50 Best Songs of All Time According to Rolling Stone's BRAND NEW, 100% Revamped Top 500

yeah Babies might still be the best

This Is Hardcore - Musically, it's kind of interesting: a James Bond theme as imagined by a sad drunk who won't stop going on. Wish it had spun out naturally around 4.15, which is where I derailed right around THAT GOES IN THERE THAT GOES IN THERE UNGHGUGNGHGUUHH. Pretty charming up till then though.

Sunrise - Six minutes of pomp without circumstance. Generally that speaks to me but not here.

Underwear - If they gave the dead milkmen quaaludes

as always, i reserve the right to completely rethink everything i believe but i am okay not listening to pulp anymore except maybe for the newly posted version of Legendary Girlfriend to see if they made the highs higher.

Yeah the Youtube version of Leg Girl is very good!

lo-fi pulp hits the right points imo

I have been biting my tongue not talking about 80s pulp but would say it is all pretty lo-fi

As a Pulp fan I mostly agree with your observations. Try Babies.

forks if you like Roadrunner (and who wouldn't?) you should definitely check out that Modern Lovers album. Lots more of the same vibe.

i will likely go back to that modern lovers album.

Babies is pretty good! If I had started here I woulda likely had a lot more patience for this band.

Frankly had no idea they dated back to the 80s!

So forks is coming around on Pulp. Now onto “Waterloo Sunset.”

xp Formed in 1978 when Jarvis was 15!

Is there an Apple Music playlist of the whole 500 up anywhere? A few quick searches revealed only partial lists, older lists, people's personal selections from the master list, etc.

I thought I knew every song in the top 50 but just listened to "Gasolina," and cannot recall ever hearing this curiosity. Wish I could change my vote. Video is heinous.

Sorry, should have posted that in the Worst songs thread.

just listened to Gasolina in full for first time and I love it

Is there an Apple Music playlist of the whole 500 up anywhere? A few quick searches revealed only partial lists, older lists, people's personal selections from the master list, etc.

Here you go:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4EdmaJCUXvXsXJKXZGvj2r?si=bc91434935b6452d

I also made a playlist of all ILX track poll winers that I listed in my post from yesterday, in case anyone's interested:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4cgduOuzi3ut0Lq2zmz0rt?si=d27239fd317645f0

ILXors discovering "Gasolina," perhaps one of the most consequential songs of the 21st Century, is very entertaining, plz do not stop

It's a good example of how fractured music is in the 21st Century!

I don't know about "discover" as I have heard it many times in bits and pieces, first time I have actually listened to it properly

#14 - The Kinks "Waterloo Sunset"
I like quite a lot of The Kinks music that I've heard quite a lot but I do not like this at all!

this is truly one of the most baffling opinions i've ever heard on ilx

don't know what to tell you!

nor I you!

"purple rain" ranking over "when doves cry" is really grinding my gears

also

42. Bob Marley & the Wailers, "Redemption Song"

isn't even a top 20 marley song much less representing reggae as a whole in the top 50

I never thought Gasolina was one of the best 50 songs of all time but in a dour playlist like this, it certainly feels like a “hell yeah!” moment when it comes on.

the ranking is, in general, hilarious here but it's such an obvious attempt at "sparking discourse" that i can hardly let it bother me.

as with all top whatever lists, this is a list of songs where most of them are well known and pretty good to excellent. which is not to say they are < or > than anything else.

Gasolina was inescapable for years in huge parts of the world, but yeah, living in the US you could easily have never heard it. Of course, the same was true of Las Ketchup, and I don't see them in the top 50.

I kinda like The Ketchup Song (Asereje), something about the slightly out-of-time, slightly-out-of-rhythm unharmonised descending-scale vocals paired with the generic upbeat backing produces this distinctive kind of unintended melancholy, it's like a V/VM version of itself.

very tempted to troll whiney and bring up crazy frog here

I’m not much of a fan of “Waterloo sunset” either. I’d put 10 Kinks’ songs ahead of that one easily.

That said I don’t mind it and can see why some people think it’s one of their best songs.

There was a People's Songs episode on Radio 4 about Waterloo Sunset, and can report that after half an hour or so it becomes pretty tiresome to listen to, my wife asked me to turn the radio off.

I still subscribe to the Challopian Christgovian orthodoxy about "Waterloo Sunset" being "the most beautiful song in the English language," in no small part due to the ethereal harmonizing of Dave and Rasa Davies, but don't expect others to share this belief and hesitate to brand them as infidels, especially someone as nice as forks.

I saw Jon Brion do "Waterloo Sunset" with Benmont Tench & Glenn Kotche, and if memory serves me right, he called it the greatest song ever written.

Pulp will never top "Disco 2000" imo

The other perfect song on Different Class

So many good Pulp songs, hard to pick one.

This video may have the opposite effect. Found it whilst looking for a quote from Steve Jones which I couldn't locate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0qnHaWfQXg

There was a People's Songs episode on Radio 4 about Waterloo Sunset, and can report that after half an hour or so it becomes pretty tiresome to listen to, my wife asked me to turn the radio off.

― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, September 20, 2021 3:50 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Is this supposed an indictment of the song somehow?

