The greatest rock song ever written...

sat here having worked all through the night and have come to the conclusion that the greatest rock song ever is 'Good times bad times' by Led Zeppelin. What a tune. Mind you 'Nobodies fault but mine' and 'Rain song' come damn close.

And Givin the dog a bone is a total classic...

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Answers

Babe i'm gonna leave you...wow

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

?Que? Me cago in la leche!

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

'Sin City' off AC/DC's Powerage takes some beating. Makes me thirsty just thinking about it.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

It Must Have Been the Roses Touch of Grey They Love Each Other (grateful dead)

Beasley Street (john cooper clarke)

Isis Man in the Long Black Coat (dylan)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Not exactly the greatest but Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast came out first. ('Six, the number of Clarence Acuna'.)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You'? I was noodling that intro on me acoustic just this morning. However, surely that and 'GTBT' score an inferior rawk points total to Immigrant Song, Black Dog, Rock'n'Roll...

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

au contraire daniel, i've just realise that in fact ramble on is the coolest song ever written

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

I am surprised at the quality of the musical taste on this board.

Best Led Zeppelin track IMHO is "Kashmir". Finest rock song of all time, how about Sabbath Bloody Sabbath?

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Good to see so many AC/DC fans on here, greatest song ever written? Whole lotta Rosie (live)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Is this the bloody Spinal Tapp appreciation society? Did Punk never happen? Has anyone on this BB listened to anything recorded less than 20 years ago? Do yourselves a favour and listen to any track of the Chemical Brothers' Dig your own hole CD.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

greatest rock song.... "Stairway to Heaven" without a doubt. greatest AC/DC tune.... "Dirty Deeds" greatest footie related rock song.... "We are the Champions"

nuff said....

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Davey boy, you are a star :-) Chemicals absolutely kick - Dig Your Own Hole is v.good (especially Setting Sun, Blocl Rockin' Beats), and Surrender is a classic. Have you heard their LP mix "Brothers Gonna Work It Out"? Quality.

I could also chuck in some geetur stuff, like earlier Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Roses, The Damned, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Violent Femmes, Beach Boys...

And rap stuff like the Beastie Boys, Cyprus Hill, and Buster Rhymes simply knocks me out.

Dump the tassled leather, lads, and step into the light :-)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Michael Jackson, Celene Dion ,Mariah Carey , Diana Ross, Natalie Nbrulli.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

SP's Gish, Sonic Youth's Goo, Massive Attack's Mezzanine, At the Gates and Bathory.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Bobby - I have both their DJ sets - the other entitled 'live at the heavenly social', if anything this is an even more impressive mix. Doesn't have to be banging to twiddle my knob though - there's some seminal ambient stuff out there at the moment; if you rate Air at all check out 'Simple things' by Zero 7 who will undoubtedly be massive.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

I was brought up on Punk, it's just that now very old AC/DC appeal more. I used to frequent the strand to see bands like the Meteors, Theatre of hate, King Kurt, Milkshakes, Damned, etc. I even went through a period of OMD, Tears for Fears etc.

I feel so old, this and Bobbys lack of transfer activity is getting me down.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

How can you like Massive Attack and Bathory??

ML3

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Dave - nice. Will do. Also still have a thing for late 80s early 90s techno like The Orb (ok, mostly ambient house but U.F.Orb?) and Orbital (yellow album). I draw the line at The Shamen...Mr C was a twat.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

No problem. Both have totally magnificent sound, pro guitar players and very good songs. 'Baptized in Fire and Ice' and 'Teardrop' are good songs on good albums. I could easily add e.g. Orbital to this list also, though they don't play guitars. The Shamen was a bit too pop but it sure was catchy and had a nice sound too.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Can I throw in Public Enemy too? Saw them headline at Reading '92. Those bloody big hats and clocks...

