Epic Songs Revisited

In my last post, I commented on how much I liked the idea of an epic songs list, such as the one at DigitalDreamDoor.  Not three days later, the allmusic.com blog came out with their own epic song list.  Hmmmm.

The allmusic list is much shorter with just one or two picks from several of their writers.  They're a lot more interesting picks than the DigitalDreamDoor list, but the DigitialDreamDoor list is a lot more interesting from the point of view of actually ranking the very best epic songs.  I started trying to make my own list, and I found I needed to break it out into categories.

Category #1:  Classics.  These are songs from the 60s and 70s that I would have picked for the top of a list like the DigitalDreamDoor list.

30) Working Man - Rush (1974, 7:11)
29) Eagle - ABBA (1978, 5:53)
28) Sparkle City - Shuggie Otis (1974, 5:58)
27) Fire On High - Electric Light Orchestra (1975, 5:32)
26) Radar Love - Golden Earring (1973, 6:27)
25) Beginnings - Chicago (1969, 7:51)
24) It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl - Faust (1972, 7:25)
23) Children Of The Sun - Billy Thorpe (1979, 6:45)
22) Celluloid Heroes - Kinks (1972, 6:23)
21) Paradise By The Dashboard Light - Meat Loaf (1977, 8:29)
20) No Agreement - Fela Kuti (1977, 7:52)
19) Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty (1978, 6:01)
18) War Pigs/Luke's Wall - Black Sabbath (1970, 7:58)
17) Interstellar Overdrive - Pink Floyd (1968, 9:41)
16) Come Sail Away - Styx (1977, 6:07)
15) American Pie - Don McLean (1971, 8:37)
14) Hold Your Head Up - Argent (1972, 6:15)
13) Beautiful As The Moon - Terrible As An Army With Banners - Henry Cow (1975, 7:02)
12) Aqualung - Jethro Tull (1971, 6:37)
11) Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973, 9:10)
10) Kashmir - Led Zeppelin (1975, 8:29)
9) A Day In The Life - The Beatles (1967, 5:34)
8) You Can't Always Get What You Want - Rolling Stones (1969, 7:33)
7) Band On The Run - Wings (1973, 5:10)
6) Roundabout - Yes (1972, 8:32)
5) Jungleland - Bruce Springsteen (1975, 9:33)
4) Nights In White Satin - The Moody Blues (1967, 7:30)
3) The End - The Doors (1967, 11:44)
2) Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) - Pink Floyd (1975, 13:40)
1) Alice's Restaurant Massacre - Arlo Guthrie (1967, 18:37)

Category #2:  Punk era through the 1980s. 

25) Chichen-Itza Elvis - Copernicus (1987, 7:53)
24) I'm Considering a Move to Memphis - Colorblind James Experience (1987, 6:42)
23) All White People Look Alike - Brian Woodbury (1987, 20:38)
22) How I Learned to Love the Bomb - Television Personalities (1985, 5:07)
21) Tokyo Storm Warning - Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1986, 6:25)
20) Dreams of Sexual Perfection - Fugs (1986, 11:52)
19) Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through - Jim Steinman (1981, 6:27)
18) Sister Europe - Psychedelic Furs (1980, 5:39)
17) How Soon Is Now? - Smiths (1984, 6:46)
16) Two Tribes - Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1984, 7:59)
15) Sweat Loaf - Butthole Surfers (1987, 6:09)
14) Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth (1988, 6:58)
13) Rock Lobster - The B-52's (1979, 6:51)
12) People Who Died - Jim Carroll Band (1980, 5:00)
11) Porn Wars - Frank Zappa (1985, 12:05)
10) High In a Flat - The Bevis Frond (1988, 7:49)
9) O Superman - Laurie Anderson (1982, 8:25)
8) Marquee Moon - Television (1977, 10:40)
7) Sex Bomb - Flipper (1982, 7:49)
6) Teen Love - No Trend (1984, 7:41)
5) I Believe - Buzzcocks (1979, 7:08)
4) 30 Seconds Over Tokyo - Pere Ubu (1975, 6:25)
3) The Days Of Wine And Roses - The Dream Syndicate (1982, 7:33)
2) Gloria - Patti Smith (1975, 5:55)
1) Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus (1982, 9:36)

Category #3:  The 1990s through the present.  I don't know how well this list holds up against the other two.  It's the one that needs the most revision.

