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09 February 2007

Update. →[More:]my '300 Subjective Favorite Songs Ever Blog' (mission statement here) has reached a milestone. The first hundred are up, each accompanied with streaming mp3 audio and an essay. Her they are so far in ascending order.

300. Magic Lanterns "Frisco Annie"
299. Bruce Dickinson "Tattooed Millionaire"
298. Eternals "Babalu's Wedding Day"
297. Rose Tattoo "The Butcher & Fast Eddie"
296. Dirtbombs "Livin' For The City"
295. Dion "Lookin' For The Heart Of Saturday Night"
294. Archies "Bang-Shang-A-Lang"
293. El Chords "Peppermint Stick"
292. Geechie Wiley "Last Kind Word Blues"
291. James McMurtry " Levelland"
290. Ly-Dells "Three Little Monkeys"
289. Charlie Daniels Band "Trudy"
288. Outkast "Hey Ya"
287. Pretenders "Kid"
286. Iron Maiden "The Number Of The Beast"
285. Dictators "The Next Big Thing"
284. Napoleon XIV "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!"
283. Boomtown Rats "I Don't Like Mondays"
282. Screamin' Jay Hawkins "Constipation Blues"
281. Johnny Thunders "Too Much Junkie Business"
280. Mott The hoople "Saturday Gigs"
279. Status Quo "Paper Plane"
278. Bottle Rockets "Gotta Get Up"
277. Stevie Ray Vaughn "Life by The Drop"
276. Billy Joel "Miami 2017 (Live at WTC Tribute)"
275. Hanson "Mmm Bop"
274. Grass Roots "Sooner Or Later"
273. Cream "Spoonful"
272. Billy Joe Royal "I Knew You When"
271. Allen Toussaint "Soul Sister"
270. Trust "Prefabricated"
269. Blackfoot "Highway Song"
268. Axe "Rock 'N' Roll Party In The Streets"
267. Los Canarios "Peppermint Frappe"
266. Bob Dylan & The Band "Tiny Montgomery"
265. Jackson Five "ABC"
264. Nick Lowe "Heart Of The City"
263. Jason & The Scorchers "White Lies"
262. Rod Stewart "Every Picture Tells A Story"
261. Jim Carroll "Day & Night"
260. Dictators "Stay With Me"
259. Sonics "Psycho"
258. Mamas & The Papas "Go Where You Wanna Go"
257. Social Distortion "I Was Wrong"
256. Monkees "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
255. Neil Young "Fuckin' Up (live acoustic)"
254. Iggy Pop "The Passenger"
253. Steve Earle "Copperhead Road"
252. Television "Marquee Moon"
251. Nick cave & The Bad Seeds "The Ballad Of Robert Moore & Betty Coltrane"
250. Wendy O. Williams "It's My Life"
249. Mountain "Theme From An Imaginary Western"
248. Patti Smith "Gloria"
247. Johnny Copeland "Sufferin' City"
246. J. Geils Band "Houseparty (live)"
245. Paul Revere & The Raiders "Just Like Me"
244. Impressions "This Is My Country"
243. ZZ Top "Jesus Just Left Chicago"
242. Harvey Averne Dozen "Never Learned to Dance"
241. Peppermint Trolley Company "Baby, You Come Rollin' Cross My Mind"
240. Elmore James "Blues Before Sunrise"
239. Motorhead & Girlschool "Please Don't Touch"
238. Hollies "Bus Stop"
237. Rainmakers "Downstream"
236. T-Rex "Children Of The Revolution"
235. Funkadelic "Super Stupid"
234. David Allan Coe "Longhaired Redneck"
233. Shirley Ellis "Nitty Gritty"
232. Captain Beefheart "Abba Zabba"
231. Bobby Womack "Across 100rth Street"
230. Rainbow "All Night Long"
229. Public Enemy "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos"
228. Graham Parker "Local Girls"
227. Monster Magnet "Space Lord (live)"
226. Chris Bell "I Got Kinda Lost"
225. Iron City Houserockers "Junior's Bar"
224. Canned Heat "On The Road Again"
223. Neil Young "Wonderin'"
222. Left Banke "Walk Away Renee"
221. Kinks "Waterloo Sunset"
220. Lynyrd Skynyrd "Was I Right Or Wrong?"
219. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts "Bad Reputation"
218. Little Eva "The Locomotion"
217. Dictators "I Stand Tall"
216. Miracles "I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying"
215. Lou Reed "Intro/Sweet Jane (live)"
214. Twisted Sister "You Can't Stop Rock And Roll"
213. Stevie Wonder "Sir Duke"
212. Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul "I Am A Patriot"
211. Bob Seger "Feel Like A Number"
210. Little Richard "The Girl Can't Help It"
209. Kinky Friedman "They Ain't Makin Jews Like Jesus Anymore"
208. Rolling Stones "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadows?"
207. Stooges "Gimme Danger"
206. Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers "Road Runner"
205. James Brown "Say It Loud"
204. Impressions "Choice of Colors"
203. Exciters "Do-Wah-Diddy"
202. Tom Waits "Step Right Up"
201. Fastbacks "On The Couch"
200. Jack Scott "Goodbye Baby"

