1,001 songs to listen to before you die...

[Skummy]

Wicked Game is gorgeous. Maybe not my favourite Isaak song, but it's just incredibly sexy.

I Am The Resurrection is the only Stone Roses song I like, and even then it's mostly just the intro.

 

[METALMAN]

I’m surprised so many people have heard other Chris Isaak songs: I haven’t. I always thought of him as the archetypal one hit wonder. Maybe I will listen to some more, because I do quite like Wicked Game.

[Skummy]

11 minutes ago, metalman said:

I’m surprised so many people have heard other Chris Isaak songs: I haven’t. I always thought of him as the archetypal one hit wonder. Maybe I will listen to some more, because I do quite like Wicked Game.

"Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" is my favourite of his, which was used in Eyes Wide Shut and did pretty well after that film came out. So he's a two hit wonder, really.

[Liam]

Add me to the list of people who assumed that Chris Isaak was basically a man who did one song and that was it.

[Colly]

I thought he was a magician.

[Liam]

711.      

‘Me Myself and I’, De La Soul (1989)

Influenced by: (Not Just) Knee Deep • Funkadelic (1979)   

Influence on: Hot Potato • Freestyle Fellowship (1993)   

Other key tracks: Eye Know (1989) • Ghetto Thang (1989) • The Magic Number (1989) • Say No Go (1989) • Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) (1990)

As you can probably work out from my comments thus far, De La Soul isn’t exactly going to be in my wheelhouse when it comes to the type of music I listen to on a regular basis. However, they are the type of musical act that I think appeals to a broader spectrum of music fan than their contemporaries. This is partly due to the funky nature of the music, partly due to the witty and relatively easy to follow lyrics. This is probably my favourite song of theirs, though I don’t have much to compare with if I’m being completely honest. If this is your bag, I can definitely see the appeal.

712.      

‘Epic’, Faith No More (1989)

Influenced by: Fight like a Brave • Red Hot Chili Peppers (1987)   

Influence on: My Name Is Mud • Primus (1993)   

Covered by: The Automatic (2007) • Atreyu (2008) • Love Is All (2008)   

Other key track: Midlife Crisis (1992)

I’ll preface my comments by stating that Mike Patton is one of my favourite vocalists of all time and Faith No More are one of my favourite bands of all time. However, ‘Epic’ might struggle to break my top ten of their songs. I get its position here as it was the one that announced them to world at large, but as is often the way with a band that you are a fan of, the most important, popular or best selling becomes a case of diminishing returns as you listen to it way too many times. That is not to say Epic isn’t a good song. It does a lot of what makes Faith No More great, I just think the band blew it out of the water in the years that followed. The other key track ‘Midlife Crisis’ would actually be a lot closer to my top spot.

713.      

‘Like A Prayer’, Madonna (1989)

Influenced by: Underground • David Bowie (1986)   

Influence on: How Do You Do • Shakira (2006)   

Covered by: Marc Almond (1992) • Bigod 20 (1997) • Loleatta Holloway (1999) • H2O (2001) • Rufio (2001) • Mad’House (2002) • Danni Carlos (2004) • Elena Paparizou (2006) • Lavender Diamond (2007)

You’ve got to have some pretty huge cajones to produce a video like Madonna did for this song - I might as well throw that out there to begin with. The organ and choir gives this tune a real sense of power that it otherwise might not have, alongside its obvious use to tie in with the lyrical content of the song. I’m not sure what else to say really; you either like Madonna or you don’t, more often than not.

714.      

‘W.F.L. (Think About The Future)’, The Happy Mondays (1989)

Influenced by: Burning Down the House • Talking Heads (1983)   

Influence on: Weekender • Flowered Up (1992)   

Covered by: Manic Street Preachers (1993)  

Other key tracks: Step On (1990) • Kinky Afro (1990) • Grandbag’s Funeral (1990)

This was another song where it was quite difficult to actually find the one mentioned in the book considering this was actually the third version of the song. Released in 1988, before a remixing by Vince Clarke of Erasure, the song was then remixed a further time by Paul Oakenfold. With the UK music scene seeing bands that might have otherwise been considered rock or indie in genre moving towards dancier climes, this involvement of Oakenfold feels like a natural move. There is an interesting juxtaposition between the mellowness of the beats and Shaun Ryder’s perma-scowl style of vocals, but it works. This is also a song that I feel would be raised immeasurably in my esteem if heard in context – this has a dancefloor in the later 80s/early 90s written all over it.

