Like a Rolling Stone named greatest song ever

Reuters ^ | November 18, 2004 | Steve Gorman

[ConservativeStatement]

"No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time," wrote Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke in an article accompanying the magazine's list of the top 500 rock songs of all time.

[Nightshift]

Stairway to Heaven - Is the most requested song on all the classic rock radio stations, but is never given #1 status.

why? who knows, but it is the most requested.

[Alberta's Child]

How did "Layla" end up at #27 on that list? That is the best rock tune of all time -- hands down.

I read somewhere that Eric Clapton was so strung out on drugs during the "Layla" recording sessions that he didn't leave home for a month after the album was released.

[Squawk 8888]

Nothing holds up next to the Clash's London Calling.

[DesertSapper]

The songs that really had an impact on all the "conventions" that followed . . .

Stairway to Heaven - Zeppelin

Boehemian Rhapsody - Queen

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

Dust in the Wind - Kansas

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John

Money - Pink Floyd

Satisfaction - Rolling Stones

Hotel California - Eagles

Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC

Yesterday - Beatles

Johnny be Good - Chuck Berry

Jailhouse Rock - Elvis

All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

Enter Sandman - Metallica

Proud Mary - CCR

Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkle

Two Out of Three Aint Bad - Meatloaf

Free Bird - Skynyrd

Dream On - Aerosmith

My Generation - The Who

Kashmir - Zeppelin

In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins

Africa - Toto

Learning to Fly - Pink Floyd

Fly Like an Eagle - Steve Miller Band

Every Breath You Take - Police

Immigrant Song - Zeppelin

Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkle

Hysteria - Def Leppard

Good Golly, Miss Molly - Little Richard

La Bamba - Richie Valens

A Day in the Life - Beatles

Jeremy - Pearl Jam

Rocket Man - Elton John

Diamonds and Rust - Judas Priest



The list goes on . . .

[bigmikes]

The list gets better and worse from there

Satisfaction at #2, great song, may not be #2 but a great song

Imagine by John Lennon at #3, Liberal Hippie, anti God Clap trap. Sheer Garbage

What's Going on, Marvin Gaye #4. Not my politics, but an absolutely incredible political anthem, which is just a beautifully sung song.

[wardaddy]

Nicely put WAW.

[Thebaddog]

Give me "Sympathy for the Devil". Stones Rock for white boys.

[drjimmy]

I believe Rolling Stone magazine was named after the song.
I believe the magazine, the group, and this song all got their name from the 1950 Muddy Waters song "Rolling Stone" (a/k/a "Catfish Blues").

[joesnuffy]

That is stupid...

Like trying decide the prettiest girl of all time...(whose name btw is Gena Schloesser...and since her college roommate was the daughter of the judge who changed ole Bob Zimmerman's last name to Dylan.. it is germane to bring her into the discussion)

Anyway I believe that if you told ole Bob he has written the greatest lyrics and greatest music of the greatest song ever written he'd probably tell you you need help...and that if the gibberish he wrote actually makes sense to you....you need a lotta help...(he would probably also tell you to go micturate up a long piece of vertically hanging hemp)

And even Bob isn't perfect...as he still doesn't have the common courtesy to keep his two full grown mastiffs from crapping on the neighbors lawn..for crying out loud.

imo

[Alberta's Child]

. . . it seems to have been the more requested songs on radio stations in the United States ever.

Actually, I think Boston's "More Than A Feeling" has been played more frequently on U.S. radio than any other song.

I'll have to check and see if this song made the list, but I would make the case that Boston's signature tune had a bigger impact on rock music than any other . . . their title album was really the first ever to be mixed for an optimal sound on the FM dial.

[wardaddy]

I woulda opted for Satisfaction.

It's very hard not to distingiush between rock and roll and rock but Satisfaction sort of bridges it.

There is no best song and Rolling Stone the magazine is awful....always has been though it did spawn a few interesting writers and critics.

Flippo, Young, O'Rourke and yes even HST...but one must be on drugs to appreciate him.....forget FALILV....Hell's Angels is his only coherent work.

[leadhead]

Why did it transform "the commercial laws and artistic conventions"?

Because it was long enough for DJs to go to the bathroom

[Alberta's Child]

"Like A Rolling Stone" ain't even Bob Dylan's best tune. "Positively 4th Street" is an all-time classic; if you listen to the lyrics, it sounds like the song was written by someone who finally realized that he knew John Kerry or Al Gore for too long.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Bob Dylan wouldn't know a rock-and-roll song if it came up and bit him on his wrinkly old folkie butt. Electrified faux-folk, maybe, but not rock. And seriously, did anyone else know that they were still publishing Rolling Stone magazine? I thought it went the way of "Rosie", "Teen", and "Brill's Content" magazines.

[ArmyBratCutie]

ewwwwwwwwwww is right!!
it is of course "California Girls" .. and the southern girls with the way they talk, they knock me out when Im down there" ya'll know its true!! hehehe

[Steve_Seattle]

"I guess their pro-Kerry stance must have affected their ability to think properly."

Any such list would be controversial, but this one seems idiotic. My personal gripe - "The House of the Rising Sun" didn't even crack the top 50.

[mandingo republican]

LIKE, who cares what Rolling Stone thinks. This thing of making up lists - top 10 and the best of the best is so passe - like something stupid junior high school students do. I mean who reads this crappy magazine anyway.

The only thing that is important is what songs make you happy inside - not the picks of some drug crazed democratic funders. I mean no 2 or 3 was that stupid song Imagine by John Lennon. I always hated that song even when I was like 13 and everyone loved it. I remeber the after John Lennon was shot - our English teacher - a nun - who told us animals have no soul and don't go to heaven made us pray for John Lennon. I closed my eyes and said - No way God am I gonna pray for this creep! Shortly after that I became a conservative. Well, a couple of years later in High School reading NR in the library.

[wardaddy]

I think it depends on which Zep generation you are. I'm early to mid so When the Levee Breaks is maybe my favorite of the first 4 albums.

Kashmir is sort of symphonic and complex and hit after my Zep interest had moderated. Nice song though....I'm just more of a blues based Zep afficianado.

I know WTLB was written by I think a black woman in the 20s by Memphis Minnie from Mississippi after the big 20s floods there.

The critics (Cameron Crowe notwithsatnding) loathed Led Zeppelin....it was so ttansparent. They had a very hard time moving out of Stones-Beatles era and the Haight Ashbury music and into big hard rock....they hated Skynyrd too but of course love the Allman Bros.

They loathed ACDC and Sabbath as well but were kinder to Van Halen.

and to them Clapton was indeed God.

[ConservativeStatement]

One of my all-time favs.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Whole Lotta Shakin'", by The Killer.

That should have been in the top 50. It's one of the 5 or 6 definitive rock songs of the 50's.