100 Favorite Songs #100 - 81

So yes, I do realize how stupid it is to have a list that starts with #1 and goes back to #100. It drains all suspense from the proceedings. I doubt anyone's on the edge of his or her seat wondering what my 97th favorite song is. Unfortunately, it was the only way I could do this. I didn't have the energy to make the whole list before writing these entries, and it was just easier for me to pick my Top 20 then to pick some arbitrary 20 songs to be #80 - #100. BUT the one up side is that now anyone who visits this website will see the list the way it should be seen, starting with #100.

I can say as I look the list over that this list would have better been called "100 Songs I Love." The whole favorite ranking thing isn't possible, really, and this list could look completely different in two weeks. Still, I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope it gave you some songs to download and enjoy.

Here we go.

My 100 Favorite Songs #100 - 81

100) "The Young New Mexican Puppeteer" by Tom Jones

Every drink needs a chaser.

This is one of the most ridiculously stupid songs ever written. I was going to tell you to just go straight to iTunes and download it but, alas, it is not available. I guarantee if it were, there would be a lot of $.99 cent lawsuits. I guess all I can do is print the lyrics, in their entirety. I can also tell you that Tom Jones performs this song as though it is the most powerful piece of music ever written, screaming each note with passion and rage. And that indeed there may not be a funnier 4 minutes and 35 seconds in musical history. Seek it out. You're welcome.

In a town near Albequerque lived a most concerned young boy. He said "Lately I have noticed the folks don't live with peace and joy." With frowns and worries in their faces, they're lost and don't know where to go. He said "I'll get the people straightened by putting on...a puppet show."

CHORUS

The Young New Mexican Puppeteer, he saw the people all lived in fear. He thought that maybe they'd listen to a puppet telling them what to do. And now he bought some string and he bought some wood, he did some carving and-a he was good! And folks came running so they could hear The Young New Mexican Puppeteer.

First he carved out young Abe Lincoln, Abe will teach 'em civil rights! Then a King named Martin Luther, so they'd recall his peaceful fights! Old Mark Twain, his wit and wisdom will surely show them life is fun. But he smiled with satisfaction when the Prince of Peace was done!

CHORUS

Now his puppet shows were clever, and he made the people laugh. When he got across the message to walk along love's open path. They built him his own puppet theater! Decked out with spotlights yellow and red! Then they wrote him up in all the papers and this is what the story said!

(This last chorus is literally screamed)

It said the Young New Mexican Puppeteer! He saw the people all lived in fear! He thought that maybe they'd listen to! A puppet telling them what to do! And now he got some string and he got some wood! He did some carving and-a he was good! And folks came running so they could hear THE YOUNG NEW MEXICAN PUPPETEER!!!

Abe Lincoln. Martin Luther King. Jesus....Mark Twain. Awesome.

99) "99 Problems" by Jay-Z

If you having girl problems I feel bad for you son. I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one.

Lyrically incredible, especially that second verse where he plays himself and a racist police officer. Bombastic Rick Rubin production, the drums sound like whips cracking. Walking down the street listening to this on my iPod makes me feel like I can kick the shit out of anyone in my path.

And then the next song that comes on is "Milkshake" and I realize I can't.

98) "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Well before every douchebag in a backwards baseball cap felt the need to scream this title out at every concert, this song rocked Camaros the world over. Lord knows it rocked my father's car. I recall this song being on in the car every time I got picked up from pre-school, and the old man screaming along. Starting with that pretty and sad opening and then heading into one of the greatest tri-guitar workouts on record, this song is a Southern Rock masterpiece, head and shoulders above fucking "Sweet Home Alabama." Make sure you hear the LONG version.

97) "Love Me Like You" by The Magic Numbers

The newest song on this list, this song is kickassifical. This band sounds like The Mamas and the Papas jamming with The Pixies. It's hard to classify until you realize that it it pop music, pure and simple, and that pop music didn't always use to be the total shit it has become today. Musically comlex (drums, bass, guitar, even tambourine are always doing something cool and different) and interesting with layered boy - girl harmonies and new vocal parts lurking around every turn, this song is robo - catchy. It culminates in the best breakdown in recent memory, one of the coolest vocal arrangements I've heard. This is a band to watch.

96) "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues

What self-respecting Irishman wouldn't have The Pogues on his list? I'm a big sucker for story songs, this is some primo storytelling here, giving you guy's and girl's perspective on a relationship, Christmas, and New York City. Soft, sweet, romantic and hopeful, until out of nowhere this vocal exchange takes place:

GIRL: You're a bum, you're a punk.
GUY: You're an old slut on junk, lying there almost dead on a drip in a bed
GIRL: You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot, Happy Christmas your ass, I pray God it's our last.

Ah, love.

95) "Go With The Flow" by Queens of the Stone Age

This song is so great that it honestly made me believe rock music might make a comeback. We all know how that turned out, but for the glorious month this pounded out of car speakers, everything seemed possible.

Personal note: This song was playing on my walkman as I made my first walk from the New Jersey bus, through the insanely crowded Port Authority, and out into the neon clusterfuck known as Times Square. One of the most exciting moments of my life.

94) "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys

Listen all y'all it's a sabotage!!!!!

BUM BUM!  BUM BUM! The drums make this song. I realize this sets the bar high, but why have the Beastie Boys never come close to rocking like this again? Obviously the music video is a huge selling point here too, you can't hear the song without seeing it in your mind. When I lose my mind and start killing people, I'd like this to be the soundtrack.