 
25) The Frequency - Jets To Brazil (2002, 6:15)
24) Die Arden En Die Mens - Blomkrag (2003, 6:40)
23) Glover - The Aliens (2007, 8:23)
22) L. Frank Baum - Bags (1991, 5:53)
21) We Want War - These New Puritans (2010, 7:23)
20) Two Beautiful Beaches - B-Sides (2001, 5:43)
19) The Good, The Bad And The Queen - The Good, the Bad & the Quee n(2007, 7:00)
18) No Place - Eskimo (1990, 6:10)
17) Emma Blowgun's Last Stand - Beulah (1999, 5:22)
16) Age Of Adz - Sufjan Stevens (2010, 8:00)
15) Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (2009, 5:03)
14) I Would Hurt A Fly - Built To Spill (1997, 6:15)
13) Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come - Bright Eyes (2002, 6:32)
12) I Made a Date (With An Open Vein) - Trembling Bells & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (2012, 6:34)
11) Ballad Of The Sin Eater - Ted Leo/Pharmacists (2003, 5:20)
10) Inner Meet Me - Beta Band (1997, 6:20)
9) Whiskey & Speed - Josh Fix (2007, 6:21)
8) Pride approaching - Elope (2003, 6:44)
7) One Nail Draws Another - Utotem (1991, 14:58)
6) Wake Up - Arcade Fire (2004, 5:35)
5) Accused of Stealing - The Delgados (2000, 5:42)
4) Lesson 6: The Lecture - Jurassic 5 (1997, 6:35)
3) The Next Messiah - Jenny Lewis (2008, 8:45)
2) Moby Octopad - Yo La Tengo (1997, 5:49)
1) Folk Song - Bongwater (1990, 9:24)

I didn't have any strict definition of "epic", but I did require that all songs on these lists be at least 5 minutes long.  Songs with multiple movements and twists and turns definitely got bonus "epic" points, and some very long very good songs didn't make the list just because.

Five Most Interesting Lists at DigitalDreamdoor

If you're looking for lists and impressed by sheer quantity, you can't do much better than DigitalDreamDoor.  I'm pretty impressed by the quality of their lists as well, but as somebody who obsesses about both the final list and the process (e.g. see list-making interview one to four), I wish I knew a bit more about how they compiled their lists.  Here's a list of the five that I found most interesting.

#1.  Greatest Epic Rock Songs  - This is a great idea for a list, and I'm sure this isn't the only one out there.  I'm kind of amazed that Bohemian Rhapsody has aged so well in so many people's eyes that it can top this list as opposed to the novelty song list, which is where I probably would have guessed it would have landed 30 years ago.  I can't quite figure out Deep Purple coming in at #3, but that was the only major oddity in the top 10.

#2.  Greatest Power Pop Songs - This is an interesting list, largely because the genre isn't really that well defined and means different things to different people.  I can't see putting the Beatles in there at #4 because I can't see putting them on the list at all, but I guess since they were such an obvious influence on so many great power pop bands, it's not crazy to include them.... or is it?

#3. Greatest New Wave Songs - I've commented on new wave song lists previously.  This is a really good list.  The first major quibble I have didn't come until Level 42 showed up at #24.

#4. Greatest Indie Rock Albums - There's a good bit of overlap between their list and mine.  Mine, of course, has more obscure choices, and theirs has some artists like the Smiths, that I think ought to belong on some other list instead.

#5. Greatest Alt-Country Songs - Here's the list with which I have the most disagreements, but I'll confess that I don't know well many of the songs that they ranked ahead of the alt-country songs I like most.  The other issue, though, is that I don't think they made great choices for the best song or songs from the artists that I do know well.  Maybe I need to get down to business making my own alt-country list.

I was thinking of making another list of the most important lists I thought were missing from DigitalDreamDoor, but I couldn't think of much of anything.  I'd like to see a gospel list and they don't have one.  I'd like to see a hardcore list (distinct from the punk list).  It's really a pretty impressive site for list connoisseurs.