Anton's TOP 50 favorite songs of all time thread

Barry Gibb had talent, but I don't think he fulfilled his potential or carried on with great stuff as long as Paul McCartney has.
The Bee Gees first two albums are full of great songs that very much recall the work of Lennon/McCartney. After that things plateau for a bit, then go downhill when we get to the disco (though I will admit that the performances are worse than the songwriting) Still something like "Boogie Child" is just plain awful and a waste of talent.
And as to the Lennon quote and what he liked. He also lavished praise on "Here There & Everywhere" and "The Fool On The Hill"!

 

I'll always have a soft spot for Zombie Birdhouse - I was in school at U of Tennessee in Knoxville when it was released, and he came through town on that tour and played a small club where I was a few feet from the stage. The man just knew how to deliver the goods live, that's for sure.

 

Let's just say that we have opposite views on Barry Gibb's and Macca's careers. Can't agree with a single word here.

 

Now back to Number 22

The whole place is dark
Every light on this side of the town
Suddenly it all went down
Now we'll all be brothers of the fossil fire of the sun
Now we will all be sisters of the fossil blood of the moon
Someone must have set us up
Now they'll be working in the cold grey rock,
In the hot mill steam... In the concrete
In the sirens and the silences now
All the great set up hearts
All at once start to beat
After tonight if you don't want us to be
A secret out of the past
I will resurrect it, I'll have a good go at it
I'll streak his blood across my beak and dust my feathers with his ashes
I can feel his ghost breathing down my back
I will try and know whatever I try,
I will be gone but not forever
The real truth about it is
No one gets it right
The real truth about it is
We're all supposed to try
There ain't no end to the sands
I've been trying to cross
The real truth about it is my kind of life's no better off
If I've got the maps or if I'm lost
The real truth about it is there ain't no end to the desert I'll cross
I've really known that all along
Mama here comes midnight
With the dead moon in its jaws
Must be the big star about to fall
Long dark blues
Will o the wisp
The big star is falling
Through the static and distance
A farewell transmission
Listen

 

They weren't huge in the UK either unfortunately. Get Out Of Denver and Teenage Depression were great tracks too.

 

One man's genius is another man's steaming pile of crap. Nothing to be surprised at - just a fact of life.

Seriously, why are you so puzzled over this? Is everyone supposed to unanimously view Paul McCartney as some sort of a benchmark in pop songwriting?

 

Cool, our local Dutch hero... that recording of 'Eternal Flame' that you posted in another thread was made during a live concert in my old high school in Gouda.. I'm in the audience there somewhere. The Wild Romance band members used one of the classrooms as a dressing room and ordered my and my friends to go buy them some pot..

Some ten years later I did some pickup gigs with a couple of the Wild Romance band members.. those guys were almost as rock 'n roll as Herman himself, bit too heavy for me so it didn't last too long.

 

Yeah, that puzzles me as well. They could have been as big as The Jam.

 

He's certainly NOT in my book.

 

Well, I'm glad you didn't have to go to rehab after hanging out with these guys! And thanx for the cool memories. As for Herman's version of Eternal Flame - what are the chances that you favorite female band gets covered by your favorite dutch icon? Or maybe it's a sign...

 

YES
Seriously I totally understand when someone says that don't like Paul McCartney and that person is a fan of heavy metal or country or rap or some such genre he isn't associated with, but when a person is a fan of Barry Gibb (or as on another thread The Zombies) or some performer/writer/group very similar to Paul I find it odd.

 

So you don't even think the Bee Gees first two albums are great or that the songs have a somewhat Beatles like feel?

 

I don't agree with your overall assumption that only the 2 Bee Gees records were great (in my opinion their best work came years later with 1981's Living Eyes their finest in my book) and the reason they were great is because of The Beatles influence. Unfortunately there was some Beatles influence on these early works but thankfully they got rid of it real quick and came into their own. You obviously don't like The Bee Gees but you can tolerate them in the early formative days because they sounded a bit beatlish. I come from entirely different perspective.

 

I don't find anything in Barry Gibb's songwriting that is remotely similar to Paul McCartney. Barry's finesse and sophistication of melody and harmony, his incredible twists or rhythm and lyrics is something totally out of Macca's league. McCartney couldn't write tunes on Barry Gibb's level to save his life IMHO.

 

Actually I like most of the Bee Gees work except the disco stuff. And the first two albums don't succeed only because of the Beatles influence. The brothers bring enough of their own innovations to the table.
Note in my original post I said they plateau a bit after that. Well a plateau following great still makes for some pretty good music.
I will admit I haven't heard much Bee Gees 80's on. What I have heard is decent, but not quite up to the early stuff, though better than the disco era.

I don't know whether you are just trying to get a reaction out of me or if you are serious, but I don't get that at all.
Twists and turns of melody, harmony are one of McCartney's strengths. He gets criticized for lyrics (and he does have some lazy ones) but also has some clever ones out there too.
Barry Gibb and Paul McCartney are both excellent songwriters!

 

Well, we hear things differently in a song. To me Macca's melodies are incredibly banal and boring. Yes, he could write a good bridge back in the day but there's nothing interesting about his melodic lines. Barry's melodies on the other hand often leave me breathless. And if you want my opinion he peaked as a songwriter in the first part of the 80's - the records he wrote and produced for Streisand, ONJ, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers and Diana Ross as well as his incredible solo LP Now Voyager and 2 Bee Gees records from 1981 and 1982 - Living Eyes and Staying Alive OST boast some of his finest work.

 

Well, it's a pity nobody cared about that last Jason Molina tune but anyway, here's how the list looks so far:

50. Ketty Lester - Love Letters
49. Iggy Pop - Living on the edge of the night
48. The Nits - In the Dutch Mountains
47. Pearl Jam - Immortality
46. Wicked Lester - Molly
45. Mike Scott - Why I should I love you?
44. Rufus Wainwright - Going to a town
43. Belle and Sebastian - Dog on Wheels
42. Pulp - This is Hardcore
41. Jimi Tenor - Sugardaddy
40. The Walker Brothers - Nite Flight
39. Diana Ross - Do you know where you're going to?
38. The Damned - New Rose
37. Wilco - Jesus Etc
36. Ultravox! - Hiroshima Mon Amour
35. Herman Brood - Street
34. Bryan Ferry - You go to my head
33. Nick Drake - River Man
32. Grant Lee Buffalo - Rock of Ages
31. Rodriguez - Sugarman
30. The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray
29. Cyndi Lauper - The World is Stone
28. The Tubes - Don't touch me there
27. The Kinks - Rock and Roll Fantasy
26. Sparks - I like Girls
25. Olivia Newton-John - Magic
24. Eddie and The Hot Rods - Do Everything You Wanna Do
23. Iggy Pop - Don't look Down
22. Songs:Ohia - Farewell Transmission

 

Well, there's no accounting for taste... I know plenty of folks whose music preferences leave me scratching my head too.

 

Number 21

O'JAYS - LOVE TRAIN (1973)



Quite the opposite to my previous entry in it's vibe as well as message, Love Train is one of the rare peace'n'love anthems that I care about. There something incredibly piercing about the vocal delivery which sets it apart from all the naive yet lovely Age of Aquarius or Why Can't We Be Friends stuff. There's some real conviction here - you don't hear that often in such songs. Today the hope for peace in our lifetime may be lost forever as we all are cynical and in that internet age far too well aware of the hypocritical nature of geopolitics, economics, oil, corporate media, the big game etc to understand that there will never be peace on Earth or any racial, religious or even national harmony - but there was a time when a few dreamers did sincerely believe in such stuff and made some killer tunes in the process. A great groove doesn't hurt this one either.

 

Great choice. Anton some of these come out of nowhere. Wonderful song. 3:00 of joy!!

 

Couldn't say it better.

 

An amazing song from an album that is pretty essential IMO. Back Stabbers, the album, is damn near perfect as is this song. Great choice.

 

Agree on Back Stabbers. Not quite original here but to me it's their best.

 

Great, great song by one of the great soul vocal groups. Even the dreadful and endless Coors Light commercials here couldn't dim the brilliance of this classic.

 

Well, I guess I'm real lucky to live in a country where it's completely unknown and not played even once. Anywhere. Ever. No Coors Light commercials here either.