This
is the highest inclusion from a band that I've only recently gotten
into and I guess time will tell if it, well, stands the test of time and
remains this high. "Little Secrets" by premier hipster band Passion
Pit was the first song I ever heard from them and for about six months, I
listened to it every day, usually more than once. I use hyperbole like
Jose Canseco used needles in his ass, but like seriously, this is the
catchiest song of all time. That's usually how I warn anyone who I play
it for for the first time. "This will be stuck in your
head...always". The deafeningly loud keyboard and percussion
bombardment here is just layers of hooks on top of hooks on top of more
hooks. Frontman Michael Angelakos is credited with composing this bit
of pop perfection, as he is most every Pit song, and if the music video
is a legit representation of how they pull this off live, the whole band
sans Angelakos and drummer are playing synths. I have no idea what
said video is about with all the bags on peoples heads and whatnot, nor
do I have a clue what the hell the actual song is about but none of
this matters a goddamn. If you listen to this song and it doesn't make
your problems blow up in a sea of glittery sparkles with it's bouncy
happiness than you are not of the human species my friend.
There are great lyrics and then there is the GREATEST lyric ever sung. And the award for the later goes to "How Blue Can You Get?". According to wikipedia, what I can almost gather is that B.B. King himself may have added the four lines of this song that warrant such praise. Specifically, "I gave you seven children...and now you wanna give 'em back!". Yes, even if you're alone in your car listening to this for the three-hundredth time, you're still gonna hoot and holla like you're on the Jerry Springer show when Mr. King spouts that brilliance with that show-stopping delivery as only he can. Far as the rest of the song, it's all B.B. at his best. The Live In Cook County Jail version of "Blue" has the absolute definitive B.B. King guitar solo, which is so goddamn perfect you don't even mind that it takes up more than the first half of the song's five minute running time before we even get to those bomb-tastic lyrics. It's a slow fuck build up, panty moistening solo, a vocal that could fix the ozone layer, and then those downhearted pleas of a woman done doing a man wrong. It's the blues at it's most bluesy and most glorious.
38. "Makin Love" - Kiss
Four percent of this list is made up of Kiss songs, and a hundred percent of those Kiss songs are Paul Stanley sung gems. "Makin' Love" closes what I'd probably consider the best make-up era Kiss album Rock and Roll Over, and it's one of the earliest and finest examples of what could be dubbed heavy metal you can find. For 1976, this riff was about as heavy as it got, and it still bangs the head nicely. The real kicker though is that along with the Alive! version of "She", "Makin' Love" contains the best guitar solo Ace Frehley ever played. Actually Ace has hardly ever busted out a lead that's not excellent, but this one just fucking smokes. The whole song rocks as the album title so correctly suggests and there's really not a finer example to play the anti-Kiss snob to show them that the superhero make-up gimmick was one thing, but the band easily has always had the songs to back it up and then some.
37. "No Quarter" - Led Zeppelin
My favorite Zeppelin jams have changed frequently over the two plus decades they've been about my favorite band. On the one hand that's saying something impressive since I literally can never get sick of the greatest rock band of all the times. Even if I'm exposed to classic rock radio against my will and have to hear "Ramble On" every single day, the Zeppelin is still impervious to ruining. "No Quarter" off of Houses of the Holy is one of the ones that just up and dawned on me as damn near the best thing Page, Plant, Jones, and Bonzo ever pulled off. The finished recording of "Quarter" went through the ringer of Jimmy Page producer-extraordinaire studio tricks. A vari-speed induced pitch change, massive compression on the guitar, Moog-pedal effects on the keys, etc. Much effort into setting that thick, spooky mood. Grounding it down to the earth is John Bonham's phenomenal grooving. During the solo section I'd certainly put Bonham's performance as one of the absolute best he ever played. Ultimately, "No Quarter" is a showpiece for John Paul Jones though, those electric keys dictating the entire proceedings.
Deep Purple is a band that I exalt to the very highest order. Specifically mock II and III Deep Purple, pretty much the band's run throughout most of the decade of the 70s when they just couldn't be stopped, personnel changes be dammed. The first of the mock II line-up's albums was Deep Purple In Rock and it's contestable as their best album still. "Child In Time" appears here and is basically a showcase for the entire band's then new-found powers. DP was a competent British blues cover band basically, dabbling in some psychedelia and just previously some classical music with the John Lord written Concerto for Group and and Orchestra recording. But with In Rock, Purple made a heavy and ultimately undeniable claim as the best hard rock band on earth. "Child" runs through a simple arrangement for over ten minutes, with the guitar solo of Richie Blackmore's career, (sorry "Highway Star"), slammed dab in the middle. But unless you're deaf, and even then, it's ultimately Ian Gillian's superhuman vocals that perch this song on the mountain top of rock awesome. Gillian's ever building "ooo ooo ooo's" and eventual "AHHH AHH AHH'S" screaming will never be topped by anybody ever. You can barely if at all argue that it's the best vocal performance in rock history.