93) "It Was A Good Day" by Ice Cube

And my jimmy runs deep. So deep. So deep put her butt to sleep.

Ice Cube never gets the props he deserves as a lyricist, he paints such a vivid picture here, and in describing this perfect day he doesn't use any of the filler that so much rap from this period used. Every line furthers the story and helps to define this world. This song was basically made into the movie Friday. Always makes me want to drive leaned back, one hand on the steering wheel. You know, checking out bitches and shit. And there isn't a much better closing line than Today I didn't even have to use my AK. I gotta say it was a good day.

92) "Alec Eiffel" by Pixies

This was in the "Pixies hate each other" period and thus you don't get Deal's glorious voice. If she had sang the echoes on this song, or the spacey part at the end, this would have been MUCH higher. As is, you've got one of their best blending of the rock and the pretty, a blistering guitar solo, and an absolutely beautiful finale.

91) "Rocks Off" by The Rolling Stones

The sunshine bores the daylights out of me!

One of the most rock and roll lines ever penned right there. This is the Stones how I love them, dirty, messy, heroined out of their minds. This song sounds like a first take, rough and ragged and all the better for it. The little horn and piano touches really put the thing over the top. This song makes me want to dance with a fat older woman in a roadside whiskey bar.

90) "Hell Below/Stars Above" by The Toadies

Now here's a band that didn't get the respect it deserved. This song is like Metallica doing Queen. Like just about all Toadies songs, this is about a cheating girlfriend, and just when the screaming and anger is getting to be too much, the singer and the song take a sharp left turn.

89) "Is This It" by The Strokes

I remember the Christmas everyone was talking up The Strokes as the second coming. I tend to be pretty skeptical when everyone loves something, but somebody put this album on at a poker game and I was hooked. Still am. I love the rocking stuff, but this slow little ditty always spoke to me more. Great way to open the disc, calm before the storm. I find myself asking that question all the time: Is this it?

88) "This Is It" by Ryan Adams

Too cutesy placing "This Is It" after "Is This It?" Maybe. Ryan Adams, RYAN not Bryan, is a truly underrated singer/songwriter and this album is underrated even by people who like him. Usually he sticks to sort of a country/pop sound, but this album, fittingly called Rock N Roll, does the whole Nirvana thing better than anyone in the past ten years.  I hope he does another one just like it. This is a Grade A rock album, and this is its best track. Love that scream of Don't waste my time! This is it! This is really happening!

87) "Ain't No Way" by Aretha Franklin

I think it's hard these days for people to separate Aretha from her planet-like breasts, but at one time she was one of the most exciting performers in the world. This is my favorite song of hers. Naturally, the singing is beyond great, but this song goes somewhere different and more powerful in that chilling little bridge. You'll know it when you hear it.

86) "Valentine" by Old 97s

Valentine, the destroyer. Valentine, you belong in the stars where you are always rolling on. Cried, I cried till I couldn't carry on. It's a lonely, lonely feeling when your valentine was wrong.

Ouch. A song as simple and painful as the olde tyme country music I hold so dear, this is the flip side of the Old 97s. Their rocking stuff REALLY rocks ("Timebomb," "Four Leaf Clover"), and their softer stuff, like this, REALLY stings. Lovely.

85) "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory" by Johnny Thunders

And when I'm home, big deal I'm still alone.

So Stones-y, I thought for years this was a lost RS great, but no. Johnny Thunders was one of the New York Dolls, and I've never heard another of his solo songs. I doubt they'd compare to this, what lyrics, what a riff, what guitar playing, what a title. Love it. Intended as a drug song, but works perfectly well as a relationship song, too.

84) "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose" by Dwight Yoakam

The best country voice since the dead guys, all yelps and dips and scoops and howls. Yoakam is the man, and I could have put 100 other songs of his in this one's place. This one has just been speaking to me lately. One of a select few people keeping real actual non-bullshit country going.

83) "It's the Same Old Song" by The Four Tops

It's the same old song, but with a different meaning since you've been gone.

A complex feeling, made simple.

I've been a Motown fan since I was in diapers. Years of hearing these songs in detergent commercials and shit, it's easy to forget how absolutely great the playing and singing is. For me, it took watching this awesome documentary called Standing In The Shadows of Motown. It profiled the guys who played the instruments on these songs, more number one hits than The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Beach Boys and Elvis combined.

82) "About You" by Teenage Fanclub

Another unheralded band, these guys have never recorded a bad song. They do the best three-part harmonies out there. Maybe there just isn't a place for music like this today. This is off their best album Gran Prix, available in the dollar bin at a used record store near you.

81) "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson

I don't like anything else Kelly Clarkson has done. I don't like this kind of overproduced teen pop genre. I don't like penises. So why do I love this song so damn much?

Maybe because it defies expectations so well. This song shouldn't be the song that beats the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Holes and the PJ Harveys at their own game. Those people are artists! Kelly Clarkson was an American Idol contestant! It's not fair! It's not right! But it's true. This song kicks asses across sexes, across generations, across all boundaries of cool and lame. Still, you better believe I'm turning my car stereo down if this is on and I pull up to a stop light.

tags: 100 favorite songs  favorite songs  kelly clarkson  tom jones  toadies  teenage fanclub  dwight yoakam  old 97s  ryan adams  strokes  stones  pixies  pogues  

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