715.      

‘Getting Away With It’, Electonic (1989)

Influenced by: Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now The Smiths (1984)   

Influence on: Miserablism • Pet Shop Boys (1991)  

Covered by: Skin (2003)   

Other key tracks: Lucky Bag (1989) • Get the Message (1991) • Feel Every Beat (1991) • Soviet (1991)

I had no idea that this existed. For those not in the know, this was a band formed by Bernard Sumner of New Order and Johnny Marr of The Smiths. This song also included Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, though this wasn’t always the way based on reading around about this supergroup. Still, Tennant’s involvement as co-vocalist with Sumner adds to this really fun alternative dance track that is ridiculously catchy on top of everything else. I’ve always been a fan of Sumner’s voice, whilst the synth and strings work creates an airy melody that everything sits upon. Excellent stuff.

[Bobfoc]

I think I'd have chosen Midlife Crisis over Epic as well, but I can't argue with Epic's popularity or influence.

I only first heard Getting Away With It a couple of years ago. It's a good song that slipped under my radar for a long time.

[RPS]

Man. De la Soul is fucking amazing. 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul are essential to me. Those albums were forever be iconic to me and introduced me to hip hop and rap. If it was not for the Beastie Boys and De La Soul, I don't know if I would have ended up listening to hip hop. It is such a shame that De la Soul is not on Spotify so that younger generations could discover them. I understand why - the royalties they would get paid would be nothing. It is a shame, however. 

Is this the first appearance of Madonna? Me and my uncle used to fight about Madonna all the time. My uncle believes that the best music was released before 1990 and his hatred of pop music all came down to Madonna having no talent or skill. He would swear up and down that the Beatles and the Clash and the Rolling Stone were "real" music and Madonna was an imitation or some form of a cheap music. 

Growing up, Madonna was my Beatles. I used to have the Immaculate Collection on CD and would listen to the CD constantly. When I got a record player, I made sure to get a copy of every Madonna LP. Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince made the playbook by which pop music is judged against. 

[Hobo]

7 hours ago, Skummy said:

"Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" is my favourite of his, which was used in Eyes Wide Shut and did pretty well after that film came out. So he's a two hit wonder, really.

I actually didn't realize that was him!

The only other Chris Isaak song I had for certain known up to this point was "Somebody's Crying".

[Colly]

I bloody love Getting Away With It. I should listen to more Electronic.

[METALMAN]

I don't mind De La Soul and Me Myself and I is a decent song. But that's mainly for the Funkadelic hook. And the Funkadelic one (whose name doesn't immediately come to mind) is better than the song it sampled.

I don't like Epic.  I don't like the singer's voice. I don't like the production. I don't like that boring chugga chugga chugga bass. I don't like the interminable, boring coda. It's like a worse version of Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani.

Like a Prayer is excellent. Think this is Madonna's second - pretty sure we've already seen Like a Virgin and maybe Get into the Groove too, although I might just be imagining that.

The Happy Mondays and Electronic ones are good and it is a nice surprise to see them here.

[Liam]

Yeah, Madonna has at least been in once before.

[gunnar hendershow]

Happy Mondays are really a band I think I had to be there for. I enjoy their music but definitely to get the full effect needed to be on a dance floor somewhere in the UK in 1989. Sadly I was 1 year old then, and living in the US.

Electronic are great, they get overshadowed by the other work Marr and Sumner did (deliberately because this was very much a side project for them) and their sound was producing 80s synthpop in the 90s so it got overshadowed by changing tastes. "Getting Away With It" is the best song they produced together I feel. Great tune.

I'm not a big Madonna fan, as I said I think she borrowed a lot from other people who did the individual things she borrowed better. But by "Like a Prayer" she is firmly in her own category of pop star and the music video for this is legendary.

I used to think I liked "Epic" but the reality is I don't enjoy commercially accessible Mike Patton music almost across the board. Faith no More are solid though. Mr. Bungle are better. I don't think I can take a lot of it in at once but it's really good stuff that still sounds out there and rarely imitated.

De La Soul were the counterweight to so much of the tough, street stylings and gangster rap coming out in the late 80s. And they broke out at the same time with the rest of the Native Tongues. I don't think "Me Myself & I" is their best song but it's a great inclusion because it opened the doors to De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, and Jungle Brothers (and by proxy Busta Rhymes) to reach a wider audience.

[GoGo Yubari]

For Madonna, I think "Into the Groove" was included and "Like a Virgin" wasn't.

