Number 16
Song & Artist: Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
Album & Date: Led Zeppelin - 8th November 1971
Nationality of band: English
Members at release: John Bonham (Drums - English); John Paul Jones (Bass -English); Jimmy Page (Guitar - English); Robert Plant (Vocals - English)

YouTube:

My rant;

I have been looking forward to writing this rant since before I even created this stupid blog so here we go.

This is a rock song. This is a rock songs rock song if ever there was one. I love these kinds of songs where they build up from seemingly nothing to a powerful crescendo of earth shattering rock and then end leaving you recovering from an orgasmic experience.

The song is just so damn beautiful with the gentle yet determined picking and tunes at the start. The soulful tones of Plants voice picks at you as he ever so slowly, almost imperceptibly, picks up the tempo until at 2:15 another guitar starts and the song takes on a more powerful tone.

The tone of the vocal steps up as and about then you remember how fucking awesome this track is and what you're about to experience.

(The forest will echo with laughter, and it makes me wonder)

At 4:20 the drums start, and the song takes it next bump up towards ecstasy as Plant puts even more into the song.

Another step up at 5:30 and, ladies and gentlemen we are rocking like no one had rocked before and like no one has rocked since. Scintilating guitar work that scorches into the final jump up and the wino down the road arrives and the band bunch together and crank out the best damn ending to any track.

The only problem with this absolutely brilliant track is that takes me until the 2nd or 3rd minute before I remember how sensational it is. Because I am nominally part of Generation Now, I often skip this track simply because I can get my rock fix quicker from other songs.

I will always remember this song because Leah Panapa always played it around 10pm on a Saturday night when she was doing the weekend show on Hauraki back in the 90's and it was my guilty non-grunge pleasure. Somehow I was out driving every Saturday night.....

Bands: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

8 - America
8 - England

Band Members Country of Origin: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

33 - England
29 - America
2 - Germany
1 - Tanzania

Decade Released

10 - 90's
3 - 70's
2 - 60's
1 - 00's

Year Released

2 - 1994
2 - 1997
2 - 1993
2 - 1995
2 - 1991
1 - 1975
1 - 1965
1 - 1979
1 - 1968
1 - 2006
1 - 1971

Genre:
5 - Alternative
4 - Grunge
3 - Rock
1 - Punk
1 - Glam Rock
1 - Post Grunge
1 - BritPop(Rock)

Number 15

Song & Artist: Steady, As She Goes - The Raconteurs / Saboteurs
Album & Date: Broken Boy Soldiers - 24th April 2006
Nationality of band: American
Members at release: Brendan Benson (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards - American); Patrick Keeler (Drums - American); Jack Lawrence (Bass Guitar & Vocals - America); Jack White (Vocals and basically every instrument known to mankind.... - American)

YouTube:

My rant;

I will repeatedly bang on about the lack of talent out there in the rock world in recent times. I will specifically harp on endlessly about the old crew (FF, RHCP etc) turning out ballsack albums with one or two average tracks on them that the media take to the masses with fake gusto (which is in fact thinly veiled boredom)

Once again, I'm calling this track alternative because there was no one else really really doing this garage rock revival scene in 2006. The Foo Fighters latest, Wasting Light, was apparently recorded in a garage, but seeing as that garage is bigger than my house, I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.
But Jack White is someone who is genuinely talented and has been releasing music post 2000 that is genuinly interesting and rocks. So team him up with the rest of the boys of the Raconteurs and you get this lo-fi, garage rock track that is inspiring in both its simplicity and its depth of rock.

The drum and bass in this track carry it beyond what it could have been. The short, caught guitar marks the track as something entirely different to any thing else released around then. The slightly offset layering of the vocal track is something not done a lot, and not done well at all generally. But this track has it nailed and musically these four chums have turned out a cracker.

