As Normski himself notes his greatest songs of rock n' roll poll has met with the highest turn out of all his music and film polls so far. Over 230 people voted (97 of us are bloggers, apparently) and looking at the list, I can't help but draw the conclusion that it looks like someone has scanned in the latest top 100 songs survey from either Mojo or Q magazine. I mean. Layla at number nine? The only thing that stops me from hating that song with an absolute passion is the knowledge that I need to reserve some bile for my loathing for Clapton singing Wonderful Tonight.
The top fifty is the usual suspects, though I'm surprised the Stones polled so highly and that Imagine polled so far down the list. Maybe the latter's poor showing reflects the changing politics of Norm's readership. I wonder if it would have polled so low ten years ago with the same pollsters?
I remember the late great John Peel saying one year when unveiling his Festive Fifty that he wished sometimes that he would play 51-100 rather than the top fifty, 'cos he already knew what songs would be listed in the top fifty before he even called the poll. Without labouring the point too much - of course there are bona fide classics in Normski's top fifty - but I can see the same point with regards to this poll.
Joy Division, Jeff Buckley, The Ramones and Television are a few of the more eclectic artists that feature in the 50-100 section and given the choice if I was doing a mixtape I would take more songs from that section as opposed to the top fifty. Of course I just may be being all bitter and twisted 'cos out of my top ten songs the highest placed only came in at 62, with three others only placed at numbers =71; =71; and 98.
And me whose usually so gracious in defeat.
3 comments:
Well, only one of my songs got in the top 100 -- How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths at 31. Maybe I'm just too young or too American. Who knows.
i don't think it's the case of you being too American - somewhere in the region of 40% of songs are by North American artists but you may be right with the too young bit.
Maybe I'm not exactly right but it looks at best that 7 or 8 of the songs are from the eighties onwards. It does sort of betray the demographic of the blogsphere. I'm not knocking the majority of the songs listed. It's the usual generic list for these type of surveys and as I wrote in my original post wouldn't look out of place in a British music magazine. I would just hate to think that there is so little good music being written in recent years.
I'll need to think about that one long and hard whilst listening to one of my specially made up eighties mix CDs. That always make me think better.
PS - You do know that 'This Charming Man' is an infinitely better song than 'How Soon Is Now'? Just thought I would mention it.
Oh quite. How geriatric is that list? Get out the Zimmer Frame, Norm. Rock and roll roll-call of the pro-slaughter grandpas. I bet they're all fans of 'Grumpy Old Men' too, and probably complain about how 'all the kids these days wear underpants showing above their trousers!' (Well, the fogeys shouldn't worry their stinky yellow dentures too much: Virginia has just banned the practice, FYI)
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/022005/02102005/1666117
In any case, I'd plump for 'There is a light that never goes out', if we're compiling a hierarchy of Smiths tracks.
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