Top 10 Rock songs of all-time

[AbeBeta]

Cobain loved them and the Breeders, both huge muscial influences with punk rock sounds. But Cobain wrote Smells Like Teen Spirit and performed in on his own and he himself gave life to a whole decade of music spawned almos tliterally around that song.

BTW, Debaser is very, very good as well. I haven't heard that gouge song he says inspired large part of SLTS.

gouge away -- great song off of Doolittle. I do think Cobain wrote better songs -- but I've never been a huge fan. his work just didn't hit me - I'm familiar with all of it - just not particularly moved by it. I really did not enjoy most of the grunge period (though Nirvana's sound is relatively unique compared to the others).

 

[Zippy Speedster]

Personal/Absolutely No Order

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leopard
Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Walk - Pantera
Home Sweet Home - Motley Crue
The Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Imagine - John Lennon
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
Twice As Hard - Black Crowes
Stairway To Heaven - Led Zepelin

 

[Zippy Speedster]

Cobain loved them and the Breeders, both huge muscial influences with punk rock sounds. But Cobain wrote Smells Like Teen Spirit and performed in on his own and he himself gave life to a whole decade of music spawned almos tliterally around that song.


BTW, Debaser is very, very good as well. I haven't heard that gouge song he says inspired large part of SLTS.

Cobain is much more raw than the Pixies IMHO which is the beauty of the grunge era til the fake rawness came into being a needed element in every grunge song. --see blackhole sun.


Kurt's complete Top 10 list:
1. The Breeders: Pod
2. The Pixies: Surfer Rosa
3. Leadbelly: Last Sessions
4. The Vaselines: "Dying For It"
5. Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth
6. The Wipers: Is This Real?
7. Shonen Knife: Burning Farm
8. The Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols
9. Jad Fair: Great Expectations
10. The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World

Nice list of Kurt's, I'll have to check it out! Most of the stuff I've never heard but if it's what influanced Kurt I'm going to have to I guess. Best concert I've ever been to was them in October of 93 in Chicago. Most concerts are forgettable, but that one I'll carry with me till I die. Doubt there'll be anyone like Kurt ever again.

I heard once on MTV, don't remember who it was, but they were talking about how there literally will never be another as big as Kurt again. That ever since his rise and ultimate demise that there's been an ingrown fear instilled in celebrities/Hollywood to never get that big again out of fear of the same thing happening to them. And when you think about it there might be something to it because really noone has even come remotely close to his level of success since, yet in today's media driven society there's more then enough ample opportunities for a band/individual to do so.

One other thing most people don't realize or are not willing to admit about Nirvana, but unlike so many before and the few afterwards, his/their success was reached before his death. Nirvana/Kurt literally erased off the map an entire generation of music, and that was only a few months after Teen Spirit hit big, their first real single.

Anyway if anyone hasn't checked out the box set yet, do so. Not really for the fairweahter fans but definately for the diehards. Some really rare early stuff on there. And for the fairweathers they just released a single album version with the best songs froj the box set called "Sliver: The Very Best Of The Box".

 

[superpunk]

Before you include Smells Like Teen Spirit, you should include the 5 or 6 Pixies songs that Cobain stole it from. Dude even admitted his theft.

LOL....even so, no song really embodied the spirit of an age like that, or changed the scene of music so drastically. I mean, yeah, alternative and grunge metal was there before, but SLTS moved it into "pop" stature.

 

[jterrell]

Nice list of Kurt's, I'll have to check it out! Most of the stuff I've never heard but if it's what influanced Kurt I'm going to have to I guess. Best concert I've ever been to was them in October of 93 in Chicago. Most concerts are forgettable, but that one I'll carry with me till I die. Doubt there'll be anyone like Kurt ever again.

I heard once on MTV, don't remember who it was, but they were talking about how there literally will never be another as big as Kurt again. That ever since his rise and ultimate demise that there's been an ingrown fear instilled in celebrities/Hollywood to never get that big again out of fear of the same thing happening to them. And when you think about it there might be something to it because really noone has even come remotely close to his level of success since, yet in today's media driven society there's more then enough ample opportunities for a band/individual to do so.

One other thing most people don't realize or are not willing to admit about Nirvana, but unlike so many before and the few afterwards, his/their success was reached before his death. Nirvana/Kurt literally erased off the map an entire generation of music, and that was only a few months after Teen Spirit hit big, their first real single.

Anyway if anyone hasn't checked out the box set yet, do so. Not really for the fairweahter fans but definately for the diehards. Some really rare early stuff on there. And for the fairweathers they just released a single album version with the best songs froj the box set called "Sliver: The Very Best Of The Box".

