"Hard rain's gonna fall" - Bob Dylan

The vast abstract experiences relating to a world that has lost spirituality...the need for change......that all things bad will be cleansed in time. An infinate number of experiences that all lead to one path. Wonderful...compelling...and dare i say...lyrical genius.

court and spark

That's a tough one as I have many favorites. Best I can do is give the top 10 in no particular order.


Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" (long version)

Stephen Stills's "Treetop Flyer"

Loreena McKennitt's "Dante's Prayer"

Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like I do"

Madonna's "Live To Tell"

Kasey Chamber's "The Captain"

Jesse Cook's "Mario Takes A Walk"

Ashlee Simpson's "LaLa"

Micheal Jackson's "Thriller"

Declan Masterson's "Leis Lacha; Au Glueth Anior Aneas; Calin an Ti Mhiur"

ghetto child- the curtis mayfield demo version

black bird- beatles

kung fu- curtis mayfield

no lie- buddy guy

bridge is over-bdp

the world is yours-nas

get out my life woman- joe williams

Trouble - Cat Stevens

Saw the film Harold & Maude and hei.. it's overwealming both soundtrack and the film and fit perfectly together!

This is my alltime favourite song


and to break the thread ruleZ:
For my fallen angel - My dying bride

I don't think I have one.

I don't have a favourite ex-girlfriend, either, though.

They all brought something unique, as does a great song.

'Pinball Wizard'

And it's not just the power that 'The Who' got into it .... Reg's version is tremendous too.

David Bowie - "Heroes".

Not sure why, but there is something about the lyrics that just gives me goosebumps every time i hear it. it's so bittersweet and yet it has such a sense of hope.

and the melody and production as fantastic as well.

"we could be heroes, just for one day". classic.

man next door by massive attack.

i think it is about being an at home producer.

theres a man that lives next door in my neighbor hood. in my neighbor hood he lives next door. he gets in so late at night. always a fuss and fight. always a fuss and fight, all through the night.

Thanks man. I really appreciated your little notes about that song, seriously those were cool pieces of info. For some reason knowing that it was recorded in Miami really makes sense to me, I always figured LA but yeah.

"In the air tonight" Mr. Phil Collins. Love the drums, the vocal everything really.

The first time the BGVX come in with that "oooooooh......" I get goose bumps. Every time.

It's too hard for me to pick a fave Stones song, 'cause I'll hear "As Tears Go By" and I'll think: "That's it!" But then I'll Hear "Sway" or "Play With Fire" and react the same way. It's really a devastating body of work.

Same with the Kinks. "Waterloo Sunset" was a close second for me, but there are SO damn many spectacular ones. "Victoria", "Willesden Green", "Autumn Almanac", "Gods Children", "Ape Man", "Well Respected Man", "Art Lover"...

Mercenary Territory


Is it the lies?
Is it the style?

It's a mercenary territory
I wish you knew the story
I've been out here so long dreamin up songs
I'm temporarily qualmless and sinking

I've did my time in that rodeo
It's been so long and I've got nothing to show
Well I'm so plain loco
Fool that I am I'd do it all over again

Is it the style?
Is it the lies?
Is it the days into nights
Or the "I'm sorry"s into fights

Now some kind of man, he can't do anything wrong
If I see him I'll tell him you're waiting
'Cause I'm devoted for sure but my days are a blur
While my nights turn into your mornings

Well I did my time in that rodeo
Fool that I am I'd do it all over again

Is it love keeps you waiting so long
Makes you say I'll see you around
The forces that be, they just don't see
While your nights turn into my mornings

Is it the style?
Is it the lies?
Is it the days into nights
Or the "I'm sorrys" into fights

Kinda sums up my twisted little world to a "T"... in fact, sounds like most recording engineers I've met over the years [especially the "While my nights turn into your mornings" line]... that and how the syncopation on the intro groove releases into this like open and up, behind the beat thing is a motherfukker.

Liked the song so much named a business after it...

Bowie - 'Life on Mars' if I have to pick just one.

Probably because my hormones were just beginning to activate!

Big Star - Kangaroo

.....I've always loved feedback

Steve

Billy Paul ,Me and Mrs. Jones'

I could listen to that all day. A perfect song with a perfect vocal and a perfect arrangement.

Even on CD (Check the Columbia Legacy 'The Philly Sound' 3-CD box) it sounds gorgeously warm and full.

I always just loved it on an emotional level but when you start to analyze it a bit, it's incredible how much is going on in the arrangement without ever taking away from the song/vocal: Strings/horns/celeste/guitars/back vox/etc.

The Wes-inspired guitar hook is great and the dynamics are oh-so dramatic.

