Name ten rock songs better than The Who's "Baba O'Riley"

[SlowwHand]

ooooh. I'm dl Captain Beyond self titled and Sufficiently Breathless albums now.

[OzzyKP]

for trying for some more modern songs. Comparing classic rock to classic rock is alright, but easier.

I'm with your #2. I'll add, from the 90s/00s (which is much harder, mind):

- Weezer "Buddy Holly"
- Nirvana "Lithium" ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the most popular, and I guess you can nominate as well if you want)
- Beck "Where It's At"
- The Hives "Hate To Say I Told You So"
- The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" (or "Fell In Love With A Girl" or "Death Letter" could work too)
- Franz Ferdinand "Take Me Out"
(I think I picked 3 from the 90s and 3 from the 00s there)

Btw, It must be said that beating Baba O'Riley is a good song to pick for this. Guy for OT mod

Hmm, I dunno if I agree with most of those. (possibly excepting Seven Nation Army). But you reminded me of Weezer who I appreciate more and more all the time and believe they can go toe to toe with most of the greats.

So I'll add Weezer's Only in Dreams to the mix. I second Paradise City as well.

Some more additions:

Pearl Jam - Black
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Flogging Molly - Black Friday Rule

And for something completely different:

Tupac Shakur - Thugs Mansion
Immortal Technique - The Point of No Return
Eminem - 8 Mile

[Guynemer]

Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen

Yes. Probably the greatest American rock song ever. (Honorable mentions to Hendrix's Watchtower cover, and surprisingly coming up on the outside, The Cult's Fire Woman.)


As to newer songs... well, that's the problem. It's too early to know exactly if they'll stand the test of time. I will say that I enjoy to greater or lesser extents all the songs Imran mentioned, especially Seven Nation Army and Buddy Holly.

[Kontiki]

Civil War? That song wouldn't even be decent filler on Appetite for Destruction. In fact, you could make a pretty good argument that there hasn't been a better pure rock album since AfD.

[OzzyKP]

Civil War? That song wouldn't even be decent filler on Appetite for Destruction. In fact, you could make a pretty good argument that there hasn't been a better pure rock album since AfD.

Civil War

[Guynemer]

Well, what Prince did with it at the RRHoF certainly is.

You know, it gets lost in all the hoopla around his style and name and religion and etc, but Prince is a stone-cold ****ing musical genius. That performance stands as the absolute greatest in the past decade.

Christ, the dude even kicked ass at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which always sucks.

[KrazyHorse]

If we're going live performances Queen has at least 2 of the top 5 in history (Wembley: Under Pressure and Live Aid: We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions).

[Imran Siddiqui]

especially Seven Nation Army and Buddy Holly.

Also both of those are on two of the greatest albums in the last 20 years as well (though like you said we don't know where they'd stand in history... personally I think the Stripes' "White Blood Cells" is one of the greatest albums of all time and leaves "Elephant" behind - course both are amazing).

[KrazyHorse]

Hendrix was similar; he played like he was a ****ing alien. Normal human beings cannot perform like that.

[Drake Tungsten]

Prince and Hendrix are further proof that black people are much better musicians than white people.

[-Jrabbit]

ooooh. I'm dl Captain Beyond self titled and Sufficiently Breathless albums now.

[Cort Haus]

Prince and Hendrix are further proof that black people are much better musicians than white people.

Two things.

First, it's wrong to mention Prince in the same breath as Hendrix. Badly, badly wrong.

Second, Hendrix's genius is only proof that Hendrix was a better musician than most musicians.

[Cort Haus]

Clapton was ok. It's worth buying both the Cream and the Derek and the Dominoes records. The rest of his career can quite easily be covered with a compilation. It's not like The Beatles or The Stones where you need to buy a dozen albums just to have most of the good stuff.

Two things.

First, I agree that Clapton is over-rated. Second, you don't need to buy a dozen albums to get most of the Beatles' good stuff - as most of the good stuff was brought together on the Red and Blue compilations. It amazes, and saddens me, that a band who delivered so many great songs also recorded so much unmitigated dross.

[Cort Haus]

If we're going live performances Queen has at least 2 of the top 5 in history (Wembley: Under Pressure and Live Aid: We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions).

Two things.

First, statements like "two of the best live performances in history" are clearly unsubstantiated nonsense, unless proffered in the pub late in the evening after several pints, in which case the lack of logic and reason can be forgiven. Nobody has witnessed any more than the tiniest sub-atomic fraction of all the live performances in history first-hand, and even the recorded ones which might later be available for second-hand viewing and listening cannot convey the true atmosphere and experience of the live performance.

Second, and I know this puts me at odds with the legions of Queen fans here, but Queen are no more a real rock band than Abba. They might have more guitars and a sound that shares some characteristics with rock music, but there is something profoundly false about them. Like Abba they have technical ability, song-writing know-how and commercial acumen, all of which lead to great popularity and success, but like Abba they make me cringe. Most of the rock musicians I've known and worked with have felt the same way. The fact that I've moved in alternative-rock circles might explain something in terms of the naked commercialism of Queen's music which repels, or it might just be that Mr Mercury is so skin-crawlingly creepy.

[Kitschum]

Velvet Underground - Heroin