great songs
Voting closed tonight for triple j's hottest 100 of all time, so I thought I'd spend a few minutes farting about putting a vote in.
I don't really expect my taste to be all that much in line with the triple j voting masses, but these things are a bit of fun all the same. I did keep my focus towards the stuff that's less obscure and a bit more likely to actually add to the final result.
The 10 I voted for:
- The Cure - A Forest
- How could I not vote for this? :) Although Homesick remains my personal favourite, I think Forest is more influential; loved by more Cure fans. Not to mention the extreme extended versions they legendarily close shows with. I longed to see this live for years and that wish only recently came true.
- The Clash - Rock The Casbah
- Had to pick one single song and this was the one that got me into The Clash. A film flip with an armadillo for no apparent reason, musically shows off the fact The Clash could actually play and to top it off this track is a party starter. Seriously, who doesn't like this song?
- VNV Nation - Honour 2003
- OK so VNV has a cat's chance in hell of getting anywhere on the list, but Honour 2003 was already nominated so I ran with that. Honour was actually the song that got me into VNV so it's fair enough anyway... :)
- Pink Floyd - Learning to fly
- Another "pick one song" situation. I actually got into Momentary Lapse of Reason before other albums. Learning To Fly just grabbed me from the moment that riff slammed out, great guitar lines, the radio chatter samples are perfectly atmospheric during the bridge, it has a glorious flying sensation (appropriately) but somehow a wistful edge.
- Coldplay - Clocks
- Lots of personal significance; I associate a a sense of adventure to it - when things are exciting and scary. That might not make sense to anyone else but I'm not inclined to care..
- Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
- Had to include some Hendrix. A bright flame, a raw talent, influential, iconic... had to include some Hendrix.
- DJ Shadow - Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt
- I'm sure this won't be a blip on the scale in the actual voting... but this song is one of the greatest bits of sample based work I've ever heard and is perhaps my favourite DJ Shadow track.
- Blues Brothers - Peter Gunn Theme
- One of the most recognisable blues tunes out there, I'd imagine. The driving bassline carries this, while the Blues Brothers recording has some brilliant solos including a sax solo by Blue Lou that I know down to every last grace note.
- Dave Brubeck - Take Five
- I was impressed that this was already in the nominated list. Influential for being so musically different, one of the outputs of Brubeck's experimentation with odd time signatures. But particularly inspiring to me as it's not just an experiment, it's simply a great song to listen to. A lot of experimental music is interesting but not especially listenable - there are plenty of "influential" artists out there that people don't actually listen to all that often.
- The Doors - The End
- I think this song best illustrates what was great and crazy and weird about The Doors.
Some shortlisted tracks that didn't make it in the final ten:
- The Clash - London Calling
- VNV Nation - Beloved
- Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall
- Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
- Snog - Corporate Slave
- Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under The Bridge
- Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
- Church, The - Under the Milky Way
- U2 - New Year's Day
- Nine Inch Nails - Closer
- Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
- Oasis - Champagne Supernova
- Tool - Forty Six & 2
- Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows
- Tom Waits - Jockey Full Of Bourbon
...and then I had to stop, as time was short and voting was about to end. Really I could have kept adding songs for hours. Days from now I'm sure I'll still be thinking of things I could have added...
