Triple J is holding a vote for the Hottest 100 of all time (again). You get to vote for ten songs. This is my very very long short list. I’m struggling with choosing songs-do I discount things because they are recent and I’m not sur they’ll stand the test of time? Or is that unfair? Do I vote for songs based on the memories associated with them, or based on the technicalities of what is a better song? I mean, the Whitlams’ Blow Up the Pokies is a much better song than Louis Burdett, but Louis Burdett has such a strong tie with a very large portion of my life. So does blow up the pokies, but not for as long.
It’s too hard!
Anyway, this is my list at the moment.
Bold is what I’m thinking at the moment. It may or may not be ten…..
Stone roses- fools gold
Primal scream rocks
Lemonheads- if i could talk i’d tell you
Oasis- wonderwall
Jeff buckley- last goodbye
Bob Dylan- shelter from the storm
Blur- song 2
Coldplay- god put a smile on your face
Beatles- come together
George Harrison-here comes the sun
Whitlams- blow up the pokies
Portishead-glory box
Queen-bohemian rhapsody
Shins- new slang
Bright eyes- first day of my life
Ben folds- one angry dwarf
Cold war kids- we used to vacation
Gotye-hearts a mess
The herd- only 19
Supergrass- alright
Pulp- common people
Black keys- hard row
Dandy warhols- bohemian like you
Radiohead- paranoid android OR karma police
U2- Sunday bloody Sunday
Hunters and collectors- throw your arms around me
White stripes- 7 nation army
Queens of the Stone Age- No one knows
Mars volta- the widow
Fatboy slim- praise you
Inxs- never tear us apart
Kooks- seaside
Xavier rudd- let me be
Red hot chilli peppers- under the bridge
Beach boys-god only knows
Silverchair-tomorrow
Carus and the true believers- sweet mondays
The verve- bitter sweet symphony
Ben harper- steal my kisses
David bowie- starman
Elton john- tiny dancer
Augie March – One Crowded Hour
Elliott Smith-Memory Lane
Bodyjar-Hazy Shade of Winter
Grinspoon-Chemical Heart or Just Ace?
I’m sure I’ve forgotten heaps. There are a few definites here, and some that I am pretty sure i will cross out… any contributions or opinions would be appreciated
What’s on your list?
IF I HAD TO VOTE RIGHT NOW:
Stone roses- fools gold
Lemonheads- if i could talk i’d tell you
Oasis- wonderwall
Jeff buckley- last goodbye
George Harrison-here comes the sun
Whitlams- blow up the pokies
Gotye-hearts a mess
Supergrass- alright
Fatboy slim- praise you
Inxs- never tear us apart
this list is so unsatisfying. really want U2, hunters and collectors, blur, primal scream, the herd, portishead and the beatles in there.
Might have to get Myrtle to cast a few votes for me…
21 Comments
June 17, 2009 at 11:04 am
um this is really tough. definately deleteing new songs i think is fine and fair. endurance is a good mark of a classic. i know you’ll probably cross bowie off your list but if you do include a bowie can you make it Life on Mars or Ziggy Stardust? as i doubt any other songs stand a chance of making it. i think Starman would sadly be a wasted vote… hmmm… see then you start thinking like this and that is bad. we need to stay true and provide an accurate representation of what we like best yeah? oh dear. can’t we just write the hottest 100 for them cause the masses really are stupid and don’t know what is best. Democracy sucks.
June 17, 2009 at 11:11 am
See this is one of the other issues. Wasting votes.
We’re meant to vote for our favourite songs ever, but if we vote for something obscure it’s wasted. So everyone votes for big mainstream classics, or the biggest hit sung by the guy who sings that other song you really really like.
I don’t want to waste a vote though…. Shiiiiiiizzle.
Just realised this morning I have no Grinspoon and no Bodyjar!
I don’t like bodyjar now, but Hazy Shade of Winter was my favourite song for so so long, and meant so much to me, I think I have to put it on the list for historical significance…. what do you reckon?
June 17, 2009 at 11:58 am
exactly… sucks hey? hmmmm… i think bodyjar hasn’t stood the test of time. would you be pleased if it got no 1? no… you’d be like hey thats not the greatest song of all time! i think you need to vote for songs you’d love to see (hear) get no 1. yeah?
June 17, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I have to add that I think Andy Clockwise’s Alice May should certainly be in the running, except his album is a piece of self-indulgent twattery. So he’s disqualified.
Ditto on Ween-Gabrielle. I really really really love one song from every second album that Ween do. The rest of their music are grounds for leave-out-ness.
June 17, 2009 at 12:09 pm
They should give a point system. And more votes maybe.
Like its the top 100, so let us vote for 100 songs. Don’t have to be ordered, but maybe grouped. Your top ten get 5 points. Next ten get 4 points, next ten get 3 etc etc and the last 50 get 1 point.
They should do this for every hot 100 to counteract the Powderfinger Effect.
(everyone really likes powderfinger, so puts it in their top ten and it wins. But not many would actually put it as their number one song)
OK, so taking out bodyjar. and feeling really really bad about it.
June 17, 2009 at 2:31 pm
ok. i did it. mine went like this:
David Bowie – Life On Mars?
john lennon – imagine
Beatles, The – Revolution
Bob Dylan – Tangled Up In Blue
Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road
Roy Orbison – In Dreams
Lou Reed – Satellite Of Love
pink floyd – on the run
Eric Clapton – Layla
Queen – Bohemain Rhapsody
Fuck it was hard. Picking my favourite Bowie was painful and I made myself only do one so I had room to cover other artists. but I really wanted to give him 2… I decided on no velvet underground even though I shortlisted 3 of their songs. decided to go with Lou Reed instead. Tried to do actual favourites and not the most popular. Found it hard to pick my fav Beatles, fav Orbison, fav Dylan, and Fav Pink floyd. Short listed heaps of new things but had to give them all the flick. I really couldn’t justify putting in the Strokes or Eels or Machine Gun or the Whitlams or Bright Eyes (and god knows how much I wanted to put some Bright Eyes in) and miss out on classic things no matter how many memories I have wrapped up in the songs that were actually released in my lifetime. Had to give Rolling Stones, Easybeats, The Loved Ones, Van, Dusty, Tom Waits, Elton John, Carol King, Pixies, Hendrix, Zepplin, Patti Smith and Janis Joplin a miss… basically cause I do have more of a relationship with the above ten… oh fuck. i wish i’d just voted for ten bowie songs and saved myself this angst.
arg.
x
June 17, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Were any of those songs written after you were born?
I really think Bright Eyes, may not stand the test of time as far as popularity goes, but for actual songwriting ability, LDOML especially, I reckon he’s up there. I know I didn’t put him in my list either, but he’s at number 11 for me I think.
Revolution was my other beatles choice. I chose Come together because of the Joe Cocker cover.
Tangled up in blue- I like Whitlams version better. Lou Reed, Eric Clapton, Queen, yes yes yes.
Goddamn it Triple J do you see what you’ve done to us?
June 17, 2009 at 3:04 pm
yeah me too way better but it is a good song. the other Dylan i would have done was Hurricane but this way i sort of nod to my love of the whitlams cover. i don’t know. fuck triple j.
June 17, 2009 at 3:09 pm
and i agree re song writing ability… and yeah LDOML is spectatular i just couldn’t justify new stuff to myself. didn’t feel right. no. none of them were written post my birth. is that bad? should i be better representing my own ilk?
June 17, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I think we’re overanalysing this. Bugger it, vote for who you want. Your list is a good list.
Speaking of overanalysing, just realised I cut Blur from short list but included Oasis. Does that mean I’ve chosen a side? i don’t really want to-they’re both pillicks. At least Oasis revel in their pillickness though. Damon’s a gitface.
Wow. Guess I did choose sides after all.
June 17, 2009 at 5:10 pm
ha ha! x
June 17, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald,Janis Joplin, Carol King, James Taylor, ACDC, Creedance, The Eagles….ahh my vintage petticoat is showing!