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Off to see Orbital a week on Saturday, top band, although the latest album's a bit patchy, their Glasto gig a while back made me come over all peculiar I can tell you.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

The question was what the greatest rock song ever was. You can leave your albums full of stolen sampled tunes and car alarms. Only rap record I ever bothered to buy was Tone Loc's Funky Cold Medina. White blokes waving their hands about and wearing baseball caps backwards are so utterly sad that great steps should be taken at all times to avoid becoming one. Shame on you ;-)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

The definition of 'Rock' is surely open to intepretation Softie. If you don't think the Chemical Bros can 'rock' you haven't been listening. I'm not knocking bands like Led Zep - been known to tap my feet to 'Black Dog' on more than one occasion, but you cerainly don't need a guitar to make great music.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

...and if you MUST have a guitar then Primal Scream will give it to you hard as you like.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Of course you have to have guitars, but if I want to listen to the Rolling Stones I do, not some misguided Scottish lad who was too drugged up to notice none of his music is original.

If we're going to include dance music in the rock category then we'll have to throw Wagner in as well. Major chords, big shouty blokes, backing singers, plenty of noise, works on your emotions, rock? Hell no.

I'm sure it's very clever to be able to programme a computer to lift bits out of people's records and overlay it with the ring-tone off your mobile phone and a drum machine, but I don't have to wait until they've stolen every decent hook made by genuine musicians to recognize it as necrophilia.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Softie - are you still into skiffle? How's Lonnie doing these days?? ;-)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

You may not need a guitar for great music but you sure as hell need one for great rock and roll. Showing my age, I know. A lot of great rock music since 1956, but every great rock song I can think of had a guitar. If it doesn't have one - it may be great music but, IMHO, it aint' great rock music.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Well fick the lot of you cos it's 3.15am and I've just come back from seeing Neil Young in Brum. He bastard ROCKED.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Softie, I used to be a necrophiliac, well, until some rotten @*^t split on me!

;7)

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

I`ve been sitting here trying to decide what `rock` is.......is there an actual musical, as in written music, definition? Zeppelin were great. Robert Plant, one of my all time favourite voices - loved his solo albums too. Jimmy Page...immense, right up there with Hendrix. The music has stood the test of time too - the Black Crows recent album of covers was excellent.

If I think about it too hard I find the definition blurs. I can`t decide, but I could find music from every decade which would fit the genre for me.

As for everyone on here being stuck in the `dark ages` - well that`s a bit harsh. There`s plenty of `new` music coming into this house, and some old music too. Just been treated to Natural Blues - Various Artists, as there are some tracks on there which were on one of the first albums I ever bought. Most recent artists that have been added to my list of `greats` are probably the Prodigy, but the list begins with the likes of Bessie Smith, Howlin` Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.(:o)

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001

Aye, and that the Rolling Stones most creative period was as 'misguided' drugged up lads trying to sound like Robert Johnson didn't stop them producing some great rock'n'roll.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001

Sex farm - Spinal Tap Amazing development of lyrics when you consider their early stuff.

Waterfall - Stone Roses - not really rock though

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001

The Hunter by Free. At the City Hall early 70's.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001

The greatest rock and roll record of all time is undoubtedly "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen. Three chords, unintelligible lyrics, and sounds like it was recorded on one of those cheap mini-recorders with the microphone about the size of a cigarette. In two minutes it encapsulates everything that is perfect about rock music.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001

Anything by Michael Bolton.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Sorry Softie - must defend the Primals here...The Stones have undoubtedly been an influence; 'Give out but don't give in' was without question Gillespie's homage to the Stones, but have you heard 'Screamadelica' or 'Exterminator'? the former - now 11 years old - was the first Rock / Dance crossover and it still sounds as fresh and exciting today as it did then, the latter - their last album - sounded about as close to the Stones as Bucks Fizz did to the Pistols.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

There is very little original about a lot of guitar based rock music. 70-80% of it is based on 12 bar blues and pentatonic chordal structures (don't all shout wan**r at once). Electronic music has opened a new universe of possibilities, just in the same way as Hendrix and co used the technology of their day to push intrumentation beyond it's capabilities. Most 'rock' music, like AC/DC et al would sound a great deal limper without overdriven amplifiers, chorus and flange pedals (that's right, flange!).

IMO sampling music today is more like a band doing a cover version. Compare Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower to Dylan's or The Cure's version of Foxy Lady; barely recognisable to the orginals, but are classics in their own right. Copying and modifying is part and parcel of all music genre. But there is as much pap, crap and Spinal Tap in 'rock music' as any dance / electronic music.

Rock on, Tommy

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Davey - when was the Public Enemy (?) / Anthrax's Bring the Noise out? Surely a true sign post in crossover. And what about PWEI?

