1001 Song You Must Hear Before You Die - 1988

geir please get some better pictures!

(mbv, naturlich)

Eddie The Eagle is a fitting illustration for the worst list yet (even though fans of American alternative 80s rock may disagree).

Struggling to find anything worth voting for at all here. Going for Morrissey because I don't want to vote for one of the worst ever Erasure songs.

Wait... Love Shack was 1990, non?

The album was released in 1988.

feel like I should vote for Straight Outta Compton or Follow the Leader, but Buffalo Stance is a personal fav and Love Shack also seems notable. CAN'T DECIDE. but yeah, mostly a weak showing here.

xpost http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Thing June '89, so says Wikipedia...

Syd Barrett???

Follow The Leader vs Buffalo Stance for me. Didn't hear Freak Scene and Where Is My Mind until a few years later. The Mercy Seat was NME's single of the year. Fast Car, Everyday Is Like Sunday and A Little Respect are all v.v.good, and One is a rare (and almost unique) example of a metal track that I can connect with. HATE Love Shack, the bane of all wedding discos for the past 20+ years.

Wrong MBV song (should have been You Made Me Realise). Gonna vote for The Mercy Seat instead.

That Morrissey record is a bit unremarkable isn't it?

Follow The Leader.

I also raised an eyebrow seeing "Love Shack" listed this early as I thought, too, that "Cosmic Thing" was a 1989 release. I am just putting these out by the dates they were listed as in the book.

buffalo stance over mercy seat

That Morrissey record is a bit unremarkable isn't it?

I kind of like the fact that it is in many ways more of an ordinary pop song than what he used to write with Johnny Marr, but the only reason I voted for it was nothing else is better. Sure, "Fast Car" is OK, but no more, and I'd rather have seen something from Tanita Tikaram.

pixies

Syd Barrett???

Just like the Nick Drake track a bit earlier (and the Bob Dylan track that will show up in the 1991 poll, I believe), this marks the actual release date of a track that was obv recorded a lot earlier.

Think my favourite song this year was probably Mary Margaret O'Hara's 'Body's in Trouble'.

Oof... this is a hell of a list!

Can't not vote for MBV here, because, c'mon... but Pixies, NWA, Nick Cave, Neneh Cherry, B-52's, all classic.

xp That is a great one, yes

Voted "Follow the Leader", but I really like the Nick Cave, Erasure, and Nenah Cherry ones too. Hell, even the Enya one is good. I've always preferred "Roam" to "Love Shack"

I was about to say "Pixies without a second thought," then I saw Erasure at the bottom of the list. "A Little Respect" is an AMAZING song, but I think I still need to do with Pixies here.

I like Geir's pictures!

I voted "Freak Scene"

Follow the Leader.

.. was that or Neneh Cherry

I like Geir's pictures!

otm

I ended up going with "Straight Outta Compton" btw. still bangs.

when I think 1988 two songs come instantly to mind: "Don't Believe The Hype" & "Sweet Child O Mine"

wtf @ this list

sweet child was '87

true but it charted - #1 - during the long hot summer of 88

and it wasn't on the 1987 list.

Fast Car over Buffalo Stance and Waiting Room

In the absence of any house music on the list, my listening is retrospectively polarised into Pixies/Dinosaur/Mudhoney/Fugazi and Rakim/Neneh/NWA. Didn't take sides then - hard to do so now.

Buffalo Stance vs Follow the Leader vs Touch Me I'm Sick. Think it's gotta be Stance, but if I think too much abt Sam Cameron in conjunction with the "looking good, hanging w/the Wild Bunch" line before voting time that would prob swing it to Mudhoney.

I like "Where Is My Mind" but have grown to resent its post-Fight Club status as the Pixies song.

Glad I won't be the only Fast Car voter.

This list blows. It also has some of the most boring songs by some great artists. I need to think.

Oh God, Fast Car is awful. Sorry Feve.

when I think 1988 two songs come instantly to mind: "Don't Believe The Hype" & "Sweet Child O Mine"

For me, "It Takes Two" and "Sweet Child O' Mine"--those and "Teen Age Riot" are glaring omissions. "Fast Car" from what's there, ahead of "Buffalo Stance."

Other favourites: something from Beat Happening's Jamboree, Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step," the Cheepskates' "I Believed in You," the Feelies' "It's Only Life," Karyn White's "The Way You Love Me," Lucinda Williams' "Side of the Road," the Masters of Reality's "The Candy Song," the Primitives' "Crash," Prince's "Alphabet St.," Schoolly-D's "Signifying Rapper," Timbuk 3's "Welcome to the Human Race," Voice of the Beehive's "Jump This Way," and Wire's "Come Back in Two Halves." And, again, lots of obscure British indie singles I just discovered in the past few years thanks to the internets. Would also rather have MBV's "(When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream" and NWA's "Compton's in the House."

