MetaChat - What ten songs should everyone have heard?

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25 March 2006

What ten songs should everyone have heard? →[More:]
What's a song? The word suggests vocals, but I don't mean to exclude instrumentals. You know what I mean - "tunes", "sounds" "music". Bach cantatas, Mozart operas, Beethoven symphonies (or even piano whasnames) are ok, but I was thinking C20th and beyond.

What are your desert island mp3s?

post by: GeckoDundee at: 09:11 | 27 comments

They only get eight on Desert Island Discs, but I'm feeling very metric.

posted by GeckoDundee 25 March | 09:13

Ain't Too Proud To Beg - The Temptations
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Yesterday - The Beatles
Mysterious Ways - U2
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Graceland - Paul Simon
Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones
S Club Party - S Club 7

posted by Capn 25 March | 09:49

S Club Party - S Club 7

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 25 March | 10:19

Why do you laugh TPS? I am reliably assured that there is no party like an S-Club party.

posted by Capn 25 March | 11:24

I can't think of another nine, but "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen would have to be at the top of the list.

posted by Zozo 25 March | 11:39

In no particular order:

Going Underground - The Jam
September Gurls - Big Star
London Calling - The Clash
A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke (or the Otis Redding version)
Alison - Elvis Costello
What Is Life - George Harrison
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
Waterloo sunset - The Kinks
Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols
Ain't That a Kick in the Head - Dean Martin

(The second I post this, I will think of a dozen others.)

posted by scody 25 March | 12:02

Shall We Dance
Sing a Simple Song
Stagger Lee
Stormy Weather
Strange Fruit

It's a start, anyway. The 's' thing wasn't intentional, and then it was.

posted by box 25 March | 12:07

I think everyone should have these in their experiential repertoire, but not necessarily own:

Is That All There Is - Peggy Lee
Summer In The City - Lovin' Spoonful
Hot For Teacher - Van Halen
Love Cats - Cure
Take A Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed
Party All The Time - Eddie Murphy
Eat It - Weird Al Yankovic
Auld Lang Syne - Guy Lombardo
Push It - Salt N Pepa
White Horse - Laid Back

posted by go dog go 25 March | 12:42

This is too hard--i'd say one song from each of these people:

Irving Berlin
Cole Porter
Frank Sinatra
Billie Holiday
Elvis
Beatles or Rolling Stones or Who
Carly Simon or James Taylor or some other iconic 70s singer/songwriter person
Earth Wind & Fire or Donna Summer
Sex Pistols or Clash
Nirvana
Rapper's Delight or some other iconic rap song

(my personal list wouldn't at all be representative so wouldn't be what everyone should know)

posted by amberglow 25 March | 13:24

In no particular order:

Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Hot Cross Buns
Old Mac Donald Had a Farm
B-I-N-G-O
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Lullaby, and Goodnight
I've Been Working on the Railroad
Jingle Bells
The Alphabet Song
Yankees Suck*

(*In the case of Yankees Suck, it doesn't matter if you're a fan - you either tap your foot in time, start throwing punches, or take your drinks to the far end of the bar.)

posted by Smart Dalek 25 March | 13:55

The Girl from Ipanema - Antonio Carlos Tom Jobim
Travelling Riverside Blues - Led Zeppelin (the one with slide guit)
Golden Years - David Bowie
Sing a Simple Song - Sly & the Family Stone
Elucidations - Gary Burton
Blow Your Head - Fred Wesley & the JBs
Smallpox Champion - Fugazi
Back in the U.S.S.R. - Beatles
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
Summertime - George/Ira Gershwin

posted by furtive 25 March | 14:10

Time is on my Side - Rolling Stones
A day in the life - The Beatles
The Kids are Alright - The Who
The Grand Tour - George Jones
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
America - Simon and Garfunkel
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Desolation Row - Bob Dylan
Do You Realize?? - The Flaming Lips

(man, this is hard to pick ten!)

posted by drjimmy11 25 March | 14:34

Your Latest Trick - Dire Straits
Don't Know How to Party - Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Natives are Restless - Don Tiki
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
Eminence Front - The Who
Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
Use Me or Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone - Bill Withers
Mbube The Original Wimoweh - Solomon Linda's Evening Birds
Island in the Sun - Weezer
96 Degrees in the Shade - Third World
Bonus Track: Six String Music - Jimmy Buffett

It would be fun to keep going and going. There's Cake, Elvis, Led Zep, AC/DC and just so, so many more. In this day and age of fully portable music libraries, we don't have to choose. Its a very groovy time.

posted by fenriq 25 March | 15:00

Some of those selections are assuming I've got some decent bass to work with though.

posted by fenriq 25 March | 15:02

random, quick, albums and songs together:

1. Siren - Roxy Music
2. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
3. AC/DC - Black in Black and/or For Those About to Rock and/or the Whole Lotta Rosie single
4. anything by Jane's Addiction
5. anything by Eva Cassidy
6. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours, and maybe Tusk, but only for the Stevie songs
7. anything by Flaming Lips
8. anything by My Morning Jacket, except for Tennessee Fire
9. REM - Fables of the Reconstruction and/or Murmur and/or Document
10. anything by Neko Case and/or the New Pornographers

There's obviously far more than this, but these bands would keep alive if stranded definitely. (speaking of Stranded, that's another by Roxy Music everyone should own.)

posted by Lipstick Thespian 25 March | 15:17

ask me again tomorrow, and I'll probably have a different list. but for today, here's the top ten countdown... (YSIs all around...)

