Alright, after a lot of great input, here are the finalists for the greatest rock songs ever. I did not stick totally to the previously alloted slots, and instead I am just grabbing the 12 best songs we listed and voted for. Here they are, in no particular order:
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin
Where the Streets Have No Name by U2
Shook me all night long by AC/DC
Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Free Falling – Tom Petty
Vodoo Chile – Jimi Hendrix
Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard
Roxanne by the Police
Hotel California – Eagles
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Paranoid – Black Sabbath
Wild Cards - (Songs that I just can’t leave off the list, but didn’t want to give groups too many songs, or too many from one genre)
Freebird – Lynyrd Skynyrd
One – U2
Highway to Hell – AC/DC
Sweet Child of Mine – Guns N Roses
Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower
If you have final votes before I rank and tally them, let me know!
August 1, 2006 at 7:06 pm
I remember all those old videos (mamma let us watch MTV when she should’ve have). Youtube is great for watching old performances of the WVU marching band. I’ll give you those U2 performances were good. As for the SuperBowl. I remember it more for the backdrop of the names than the performance. Then again, the game was pretty good that year too.
August 1, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Vertigo does have some kick!
August 2, 2006 at 3:58 am
I’d be okay with either Immigrant or Shook taking the top spot.
Quick critique of the others:
Alabama – best southern rock song ever, but too southern to hold the overall title
Teen Spirit – very important tune, and a turning point for rock, but importance and greatness are not equal
Streets – great tune by my favorite band. I’ve got nothing against the tune but it doesn’t capture the elusive definition of ROCK in my head. I don’t hear the tune and say – THAT ROCKS!
Watchtower – My critique here may not be valid in some eyes, but is my opinion nevertheless. The tune is too 70′s. In my mind it can’t transcend out of that decade. It can be redone, and has been redone by some of the greats, but it still feels too Woodstock(ish) (Which I recognize took place in the late 60s).
Overall, Immigrant and Shook transcend their era, they transcend their respective bands, and quite frankly, they represent the purest forms of ROCK. Screaming vocals with throbbing beats and sweet guitar licks. The popularity of Shook might be a plus or a minus, only the great sage, Greg, will be able to tell us.
August 3, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Well, here it is, our moment of truth.
In comparing such great Rock songs, it is the little things that make a difference.
Smell’s Like Teen Spirit I have already written about its importance. But, as others have indicated, Nirvana does not deserve recognition in the Pantheon of greatness that rules Rock.
Sweet Home Alabama doesn’t suffer from Southern Rockness, it suffers from slamming Neil Young. While Neil thought it was nice that it they bothered to listen to his music, it makes it too dated and confusing for other generations. Shannon’s comparisons to Country Ride or Carolina certainly didn’t help its rock status.
All along the Watchtower is weird. It is so Dylan that the lyrics confuse and bewilder you a bit. I said that subject matter would be important and it is in this case.
Immigrant is a driving and pulsating song. The lyrical cry deep from Valhalla make it peircing and lasting. But, it is a song about vikings. That doesn’t seem rock enough to me to be the greatest.
Where the Streets Have No Name – Dave is right, probably the signature song by my favorite band, but U2′s greatness is actually greater than any one of their songs. In this case the band’s greatness almost overwhelms the song.
That leaves us with the greatest rock song ever, at least in my opinion: Shook Me All Night Long off of the Back in Black Album, by AC/DC
Here is why:
1) The Greatness of the Group – AC/DC epitomizes Rock. Those guys were homely, poor and foreign, but when they put on the school boy uniforms and played 3 power cords they transformed. They are a lasting rock band that produced important albums and a number of huge rock songs. Their greatness helps the song.
2) The subject matter – This sexually charged rock song is an unofficial tribute to Bon Scott, the lead singer of AC/DC who died, choked on his own vomit, parked across the street from his house. It embodies everything that makes rock rock.
3) The song evokes powerful emotions of energy, nostalgia, joy, kicking some rear and much more. It is highly emotive.
4) How great was the album the song appeared on? Back in Black is one of the greatest rock albums ever. I am sure we will debate that subject soon, but the greatness of that album, especially with it being the first album after Scott’s death, is unquestioned.
5) The Car Effect – If you can listen to this in your car without turning up the radio, trying to scream along to the vocals and tapping the dashboard, it is because you are hearing impaired.
So there you have it. It isn’t scientific, or absolute, but is sure feels right to me.
Thanks for all the hours you have sacrificed by not doing your jobs, serving God, and seeing loved ones to debate this. I am sure God is pleased.
August 3, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Good decision. I am going to download this song and rock out with the kids in the family room. I will be thankful and joyful and hopeful that they will not comprehend the deeper meaning of the lyrics.
August 3, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Bravo!
August 3, 2006 at 6:34 pm
I can live with Shook. In honor of its proclomation as the Greatest Rock Song Ever, I will gladly blast my CD version in my car as I drive home from work.
August 3, 2006 at 7:47 pm
I concur…but we MUST realize that vikings do rock…except for Minnesota ones, they’re too purple to rock.
In their first TV performance, AC/DC wore dresses, does that take away from the rock persona? And…are American thighs any different from Australian thighs? They are talking chicken right?
December 29, 2006 at 8:40 pm
There is this site, http://www.rankopedia.com. They just launched a category for “Best rock song ever”. I voted for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
May 13, 2007 at 8:46 am
Give it away and scar tissue by the red hot chili peppers
break on through by The Doors
Revolution by The Beatles
communicatoin breakdown and dazed and confused by zep