So many of our music legends have similar stories where they died almost broke and were so disillusioned with the state of being.

Kurt had less than 100k in the bank, Tupac had 150k. These are guys who had sold millions and millions of albums and hadn't had a chance to enjoy any of the money they made beyond drug/alcohol binges.

I am going to get the box set just been hoping the price would drop. I have most of the songs on mp3 or cd anyways so its hard to spend the cash.

I do really appreciate Kurt as a songwriter and his angst was just so real. He really did have a thrift store couch in his house and all that other crap the fake grungers tried to do.

 

[jterrell]

LOL....even so, no song really embodied the spirit of an age like that, or changed the scene of music so drastically. I mean, yeah, alternative and grunge metal was there before, but SLTS moved it into "pop" stature.

I listened to almost nothing but rap or classic rock before that song.

It really moved me in a lot of ways to grow up and widen my experiences.


His hate-laced playing of the guitar with those cheerleaders in the foreground of that video is just surreal and painted in my head like a great work of art.

 

[Big D]

Cool thread. I need to venture away from the main topics thread more often.

 

[AbeBeta]

LOL....even so, no song really embodied the spirit of an age like that, or changed the scene of music so drastically. I mean, yeah, alternative and grunge metal was there before, but SLTS moved it into "pop" stature.

Oh I agree. I just don't like it.

I've got a bias against popularity I guess. Many of the best and most influential bands never saw Nirvana levels of success -- think the Velvet Underground, Big Star, Pixies -- hugely influential to modern music but mostly unappreciated. Perhaps had Nirvana remained underground I would have liked them more.

 

[superpunk]

Oh I agree. I just don't like it.

I've got a bias against popularity I guess. Many of the best and most influential bands never saw Nirvana levels of success -- think the Velvet Underground, Big Star, Pixies -- hugely influential to modern music but mostly unappreciated. Perhaps had Nirvana remained underground I would have liked them more.

Music snob. What kind of music do you listen to now?

 

[AbeBeta]

Music snob. What kind of music do you listen to now?

My tastes have gotten much more eclectic -- partly due to getting older and partly due to downloading (which has actually increased my purchasing).

right now I'm digging cds by Jens Lekman, Wolf Parade, Flaming Lips (advance copy of their new album), Super Furry Animals, Frog Eyes, Belle and Sebastian, several Brazillian Tropicalia CDs, Devendra Banhardt, and lots of Wilco since I recently saw Jeff Tweedy perform.

How 'bout you?

 

[CdnCowboy]

Finally a topic that I can fake knowledge on!

My top 10:

1) Since I've Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin)
2) Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin, while not in my top 10 zep songs, it has been so popular you can't leave it off)
3) Bold as Love (Jimi Hendrix)
4) Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
5) Kashmir (Led Zeppelin)
6) Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
7) Hey Joe (Jimi Hendrix)
8) Baba O'Riley (The Who)
9) Strawberry Fields Forever (The Beatles)
10) Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana, partly in fear of now being shot if not included)


As for bands/artists my favorites are:

Led Zeppelin (obviously from my list, I also think "The Rain Song is really beautiful, and Bron Yr Aur)
Jimi Hendrix
Pink Floyd (I also really like "Learning to Fly" but didn't think it qualified as top 10 in history)
The Beatles
Neil Young
Black Sabbath (Hand of Doom is my favorite Sabbath song)

As for the Pixies side-discussion while I really like Debaser, my favorite Pixies song is "Where is my mind"

 

[jem88]

Rather than list 'the top 10' songs, I'm going to put down my favourite ones (in no particular order):

1. A Day in The Life- The Beatles
2. Badge- Cream
3. Shine on You Crazy Diamond- Pink Floyd
4. Gimme Shelter- The Rolling Stones
5. Paranoid Android- Radiohead
6. After The Goldrush- Neil Young
7. A Case of You- Joni Mitchell
8. Quicksand- David Bowie
9. The End- The Doors
10. Three Days- Jane's Addiction

Honourable Mention- Running To Stand Still- U2

As far as Led Zeppelin goes, I'm a big fan. I just can't distinguish any particular favourite. Among my favourite Zep tunes:

When The Levee Breaks; Kashmir, All Of My Love; The Rain Song

As for Jimi Hendrix, some of my faves:

1983; Bold as Love; Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland?; Are You Experienced?

