What better way to follow up a U2 Top 10 than trying to nominate the best tune of all time!?! It’s quite a task to pick one single song out of about 50 gazillion (not accurate) and claim it is the best ever song. It’s something we could never reach a consensus on, we all have our own tastes and we all have our own opinions on what constitutes a good song.
Should it be based on the lyrics (rules out Spice Girls, Boyzone, Westlife, Damian Rice etc), the music (rules out Spice Girls, Boyzone, Westlife, Damian Rice etc), the vocals (rules out Spice Girls, Boyzone, Westlife, Damian Rice etc) or what? I couldn’t possibly answer that as usually any of the above will do it for me.
The guitar work of Metallica’s “One” or Led Zepplin’s “Stairway to Heaven”; Kate Bush’s haunting vocals on “Wuthering Heights”; the message of U2′s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”; the overall greatness of The Eagle’s “Hotel California”, Pink Floyd’s “Wish you were here”, Lynyryd Sykynyrydy’ys “Sweet Home Alabama”, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” or David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” … and the list goes on and on. Shit, we haven’t even mentioned The Clash, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Thin Lizzy …
Now that I start to think of all of those I start to question my selection. Anyway I’m going to stick my neck out and nominate 1 song which just oozes greatness, it’s a timeless classic, as powerful today as it was when it was released back in 1966 (just get on with it tah fuck!). Based on the excellent lyrics, the outstanding vocals and the fact that it always gives me the shivers, my number 1 is:
p.s. the best LIVE song of all time for me is a tie between The Eagles live acoustic version of “Hotel California” and U2′s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” performed just after the Enniskillen bombing.
Sounds as if your competition is limited to lyrics-based pop/rock from the past couple of decades. I’m not sure anyone will remember any of this tripe fifty years from now.
What does it for you Cionaodh? Any classics spring to mind?
Lyrics often confine a piece of music to a period of time when those lyrics were relevant. That’s not to say that lyrics can’t be fun, entertaining, heartbreaking, uplifting, etc., but they get “dated” very easily.
For that reason, I would never place a “song” at number one. I’ve lived too long and know only too well how one’s favourite song of today will become the craptastic oldie of tomorrow.
Among instrumental music, I couldn’t only pick a single piece to be “number one”, because instrumental music comes in so many styles and originates from so many cultures. So I’d have to nominate a “top shelf” of favourite tunes (like the “good stuff” at the pub) instead of nominating just one to be “best”.
Maybe I’ll think about it a bit and give youse a list . . .
Makes sense but if you look at the “song” i’ve chosen it’s from 1966 … a number of years before I was even born.
I can’t think of a single instrumental piece which would be close to making my list … unless we include classical music then my choice would be Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulets.
I normally cite ‘You make it easy’ by Air as my favourite song, but it appears that when I’m drunk I think it’s Elton John’s Your Song. I want to hear it, sing along loudly and start crying. I have lost many DJ friends thanks to this appalling habit.
My favourite classical piece is Schubert’s Erlkönig, although there is singing and lyrics in that too.
Link to the scientific calculator! hahah
The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?”.A bit predictable perhaps but this one does it for me.
OK, I can’t get it down to just one, but I’ll winnow down my long list to three:
“Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin
“Muiñeira de Chantada” by Milladoiro
“Music for a Found Harmonium” by Sharon Shannon
What these have in common, and what my many all-time favourites have in common, is timelessness — if I hear them again after many years, they’re still as wonderful as the first time I heard them.
I just wanted to see how the maths question thing works…
… okay … happy?
Cionaodh
Sharon Shannon … in the top three tunes of all time? Not for me i’m afraid, not my kind of music at all
I like the same tune done by Patrick Street and also by Susana Seivane; it’s not necessarily the artist, the tune is more important. Sharon Shannon did the version I heard first, so it’s the one I think of first.
But I understand entirely if the tune itself isn’t of a style you like.
It’s a hard choice, because I had something in my mind but then I read your list and all those songs you named weren’t in my own list so now I’m bit of confused…
BTW, I thought you were a little older than you said you are.
I was already born with The Sound Of Silence. I was 1, but I was here
At that time I wasn’t even a sparkle in my daddy’s eye
I’m a 70′s child, born in the year of Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Midnight Train To Georgia” or Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water”
What sort of songs would be on your list?
Being on the downhill side of 40, my view on music is a bit different from here, I guess.
Some things don’t change with time, though — I recall thinking of Simon & Garfunkel as punks with bad hair back in the day; now they just have a lot less of it.
Simon could still use a few more years of puberty to develop his manly voice and grow a few inches more; Garfunkel still needs a new surname . . . sounds like the new slogan to replace Volkswagen’s Farfegnugen campaign.
The new VW — with more Garfunkel for your driving pleasure.
Ok, I’m being silly.
I’m more about minor songs, that’s why I had to review my list after reading yours
I agree with Kate Bush, but I had Cloudbusting in my mind.
Pink Floyd’s The Wall, or David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes and Bob Dylan’s Hurricane.
But I’m more on progressive rock, so Genesis and Jethro Tull are my favourite bands