10) I Can't Seem to Make You Mine - The Clientele
9) I Can't Seem to Make You Mine - The Seeds
8) Find Yourself Another Girl - Jerry Butler (m4a)
7) I Wanna Destroy You - The Soft Boys
6) A Little Bit of Soap - The Jarmels
5) Love Me, Baby - ? and the Mysterians (m4a)
4) Who's Gonna Tell Mary? - The Moondogs
3) Shake Some Action - Flamin' Groovies
2) You'll Know Better (When I'm Gone) - The Jumpers
1) Another Girl, Another Planet - The Only Ones

posted by jann 25 March | 16:01

to be fair, there is some arbitrariness based on the desire to make a nice playlist, but I still think that everyone ought to at least hear these songs once or twice or a lot lot.

posted by jann 25 March | 16:04

Off the top of my head:*

My Generation - The Who, or even Patty Smith's live version.
Something I learned Today - Husker Du
Merchandise - Fugazi
P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up) - Parliment
Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning - Cowboy Junkies
Midnight Special (or, CC Rider) - Leadbelly
Four Women (or, Wild is the Wind) - Nina Simone
Car - Built to Spill
Cortez the Killer (or, Tonight's the Night) - Neil Young
Keep on the Sunnyside - The Carter Family

* in other words, it'll change for sure.

posted by safetyfork 25 March | 16:55

I've heard that eventually not too long from now, we'll be able to carry around every song ever published--is that so?

(and i wish we had that for books)

posted by amberglow 25 March | 17:10

We'll never be able to carry around every song ever published. As with books, movies, etc., some of it's already lost forever. Depending on how you look at it, that might be kind of a downer.

posted by box 25 March | 17:21

*imagines amberglow dragging a large white refridgerator-sized object to the next meetup*

'As much as I like these 1200 Petabyte iPods, they still don't hold enough! I'll have to trade mine in for a bigger one...'

posted by Smart Dalek 25 March | 19:30

: >

posted by amberglow 25 March | 20:11

Good Golly, Miss Molly - Little Richard
Rockaway Beach - The Ramones
Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
My Generation - The Who
Mannish Boy - Muddy Waters
Tramp - Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
Drift Away - Dobie Gray
Cry Me A River - Joe Cocker
Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Bastards Of Young - Replacements

posted by jonmc 25 March | 20:20

David Sylvian - Orpheus
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and It Doesn't Matter
David Bowie - Heroes
One Giant Leap - The Way You Dream
Yo La Tengo - Our Way to Fall
REM - Sweetness Follows
A Perfect Circle - 3 Libras
Kate Bush - This Woman's Work
Brian Eno/John Cale - Spinning Away
Sade - By Your Side

- these will all be different tomorrow, these will all still be with me in ten years -

posted by vers 25 March | 22:30

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

and 9 other things.

posted by Triode 26 March | 02:07

Elvis Presley - Latest Flame
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
The Knack - My Sharona
Joy Division - Ceremony
The Saints - Stranded
The Clash - Guns of Brixton
Johnny Cash - Fulsome Prison Blues
The Pogues - The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn
Grand Master Flash - The Message
Blondie - Rapture

Ten isn't enough! Whose stupid idea was this? I want 20 at least. I've also just realised there's no Stones, Who, Dylan, or REM on there.

I'd like to request that Amberglow fit an FM transmitter thing to his fridge so that I could just follow him around with something more portable. =)

posted by GeckoDundee 26 March | 06:54

Being for The Benefit of Mr Kite - The Beatles
Cat's in the Cradle - Cat Stevens
Disease - Matchbox 20
Do You Feel Like We Do? - Peter Frampton
The Fletcher Memorial Home - Pink Floyd
Hip To Be Square - Huey Lewis and the News
Hoochi Gucci Fiorichi Mama - Australian Crawl
Hotel California - The Eagles
House of the Rising Sun - Eric Burdon
Lawyers, Guns and Money - Warren Zevon
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous - Good Charlotte
Mr Damage - The Angels
Paradise By the Dashboard Light - Meatloaf
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (the whole thing, which is around 18 minutes long)
Smoke On the Water - Deep Purple
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zepelin
Telegraph Road - Dire Straits
Time - Pink Floyd
Time of Your Life - Green Day
Two Suns in the Sunset - Pink Floyd
Us and Them - Pink Floyd
Whatever Happened to the Revolution? - Skyhooks
The Wind Cries Mary - Jimi Hendrix

Hmmmm, I seem to have more that ten and these are just the ones on my iPod.

posted by dg 26 March | 22:46

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