1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die - 1972

virginia plain narrowly over thirteen and tumbling dice.

For me, this is a list containing a lot of good songs, but no really, really great ones.

Was sort of torn between Big Star, Elton John and perhaps Slade. But Big Star it is.

I love the "Talking Book" album by Stevie Wonder, which contains such amazing songs as "Blame It On The Sun", "You And I" and "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)". I still consider "Superstition" to be among the weaker tracks on that album though, so not even close to voting for that one, in spite of being from such a great album.

CRAY
ZEE
HORE
SES

Best list since 69, but no Bowie?????

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiNnDpIW918

look at this fucker dancing I mean come on

All of them have it turned up to maximum crazy!

Lots and lots of songs I love on here, but I'm gonna obey my inner rockist and vote Hawkwind just barely over Big Star. Probably wouldve voted for "Starman" or any other song on Side A of Roxy Music ("2 HB" wouldve been awesome)

Sam Stone

FAUST FAUST FAUST FAUST FAUST

And then Hawkwind.

And then a bunch of other stuff. Agree that this is a good list.

Just like flamingoes look the same...

Randy Newman 4EVA!!!

Thirteen, though not voting for Tumbling Dice kinda hurts.

Temps? Mott? Curtis? Stevie? Staples? Steely? Roxy? Would love to vote for you all, but seeing as how this is likely the last year the Stones will appear, I can't not vote for their best song.

waitwaitwait...where the fuck is Bill Withers?!

"Superfly" barely over "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" (battle of the wah-wahs).

x-post Well, he obviously had to be bumped to make way for:

# Back for Good- Take That
# Crash Into Me- Dave Matthews Band
# Broken Heart- Spiritualized
# Surfacing- Slipknot
# Scar Tissue- Red Hot Chili Peppers
# Points of Authority- Jay-Z with Linkin Park
# Fix You- Coldplay
# Best of You- Foo Fighters
# Supermassive Black Hole- Muse
# My Moon My Man- Feist
# Sex on Fire- Kings of Leon
# Viva la Vida- Coldplay
# Empire State of Mind- Jay-Z & Alicia Keys

Like I'm voting anything other than "Superstition."

sail away

duh

oh wait this is RANDY NEWMAN sail away I thought it was styx

I change my vote to 13

13

much love to virginia plain, soul makossa, you're so vain, taj mahal, crazy horses

"All The Young Dudes" gets me every-time, hope it not saying something.

damn... really torn between Stevie, Curtis, Mott and Big Star

I've been listening to some of these songs I don't recognize and that Alice Cooper song suuuuuucks.

Piss off Darin, I'm voting for "Elected"

this book is weird

this guy also included limp bizkit's chocolate starfish and the hot dog flavored water on his 1001 albums list

xp x 2 - hey, to each their own, but that seemed like a really arbitrary hard rock song choice by the writer

I'm torn between "Rocket Man" and "Virginia Plain", with "Superfly" and "Superstition" close behind them. Will probly vote "Rocket Man" else it gets shamefully overlooked.

Dude picked the wrong Faust track.

It's a toss-up between Captain Beefheart, Elvis and Frankie Valli. I'm really conflicted over this. 'Always On My Mind' is one of my all-time ballads, but 'The Night' is such an anthem and I'll never tire of it. 'Big Eyed Beans' has the long lunar note... Hmmm...

Not much reggae on this list...

this book is weird

co-sign in triplicate

this book is weird

Maybe. Nevertheless, those Coldplay and Muse tracks are among the very few great songs from after Y2K listed in this book.

Voted Taj Mahal as it's probably the only Jorge Ben showing (and I love it). Might have voted for "Girl You Need a Change of Mind" if it had been nominated. Temptations, Staples, Stevie, Curtis, Roxy, Faust, Hawkwind also great.

I'm voting for The Night by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons as it's one of my five favourite songs ever made. Virginia Plain would be a close second.

i think i went for The Night as well. Sorry Elvis...

xp x 2 - hey, to each their own, but that seemed like a really arbitrary hard rock song choice by the writer

I like Alice Cooper, but there are other, better and less conventional, songs on that album.

"Superstition" is my Karaoke song de vivre.