"Me, Myself and I" is very good. De La Soul were very much a gateway act for hip-hop for me along with Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Digable Planets. I don't think it's a top-tier De La Soul song (off the top of my head that's the likes of "Breakadawn," "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays,'" "Stakes is High," "Rock Co.kane Flow," and "Eye Know"), but I think it's maybe the most accessible of their big songs as solo artists (if we include features it probably falls behind "Feel Good Inc." and "Rocket Fuel") so it's the one that should be in this book.

[Skummy]

I love Faith No More, but Epic couldn't more obviously be a Chuck Mosley-era Faith No More track that Mike Patton showed up to lay down a vocal track for. It doesn't suit him, and just isn't his style at all. Someone once said that Faith No More were probably Mike Patton's least interesting band, and Mike Patton was probably Faith No More's least interesting vocalist.

There are better tracks on the same album - From Out Of Nowhere and Falling To Pieces in particular - and better songs on subsequent albums too. It might be their most famous, but then once again we come to "does 1001 songs to listen to before you die" mean songs most worth listening to, or deemed most culturally significant? 

Mostly I just find Epic a bit annoying.

[METALMAN]

If I wanted to title a song Epic I would at the very least make sure it was good before I stuck that appendage on it.

One Direction, on the other hand, waited until they legitimately had the best song ever before they decided to title it Best Song Ever.

[Colly]

Best Song Ever isn't necessarily the best song ever, it's a song about the best song ever. It's up there though.

[METALMAN]

I think it is self-referential. I think the best song ever that they say they danced to was Best Song Ever.

[Colly]

There's some weird paradox shit in there somewhere. Did they know it was the best song ever when it was in progress and dancing to it? Did they write a song that was the best song ever, then decide that to commemorate that they should change the lyrics to reflect it, even at the risk of potentially making it not the best song ever?

[Liam]

716.      

‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’, The Pixies (1989)

For ‘Where Is My Mind?’, I claimed that it was my favourite Pixies song. I think I forgot about this song when proclaiming that as this might ultimately be the song I enjoy the most by them. They have similarities in what they offer sonically, but I can’t look past the chorus for ‘Monkey…’, strings and all. If you are moving from heavy to soft, or aggressive to poppy, or quiet to loud, you need a good part to transition into to make it worthwhile, and that is what ‘Monkey…’ has.

717.     

‘Can’t Be Sure’, The Sundays (1989)

A relatively simple song that does a lot with very little, this was a band that some people had somehow proclaimed as the new Smiths if the book is anything to go by. This suggestion seems to come from the lyrical sarcasm more than the sound, which is way too airy and atmospheric to really meet that comparison. The swirling guitar does a lot of heavy lifting and complements Harriet Wheeler’s high pitched vocals to create a pretty good song all told. Not a song I’ve heard before, but one I wouldn’t mind to hear again.

718.      

‘Lullaby’, The Cure (1989)

I often know more songs by The Cure than I realise as I tend to forget the names of most of their hits outside of the ones that you can’t really avoid knowing (‘Friday I’m In Love’ et al). However, I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard this song at all. Depending on what you read, some suggest that song could be about child abuse or drug addiction, though Smith has suggested it is about the more mundane fear of ‘Spiders’. This isn’t The Cure sound that I tend to like – it doesn’t offer the light and dark of their best songs, only seemingly dwelling on the dark. It isn’t a bad song, it just doesn’t inspire me or engage me in the way some of their hits do.

719.      

‘Free Fallin’’, Tom Petty (1989)

Very American. Done.

Alright, I’ll say a few more words about it. All jokes aside, but this has a very American sound and lyric that override everything else I feel about the song. That isn’t a knock at all, as it is clearly a great slice of poppy rock that practically soars as the chorus hits. My first exposure to the song was in ‘Jerry Maguire’, a film I particularly like, and the song has always been one that I have felt fondly about. To me, it doesn’t pretend to be anything special, but it tells an interesting enough narrative in an engaging way.

720.      

‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, Sinead O’Connor (1989)

A legitimate argument for the best cover of all time? It possibly says a lot that I didn’t even realise it was a cover until a good decade or so after I heard it for the first time. O’Connor has an excellent singing voice, tender yet with a hint of fire behind it all, and it is front and centre for this song. Couple it with a music video that showcased her charismatic visage – including the single solitary tear that rolls down her cheek – and you were onto a winner. I do find it personally interesting that as much as I do like this song, it does nothing to inspire me to check out anything else by O’Connor.