The Who favourites:

Overture/It's A Boy; Naked Eye; Pure And Easy; Baba O'Reilly; A Quick One (While He's Away)

 

[Fender]

The best rock song of all time is a day in the life by the Beatles and I also like revolution by the Beatles.
My top 3 rock bands of all time: Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd
Top 3 songs of all time:
John Lennon's- Imagine (I hate when people cover this song they can't make it better then the original). I remember when that punk Mark Chapman killed Lennon they played this song all the time right after his murder.
Bob Dylan- like a rolling stone
U2- one.

 

[jem88]

The best rock song of all time is a day in the life by the Beatles and I also like revolution by the Beatles.
My top 3 rock bands of all time: Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd
Top 3 songs of all time:
John Lennon's- Imagine (I hate when people cover this song they can't make it better then the original). I remember when that punk Mark Chapman killed Lennon they played this song all the time right after his murder.
Bob Dylan- like a rolling stone
U2- one.

Cannot argue with any of that. Welcome!

 

[The30YardSlant]

Rather than list 'the top 10' songs, I'm going to put down my favourite ones (in no particular order):

1. A Day in The Life- The Beatles
2. Badge- Cream
3. Shine on You Crazy Diamond- Pink Floyd
4. Gimme Shelter- The Rolling Stones
5. Paranoid Android- Radiohead
6. After The Goldrush- Neil Young
7. A Case of You- Joni Mitchell
8. Quicksand- David Bowie
9. The End- The Doors
10. Three Days- Jane's Addiction

Honourable Mention- Running To Stand Still- U2

As far as Led Zeppelin goes, I'm a big fan. I just can't distinguish any particular favourite. Among my favourite Zep tunes:

When The Levee Breaks; Kashmir, All Of My Love; The Rain Song

As for Jimi Hendrix, some of my faves:

1983; Bold as Love; Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland?; Are You Experienced?

The Who favourites:

Overture/It's A Boy; Naked Eye; Pure And Easy; Baba O'Reilly; A Quick One (While He's Away)

Great song that no one ver talks about

 

[SuspectCorner]

"johnny b. goode" - chuck berry
"louie louie" - kingsmen
"a day in the life" - beatles
"gimme shelter" - rolling stones
"communication breakdown" - led zeppelin
"behind blue eyes" - the who
"voodoo child (slight return)" - jimi hendrix
"riders on the storm" - the doors
"anarchy in the U.K." - sex pistols (gotta have some punk)
"just got paid" - zz top (gotta have some texas)

i can't really "seed" this list - to me they're all equally great songs....

 

[MetalHead]

Here is a few revolving around one band...or two.

Quiet Riot was originally started by the Famous Ozzy guitarist Randy Rhoades.

Quiet Riot was the first metal band to be Number 1 on the charts.

Two of Quiet Riots 3 biggest songs were actually cover songs from the band Slade....Mamma were all Crazy now and Cum on Feel the noize.

Mamma's Boys,not Slade.

 

[MetalHead]

You are all crazy...here is the real list:
1.Run to the hills-Iron Maiden
2.for whom the bells toll-Metallica
3.Symphony of destruction-Megadeth
4.Ring of fire-Johnny Cash
5.Simple Man-Lynyrd
6.Angel of Death-Slayer
7.Time-Pink Floyd
8.I live You Die-Flotsam & Jetsam
9.Cemetery Gates-Pantera
10.Balls to the wall-Accept

Now that's a list with testosterone on it.

 

[CATCH17]

While there's nothing wrong with your list over all...No way Dream On beats out Stairway to Heaven!

Led Zeppelin made a gazillion songs better than Dream on.

Zeppelin = greatest band ever. They were ahead of their time and my personal favorite band.

I cant believe some of you guys were jamming like that in the late 60's and 70's.

This is not easy at all. There are so many classics.

1. Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd (Pretty much anything by them.)
2. The Immigrant Song, Led Zeppelin
3. Paranoid, Black Sabbath
4. Enter Sandman, Metalicca
5. Man in the Box, Alice in Chains
6. No More Mr. Nice Guy, Alice Cooper
7. Crazy Train, Ozzy Osbourne
8. November Rain, Guns N Roses
9. House of the Rising Sun, The Animals
10. Subdivisions, Rush

My dad loves that song. Possibly his favorite as well.

Hes a big Hank Williams Jr fan as well.

Also, since you like Led Zeppelin I was wondering if you have ever heard their "How the West Was Won" CD?

Its a live album and the music on it is nuts. Tripple disc.

 

[Ben_n_austin]

Exactly...Nothing wrong with your list...I just don't agree with the top one.

I wouldn't put any of those in the top 100. :laugh2: