Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All-time (2021 Edition) (1 Viewer)

[Bracie Smathers]

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you that a list of the top-500 songs of all-time got any sort of negative reaction.

 

[zamboni]

glad to see my wedding sing at last by etta james in there and if it were up to the swcer then under pressure by bowie and queen heart of the matter by don henly and gimme shelter by the stones would be right up at the top take that to the bank bromigos

I would have guessed that this was your wedding song.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Think I'll move to Montana, raise a crop of dental floss, and subscribe to Rolling Stone. 

You'll look mighty grand riding along the border.

With your tweezers gleamin' in the moon-lighty night.

 

[SWC]

I would have guessed that this was your wedding song.

you should have guessed brandy by looking glass but i will allow it take that to the bank bromigo

 

[rockaction]

Narrator: He did not believe Motown was overrated. At all. 

 

[dickey moe]

glad to see my wedding sing at last by etta james in there and if it were up to the swcer then under pressure by bowie and queen heart of the matter by don henly and gimme shelter by the stones would be right up at the top take that to the bank bromigos

SWC does your wife use/get periods? 

 

[Binky The Doormat]

this list exemplifies Rolling Stones continued failed attempts to be relative.

#### autotune.

 

[Northern Voice]

this list exemplifies Rolling Stones continued failed attempts to be relative.

#### autotune.

*Relevant

And TO BE FAIR, most of the complaints in here are from people rejecting the past 20 years of music which one might suggest means it's not Rolling Stone who is no longer relative. 

 

[Binky The Doormat]

*Relevant

And TO BE FAIR, most of the complaints in here are from people rejecting the past 20 years of music which one might suggest means it's not Rolling Stone who is no longer relative. 

tbf ...Rolling Stone hasn't been relative since '72

Jann Wenner let his ego win.  super #### him.  I quit reading that piece of #### rag before I left HS.

 

[kupcho1]

Wah-la.

 

[Ramsay Hunt Experience]

As I’m sure has been mentioned before, it’s an impossible task that feels destined to piss people off.  That said, I was surprised that I didn’t have a particularly negative reaction to the Top 100. Sure, some contemporary stuff seemed high to me (I think Royals is perfectly fine, but not anything I’d put on a best-of list).
 

But I’m 50.  I still think of The Humpty Dance as a contemporary rap song. I’m going to be out to sea on some of this. And they can’t just put 40 Prince songs on the list. 

 

[timschochet]

As far as Aretha goes, this may be heresy but I believe that both “Think” and her cover of Carole King’s “Natural Woman” are both better songs than “Respect”, and possibly “Chain of Fools” as well. 

 

[General Malaise]

As far as Aretha goes, this may be heresy but I believe that both “Think” and her cover of Carole King’s “Natural Woman” are both better songs than “Respect”, and possibly “Chain of Fools” as well. 

Give me (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone all day long. 

 

[rockaction]

As I’m sure has been mentioned before, it’s an impossible task that feels destined to piss people off.  That said, I was surprised that I didn’t have a particularly negative reaction to the Top 100. Sure, some contemporary stuff seemed high to me (I think Royals is perfectly fine, but not anything I’d put on a best-of list).
 

But I’m 50.  I still think of The Humpty Dance as a contemporary rap song. I’m going to be out to sea on some of this. And they can’t just put 40 Prince songs on the list. 

I think that your assessment of "Royals," much like Dr. Octopus's assessment of "Dancing On My Own" is certainly indicative of being fifty and thinking that "The Humpty Dance" is a contemporary rap song. "Royals "and Dancing..." are zeitgeist songs, where you had to have been in pop culture at that particular moment as a culture writ large to appreciate their impact. Much like "Respect," they hit upon a particular bone within the culture (nobody can tell me that Otis's song isn't more fully realized from creation to finish than Aretha's twist on it. Nobody.) and stuck due to the message of it rather than the import of it as a pop performance.

In a sense, tim isn't far off to think that "Chain Of Fools" isn't a better soul song qua soul song even though he approaches the sentiment cautiously. And that shows two things about our relation to pop culture. One is that with the death of high culture, we take pop so seriously. It's become the culture. And the other thing is that pop culture is at times inextricably linked to some zeitgeist, a zeitgeist you might disagree with (like me) or be unaware of (like the cultural importance of "Dancing On My Own"), much like the lyrics in "Royals" are and were an answer to the dominant inventory-flashing materialism going on in hip hop at the time, an overt and constant inventory flashing that's aimed at youth that don't have any money to speak of, nor connections to money, nor any way to get money. That's what makes the song so important historically. A fifteen year-old takes aim at that and squarely hits. Much like Aretha's "Respect" touched a nerve with underappreciated women everywhere, "Royals" was a thinly-veiled shot at would-be rap moguls.

That's the significance of being somewhat with the times with respect to the list. Which might lead one to question both the list's deference to zeitgeists past and present and also the role of pop in our cultural discussion about weightier things.

Just some thoughts.