ILM POLLS THE 20TH CENTURY'S BEST TRACKS ››› YOUR RESULTS THREAD ‹‹‹

YES to 'Maggot Brain', glad I voted for that one; 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' I'm not so keen on anymore; 'A Day in the Life' never gets old - didn't vote for it but it deserves to be up here.

XXX-Post Virtually everything The Beatles did in 1967 was great.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Thursday, December 2, 2010 5:03 PM

HAHA I made almost the exact OPPOSITE statement upthread.

Fuck me - "A Day In The Life?!?!" It's no "Totally Wired." Etc.

'Maggot Brain' made such a huge impression the first time I heard it - I bought the album never hearing a note and there was no way I was expecting THAT.

Oh dear god Tuomas do you have no concept of personality within music?

Sure, but my hatred of rock music has also made me highly allergic of rock guitars and especially rock guitar solos. "Maggot Brain" is one of the few examples where I've managed to mostly get over that allergy to appreciate the tune for what it is.

I was actually referring to your comments on 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. I love some Funkadelic but cut them from my list in the end.

30. THE JACKSON 5 "I Want You Back" (1969) [1,953 points, 18 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZt16gVNHGI

djp there's only 2 great songs on sgt peppers though!

That album is weird in that I think it justifies its canonical status as a body of work, but most of the individual songs are weak.

Never having heard a note I mean (xxxp)

Another song I didn't even think of voting for but as soon as I hear it I know I'll regret not putting it on my list.

'Day in the Life' seemed to me like the most 'important' of the Beatles songs nominated. Is this the higher they will go?

― Moka, Thursday, December 2, 2010 2:00 PM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark

well, "strawberry fields forever", of course. that hasn't shown up yet, has it?

i didn't give much love to the beatles, voting only for "and your bird can sing" and "she said she said", neither of which i expect to see make the cut. odd thing is that they aren't really my favorite beatles songs, but i've heard my favorites so very many times by now. anyway, i'm really glad that "a day in the life" did so well, blew my mind out when i was a kid (not necessarily in a car).

"love will tear us apart" is devoid of personality, consisting only of affect and intensity (albeit an easy mistake to make)

I Want You Back = greatest bassline ever?

Where's 'Totally Wired' btw? I think a lot of us voted for it. Really want The Fall to show up eventually.

I've never really had a clear favourite Beatles song but in the last few months I've really come around to 'You Never Give Me Your Money', so I voted for that. It's like a mini-Abbey Road medley.

hopefully we won't be seeing any more michael jackson.

OUT

This next one surprised the hell out of me by staying #1 for a while in early returns...it dropped.

voted for "She Loves You." yeah yeah yeah!

"love will tear us apart" is devoid of personality, consisting only of affect and intensity (albeit an easy mistake to make)

Yeah, this is a completely groundless assertion.

'Day in the Life' seemed to me like the most 'important' of the Beatles songs nominated. Is this the higher they will go?

― Moka, Thursday, December 2, 2010 2:00 PM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark

well, "strawberry fields forever", of course. that hasn't shown up yet, has it?

i didn't give much love to the beatles, voting only for "and your bird can sing" and "she said she said", neither of which i expect to see make the cut. odd thing is that they aren't really my favorite beatles songs, but i've heard my favorites so very many times by now. anyway, i'm really glad that "a day in the life" did so well, blew my mind out when i was a kid (not necessarily in a car).

― phish in your sleazebag (contenderizer)

If I had to vote for any of the Beatles songs nominated I think I'd go for any of those two, coincidentally. I've never been an active hater/lover of the Beatles but 'Revolver' and 'Rubber Soul' are the ones that I appreciate the most. Maybe I'd even place 'Magical mystery tour' as top 3 of their recordings for me.

29. THE MODERN LOVERS "Roadrunner" (1972) [1,957 points, 18 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ6cNGhdgEU

hopefully we won't be seeing any more michael jackson.

I'd have no problems seeing "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" or "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" winning this poll.

uh

This next one surprised the hell out of me by staying #1 for a while in early returns...it dropped.

― Lightning Is For Babies (Johnny Fever)

Which means I probably voted fot it!

xxpost: YES!