June 18, 2009 at 7:12 pm
btw, I like the monster you got. She looks like she’s wearing a shower cap. Or an tea-cosy beanie like little old ladies wear over their purple hair.
June 18, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Oooh Etta James! I think I have to re-revise my list….
I’d go for ‘At Last’. What do you reckon?
June 18, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I’ve joined this a bit late, but I think I’m glad I missed out. My brain is hurting already.
My main pickle is this- are we picking the hottest 100 of all time, or the hottest 100 songs played by triple j of all time? For example, Billy Joel: my top 100 – yes. My triple-j-hottest-100 – no. See my dilemma?
Some comments on Helen’s not-so-short-list.
1) Big claps for New Slang. I’m loving Caring is Creepy at the moment though, so I think that should make it too.
2) Kooks- I think there is better than Seaside. Not sure which though. I think I’d go with She Moves in Her Own Way.
3) INXS – Need You Tonight beats Never Tear us Apart for me.
4) The Cure? Boys Don’t Cry? Something? Anything?
5) Foo Fighters of some kind. Everlong?
6) Queen could make up a top 10 all by themselves. Or a top 5 at least.
7) I think I agree with Come Together as the Beatles choice.
I don’t think I should be allowed to get involved in these kind of discussions/votes though. My favourites change week to week. I play a few songs to death, then move onto a new group. I’m somewhat disloyal and uncommitted to my choices it would seem. So ignore my input.
June 19, 2009 at 8:52 am
ooohhh it’s THAT roy! I thought it was roy2000….
I was thinking about the cure. Personally i’d have to go lovecats but I hate that song after pittwater high estedford. maybe friday i’m in love?
Almost agree on kooks. but seaside gets at me straight away from the first damn strum. She Moves takes a a little longer.
And you haven’t heard the acoustic version of never tear us apart…
just found out joe cocker did a cracking cover of that too. I want to marry joe cocker.
June 18, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Well there you go an 8 and a ) make a
June 18, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Eek – Too hard. Not going to think about this too long here it comes… in no particular order
Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone
Wilco – Jesus, Etc
Nick Cave – Into My Arms
Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate
The Band – The Weight
Bob/The Band – I Shall Be Released
Hunters – Throw Your Arms Around me
The Smiths – Please, Please Let Met Get What I want.
The Beatles – Come Together
Leonard Cohen – If It Be Your Will
Argh – I need to do at least 20 I haven’t included Johnny Cash, Elvis or Bob Marley – or any women – or any Kiwis (sorry Fat Freddys, Black Seeds, Phoenix, SJD, Neil & Liam) And there’s a sameness to them all (or should I say a bobness?) I’d love to add pure fun poppy stuff (Abba anyone?).
And do we think that another mark of a great song is that other artists can pick it up and do wonderful things with it. Ryan Adams & Wonderwall, Jeff Buckley & Hallelujah.
And my last question – what is it with Bohemian Rhapsody? I would put it in my top 10 worst songs of all time (now that’s so much easier – Fernando, Mull of Kintyre, I Would Walk 500 miles – urgh stop me now).
Anyway – that’s me done. Mike’s turn next – that’s gonna take a bit longer (he’s just extended his top 30 to a top 40) and dammit – I just know I’m gonna like his top 10 so much more than mine.
A.
June 19, 2009 at 8:39 am
Ryan Adams did Wonderwall?? I’ve never heard it. Will hunt it out today while I work I think….
To keep going with the covers theme- Whitlam’s- Tangled Up in Blue, Joe Cocker- Come together, heard it through the grapevine-creedence, knockin on heavens door -guns n roses (just kidding)….
they need a hottest 100 covers of all time (again).
June 19, 2009 at 5:16 pm
the real dilema we face is are we playing petanque? x
June 19, 2009 at 5:23 pm
YYEESSSSSSS!!!! maybe indoor petanque?
or how about harbour-beach-near-my-place petanque? nice park. nice water. can run home if it starts to rain. also kind of a middle ground for everyone. also very convenient for me….