The lyrics are defining for any young man and especially for me seeing as I was engaged when this was released and spent significant time thrashing it at work where Vladimir and I were both jumping up and down about its brilliance.
Bands: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

8 - America
7 - England

Band Members Country of Origin: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

29 - England
29 - America
2 - Germany
1 - Tanzania

Decade Released

10 - 90's
2 - 70's
2 - 60's
1 - 00's

Year Released

2 - 1994
2 - 1997
2 - 1993
2 - 1995
2 - 1991
1 - 1975
1 - 1965
1 - 1979
1 - 1968
1 - 2006

Genre:

5 - Alternative
4 - Grunge
2 - Rock
1 - Punk
1 - Glam Rock
1 - Post Grunge
1 - BritPop(Rock)

thus spake drake: Is she really going steady (as she goes?)

thus spake drake: Is she really going steady (as she goes?)

Number 14

Song & Artist: Aneurysm - Nirvana
Album & Date: B-Side to Smells Like Teen Spirit - 10 September 1991 or From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah - 1 October 1996 (I used  1991 for the stats below)
Nationality of band: American
Members at release: Kurt Cobain (Vocals/Electric Guitar - America); Dave Grohl (Drums - America); Krist Novoselic (Bass Guitar - America)
YouTube:

My rant;

For me, this is the ultimate grunge track. It's the old story, but if you look up grunge in the dictionary, you will hear this song graunching along in a fucked off way. The opening minute is just gorgeous in its 'in your face' tenacity and rawness.

And when the lyrics start, my ears start to bleed, but I feel the pain that is in the voice and words. I am drawn into the darkness, the total depressing darkness that must have been in play for a track like this to have come into existance.

Luckily for me, when the 4.5 minutes are over, I can switch back to reality a wee bit. But this is a truly haunting song that epitomises the grunge era for me.

There are whole websites devoted to figuring out the lyrics of this song (http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4910) but I am really not interested in getting into that, I am all about the whole package, how the track feels and how the music and lyrics mesh and the time it was released and what it meant at that time and to that time.

And for me, this song is a perfect storm.

My number one memory of this track is sitting in my car in the rain trying to convince a mate of mine named Roger that it was the greatest grunge track of all time. He didn't get it. And he said he liked Coldplay, I got out of my car and walked away.

Bands: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

7 - America
7 - England

Band Members Country of Origin: (multiple band entrys ARE counted twice)

29 - England
25 - America
2 - Germany
1 - Tanzania

Decade Released

10 - 90's
2 - 70's
2 - 60's

Year Released

2 - 1994
2 - 1997
2 - 1993
2 - 1995
2 - 1991
1 - 1975
1 - 1965
1 - 1979
1 - 1968

Genre:

4 - Alternative
4 - Grunge
2 - Rock
1 - Punk
1 - Glam Rock
1 - Post Grunge
1 - BritPop(Rock)

So, I'm not posting lately because of drama in my life which means i'm not in the right space.

I will get back to it soon.

Hah, Hah, R&B sucks hairy dog balls.

MY BIG APOLOGY;

I like to think I am a man who can admit when he is wrong. Don't get me wrong, I am not a big fan of being wrong and being an opinionated, arrogant so and so essentially means that whenever I am wrong I get it from all and sundry.

When I Come Around by Green Day is a great track, and it does bring back epic memories but ..... I was ruminating (my latest word) the other night and I found that I couldn't sleep for trying to justify its place on the list. The other thing to know about me is that I sleep like a baby (well, actually, that is bollocks. If I slept like my kids did I'd be even more of a raving loon bag than I already am). I sleep really well no matter what the hell is going on in my life. There have only been a handful of times that I've up at night worrying or contemplating various drama.

And for me to be kept up by this track means that it is far too high on the list so I have demoted it. I've looked at the tracks on the list again and I have shifted it way down.

I've had the list for 3 or 4 years now and I amend it in my head regularly and then potter about with the list as I go. Since I started this blog I have already I have demoted Better Man by Pearl Jam from 9 to much lower, but seeing as I hadn't actually posted it, I didn't feel the need to wax on about it.

So there we go.

Re-reading this post, it appears I didn't actually apologise......