post by: jonmc at: 09:39 | 33 comments

oh, and 234 is actually David Allan Coe "Longhaired Redneck"

posted by jonmc 09 February | 09:57

ach! The Left banke's "Walk Away Renee" belongs in there between Neil Young and The Kinks. Teach me to post pre-coffee. Hope me?

posted by jonmc 09 February | 10:01

I'm impressed! I come up with ideas like this sometimes, and always talk myself out of them because of the sheer amount of work involved. You're plowing through these like a madman.

posted by BoringPostcards 09 February | 10:02

jon, if you send me your revised list, I'll replace this one.

posted by taz 09 February | 10:03

well, it helps that I have time on my hands, and besides I actually enjoy sharing and writing about music. My main goal besides articulating things to myself is to get people to listen or relisten to the songs with a new perpsective. Hopefully, I'm succeeding.

(taz check your mail)

posted by jonmc 09 February | 10:07

also, in doing fact-checking for the essays, I'm learning all kinds of new stuff. God bless Wikipedia.

posted by jonmc 09 February | 10:10

Why isn't this all over the tubes? It's a great idea and more people should be doing it. jonmc, start a movement (but not a scatological one).

posted by Captaintripps 09 February | 10:11

Congrats!!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 09 February | 10:14

Jon, you have excellent taste in music, I can look down that list and pick out so many of my favorites from it, it' sort of uncanny. I know we diverge on the modern stuff, but damn...

If I owned a radio station you'd have a DJ slot for life.

posted by Divine_Wino 09 February | 10:17

okee, fixed!

posted by taz 09 February | 10:19

heh. actually there's at least one song from the new millenium there, and a couple from just before, so I might surrise you. (and there'll be a few more good ones this afternoon)

(thanks, taz)

posted by jonmc 09 February | 10:22

If I owned a radio station you'd have a DJ slot for life.
best dj ever...

posted by getoffmylawn 09 February | 10:36

You are constructing an edifice, dude. A mighty edifice of rock!

Kinda puts that whole "underachiever" thing to rest, though, don't it?

(Also, is there a way to get to the first post without having to hit 'older' numerous times in succession?)

posted by Atom Eyes 09 February | 10:37

the 'mission statement' link in the original post also is a link to song #300, then click 'next post' when you want to go to the next entry.

posted by jonmc 09 February | 10:39

You should aftermarket mp3 players with this stuff on it. I wonder if there is any potential in that idea. . .

posted by danf 09 February | 10:44

Yeah, I've been enjoying these a lot.

posted by gaspode 09 February | 10:45

Congrats jonmc. I just listened to Billy Joe Royal's, "I Knew You When". Off to listen to the Mama's and the Papa's.

#276 makes me wanna cry, cry, cry. Not because of the song, but beacause back in December friends bought us a pair of Billy Joel concert tickets for this Saturday night. We've all been so busy, and because I am an airhead I put myself down to work this Saturday. Yesterday when they called, we had to ask them to give the tickets to another couple, there's not enough time to get down there. I am forever doing stupid stuff like this.

posted by LoriFLA 09 February | 10:46

You should aftermarket mp3 players with this stuff on it. I wonder if there is any potential in that idea. . .