That would have been an awesome #1. Sadly, I ended up cutting it out of my ballot in a mad slashing session.

cant wait for the reaction of Tuomas to this one..

Wooo, Modern Lovers. My absolute favourites weren't nominated, but 'Roadrunner' is such a stand-alone song.

Yes! This song is absolute perfection. Classic opening to one of the best albums ever made.

oh jeez, how did I not vote for I Want You Back.

That album is weird in that I think it justifies its canonical status as a body of work, but most of the individual songs are weak.

They aren't, but they suddenly seemed very irrelevant in the wake of punk, and, later, in the wake of the R&B/hip-hop/dance revolution. The album was extremely influential of virtually anything that happened in progressive rock/grownup rock until the mid 70s.

yeah, i voted for it, too. an all time favorite, and one of surprisingly few even borderline "punk" songs to have made my list.

said welcome to the spirit of 1956
patient in the bushes next to '57

"Roadrunner" is exactly the sort of rock song I will never learn to understand. Dude is a bad singer, there's no catchy melody, nor is the song rhythmically or sonically interesting. Any of these four things might make me dig a song, but since they're all missing I don't see what's the point. The only good thing are the "radio on" shouts towards the end.

haha

I mean, it's not a terrible, ear-piercing song either, just a completely generic rock tune.

was Subway Sect - Ambition nominated? That should be in the top 10!

I truly am happy, Tuomas, you continue to play along despite not liking so many songs. Find it refreshing to hear from someone outside the echo chamber tbh.

I'm not really appreciating the top 50 at all
The results are all feeling like 'ILXors of a Certain Age' (and certain mentality to boot)

If you think of this as "ILX's favorite songs of all time," then this is a pretty reasonable result, with a few gross exceptions. It's only when you think of it as "the 20th Century's Best Tracks" as polled by ILM, that I begin to think that ILM, collectively, just wasn't up to this sort of task.

But this was basically what I expected out of this poll from the very beginning anyway, and treated it as such, and constructed my nominations and ballot (which I wouldn't nec defend against the top 100 here) with that in mind hoping to have maximum impact. So it was partially a self-fulfilling prophecy on my part, but I think also good judgment.

28. SAM COOKE "A Change Is Gonna Come" (1964) [1,968 points, 21 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48K5Y0421Ig

yes!

tbh I would play "Bamboo Banger" about a million and a half times before I ever played "Roadrunner"

thank god for youtube, so much instant gratification.

You can say what you like about critics, and their tendency to turn the subjective into objective. But when it comes to attempting to put together a representative "objective" list of songs from 1900-2000, then a bunch of professional music critics probably would have been more qualified to to a better job.

Another of my votes, brilliant.

i thought that's what ILM was
xp

I love the transition from the schmaltzy violins into Cooke's vocal. The orchestration doesn't change much but his voice somehow tames it.

Not surprised to see it this way up, but I personally like earlier Sam Cooke much better. "You Send Me", "Only Sixteen", "Wonderful World" and "Cupid" were all among the best songs made pre-Beatles.

So far the only regret I have in not voting in this poll is not getting "I want you back" higher in the standings. Probably would've been my #1. WTF is wrong with you people? Lower than Roadrunner? Really?

(deep breath) agree 100% with geir about the track-by-track songwriting quality of sgt. peppers. a lot of it is very light, seemingly simple, almost childish, but that hardly makes it bad. maybe it's easier from this distance to respect something like "a day in the life", but there's so much other great stuff on the album: "lovely rita meter maid", "lucy in the sky with diamonds", "she's leaving home", "within you without you", the title track, "fixing a hole", even "when i'm sixty-four".

I shouldn't really get into it on this thread, but pretty much the thing I hate the most in discussions of music is the trope of 'good singing'. Urgh.

"Roadrunner" is exactly the sort of rock song I will never learn to understand. Dude is a bad singer, there's no catchy melody, nor is the song rhythmically or sonically interesting. Any of these four things might make me dig a song, but since they're all missing I don't see what's the point. The only good thing are the "radio on" shouts towards the end.

― Tuomas, Thursday, 2 December 2010 22:21 (6 minutes ago)

Listen to the lyrics dude