornsby - Greatest Radio Hits
- I love Bruce Hornsby. Correction. I love this album. I'm not sure if there's really a whole lot of other Bruce Hornsby I like at all, the albums I've acquired add very little to my appreciation. The Way It Is is worth owning on its own. That may well be it. Notable omissions: Not anything I'm aware of. On the Western Skyline is the only other song I sort of know that I would put here.
4. Loud, Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits
- You know how people who hate the Ramones tell you all their songs sound the same? Well, people who really like the Ramones would tell you that most of their songs sound the same. And this catches just that necessary amount of diversity. I own several other Ramones albums, but other than a couple covers (Let's Dance and Palisades Park), there's not that much that's essential about Ramones or Rocket to Russia (and certainly less on Brain Drain). Notable omissions: probably Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) or Pet Sematary would top the list of songs I'm surprised aren't there. Neither is essential.
5. Marvin Gaye - Gold - You should own What's Going On. You just should. But really, the tracks that don't make it on Gold aren't the best anyway. And it captures some amazing early motown things (You're a Wonderful One, I'll Be Doggone, Stubborn Kind of Fellow), the Tammi Terrell duets, and downplays the career collapse of the 1980s pretty well. Of the Gold discs, I think it's the most essential (with the possible exception of the Motown - Gold), and it's pretty good throughout the 2 discs (Rolling Stones - Forty Licks has one great disc and one near disaster on disc 2 because it pretends the Rolling Stones were essential after 1980).
Honorable Mention - Elton John's Greatest Hits - if it had Tiny Dancer and Levon, it'd be in the top 5, as a reminder that Elton John was good before he became the favorite artist of everyone's mom in the 1980s; John Lennon: Lennon Legend - I can't put it on here because (1) I own the previously-issued John Lennon collection, this just has a couple more tracks, but it doesn't include "How Do You Sleep?", which is a shame. It would save you from owning Mind Games, Double Fantasy, and Rock 'n' Roll which...let's just say I can't see how they'd be very good (Rock 'n' Roll is an affirmatively tedious album); Neil Young - Greatest Hits - I can't put it on the top five because I do still want to hear things from Neil Young's early albums, but it really captures a lot of greatness and even gets the best CSNY song.
Showing posts with label elton john. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elton john. Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Top 5 Songs About Space
OK, this sounded like a pretty straightforward idea but actually proved to be considerably more difficult than originally planned. Here's a ground rule to help make things slightly simpler: songs dealing with aliens, even if they're aliens visiting earth, qualify. (See song #3.)
Ryan's Top Five
1. "The Galaxy Song" - Monty Python (written by Eric Idle and John Du Prez) - This song reminds me of "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" (obvious) and "The Village Green Preservation Society" (less so). Why? There are few songs that make me more cheerfully content. These songs are my anti-drug. "So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure / How amazingly unlikely is your birth / And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space / 'Cuz there's bugger all down here on earth."
2. "Space Oddity" - David Bowie - Well, Dan's right, you cannot omit this in good conscience and I'm taking the piss (I've been watching too much BBC) by not putting it #1. You know a song satisfies the "space" requirement when it includes a countdown to a lift-off. Anyway, I think I like the song "Starman" more but it seemed less applicable. "How did you spend your Saturday night, Ryan?" "I mused upon the space-relevance of David Bowie's "Starman" versus David Bowie's "Space Oddity," and yourself?"
3. "Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" - Sufjan Stevens - An excellent way to start an excellent album. More importantly, it's straight up about UFOs, homey.
4. "Silent Sigh" - Badly Drawn Boy - This is from the "About A Boy" soundtrack--Damon Gough's impassioned plea for people not to move to the moon just yet, not at least until earth has eaten the heart from your soul. Soon as that happens though, boy howdy, I'm the Mayor of Moon Village!
5. "Starlight" - Muse - I love the idea of a spaceship taking someone away from everyone who cares about you, cares if you live or die. I mean, what are our hopes and expectations anyway? It's all black holes and revelations. (I was tempted to put [and someone else may likely put] "Knights of Cydonia," as Cydonia is a region on Mars, but, you know, ... fair play? These are the cosmic debates that keep one up at night. [Pun intended...I intend all puns.])
Honorable Mentions: "Bowie's in Space," which I mainly left out because I'm tired of talking about Really Funny Stuff and ruining the humor; "Starman," Bowie; "Surfing on a Rocket," Air; "Flash!" Queen (as soon as I become a baseball player, this is my batter's box intro theme); "Knights of Cydonia"; "Spaceman," Nilsson.
Dan's Top 5:
1. David Bowie - Space Oddity - I could put this at #2, sure... but then it would become this list's "Hot Fuss" (see previous list) - everyone ranking it high, but no one with the guts to put it at #1. Funny note: I originally hated this song because it sounded too weird. The more I realized how awesome Bowie is, the more this song was acceptable. Actually, that's not a funny note. That's just a sad realization that my younger self didn't know good music when he heard it.
2. Elton John - Rocket Man - Probably my second-favorite Elton John song behind "Tiny Dancer." Some parts of the song are confusing, such as "All this science I don't understand," and "And there's no one there to raise them if you did." It also loses points because ever since the William Shatner fiasco (see here), it's had a corniness aspect to it. But nonetheless a great song.
3. Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun - timpani drums + weird chimes + phrygian mode to give it that "Eastern" sound = space rock, right? As a matter of fact, the title is the only lyric that contains a reference to space. But I mean if you're programming a spaceship's navigation system to journey to the center of a fucking star, I'd say that qualifies as a space song. One of Pink Floyd's early masterpieces.
4. Styx - Come Sail Away - Yeah, remember that last verse, wherein it's revealed that the angels are really aliens from OUTER SPACE? I'll bet that blew your mind when you first heard it. Wait, who am I kidding? Styx can't possibly blow anybody's mind. But as I said in my Top 5 Songs to Blast While Driving, it's a really fun song, unlike most space songs, which tend to be too bleak.
5. Air - Surfing on a Rocket - This song is the reason I don't hate the French. By far Air's best song with lyrics, though in my book it would get blown out of the water by "Alpha Beta Gaga" if whistling counted as lyrics. Also, very inventive use of countdown lyrics. Never before has "Five, four, three, two, one, ze-ro" sounded so catchy.
Honorable Mention: Europe - The Final Countdown - if it weren't so easy to envision myself growing my hair out, putting on a shiny cape and playing this song on key-tar while on my bed, then this song would have made the list. Also, Ryan's honorables are pretty damn good. Come to think of it, we should also do Top 5 Personal Batter's Box Intro Themes soon.
Ryan's Top Five
1. "The Galaxy Song" - Monty Python (written by Eric Idle and John Du Prez) - This song reminds me of "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" (obvious) and "The Village Green Preservation Society" (less so). Why? There are few songs that make me more cheerfully content. These songs are my anti-drug. "So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure / How amazingly unlikely is your birth / And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space / 'Cuz there's bugger all down here on earth."
2. "Space Oddity" - David Bowie - Well, Dan's right, you cannot omit this in good conscience and I'm taking the piss (I've been watching too much BBC) by not putting it #1. You know a song satisfies the "space" requirement when it includes a countdown to a lift-off. Anyway, I think I like the song "Starman" more but it seemed less applicable. "How did you spend your Saturday night, Ryan?" "I mused upon the space-relevance of David Bowie's "Starman" versus David Bowie's "Space Oddity," and yourself?"
3. "Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" - Sufjan Stevens - An excellent way to start an excellent album. More importantly, it's straight up about UFOs, homey.
4. "Silent Sigh" - Badly Drawn Boy - This is from the "About A Boy" soundtrack--Damon Gough's impassioned plea for people not to move to the moon just yet, not at least until earth has eaten the heart from your soul. Soon as that happens though, boy howdy, I'm the Mayor of Moon Village!
5. "Starlight" - Muse - I love the idea of a spaceship taking someone away from everyone who cares about you, cares if you live or die. I mean, what are our hopes and expectations anyway? It's all black holes and revelations. (I was tempted to put [and someone else may likely put] "Knights of Cydonia," as Cydonia is a region on Mars, but, you know, ... fair play? These are the cosmic debates that keep one up at night. [Pun intended...I intend all puns.])
Honorable Mentions: "Bowie's in Space," which I mainly left out because I'm tired of talking about Really Funny Stuff and ruining the humor; "Starman," Bowie; "Surfing on a Rocket," Air; "Flash!" Queen (as soon as I become a baseball player, this is my batter's box intro theme); "Knights of Cydonia"; "Spaceman," Nilsson.
Dan's Top 5:
1. David Bowie - Space Oddity - I could put this at #2, sure... but then it would become this list's "Hot Fuss" (see previous list) - everyone ranking it high, but no one with the guts to put it at #1. Funny note: I originally hated this song because it sounded too weird. The more I realized how awesome Bowie is, the more this song was acceptable. Actually, that's not a funny note. That's just a sad realization that my younger self didn't know good music when he heard it.
2. Elton John - Rocket Man - Probably my second-favorite Elton John song behind "Tiny Dancer." Some parts of the song are confusing, such as "All this science I don't understand," and "And there's no one there to raise them if you did." It also loses points because ever since the William Shatner fiasco (see here), it's had a corniness aspect to it. But nonetheless a great song.
3. Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun - timpani drums + weird chimes + phrygian mode to give it that "Eastern" sound = space rock, right? As a matter of fact, the title is the only lyric that contains a reference to space. But I mean if you're programming a spaceship's navigation system to journey to the center of a fucking star, I'd say that qualifies as a space song. One of Pink Floyd's early masterpieces.
4. Styx - Come Sail Away - Yeah, remember that last verse, wherein it's revealed that the angels are really aliens from OUTER SPACE? I'll bet that blew your mind when you first heard it. Wait, who am I kidding? Styx can't possibly blow anybody's mind. But as I said in my Top 5 Songs to Blast While Driving, it's a really fun song, unlike most space songs, which tend to be too bleak.
5. Air - Surfing on a Rocket - This song is the reason I don't hate the French. By far Air's best song with lyrics, though in my book it would get blown out of the water by "Alpha Beta Gaga" if whistling counted as lyrics. Also, very inventive use of countdown lyrics. Never before has "Five, four, three, two, one, ze-ro" sounded so catchy.
Honorable Mention: Europe - The Final Countdown - if it weren't so easy to envision myself growing my hair out, putting on a shiny cape and playing this song on key-tar while on my bed, then this song would have made the list. Also, Ryan's honorables are pretty damn good. Come to think of it, we should also do Top 5 Personal Batter's Box Intro Themes soon.
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