35. "Black Sabbath" - Black Sabbath
Tony Iommi wrote so many utterly outstanding riffs that all other guitar players since should've just blatantly plagiarized as many Sabbath songs as possible, (and in fact, the entire stoner metal genre that BS alone spawned did just that). The song "Black Sabbath" by the band Black Sabbath off the album Black Sabbath has but two riffs in it. And they both represent the two opposite ends of what Iommi was capable of. The pentatonic, "blue note" diabolus in musica, three note main lick is the textbook "evil" guitar riff and is as simple as they come. Then the closing riff to "Sabbath" is in the choosing between maybe two others as to the most fucking awesome guitar riff in the history of mankind. And it moves around a whole lot more and takes some actual ability to get down properly. And it's somehow the even MORE evil of the two riffs. This song is basically every black and white horror movie rolled into a six plus minute epic that itself basically invented every metal genre of music in one wicked swoop. For an extra plus, Ozzy Osbourne has given very few memorable-in-a-good-way vocal performances and "Black Sabbath" is on his short list of excellent ones.
34. "The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair" - Led Zeppelin
When I made my last version of this list I had to finally fess up to the truth. And that truth be that the non-album, unreleased for decades, BBC recorded throw away cut "The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair" was in fact, the best song Led Zeppelin ever recorded. A bold statement yes. But true just as well. Jimmy Page was a songwriter and riff master with hardly a single peer from 1969 to 1979 and the riff in "Girl" is his masterpiece. Whatever blues jam he stole it from is irrelevant, as is the fact that it most closely resembles the iconic riff to "Moby Dick" perhaps more than anything else. It's also without importance that Plant took obvious inspiration from the Sleepy John Estes song "The Girl I Love She Got Long Curly Hair" for the lyric and that the band, for all documented accounts, only performed the song this one and only time it was recorded. It is a jam that the real Zeppelin fans are well aware and it's one that this die hard till I die Zeppelin fan shall rank as their crowning achievement. Plant's vocal's were never better, Jonsey dances his bass around as he always stupendously did, Bonzo is the greatest human being who ever lived, and again, THAT RIFF.
33. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" - The Rolling Stones
Similar to Nileppez Del, the Stones of the Rolling variety climax out their third and final entry on this list, and the choice most obviously be Sticky Fingers' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking". I think this has always been my favorite Stones song. I honestly cannot remember a time when it wasn't. The first half of "Knocking" is typical Stones-at-their best awesomeness, Keith Richard's more common than not open G tuning riff, he and Mick Jagger's shouting vocal harmonies, Charlie Watt's slammin home dat tasty groove, and all the rest of it. But it's the long, epic, instrumental finale of "Knocking" that remains the best damn thing this band ever pulled off. Mick Taylor is one of classic rock's finest lead guitar players and if there's a better example than the solo in this song to make such a claim, then well, that example doesn't exist. This is some of the best guitar playing ever played, period. And the always faithfully sixth/seventh Stones member Bobby Keys possibly blows the tastiest sax solo on a rock record. If you don't like this song or the Stones for that matter than you are wrong about life.
32. "Halo of Flies" - Alice Cooper
Vincent Furnier/Alice Cooper is one of my favorite people in the human race. And I have been a fan of every Alice era since always. But when he was joined by the original band, which collectively went under the name Alice Cooper, there were few if any a better rock band in the early 70s. Love It To Death, Killer, Billion Dollar Babies, and even Muscle of Love and Easy Action are all kick-fucking-ass albums. Killer specifically is the masterpiece if I had to call it, and "Halo of Flies" appropriately doth appear on it. Released as a single only in the Netherlands two years after the album came out, for whatever cocaine-fueled reason, "Halo" is the Alice Cooper band at their most ambitious and undoubtedly best. At over eight minutes long, the song is completely linear and may be the most excellently arranged rock song ever. AC is the best garage prog band you ever heard on "Halo", as the song takes on an ambitious task and the results are flawless. Numerous bands have covered the song since then, (none of whom you know, trust me), but this is one of those so utterly perfect studio recordings that it's rather sacrilegious for anyone else to have a go at it. Every note is right where it belongs.
31. "In Your Room" - Depeche Mode
Songs of Faith and Devotion was an album that I didn't realize at first was in all actuality, the best Depeche Mode album. Violator was for the longest time me thoughts, as popular opinion usually dictates. And then Ultra was for a spell as well for me. Both solid choices I'd scarcely argue with. But SOFAD I just kept bumping and it's place at the top of the Depeche heap has been sound for awhile now. There are a number of phenomenal cuts on Songs, "Walking In My Shoes", "Judas", and of course "I Feel You", but the album version of "In Your Room" is on all the other levels. Depeche is always at their best when at their most moody I'd say, and man oh man, "Room" just oozes with atmosphere. That almost David Lynchain keyboard melody and intro, that moment those punishingly slamming drums erupt in, and then one of my favorite choruses of all time combine with all the other sonic textures the band's music has always been known for, to just come together in a beautiful and dark orgasm that makes my everything tingle. True that I can count as many band's that I love more than Depeche Mode on less than two hands.
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