Top 10 Favorite Songs

So I finally made this list.

I'll start at number 10...and work to number one...and then i made a folder which contains all of them for your listening pleasure. (I'm a geek...whatever...you're friends with me.)
Format: *Song title* - *artist* - *album title*

10. Mama - Genesis - Genesis
My brother bought the album "We Can't Dance" sometime around when it first came out. Of course me being a brat, I would listen to his CDs. I never did and still don't understand my brother's taste in music. It's pretty eclectic. So I loved Phil Collin's voice. That was for sure. The drums were also mixed so perfectly...and me about to be drummer I was excited about this. When I got a bit older, of course I got more curious about the band. I found a video at my local blockbuster called "Genesis, Live at Wembley." So I took it out and watched it. The first song that they played in the concert was "Mama." It opened with this prerecorded drum track and had this real ominous keyboard stuff. When Phil started the vocals...they were quiet and dark. Suddenly he started building up out of nowhere and then hit this crazy note just saying "OH!" I was floored...than to top it all off...he had a breakdown which was just him laughing in the most sinister way possible. Fucked up? Yes. But i loved it. To this day I attempt to hit these big notes like he does in this song...however...it just never comes out as beautiful and clean. For those that care...it's an A sliding down to an Ab...doesn't sound too bad? It's pretty hard in the context of the song. One of those things...ya know?


9. Betterman - Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Pearl Jam remains one of my favorite bands. A band that rocks hard but keeps that melodic feel i love. I can't stand music that doesn't have some kind of melodic structure. Anywho...this song...well...I said one day it will be my wedding song. It won't be obviously...cause I mean it has to do with a really failed marriage, however...this song is just a simple rock song. 3 chords for the main part and a very sing-able chorus. I love complicated pieces of music. I'm a musician with a background of listening to John Williams, James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, & Howard Shore. I love complexity. This song is the opposite of that...and yet does exactly what any good piece of music should do. It gets me excited. Makes me want to move...and speak and express myself. Through dance? (well hopefully not...those that have seen me know that's not a pretty site) Through some kind of speech? Through playing along or singing along? Whatever. it doesn't matter...it makes me feel something despite it's insane simplicity.

8. The Sweetest Thing - U2
There's no title for the album as this was a non-album single. This song...is just what it's title says. It's sweet. NOT! Just as with "With or Without You" the music and title are misleading. well "with or without you" the title isn't that misleading...people just really don't get it mostly. Anyways, this song is about somebody who is in love with this girl...and she really loves him too...but treats him like absolute shit. Throughout he continually says sarcastically "ain't love the sweetest thing?" Beautiful.

I'd like to note the version i'm giving is not the one I like but was the only one i could find as of right now. I apologize as I don't like this version all that much. Bono sounds kinda crappy.

7. Sweet Child O'Mine - Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Ah! GNR before Chinese Democracy became a joke. Just some hard guitar riffs from Slash and some dirty, sexy vocals from Axl. Too bad this band basically doesn't exist anymore. I read somewhere that the main riff for this song was a joke from Slash. This song is the epitome of melodic hard rock. The guitar solo played with a wah wah pedal is just out of this world and can you make it through the song without singing along? The last vocal riff in the song ends with Axl hitting the root of the chord...sliding a step underneath and back up to the root all while closing his vowels in the most technically wrong way possible. Gorgeous.

6. Captain Jack - Billy Joel - Piano Man
I love Billy Joel. A great inspiration to me (ya know, minus the whole driving his car into trees, and fences...and old lady's houses.) My favorite album is Glass Houses. I LOVE Songs in the Attic. However my favorite song by him remains Captain Jack from Piano Man. It's about his drug dealer that was around his neighborhood when he was younger. Sounds like me, no? Ha. This song gets my blood going. It's verses are a slow piano jam between F and Bmaj7. When played live each verse would be given a different feel by the band...solo piano sometimes...reggae...funk.

It was cool. The chorus is a pounding rock hard piece that gets you really pounding away at the keys. I love playing it...i love singing it...i love listening to it...and I freaked out both times I heard this live. From that first note I knew it was comming. He hasn't written stuff like this since 1980. And never will again. We Didn't Start the Fire? What?

5. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley - Grace
Jeff Buckley is my hero. Aside from my brother, Jeff would be the only person I would give the title "Hero." His voice is like a gift from God. His guitar playing is like a mix of Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Miles Davis. (You figure that out.) His writing sounded like MC5, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen (Darkness on the edge of Town bruce), church hymns, Nusrat, Nina Simone. He was insane. His appreciation for music is out of this world. He spoke so poetically about it...you can find some of his quotes around random things I write. I quote him frequently (without credit...however if I asked I would credit him). I strive to be half the musician he is. He made one album...not everybody would love it. Whatever...I just want to be able to appreciate things like he did. Anyways...onto the song. This is a cover of a Leonard Cohen song. The album has just jeff and his telecaster with reverb playing. It's haunting, beautiful and to me exemplifies passion at it's highest point. It's about the perfect orgasm. (Yup it's not religous). But...why is it perfect? Because the one he's with is the person he loves the most.

It's not about the sex...it's about the love. And to me that's the most beautiful thing.

4. Hey Jude - The Beatles
A single recorded during the sessions of the white album. The song is about 7 minutes long about 3 of which are just a chorus of "Nah nah's" with paul screaming "JUDE JUDE JUDEY JUDEY JUDAY!" The beatles wrote a lot of really brilliant songs. This one isn't brilliant. But there's no song in their catalogue (sans MAYBE A Hard Day's Night) that makes me get up, sing and want to hug the person next to me like this one does.

3. Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns - Mother Love Bone - Shine
I first heard this song on a pearl jam bootleg. I had a portable CD player. I was listening to it while waiting online at Adventureland for the haunted house. While I was listening, the girl in front of me turned around, grabbed me and kissed me. That was my first kiss. I went home and listened to the song about 20 times (i could've listened more but it was like 7 minutes long). After reading some things on the internet I realized that it was not, in fact, a Pearl Jam song. But a "Mother Love Bone" song. I searched for a copy of that original version. And voila! I find this. An 8 minute masterpiece of music. Sung by Andy Wood, who should've been the next Robert Plant, and played masterfully by a band that should've been the next biggest band of the planet. Unfortunately the day of the album release, the lead singer died of a heroine overdose.

The band split...two of the members searched for a new band and found "Eddie Vedder." Pearl Jam was formed.

If you listen when i'm at a piano...you'll hear me play the opening portion of this song...I don't get this song. I just love it.

2. Love, Reign O'er Me - The Who - Quadrophenia
Roger Daltrey's voice is so ugly. It's rough, shaky, full of phlegm, and sometimes blatantly off pitch. Yet he manages to deliver the songs of The Who just perfectly. LROM ends the rock opera "Quadrophenia" with one of the greatest rock vocal performances ever. Roger hits, i believe FOUR, Ebs. Ebs for those of you that are unsure are a half step lower than the "Mama Who Bore Me" high stuff and it is the word "Blonde" in the "Legally Blonde Remix." Yes...in those octaves. The rest of the big notes in the song...the "LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE"s. Those are Bbs. Each one is hit with a dirty rock scream.

Now underneath that scary ass vocal performance is the rest of The Who. John Entwhistle of course is bustin' out a bassline that fights to come through your regular speakers as well as your subwoofer because of it's movement up and down his fretboard. Keith Moon easily does his best drumming work on this album. Erratic and loud. This is Peter Townshend's "Theme" in quadrophenia...so obviously it was the best thing he wrote on the album. His guitar basically solo's throughout the entire song. Until the very end when Roger screams out an Eb on the word "Love," Keith does a neverending fill across all of his drums...John rolls on an Eb...and Pete does a slow, loud and sick slide down his guitar. It ends with a blast of horns (provided by John) and a guitar chord smash of Pete's and a gong by mr. keith moon. Epic is the only word for it.

1. Forget Her - Jeff Buckley
The only artist to appear on the list twice. One might question my decision to put Forget her and not "Lover You Should Have Come Over." However this song...well. Ok. It was recorded during the Grace sessions. It was left off the album and boot legged everywhere. Which is of course where I first heard it.

It's a dark song. Jeff's performance is notable as he never goes into his falsetto (which is gorgeous) but remains in his full voice range (which is high anyways). It's pained and pure.

A man has just broke up with a girl. A girl he loved so much. However she was not only a cheater but in general just treated him in a terrible way. He finally found the will to break up...and is trying like hell to forget her. Continually reminding himself that she is just nothing but heartache. Sometimes...that's just not easy...and this song creates slow brood that you fall into after a break up.

I've never heard a song that just gets it as right lyrically and musically as this one does.

Jeff had a gift...and part of that gift was that he loved sharing it. Thank you Jeff.

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