Now in my second week of this long weekly blog project, I've come to realize that by the time I get to #1, I'll probably have changed my musical tastes enough to want to move the songs around on this personal top 500 list...but I've already composed it and it represents both a snapshot as to what I like now and what I've liked at earlier times in my life. Who knows, if the opportunity presents itself many years from now I might produce a new list. Here are the next ten songs...
490 CREATURE COMFORT...Arcade Fire
The one significant track of a recent disappointing (to me) album of theirs, Arcade Fire tackles head-on the issues of teenage angst and the danger and tragedy of suicide...this is a blunt, in-your-face statement that will probably make a few squirm. And the music behind it is sharp and intense...
489 FRESH TENDRILS...Soundgarden
Speaking of the tragedy of suicide, it really hit me bad when I heard that Chris Cornell, the wonderfully talented voice of this Seattle grunge band, had recently taken his own life. This song, a deeply buried track on 1994's Superunknown...in my opinion the best grunge album ever made and one of the best albums period...is grating, angry, and unforgettable. It's one of the few songs on this very long list of my favorites that I instantly took a liking to from the first time I ever heard it...
488 MAN IN THE MIRROR...Michael Jackson
Honest introspection is the theme of this terrific Michael Jackson song from his Bad album and which was a monster hit in early 1988, toward the end of the time I actually enjoyed regularly listening to Top 40 radio stations like Gainesville's Kiss/105. Michael's message here is clear: making the world a better place means taking a look at yourself and changing...and to me that necessarily involves opening up my own personal narrative to honest self-scrutiny and learning to respect...even if not agreeing with...the personal narratives of others by putting myself in their place...
487 I GET AROUND...the Beach Boys
This very brief singles hit from 1964 is another of those old songs which I didn't care for back then but later grew on me. Hey, I was only seven when it came out and the lyrics really expressed the mindset of rebellious adolescence. And I've always had a soft spot in my heart for "identity" songs like this, even if in my own life I didn't personally subscribe to their messages...
486 STARLIGHT...Muse
Muse is an alternative rock band that received much airplay a few years ago on my local alternative station 100.5/"The Buzz"...many of their songs have cosmic themes and titles...Starlight to me is the best of the lot, even to the point where I ranked it as my favorite song of 2007. It's a sweet, romantic love song with Matt Bellamy's vocals largely unrivaled...a real tearjerker, I say...
485 FLY LIKE AN EAGLE (full version)...the Steve Miller Band
I strongly stress you have to hear the full version, with its lengthy instrumental beginning and conclusion, to fully appreciate this very successful musical experiment fusing psychedelia from the 1960s with mainstream rock in the 70s. It's dreamy trance-rock at its best...and compels the listener to speculate about time. Miller says it slips into the future, but others would counter that it slips into the past...or are the future and past mere illusions we've manufactured and the present "now" moment is the only reality? This great song plays with your head like that...
484 BABA O'RILEY...the Who
More commonly known as "Teenage Wasteland", Baba O'Riley has long been a staple of album-oriented rock stations...years ago I would have ranked it much higher but I listened to it so many times that its complete familiarity began to weigh against it. My favorite parts are the synthesizer beginning and the violin ending, the latter of which was drummer Keith Moon's inspired idea...
483 CARS...Gary Numan
In 1980 the musical genres of new wave and techno were making themselves heard as an alternative to the then-rapidly declining disco era...and I'm grateful to them if only for that! Gary Numan was one of the new stars and he came out with this catchy single that year which I still find myself singing from time to time...when I'm in my car, of course...
482 OPTIMISTIC...Radiohead
I mentioned on #489 that Soundgarden's 1994 album Superunknown was one of my all-time favorites...likewise Radiohead's 2000 masterpiece Kid A stands as my favorite of this British alternative band, producing several great tracks, some of which you will meet up with later on this list. Last year I "rediscovered" the song Optimistic...which in spite of the hopeful-sounding title is anything but...
481 5:00 WORLD...the Vogues
When this song hit the radio airwaves in late 1965 I was nine years old and took an instant liking to it (like I also did when I first heard #489). 5:00 World has a similar kind of background vocals to Sam Cooke's classic old hit Chain Gang, although the latter had a sad message and this one is all about the singer toiling all day and looking forward to 5:00 when he gets to clock out and be with his woman. The music somehow sounds mysterious, which contrasts with the simple, upbeat lyrics. But it all "worked" for me back then and I've never tired of it. And is that yodeling I hear?
Next week I'll be covering #480-471...
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