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Best Rock Song Ever
Fred Cole (@fredcole) thinks the best rock song is “White Room” by Cream for some reason. Jon Gabriel (@jon) said he’d only ever heard The KLF song titled “White Room.” I listened to both and now I want to go BASE jumping without a parachute.
I say “Unforgiven” by Metallica is much better, although it’s not even necessarily my favorite Metallica song (“Whiskey in the Jar” is high on my list). You see, Fred and I obviously have a difference in opinion when it comes to music. He seems like easy listening soft rock, while I prefer to listen to good music.
What do you think is the best rock song ever? Or, at least, share one of your favorites. And don’t forget to casually insult anyone who disagrees with you. That’s the fun part of asserting one’s own subjective preferences as being objectively true.
“White Room” by Cream (😴):
“Unforgiven” by Metallica:
Another favorite of mine is “Cochise” by Audioslave:
If you’d like to post a video of your own favorite rock song in the comments, all you have to do is paste the YouTube or Vimeo URL onto a new line by itself. The video will automatically appear after you publish your comment.
Published in Culture
Is tthere only one live version?
Do you want to post the one you’re talking about?
I suppose since I was the inspiration of the thread, I should make the case for White Room.
Okay, so I suggest listening to the song as you read this.
First, the opening (which gets repeated later in the song) is grand and operatic. It preps you to hear a grand operatic tale.
The lyrics are poetic. And by that I mean they were literally written by a poet, Peter Brown. He worked with the band and wrote a lot of their lyrics.
Now, if you listen to the electric guitar, specifically the wah-wah, it tells a story as it gradually takes over the story.
In the first verse, it is barely there, and only pokes its head out at the end of the first verse. (“When the shadows run from themselves.”)
In the second verse it’s there at the end of each stanza, becoming a little longer each time.
By the time you get to the third verse, it’s come out and it’s even and sings along with the lyrics.
After “Where the shadows run from themselves,” by the fourth (and hardest) `”verse,” the lyrics drop out, and the guitar just takes over and conquers everything and runs off into infinity.
That’s how I hear it. Like I said, I suggest hitting play on the song (which Max helpfully posted in the OP) and reading what I write.
I didn’t see it but it’s hard to do better than Sweet Home Alabama. Everybody likes it. Alabama’s (or wherever you are from) great and Neil Young (or name the hypocrite) can kiss my butt.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-Lkry-SF01&hsimp=yhs-SF01&hspart=Lkry&p=sweet+home+alabama#id=1&vid=0b97d3626813dec79bd40327271b81fe&action=click
For what it’s worth, Neil Young reportedly likes it too.
I like it, and you’ve made a case for why it’s a good song, maybe even a great song. Ginger Baker is fantastic on it (the most valuable player), and it doesn’t suffer from being grossly overplayed like Sunshine of Your Love.
But, as much as I may hate “it’s all relative” as a conservative, there are some subjective downsides to it. I don’t find the lyrics particularly poetic; I find them pretentious, something that was not uncommon in that day and age. That just doesn’t work with my idea of “rock.” I’m also not crazy about the falsetto on the chorus, and think the wah-wah, which admittedly is at the heart of the song, is overused (a lot). I’m a sucker for power chords, and don’t really think you can have the best of rock without some. But that’s just me.
Well, look
As I am fond of telling my wife, your opinion is just wrong.
This is kind of circular . . . that’s what my wife is fond of telling me.
So we’re all in agreement then.
Hahaha! Teenage guys dating girls!
Rush Limbaugh?
“Louie Louie”. Hands down.
Frank Zappa references it on most of his albums.
My top five (in any order):
Jimi Hendrix (The Experience, Band of Gypsys, solo)
Led Zeppelin
The Who
The Moody Blues
Heart (not an obvious choice by many, but mine)
I don’t include The Rolling Stones or The Beatles because they are a class all by themselves.
I think the line was payback for Young’s “Southern Man”.
It was unambiguously so.
That’s not how you spell Motörhead.
Not “The Weapon” from Signals? I mean, with that one, you get to contort yourself in painful ways, according to Peart.
The local alt rock station in my hometown couldn’t call them “The Butthole Surfers” on air, so they called ’em “The BH Surfers.” But that was the mid ’90s. Now they probably use a worse term for “butthole” they looked up on Urban Dictionary and call them that. Oh, right, it was a radio station, which means it’s either now a Spanish-speaking ranchera station, Christian music, or out of business. Never mind.
Reposting your link here, so it’ll load the preview:
“White Room” is indeed a great rock song. I really like that “No One Knows” by Queens Of the Stone Age is a melding of that plus “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss, and it works so well.
I wouldn’t be surprised if no one’s ever heard of my favorite. Screaming Eagles, by Sabaton. It’s about the 101st Airborne at Bastogne, during the Battle of the Bulge:
It makes me want to kick the a** of every bad guy on the planet.
God bless our troops, from Bunker Hill to Bastogne to Bagdad.
I think that Bohemian Rhapsody has a good claim, too.
Hendricks’ cover of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” would make my top 10. “Stairway” wins most surveys. “Sympathy” (Stones) is up there. “Born to be Wild” is great. I love Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years”. “White Room” wouldn’t make my list, though I like the song. “Sweet Home Alabama” needs to be up there.
I’ve already had a couple of votes. Will somebody please mention Green Day’s “Basket Case”? I promise a like.
“All Along the Watchtower” was under consideration.
So let’s put in a vote for “Ace Of Spades.”
Slightly off-topic: is there a better cover than this song? Apparently even Dylan began performing Hendrix’s arrangement after it came out.
The universe of best cover is obviously smaller than that for best song, but I don’t think the choice is any less difficult.
It’s one of those examples of a cover overcoming the original release, like Sinéad O’Connor did with Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2U.”
Oh, it’s impossible. But I view these types of threads as “make your argument for something impossible to quantify.”
Or the entire Manfred Mann ouvre.
That’s interesting if true. There’s probably a recording and it’s probably on YouTube. You’re invited to find it for us