The Crappest “Best Ever” list ever….
It’s not just the Queen celebrating a sixty year anniversary this year. British music mag, NME has also been around for 60 years and to celebrate they’ve put out a list of the Best Songs of the last 60 years.
I would suggest that putting together such a list is an impossible task. I'm not even going to try, partly because you would actually have to know every song written in the last 60 years. Mainly though, taste in music is very subjective and everyone thinks they have the best taste in music (although in my case, that is actually true).
And yes, these lists are designed to provoke lengthy discussions regarding outrageous inclusions and omissions. I think, though, that all this list will do is prove what people have suspected for years; that the journos at NME are a bunch of pretentious wankers.
The first thing that leaps out is that it is a very Anglo-centric selection, not to mention being quite the cock forest. Which is my way of asking “Where the hell is Kate Bush, you bastards!!!”.
It’s not even that any of the songs are duds. It is just that anyone with a reasonable knowledge of what has happened in music in the last few decades might have a quick squizz at it and think “are you sure this is the final list?”. For the record, their number one pick is Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. Great song but perhaps not deserving of its mythic status.
The bands and singers included aren’t surprising but….I’m not even sure if Heroes is David Bowie’s best, and I’m certain Like A Prayer isn’t Madonna’s stand out track. That said, Billie Jean probably is Michael Jackson’s finest three minutes. I asked a friend who is a big fan of His Bobness what she thought Dylan’s best might be and she didn’t even mention Like a Rolling Stone (in fact the songs she suggested weren’t songs I knew, and having such a poor knowledge of Bob Dylan is remiss of me and I will take steps to remedy this situation. Said friend has offered to lend me CDs). Two songs each for the Beach Boys and the Stone Roses but only one song from the Beatles (I would pick A Day in the Life as one of the Beatles best, though) is just trying to court controversy.
Other notable omissions are the entire 1950s, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, the Supremes and all the other Motown stuff, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder,Queen, Bruce Springsteen (only because I really like Born to Run), Talking Heads, Blondie, Nirvana, Radiohead, Prince, PJ Harvey, Public Enemy, Bjork, The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, I could go on….and on and on.
John Lennon’s Imagine….
And proving that music trends come and go, apparently U2 and REM will have to wait a while before coming back into favour.
This really is the most rubbish list ever. They’ve tried to be too clever by half and ended up with something quite daft…seriously, the Stone Roses twice?? Over Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy?
They don’t have much to show for sixty years then…
I would suggest that putting together such a list is an impossible task. I'm not even going to try, partly because you would actually have to know every song written in the last 60 years. Mainly though, taste in music is very subjective and everyone thinks they have the best taste in music (although in my case, that is actually true).
And yes, these lists are designed to provoke lengthy discussions regarding outrageous inclusions and omissions. I think, though, that all this list will do is prove what people have suspected for years; that the journos at NME are a bunch of pretentious wankers.
The first thing that leaps out is that it is a very Anglo-centric selection, not to mention being quite the cock forest. Which is my way of asking “Where the hell is Kate Bush, you bastards!!!”.
It’s not even that any of the songs are duds. It is just that anyone with a reasonable knowledge of what has happened in music in the last few decades might have a quick squizz at it and think “are you sure this is the final list?”. For the record, their number one pick is Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. Great song but perhaps not deserving of its mythic status.
The bands and singers included aren’t surprising but….I’m not even sure if Heroes is David Bowie’s best, and I’m certain Like A Prayer isn’t Madonna’s stand out track. That said, Billie Jean probably is Michael Jackson’s finest three minutes. I asked a friend who is a big fan of His Bobness what she thought Dylan’s best might be and she didn’t even mention Like a Rolling Stone (in fact the songs she suggested weren’t songs I knew, and having such a poor knowledge of Bob Dylan is remiss of me and I will take steps to remedy this situation. Said friend has offered to lend me CDs). Two songs each for the Beach Boys and the Stone Roses but only one song from the Beatles (I would pick A Day in the Life as one of the Beatles best, though) is just trying to court controversy.
Other notable omissions are the entire 1950s, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, the Supremes and all the other Motown stuff, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder,Queen, Bruce Springsteen (only because I really like Born to Run), Talking Heads, Blondie, Nirvana, Radiohead, Prince, PJ Harvey, Public Enemy, Bjork, The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, I could go on….and on and on.
John Lennon’s Imagine….
And proving that music trends come and go, apparently U2 and REM will have to wait a while before coming back into favour.
This really is the most rubbish list ever. They’ve tried to be too clever by half and ended up with something quite daft…seriously, the Stone Roses twice?? Over Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy?
They don’t have much to show for sixty years then…
'Said friend' repeats her offer to lend you CD's. You need some serious Dylan-upgrading, m'Dear!
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