August 15, 2006

The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s# 110-101

110. The Four Tops: "It's the Same Old Song"
(Lamont Dozier/Eddie Holland/Brian Holland)
1965
Chart info: U.S. (#5), UK (#34)
Available on The Ultimate Collection

Oh, that groove-- it's so irresistible an entire orchestra had to get involved. Levi Stubbs pumps anguish into the tortured lyric about a guy who can't escape the song he and his girl once shared. Once loved, now it's the pain in his heart going out on the airwaves. --Joe Tangari

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109. The Byrds: "Eight Miles High"
(Gene Clark/David Crosby/Roger McGuinn)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (#14), UK (#24)
Available on Fifth Dimension

Calling this psychedelia's greatest pop moment will probably ignite a shitstorm from the peanut gallery, but what the hell, I'll say it anyway. Normal adjectives like "serpentine" do violence to the guitar playing on "Eight Miles High"; 12 strings manage to snare John Coltrane modal chaos, Indian ragas, and chiming bucolic folk. Not bettered by the (very fine) Hüsker Dü cover, even for those like me who prefer their freakouts to sound like heavy weather. --Jess Harvell

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108. Harry Nilsson: "One"
(Harry Nilsson)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Aerial Ballet

It opens with a single note over and over and we know the song immediately, no matter who's performing it. I grew up on Three Dog Night's r&b bombast so returning to Harry's original I forget how wispy and ethereal this tune could be. Definitely the loneliest version out there. --Mark Richardson

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107. Bob Dylan: "Visions of Johanna"
(Bob Dylan)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Blonde on Blonde

A song that never really ends, about a girl he's never really gonna find, in a place that he'll never really leave. Joins fellow Dylan track "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" as one of the most immaculate songs about being eternally, existentially, stuck in the same place. "He's sure got a lot of gall, being so useless and all..." --Zach Baron

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106. Desmond Dekker & the Aces: "007 (Shanty Town)"
(Desmond Dekker)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (#14)
Available on Rockin' Steady: The Best of Desmond Dekker

The King of Ska brought this loping anthem, about rudeboys that "bomb up de town," to hordes of tenderfoots. But with a voice as compact and emotive as his, Dekker was capable of enrapturing even the biggest xenophobe. The only reason people can get away with loving ska is still Dekker. --Sean Fennessey

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105. Simon & Garfunkel: "America"
(Paul Simon)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (#97), UK (#25)
Available on Bookends

A short, wistful trip, Bookends' soft-focus acoustic highlight "America" wasn't actually a single until it appeared on 1972's Greatest Hits. Whenever. Dewily harmonious Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel do the she's-leaving-home myth maybe half as good as Nabokov, but it's priceless for the gabardine spy alone. --Marc Hogan

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104. King Crimson: "21st Century Schizoid Man"
(Robert Fripp/Michael Giles/Greg Lake/Ian McDonald/Peter Sinfield)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on In the Court of the Crimson King

King Crimson announced itself to the world with this seven-minute hellstorm of gonzo guitar, shifting meters, and nasty sax. Greg Lake sounds like he's being eaten by robots, and there's hardly anything more fantastically filthy than Robert Fripp and Ian McDonald's opening guitar/sax riff. --Joe Tangari

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103. Merle Haggard: "Mama Tried"
(Merle Haggard)
1968
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (N/A)
Available on Down Every Road

Why David Allan Coe felt the need to pen the perfect country song (his attempt was the 1975 hit "You Never Even Called Me by My Name") is baffling, as Haggard had done it seven years previous. It's all here: trains, prison, mama, and the outlaw thread that ran through the country movement for most of the 70s. --Cory D. Byrom

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102. Sly & the Family Stone: "Everyday People"
(Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart)
1969
Chart info: U.S. (#1), UK (#36)
Available on Stand!

Family Stone member Larry Graham claims that the first chart-topping single from one of the first racially integrated mainstream bands also includes the first instance of slap bass. Sly smoothed out his incendiary funk into a couple minutes of gently buoyant pop leavened with nursery-rhyme bridges and soaring choruses, bringing his message of tolerance to less adventurous ears. --Brian Howe

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101. Pink Floyd: "See Emily Play"
(Syd Barrett)
1967
Chart info: U.S. (N/A), UK (#6)
Available on Relics

The highest-charting Syd Barrett-era Floyd single, and the recently deceased star's most accessible song, "See Emily Play" evokes lost childhood as bluntly as anything in his repertoire-- it gets wistful right on the second line-- but the stabs of steel guitar and the sped-up piano solo transcend cliché. --Chris Dahlen

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what a great work of yours organizing this whole list! congratulations!