OK, I've done it twice now, so should sack it really.

OK, which to vote for? List is the best one yet..

OK, voted for the band that turned people around after the 'solo' hits, playground talk was "They're awesome! Who Knew?"

Of course, within the year they'd be doing banjo medleys on their own TV show, and my parents would be going "wow they're so talented"

But for this, and the single previous, they had it...

My favourite year ever--11 years old with a radio tucked under my pillow. My pick from the list would be "All the Young Dudes" narrowly over "Reelin' in the Years," "Tumbling Dice," and "Thirteen." Two of those go right back to the moment, two came into my life later. I'll post some supplemental picks when I'm at home and can do it accurately.

This guy's choices have been exasperating at times, but I like (and think I understand) what he's doing. The most obvious comparison is probably Marsh's The Heart of Rock and Soul, which was also polled front to back a year or two ago. Marsh lists 1,000 songs too. I don't know what the writing is like in this book, and that's really the value of the Marsh book; he's a good writer. If you just look at the song selection, though, Marsh's is mostly very predictable; all those "How did he miss such-and-such?" complaints we've been making about these lists, most of them are probably in Marsh's book. This guys seems to be aiming instead for a midpoint between honouring some version of the canon and quirky (and sometimes inexplicable) subjectivity. Which for me keeps the lists interesting. I can't double-check right now, but it's probably comparable to the discography in xhuxk's second book.

Scott Woods and I once assembled a list of 100 '70s singles for a book, and we basically did the same thing--we picked our personal favourites, and the list ended up (hopefully) at the same midpoint. The Partridge Family, but no Randy Newman; Walter Egan instead of Bruce Springsteen; April Wine rather than the Who. Sometimes, the subjectivity happened within an individual's body of work, as it often does with this guy: for Stevie Wonder, we went with "If You Really Love Me" over all the Grammy-era singles. That makes no sense if your objective is to represent the decade accurately, but that wasn't our objective. Not our first objective, anyway--it was like Objective 3.5.

Big Star without a second thought. I love a LOT of the songs on this last, but "Thirteen" is beauty made into sound.

However, "Superstition" is a VERY close second because of the video below. And "Reelin' In The Years" is right on its heels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WryUOXo9sfM

Clemenza's post helps me articulate my nagging objections to this 1001 concept. It's not the seemingly random sampling like I thought at first but the "you" in the title. Why on earth does anyone need to hear John Denver before they die?

a better title for this book might be 1001 Songs That Made My Life Meaningful and yes, I realize this is a franchise. frankly 1001 Places To Visit Before You Die makes way more sense that applying the meme to the arts.

BTW I think 1972 was the greatest year for singles in my lifetime and perhaps I'm just bummed that the Ojays' "Backstabbers" didn't make the cut.

Superstition vs Virginia Plain

[/i]I'm just bummed that the Ojays' "Backstabbers" didn't make the cut.[/i]

Funny! Someone took us to task for including "I Love Music" in our discography rather than "Backstabbers." Great John Denver line--but my life would probably be a little bit poorer if I'd never heard "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

You guys have no idea how hard I'd laugh if Steely Dan got no votes...

Then again, this board was nearly called "Backstabbers" as well!

X-Post I would have voted for "Do It Again".

This guy's choices have been exasperating at times, but I like (and think I understand) what he's doing. The most obvious comparison is probably Marsh's The Heart of Rock and Soul, which was also polled front to back a year or two ago. Marsh lists 1,000 songs too. I don't know what the writing is like in this book, and that's really the value of the Marsh book; he's a good writer. If you just look at the song selection, though, Marsh's is mostly very predictable; all those "How did he miss such-and-such?" complaints we've been making about these lists, most of them are probably in Marsh's book.

Marsh's book was also meant as a corrective to the album-centric view of history. 20+ years later, some of his choices do seem predictable, but in 1989 many of the singles on his list were difficult to find ("Stay With Me" sticks in my mind, and I don't think there was even a decent Phil Spector compilation in print at the time). Also, there were a few curveballs ("Payoff Mix" - Double Dee & Steinski), and hip-hop on such a list was unheard of (no hip-hop records ever appeared on those "100 Greatest Albums" books/lists in the 80s). But the Before You Die book does share a thesis with Marsh's, that is, that we primarily experience these records as songs/singles rather than albums.