For some reason, I don't have anything from the PSB's Introspective on my hard drive, so that too--"Left to My Own Devices" or "It's Alright," although the latter didn't come out as a single until the next summer.

"Touch Me I'm Sick" just barely over "Freak Scene" and "Waiting Room"

I must be a fan of American Alternative Rock because this looks to me like the best list in a while, even with some glaring omissions like GN'R.

The Mercy Seat

also LOL at Fuzagi

Wrong MBV song (should have been You Made Me Realise)

OTM

"Fast Car" is fine, but it makes me want to strangle myself. Straight Out of Compton kind of blew me out of hip-hop altogether, but I am voting for the title track anyway, because look at the competition here.

Pointless anecdote: A friend of mine used to sing, "you've got a fast car, I've got a tarantula on my head" which never fails to pop into my head whenever I think of or hear the song.

"buffalo stance" is the greatest thing ever, so that.

This writer really hates Sonic Youth, doesn't he?

http://mikeatkinson.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/singles1988t.jpg

Something off Spirit of Eden would have been nice.

I went for Erasure, it's a perfect song.

Teardrops by Womack & Womack really should be on the list.

its pixies vs neneh for me. voted for buffalo stance

This writer really hates Sonic Youth, doesn't he?

I hate Sonic Youth myself, but have to say I am surprised there hasn't been any Sonic Youth yet, considering their supposed historical importance, and the fact that their late 80s albums seem to be considered their best.

Hit the button for Waiting Room before I noticed The Mercy Seat. But I'm happy with my choice I think.

'One' was my favourite song ever for about two years so can't really vote for anything else.

"supposed historical importance"

Can someone remind me what the premise is behind all these threads? Where do these (seemingly arbitrary) lists of songs for each year come from?

http://www.amazon.com/1001-Songs-Must-Hear-Before/dp/0789320894

mercy seat

Buffalo Stance

Freak Scene. Blistering.

"supposed historical importance"

I will never acknowledge the actuall greatness of somebody whose "music" largely consists of pointless speak-singing and a lot of noise.

ah you just did!

I thought about. While there are a couple artists here I would count among my favorites, I don't love the track choices. OTOH I can't deny the greatness of buffalo stance so that.

I will never acknowledge the actual greatness of somebody whose "music" largely consists of pointless speak-singing and a lot of noise.

So much for, what, a third of White Light/White Heat?

oh, don't get him started on WLWH!

I never heard that first MBV album

I am thinking that was a mistake

also I don't think I'd ever actually heard Nick Cave's version of "The Mercy Seat"

also I don't know why I used to hate Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I must have first encountered them before I went full goth

MBV are mostly a footnote to me, but I do think it's worth checking out all their stuff if you like some of it.

lol @ "full goth"

I could never get into MBV.

TMC was one I was considering along with Erasure before I went the Cherry way.

Buffalo Stance

I love the hell out of some shoegaze, but don't like MBV. Voted "Freak Scene".

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Goran Bregovic: Ederlezi
Klezmatics: Ale Brider

?

This list blows. It also has some of the most boring songs by some great artists. I need to think.

― Juggy Brottleteen (ENBB), Monday, October 10, 2011 10:05 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

^this is totally otm. Surfer Rosa is one of my favorite albums; I'm voting "Where is My Mind?" but feeling joyless about it.

'Feed me…' may be my face MBV song. Also would have gladly preferred living without ever hearing that fucking Tracy Chapman song.

Given the limited choices I'll go with "Waiting Room," but there were a dozen better hip-hop singles, and OMG the love for "Buffalo Stance" on this board. The '88 Ego Trip list is solid greatness: http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/ego_trip_page1.htm#1988 And yay Clemenza's list: Jamboree and "The Way That You Love Me" are straight classics.

But since "Buffalo Stance" will probably win, can I find one other person who agrees that it's an awkward piece of poseur crap?

I dunno, what's it like, anyway?

It is a little awkward, but it's catchy as hell.

Đurđevdan

voted for Where Is My Mind?, it's not my favorite pixies song anymore, but I was rarely as amazed by a song the first time I heard it as I was with that one. Totally blew my mind.

I agree this is a boring list. Hard to vote for any of these, except maybe "Straight Outta Compton".

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

where are your ears

"Compton" so close :D