I listened to “People Get Ready” for 24 hours straight and you know what, it’s just not that good a song.

Sometimes I can listen to a song over and over for hours on end and sometimes I have to turn it off right away and take a break from it for a few years, not necessarily a reflection on the quality of the song.

Ha, xpost!

think my favourite songs I could listen to for half an hour on repeat and wouldn't tire of them at all, since that's the format of the show and there were lots of episodes, I would say that approx 40% of the songs got fairly annoying by the end (worst was Part Of The Union)

I'm trying to calculate age and location probabilities for hearing Crazy in Love for the first time in 2021. I have 8, Papua New Guinea or 72, Idaho.

I did see the video at the time, but never made it to the end till now. I haven't trusted her since she turned Destiny's Child to a trio.

What if I told you this song … did come out in 1982

Oh I hear the Clash in it now, must have been subconscious. Another I - V - IV progression, too, which I criticized in the Robyn song, and then realized is also in "Waterloo Sunset", my poll choice! (hypocrisy)

Sometimes I can listen to a song over and over for hours on end

I have a rule never to listen to a song more than once a day (unless I'm learning to play it, or practicing it); I don't want to have a song I like "go dead" on me.

Is the going dead related to semantic satiation?

Looks like it. I remember the phrase from film critic/teacher Robin Wood, talking about Hitchcock's films.

Waterloo Sunset is one of those songs that's special to me not because I want to listen to it all the time or on repeat, but because it captures a particular mood that I have felt often and there's nothing else that quite captures that particular nuance of feeling and POV for me. When you want to listen to Waterloo Sunset there are no substitutes, and if Waterloo Sunset didn't exist, there would be a big empty space where it's supposed to be.

That perfect balance of loneliness and beauty; the way you can feel that the singer both is and isn't lying to himself when he says he doesn't need anything but this.
There's genuine awe and wonder in it, and a real joy in being an observer, and yet you never lose the knowledge that all this beauty is born out of loneliness and that loneliness will be waiting again when the moment is over.

I did see the video at the time, but never made it to the end till now. I haven't trusted her since she turned Destiny's Child to a trio.

this is incredible

lol

For fellow Apple Music users: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/rolling-stone-500-greatest-songs/pl.u-DdANeoqIaa7PdR

The only error I've encountered on this playlist so far: the Merle Haggard/Willie Nelson cover of "Pancho & Lefty" is included in place of the original.

To be honest, that's probably the version people actually voted for/think of when they think of that song.

Blasphemy

Looks like they missed one: https://exclaim.ca/music/article/smash_mouth_want_to_know_why_all_star_isnt_on_that_rolling_stone_list-the_band_took_to_twitter_to_demand_answers

Feel free to clog this thread with fantasy ballots.

OK – I'm gonna do it (timing it after hours, for minimal annoyance).

These are in no particular order; I just listed til I hit 50, then made a few swaps. It's purely personal faves – songs that are close to my heart, for whatever reason – and not going for objective/historical significance. (The list probably has some "recency bias" – 2 songs from this year! – but I think that's OK)

I Missed the Point - Neko Case
Push It - Salt-N-Pepa
Match Made Up in Heaven - Jill
You Dropped a Bomb on Me - Gap Band
Tumbling Dice - Rolling Stones
Start Me Up - Rolling Stones
Loretta's Scars - Pavement
Found a Job - Talking Heads
Man, I Feel Like a Woman - Shania Twain
Give Him a Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las
Out in the Streets - Shangri-Las
When U Were Mine - Prince
She Makes Me Shake Like a Soul Machine - Unrest
Shivers - Boys Next Door
Mamma Mia - ABBA
The Drum - Slapp Happy + all covers (Bongwater, Impossibles, Love and Hates)
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man - Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
Break Free - Ariana Grande ft. Zedd
NASA - Ariana Grande
She's Your Lover Now - Bob Dylan
Plekhanov - Red Crayola w/Art & Language
A Portrait of V.I. Lenin in the Style of Jackson Pollock, Part 1 - Red Crayola w/Art & Language
The United States vs. One 1974 Cadillac El Dorado Sedan - Royal Trux
Green Limousine - Howling Hex
Into the Groove - Madonna
Is It True - Brenda Lee
Look in My Diary - Reparata and the Delrons
Trash - New York Dolls
Tossin' and Turnin' - Bobby Lewis
Father Figure - George Michael
Don't Change - INXS
The Great Pretender - Platters
Nanou2 - Aphex Twin
Good 4 U - Olivia Rodrigo
Watch - Billie Eilish
Shine a Light - Wolf Parade
Breakin' Down the Walls of Heartache - The Bandwagon
When It All Comes Down - Miaow
L.A. Mist - The Sharp Ease
Part of Your World - Jodi Benson (Little Mermaid soundtrack)
What Goes On - Velvet Underground
Rare - Selena Gomez
Garden - The Fall
Ten Years Gone - Led Zeppelin
Band of Gold - Freda Payne
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
These Are Days - 10,000 Maniacs
Chris Michaels - Fiery Furnaces
Centerfold - J. Geils Band
Law Man - Jefferson Airplane