Heh. I'm hoping to use the essays as a portfolio to maybe get some freelance writing work (as the Kryptonite to Pitchfork Media, hahahaha!) but when I'm done with all 300, I'll be happy to .zip the whole thing up (uncompressed, it's 1.3 gigs) and ysi it, or even maybe to a radio marathon or something.

LoriFLA: that song makes my eyes well up, too, but for very different reasons.

posted by jonmc 09 February | 10:51

also, to all the vox-ers who've commented so far, thanks for the insights and compliments.

posted by jonmc 09 February | 10:52

Mazel Tov!

*toasts glass of Macallan*

To the next 200!

posted by Pips 09 February | 11:06

aw damn, I'm so far behind. I'll try and catch up this weekend. You've actually inspired me to do a sort of looser version of this, although I don't think I can do the countdown thing, it's just too hard for me to say this song is one better than this one, etc. It'll have to be just more "here's some stuff I like".

I'll bet this starts getting more attention the closer this gets to #1.

Also, did you see paulsc's set a couple of days ago? He included notes with it. I thought it would be a nice format for you as well (not necessarily for this list, just when you start DJing here).

posted by Hellbient 09 February | 12:09

I have technical issues that prevent me from DJ'ing at mecha at the moment, but I'll keep that in mind. And FWIW, I am not making this up as I go along, the list was cast in stone months ago.

posted by jonmc 09 February | 12:30

I drink my morning coffee listening to your posts, jonmc. I'm afraid, however, I haven't been very diligent in commenting. Fear not though, your work is not going unnoticed, and thanks.

posted by mischief 09 February | 12:31

I've been listening too. And I'm really glad and grateful you're doing this, because I love finding out why people love the music they do, and it always makes me hear with different ears. Thanks, jon.

posted by tangerine 09 February | 13:28

Thank you tangerine. And part of the reason I originally mentioned my idea for this on here was to keep myself from wussing out and not doing it and making myself look like a lazy fool.

Also, I've been trying very hard (in my antidote-to-Pitchfork-crusade) to make sure I cover at least three things in every entry:

1. some basic exposition, since not everybody might be as familiar with this stuff as my coterie of record geeks.
2. Social/historical/cultural context of the song in question and how that effects it's impact.
3. A description of the actual experience of how the song sounds and what that makes me feel and think.

In my experience, a lot of music writing (guys like Lester Bangs, Nelson George, Dave Marsh and Legs McNeil snd sometimes Greil Marcus are the big exceptions) concentrate way too much on numer 2 and completely ignore 1 and 3.

posted by jonmc 09 February | 14:51

I look at my CD collection and think it's quite impressive. I look at this list and realise that it's not as impressive as I thought. This is great stuff.

posted by TheDonF 09 February | 14:51

I can't listen, but I read the posts. I have owned a handful of these tracks on LP and tape, but never on digital.

It is interesting that, with the stuff I am familiar with, I would have chosen other equally obscure tracks (like 12:30 from the Mamas and the Papas, and Borrowed Tune from Neil Young and Mother's Little Helper by the Rolling Stones but that's my list, not yours, so I salute the breadth and depth of your selections.

Can't wait to see the rest.

posted by danf 09 February | 15:14

(oh, there will be other songs from some of those artists, trust me, dan)

posted by jonmc 09 February | 15:28

Feature request: is there any chance you could list the album that the track is on? I've just played the Fastbacks track and it's great. A search on Amazon shows that they've got quite a few albums out and I'm fundamentally too lazy to search through them all to find the right one to add to my ever-growing wish list.

posted by TheDonF 09 February | 15:31

DonF, in some cases I don't even know. I believe that song is a b-side of a single or off a compilation.

posted by jonmc 09 February | 15:44

Ah okay, no probs.

posted by TheDonF 09 February | 16:12

Rock on, jonmc! I will schedule some blog/music time this weekend!

posted by fenriq 09 February | 16:43

Yay jon! I am so behind with reading/listening to these.

posted by casarkos 09 February | 21:12

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