How did they get that amazing compressed bass/drum sound? It's upfront but velvety at the same time. When you listen to the song on headphones it's amazing how much echo there is on the track, it almost throws you off but in context it's beautiful.

The vocal is a once-in-a-lifetime performance IMO, it's amazing how 'inside' the track the vocal is.

Perfection on all fronts!

Andi

www.doorknocker.ch

You would think it would be so easy to dismiss this tune as disposable pablum...but I once heard the Bill Frisell Trio play "Live To Tell" at the old Knitting Factory, and I swear the heavens parted, time stood still, the universe became an instant of pure white light, the top of my head came off & hovered eight feet off the ground for an eternity while everything I thought I'd ever known & felt spilled out of me onto the floor. Those mofos *killed* with that tune.

"Yours Is No Disgrace"

Im...fn'...possible to choose one.


'Levon'...Elton John. (first pick in the hundreds that flashed the brain)

Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Opus 80
I've been obsessed with this Masterpiece for years. Best musical piece EVER written.

to something more recent,

U2 - "bullet the blue sky"

those hypnotic first 4 drum bars, could loop forever. A quite simple but really deeep song. It easily standed out from The Joshua Tree album (not an easy thing to do).
On the Rattle and Hum movie, it gets even better, with Bono turning the song into the Apocalypsis.
He's still doing it live, changing the contents of the final "speech" to focus to whatever politican, crime or war is on the news today, as there's always something to be ashamed of.
A really timeless song.


come run...
into the arms....
of America.

My "favorite" song changes from time to time but this is the one that has been doing it for me lately. War on War by Wilco. I keep listening the **** out of this song lately. Love the production of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and love the band. Great album, fantastic song.

"Baba O'Reilly" by the Who (all bow to Pete)

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

Powerful performances and powerful words to live by.

The correct song, the correct reasons

Sand River by Beth Gibbons.

perfectly written, perfectly arranged and perfectly performed.

not to mention that the recording is also quite amazing.

there's something about Beth's voice that is both haunting and hopeful, so so beautiful.
i've seen her live and she's every bit as engaging and soulfull.

FM

FM is as pretty as can be.

Sheesh...what a tough question!

Someone earlier mentioned a song that influenced them the most, so I will do the same:

"I'm Going Home" - Ten Years After (Alvin Lee)

Not that the song is the greatest ever, and I am talking about the Woodstock version here, so the sound quality is not the greatest, but it had the most profound effect on me as a kid.

I wanted to be just like Alvin Lee!!! I picked up a guitar, and have never looked back. That one song (and the video that goes with it) has influenced my life more than any other, that is for sure!

It got me started on this long spiral down into the insipid world of music and recording...1971 or 1972??? Ouch! I *am* getting old!

"Let Down", Radiohead

The song is just so enveloping for lack of a better term. A guitar riff played to a completely different time signature that just sounds perfect if you pay attention to the rest of the song, or the rest of the song sounds perfect if you pay attention to the riff (confusing, isn't it). The ultra-rare Yorke doubled, panned vocals, the swung/shuffled/driven drums, the incredible chorus, gut wrenching lyrics, and that incredible bridge with the ingoing-but-outgoing-then back together panned harmonies. The thing just lifts you up, puts you down, then vanishes. Love that song.

Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2!


- I remember back in 1984, I started to really like Depeche Mode & I was going with my band mate to buy a drum machine from a guy at our school....
( we were 14 years old, and had been starting our band playing "Judas Priest" songs(!!), but now we were fascinated by the new synth wave..)

We were on our way to get the drum machine, but stopped by at a another friends house first, and he put in a VHS with U2- Live at red rocks, and the performance & song was Sunday bloody Sunday...

I was stunned!!!

I cant explain it, but that song & that performance was just..... amazing, and I asked him to play it to me over & over again, at least 20 times...
The Drum intro was fantastic, and the guitar riff was magical!!!

I told my friend to forget about the drum machine, and buy a bass guitar instead, and we were "back" playing rock music...he, he...

But I must say that when I was very young in the early 70´s, I remember i heard a song that sounded "Fantastic", And It grabbed me in a similar way i guess...


-That song was Help!, with The Beatles!
I still think to this day that its the best " under 3 minutes", pop song ever written..

KK

Surprised you were the first to mention it, but the song of his that moves me most is "Just Like Starting Over" with those haunting choruses and that huge flange at the end...when I was a kid it was one of the first 45's I ever bought and I wore it out.

It has all the elements of a powerful song that I dig.

War

thumbsup thumbsup thumbsup

FM

Moving target.


Current fav:
Tear stained eye by Sun Volt

"Can you deny, there's nothin' greater, nothin' more, than the travelin' hands of time."


D