beatlelover45223
Dec 13, 2004, 02:01 PM
article (http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2004/12/13/life/tim_cain/1004461.txt)
Questions we won't ask Rolling Stone
By TIMCAIN - H&R Entertainment Editor
There are a few questions that will not come out of this corner about Rolling Stone magazine's "Top 500 songs" list, as it appears in the Dec. 9 issue.
Lists like this, after all, are made to spark discussion and sales, and no harm is done with a little discussion and lively debate.
So the following questions won't be addressed here:
How can they have only one Billy Joel song ("Piano Man," No. 421)?
How does "Billie Jean" (58) end up so far ahead of "Beat It" (337), and why are they the only solo Michael Jackson songs on the list?
How is it that Jimi Hendrix's "Foxey Lady" is listed with a release date of 1965 when Hendrix was actually playing the U.S. chitlin circuit at the time and didn't even form the Jimi Hendrix Experience until October 1966, and the single first charted in the United States in December 1967? (A mistake in Rolling Stone? Who's ever heard of such a thing?)
How come the Bee Gees, Big Star, Black Sabbath, the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Police, R.E.M., Rod Stewart and Donna Summer each have two songs on the list, one less than Blondie, the Crystals and the Ramones, but one more than Paul McCartney?
How is it that only 80 songs from the past 25 years are on a list of 500 great songs from the last 55 years?
How come the audio excerpt offered for Blue Oyster Cult's magnificent "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (No. 397) is an acoustic version with no cowbell?
No cowbell. The humanity.
Blogging on the subject in mid-November, when the top 50 of the list was the only thing available, my observation was that it featured only three songs released after 1977, which gave the impression. In about 30 minutes of thought, a handful of songs released in the last 10 years that could have made someone's top 50 came to mind. A couple of them made the list, and one artist was represented by two songs, neither of which was my selection.
OutKast's "Hey Ya" was at No. 180, and The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" came in at 382. My suggestion of Radiohead's "High and Dry" was rejected in favor of "Fake Plastic Trees" (376) and "Paranoid Android" (256).
My other arguments included "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne, "Wonderwall" by Oasis, New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" (OK, let the hate mail begin), Garbage's "Push It," "Till I Hear It From You" by Gin Blossoms, "Popular" by Nada Surf, Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and the song that in my humble opinion is one of the five greatest songs of the last 20 years, Dionne Farris' "I Know."
Tony Hicks of the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., did an excellent job picking apart the list, including finding some deserving artists Rolling Stone inexplicably left off (Pearl Jam, The Commodores, Chicago, Van Halen, Grateful Dead), and took a nice shot at the ageism in the list with this observation:
"Apparently, there are no RS writers under the age of 70. The Beatles and Stones - with 390 songs on the list - deserve most of their spots. Dylan, with the other 110, probably doesn't."
Hicks' entire column is online at: www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/music/10231972.htm?1c (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/music/10231972.htm?1c)
Questions we won't ask Rolling Stone
By TIMCAIN - H&R Entertainment Editor
There are a few questions that will not come out of this corner about Rolling Stone magazine's "Top 500 songs" list, as it appears in the Dec. 9 issue.
Lists like this, after all, are made to spark discussion and sales, and no harm is done with a little discussion and lively debate.
So the following questions won't be addressed here:
How can they have only one Billy Joel song ("Piano Man," No. 421)?
How does "Billie Jean" (58) end up so far ahead of "Beat It" (337), and why are they the only solo Michael Jackson songs on the list?
How is it that Jimi Hendrix's "Foxey Lady" is listed with a release date of 1965 when Hendrix was actually playing the U.S. chitlin circuit at the time and didn't even form the Jimi Hendrix Experience until October 1966, and the single first charted in the United States in December 1967? (A mistake in Rolling Stone? Who's ever heard of such a thing?)
How come the Bee Gees, Big Star, Black Sabbath, the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Police, R.E.M., Rod Stewart and Donna Summer each have two songs on the list, one less than Blondie, the Crystals and the Ramones, but one more than Paul McCartney?
How is it that only 80 songs from the past 25 years are on a list of 500 great songs from the last 55 years?
How come the audio excerpt offered for Blue Oyster Cult's magnificent "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (No. 397) is an acoustic version with no cowbell?
No cowbell. The humanity.
Blogging on the subject in mid-November, when the top 50 of the list was the only thing available, my observation was that it featured only three songs released after 1977, which gave the impression. In about 30 minutes of thought, a handful of songs released in the last 10 years that could have made someone's top 50 came to mind. A couple of them made the list, and one artist was represented by two songs, neither of which was my selection.
OutKast's "Hey Ya" was at No. 180, and The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" came in at 382. My suggestion of Radiohead's "High and Dry" was rejected in favor of "Fake Plastic Trees" (376) and "Paranoid Android" (256).
My other arguments included "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne, "Wonderwall" by Oasis, New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" (OK, let the hate mail begin), Garbage's "Push It," "Till I Hear It From You" by Gin Blossoms, "Popular" by Nada Surf, Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and the song that in my humble opinion is one of the five greatest songs of the last 20 years, Dionne Farris' "I Know."
Tony Hicks of the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., did an excellent job picking apart the list, including finding some deserving artists Rolling Stone inexplicably left off (Pearl Jam, The Commodores, Chicago, Van Halen, Grateful Dead), and took a nice shot at the ageism in the list with this observation:
"Apparently, there are no RS writers under the age of 70. The Beatles and Stones - with 390 songs on the list - deserve most of their spots. Dylan, with the other 110, probably doesn't."
Hicks' entire column is online at: www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/music/10231972.htm?1c (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/music/10231972.htm?1c)