You're right, I simplified Marsh's book somewhat; over the course of a 1,000 songs, there are some surprises. (Noel's "Silent Morning" is the first one that comes to mind.) And he definitely meant it as a counterview of pop history aimed at his old employer, Rolling Stone. (And possibly, to a degree, Christgau's books, although Christgau always seemed more like a guy who loved singles equally but chose to write about albums because that's what his readers bought.)

i mean do you like motown, Bill?

Think he's rescinding the McGill Magill University Northern Soul Scholarship

i mean do you like motown, Bill?

― Virginia Palin (Drugs A. Money), Friday, June 24, 2011 3:20 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I like it.

So do I

always saw "northern soul" as describing an era in and culture of english music fandom. i.e., it's not really the songs, which are just obscure old soul and r&b jams, but rather the cult that worshipped them, their canon and style. cuz otherwise, it's silly.

Northern Soul is one of the stupidest misnomers I've ever come across, I can't think of a whole lot of instances where a small subculture in one country takes it upon itself to invent a genre name for music from another country (haha krautrock maybe?!)

I don't know if it's silly, really. It's just kind of how it happened - that the revival of a lot of obscure soul tunes occurred with that scene and the songs have continued to be associated with it.

And, of course, it's definitely not just Motown - lots of obscure soul, but movement started in the early '70s so it was also contemporary stuff from that time.

tim otm

I just remember being very confused the first time I saw a Northern Soul comp, advertising itself as, y'know, obscure soul/funk rarities from northern Britain and then seeing a bunch of American acts in the tracklisting.

Yeah tim I was kind of wondering if it was so much songs that slipped thru the cracks or if it was Motown + other labels that loss some of its relevance coming into the 70s but still had a bunch of diehards in Northern England who turned their loyalty into an underground

yeah, no, i don't think that the northern soul movement itself was silly. those fans drew attention to worthy music that was otherwise being overlooked, much respect. but using the term at this remove (some 40 years later) to talk about anything other than that particular scene does seem silly. in speaking of the music, not the specific tastes of the early 70s english dance cult, it seems more reasonable to say "soul music" or "obscure soul music" or "obscure 60s & 70s soul music" or whatever, depending on the angle you're taking.

Obscure Soul Music works. I dont even want to get into the implications of naming a type of music by obscure black American artists after Northern England. Seems ridiculous.

The Ramones were much more popular in South America than the US. Let's call the type of music they played "Brazilian Rock".

Bill OTm

Northern Soul is Norwegian R&B acts such as Samsaya and Noora Noor

(well... maybe not.... but it might have been.....)

Thanks Virginia Palin; now I can occassionaly fool myself into thinking that I know more about music than I do.

Re Northern Soul, there's lots of threads on here, here's one:

Northern Soul: Classic Or Dud?

But "obscure soul music" doesn't differentiate between a song that's a northern soul classic and one that isn't. I don't think there's anything necessarily providential about the term.

xp

David Hasselhoff: Bavarian Pop
Jerry Lewis: French Comedy
Cheap Trick: Japanese Rock

But "obscure soul music" doesn't differentiate between a song that's a northern soul classic and one that isn't. I don't think there's anything necessarily providential about the term.

exactly, that was my point. if you are talking about the specific enthusiasms of that particular cult, then there's nothing wrong with the term.

but the only thing that makes one of those songs a "northern soul classic" is that... a bunch of people in Northern Britain 40 years ago really liked it?

Because there really is nothing stylistically that you can point to make this distinction, which is the real problem.

it just seems weird to me to codify music based on the audience like that and not, y'know, the music

You think that's weird, you should check out the fetishization of the Northern Soul scene in modern-day NYC.

It's not just that a bunch of people going to clubs in Northern Britain liked a given song, though. A song like "Hey Girl Don't Bother Me" by the Tams actually went to number one in the UK charts seven years after it was released (and didn't chart very high) in the U.S. So "northern soul" is the biggest factor in that song's legacy.