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Points taken fellas. I just get very curmudgeonly about everyone always thinking you should apologise for liking rock music. The wanky music-journo crowd all decided that rock died when punk exploded onto the scene. This always sounds more like trying to fix their own credibility rather than convincing me that they were around for the 18 months in question. Let's face it, Gary Bushell was definitely there but you wouldn't treat him as some kind of guru for lifestyle and musical integrity, would you? AC/DC were spurned as being out of touch when they first toured the UK, being dubbed "the chunder from down under" but still managed to gather an enormous following. Metallica and Iron Maiden have both demonstrated an ability to take the top of the album and singles charts with virtually zero airplay and nothing but scorn (however understandable in Maiden's case - never could see how reworking the same song so many times could keep people happy).

The bands I love wrote music that continues to move or excite me as much 25 years on as it did when I first heard it. It's perfectly conceivable that some of the stuff coming out today will prove to have that kind of staying power, but you can't help but notice that the punk bands that can still sell albums in their own right (rather than just having a mention on a compilation) are the bands that would have made it without a fashion craze or never really fitted the bill in the first place. i.e. The Ramones were doing their own thing long before it became important to shop on Carnaby Street, the Clash and the Police were way too old and musically competent to suit the "anyone can be in a band" mentality and John Lyddon is the exception that proves the rule:-)

Of course, the crappy old rock music that was supposed to have died continues to ship units that the exponents of more journo-friendly genres (currently) have wet dreams about. I know I'm not alone in liking the stuff and I'm not going to start liking dance music to "prove" that I'm not just a sad old reactionary. Fact is that I don't enjoy dancing so music which has the sole purpose of making you want to wigg out is totally wasted on me. Throw in something a bit more edgy like The Prodigy and the cross-over works its magic. In those cases, though, it's very much a case of my overlooking the danciness to enjoy the anger rather than understanding the attraction.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Fair enough Bobby, but how much electronic music would you have without Pink Floyd insisting that they needed 24 track recording facilities for Dark Side of the Moon and demonstrating that synthesisers could be hooked up to keyboards as well as making wibbly noises? You need to thank Vangelis for hanging around with Jon Anderson and Klaus Schultze for just being plain weird. All music is derivative; electronic no less than rock.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Hehey. Another great, thought provoking thread. Don't have time to go into any detail (sigh of relief from all round) as I'm a bit busy these days, but for me, with a lot of old faves, it's impossible to separate memories from music - ie listening to them still provokes the same reaction, hits the same spot, but the reaction is inextricably linked with the past also, so it's difficult to judge or even analyse on purely musical terms. And a question for you all, can anyone claim that image has nothing to do with music tastes - or is it a whole package and attitude that you subconsciously buy into?

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

It's a quality control thing ultimately; for every Led Zepp and Rolling Stones there were probably 30 or 40 bands who were just crap. Same goes for the likes of the Chems and Prodigy; there are countless electro wannabe's who are a bloody embarrassment. I love music - spend way too much of my time and money on lots of stuff that quite often fails to excite (I feel an interesting analogy with the toon coming on here), but hearing a genuinely talented new band for the first time STILL gets my juices flowing. I suppose I was spoiled in that I was 16 in 1977 and consequently saw the likes of The Clash, The Banshees and The Stranglers when they were just starting out - amazing stuff. I was luckier still however, to be the youngest of 3 boys, so had already been weaned on acts such as The Who, The Stones and the Beatles - who could rock with the best of them.

Sometimes me and the missus do feel a bit old when we stand at the back of the hall when Orbital, the Primals or the Chems are playing, but then we think 'sod it', it's great music and we still want to be part of it. Take some time to listen to some of this stuff Softie; I honestly think 'Fat of the land' 'Dig your own hole' and 'Screamadelica' will be held in the same esteem as 'Exile on Main Street' and 'Led Zep IV' in 30 year's time.

By the way Bobby - I could never get on with Public Enemy, sorry.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

I once met Jimmy Page in the street outside where i worked in London. He looked totally knackered, unshaven and a little giddy. It was 12 ish in the afternoon and he was going in to an art gallery. I said hello and he was a complete gentleman. I asked him for a guitar lesson, and he said, as long as you don't want to do Stairway...He said he'd pop in if he was in the area. A legend.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001