Absolute top pick number one all time favorite song EVER.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

You know-- the one that even if you play it twenty times in a row, all it does is get better each time. The one that's in the back of your mind even when you're thinking of other things. The perfect zen meditation song.

The one that sends you.

My pick: Molly Hatchet's "Dreams I'll Never See"- the fully orchestrated version that's on the Devil's Canyon album. It's just RIGHT on so very many levels. Each instrument is unique, and in perfect position and juxtaposition. The lead singer's voice is completely unique in rock history.

My Runner Up: Golden Earring's live concert version of "Eight Miles High" as heard on their first Live double album. Eleven minutes of classic rock live jamming guaranteed to take you nowhere but higher.

[Emops]

1. Probably "Tempus Fugit" by Yes

I never get tired of that song. The bassline is just so exciting!

And to think they did that when Jon Anderson wasn't in the band.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

12. I've always loved Yes.

Their earlier classics are on my hard drive even now. I play them often.

[Nostradammit]

28. From Drama, right?

That is a good song.

[Emops]

31. Yeah.

One of my favorite rock albums of all time. I wish they'd play some of that stuff live.

[Nostradammit]

32. I wonder if the politics of it preclude that -

Weren't there two new members on that album that never made another with them? Ex-Buggles, I think they were.

I do like that album. Thanks for reminding me of it.

:toast:

[Emops]

33. Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes from The Buggles

Actually, Downes is going on tour with (Yes drummer) Alan White's band and Horn is probably going to be producing the next Yes album. So I doubt there's any serious bad blood, but I don't think they'll acknowledge that album anytime soon.

[WindRavenX]

2. "New Years Day" U2

There is no doubt.

[Midnight Rambler]

3. Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

It's a difficult decision, because there's so many I could easily tag as my favorite. However, I pick that one because it was really the first rock song I knew. My first memory of it was in some Super Mario Bros. Saturday morning cartoon, appropriately when they were on a flying carpet, long before I really even discovered music, and I've loved the song ever since.

[BlueJazz]

4. Rhapsody on a Theme By Paganini

[Justin54B20L]

5. I'd have to pick either Radiohead's "Creep" or "Paranoid Android"

either one, just purely incredible songs. I can't tire of hearing them at all.

[babylonsister]

6. I dig Santana and Rob Thomas' 'Smoothe'

and that's a current favorite. I'm getting more invested in the old 'protest' songs. "Four Dead In Ohio" works.

[ahem]

7. Paris 1919 -- John Cale, but I could

easily name 100s more that I love almost as much.

[enigmatic]

8. 3 way tie for 1st:

Shake Some Action- Flamin' Groovies


Postcard- Uncle Tupelo


I'm Over You- Silos


and an honorable mention:

Transmission- Joy Division

[babylonsister]

9. "Unchained Melody" also worked for me.

[Chomskyite]

10. my choice

"A Day in the Life"

[Emops]

11. I suppose "Bad" by U2 could also qualify.

[WillyT]

13. "Nessun Dorma", From Turandot, By Puccini

:cry: Every Time

[Roland99]

14. "Bad" - U2 ... esp. live versions.

[Emops]

19. "Bad" is one of those songs I didn't much like at first,

but once while listening to it, it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

[Roland99]

23. When the Wide Awake in America EP came out...

I played it over and over and over and over for days on end. :)

[mark414]

15. Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos

by Public Enemy

I got a letter from the government
The other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me given' a damn - I said never
Here is a land that never gave a damn
About a brother like me and myself
Because they never did
I wasn't wit' it, but just that very minute...
It occured to me
The suckers had authority



(and an honorable mention to VU's 'Venus in Furs')

[sir_captain]

16. Second movement of Beethoven's pathetique sonata

To me, the most perfect piece of music ever written--particularly when played by Rudolph Serkin.

[sir_captain]

17. Second choice: Pale Blue Eyes, Velvet Underground

I like a little variety. ;-)

[MrScorpio]

18. Magic Love by Bent

http://www.popzoot.de/streamframe.php3?id=993

That song is like crystal meth to me.

[khashka]

20. Kate Bush's Night of The Swallow

The music is brilliant. It's about doing something amazing and right and true even though the people who love you think it's the wrong thing. It's about trusting yourself and risking yourself. When she sings toward the end "give me something to show for my miserable life" and "would you break even my wings, like a swallow" it can really choke you up. It does me. When I listen to it I scream those lines in absolute defiance.

(It's also about the fear you feel for the people you love when they are courageous.)

That song has stood by me and inspired me and sustained me for years. It was the song that made me come out to my family, made me become political.

It's about having faith in yourself and knowing what is right and doing it even when you know that doing the right thing is going to get you seriously fucked. And absolutely believing that that's good enough.

I want that song - and only that song - to be played at my funeral. Not so much for me as for them. And if they really listen to it, they'll understand the heartbreak and courage that life is. And realize you live with the heartbreak and try to live up to the courage.

Nuff said.

Khash.

[ahem]

22. Excellent choice!

Come to think of it, that's probably tied with my other pick.

(now to put the CD on)

[samplegirl]

21. Ah come on one is to hard

Van Morrison.........Into the Mystic
Gary Moore.....Enough of the Blues

[RandomKoolzip]

24. "Do Ya," the Move.

Or possibly "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys.

[charlyvi]

25. "Kashmir" Led Zep; "Carey" Joni Mitchell n/t

[khashka]

27. Led Zep was brilliant

but Kashmir is beyond brilliant. I love that song so.... damn..... much that it hurts.


Khash.

[leftofthedial]

26. It would change daily, if not hourly, but . . .

"Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" by James Taylor

[Emops]

29. "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris

...just kidding.

"I don't think that I can take it..."

[Bossy Monkey]

30. "When You Make Up Your Mind," Gutterball

or maybe "Little Mattie Groves" by Norman & Nancy Blake.