And, again, maybe acknowledging that the term wasn't intended as being providential helps?

It's not just that a bunch of people going to clubs in Northern Britain liked a given song, though. A song like "Hey Girl Don't Bother Me" by the Tams actually went to number one in the UK charts seven years after it was released (and didn't chart very high) in the U.S. So "northern soul" is the biggest factor in that song's legacy.

^the parallels to the Hasslehoff phenomenon in Germany are fascinating.

I'm sure the Tams would be happy to know that they themselves take second in importance in their song's legacy to a bunch of English kids.

Don't put words in my mouth, please. I said northern soul was the most significant factor in the song's legacy, not the most significant thing about the song itself.

Im sure the Tams would be happy to hear that.

I'm sure the Tams are happy about any extra royalties or gigs they got due to the English kids.

Actually wasn't some of this music, The Tams, in fact, also called "Beach Music" at some point because they played at Carolinas beach resort towns?

the only weirdness is that people sometimes seem to use "northern soul" to generically describe "old soul and R&B obscurities, you know, like they used to dance to in english clubs." that's ridiculous. but if you're talking about a specific and limited canon of songs that really were norther english club hits in the late 60s and early 70s, then fair play.

it just seems weird to me to codify music based on the audience like that and not, y'know, the music

Lol teenpop/tweenpop

Was using the word "legacy" to refer to how a cultural artifact fares in the outside world. If that intention was unclear, I apologize.

"I'm sure the Tams are happy about any extra royalties or gigs they got due to the English kids."

I'm sure that's true.

it just seems weird to me to codify music based on the audience like that and not, y'know, the music

Lol teenpop/tweenpop

stuff that's exclusively marketed to teens seems to be an altogether different category to me

Looks like they didn't mind the Beach Music rubric too much: Well known in The Carolina's for their signature "Beach Music" sound and their only problem with the Brits is that peculiarities of British vocabulary caused their song "Ain't Nothin Like Shaggin' " to be banned after it hit #6 on the UK charts.

http://www.thetams.com/thetamshome.html

The Tams could use a website redesign.

Was using the word "legacy" to refer to how a cultural artifact fares in the outside world. If that intention was unclear, I apologize.

― timellison, Friday, June 24, 2011 5:29 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ok, that's fair.

In this case I guess it's much more about the confusion. If somebody said "Southern Soul", I am pretty sure people would think Stax/Volt or maybe some even older Atlantic R&B. Which makes it sort of logic that Northern Soul would be whatever came from Detroit and Chicago rather than what scousers liked listening to in the 60s.

This is so hard that I don't care who wins, so I'm voting "Willin'" just because I don't want it to get shut out.

― frogbs went a-courtin' (WmC), Friday, June 24, 2011 11:59 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

good list, but must vote "Sail Away" in case I am confronted by Randy Newman in heaven

Because there really is nothing stylistically that you can point to make this distinction, which is the real problem.

Not true though, there is a definite "Northern Soul" sound, it's not just any old "soul record that fell through the cracks", it's danceable upbeat stuff, probably influenced by Motown but not Motown, give the people who started collecting these records some credit ffs. And, yes, it's exactly like Krautrock, a term made up in another country to some of the music made in another country that they happen to like, so Jane + Grobschnitt aren't Krautrock but Can are, just because Jane + Grobschnitt are shite and Can aren't.

except that 'Krautrock' is named after the country of its origin, whereas 'Northern Soul' is named after the country of its appropriation; crucial distinction in this conversation, dude.

It's confusing, I admit that

I suppose it's a bit like Balearic, I don't even know exactly what Balearic is, but I assume it's music that was played in clubs in Ibiza, I assume it's not actually Catalonian music!

... or even Catalan. Saturday's not good for me.

Yeah that's a good parallel

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voting for Elvis' "Burning Love". Oh wait, it's not here? Okay then "Backstabbers" for sure. No? Well then "You're So Vain". Can't believe I'm not seeing love for Carly's great kiss-off.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The best song won. I do wish there'd been more love for "Tumbling Dice," though. The false ending, when the drums drop out and then return, is fucking majestic.

Whew!

I love Big Star + "Thirteen" but it's not that good.