The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time - April 2010

[Lynch]

Because it's the most important, if not the best, rock 'n roll song ever recorded.

Best? not even close (IMHO)

Most important? Please explain how that gibberish could possibly be considered "most important"

 

[Saman Q]

Wow a dissapointing list Rolling stone is ignoring so many talents instead they are overrating other singers like bob dylan i know he was a good songwriter but it doesnt mean his song should be every where on the list or another one like rolling stone itself too many songs by them is there and they are not that influential they are not even very beautiful songs if they want influential songs so they should put david bowie 'The man who sold te world' and another problem Where the hell is Pink floyd and Leonard cohen these are two of the greatest artists in the world i cant find the reason of ignoring them especially Leonard cohen he had many of the most influential and great songs in the world like suzanne RS has put his hellejulah but by jeff buckley ok i can accept that but his other songs at least one of them should be top ten i can just say RS SUCKS!!!

 

[Saman Q]

Oh something else they are ignoring Iron maiden too wow so sad

 

[Stripwalk]

Angie - Rolling Stones???

 

[LaurieLoz]

Managed to find this complete list on a DVD for £5. Bargain!

 

[CREAM'd]

Pretty dreadful list. Only decent song in the top 10 is 'Like a Rolling Stone' and I could name 20 more songs by Dylan that would deserve to be in the top 100 on lyrics alone. Can't stand Nirvana but 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is a pretty decent song but not a top 10 song.

Imagine by John Lennon ~ yawn
Hey Jude by The Beatles ~ Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[The Kid]

The Byrds have only 2 songs in the top 500. Wow

 

[TheGushinRussian]

Rolling Stone has always had their favorites and their least favorites.
They glamourize ANYTHING Bob Dylan, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Nirvana, etc., and They've always had their bands that they were disgustingly unfair to, ESPECIALLY Pink Floyd, who didn't even crack their top 50 artists if I remember right, DSOTM was barely a top 50 album, and they should have had many more songs on the top 500. Rush also never git the recognition they deserve from RS, and Zeppelin, to a lesser extent, doesn't get proper recognition. RS blows cock and it always will

 

[Jonny Come Lately]

I agree, I know I’m biased as a Floyd fan, but I cannot understand why Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb aren’t in the top 100 at worst, both are total classics by most standards, and there’s nothing from DSOTM - surely at least one of Time, Money, Us And Them or The Great Gig In The Sky could have made the list? This is made more galling by the presence of Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, which I like but is overrated (I think it's position is fair, however). I agree about Led Zeppelin too, where are Dazed And Confused, Over The Hills And Far Away or When The Levee Breaks? I do think they get a fairer deal on the list than Pink Floyd, though (e.g. Ramble On and Heartbreaker do make the list, whereas Floyd’s plight is akin to Zeppelin only getting Stairway, Kashmir and Whole Lotta Love in the top 500).

Another band who always get treated unfairly by Rolling Stone are Dire Straits (they’ve never been inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, for instance), again I’m a fan but I fail to see why Sultans Of Swing shouldn’t be on this list – great guitar, great lyrics and an all round classic track. I can understand why they want to recognise post-2000 material, but to see Sultans excluded for the likes of Umbrella is a crying shame.

There’s also the issue of tracks by the same being ranked unfairly relative to each other – taking U2 (a band I like but another who I think RS tend to favour, are all their songs on the list truly top 500 worthy?) as an example I think New Year’s Day (#435) is a better song than Sunday Bloody Sunday (#272). However, speaking of U2, I noticed that my own favourite Where The Streets Have No Name is missing, while Pride and Beautiful Day made the list.

There’s other problems too, I think the Beach Boys have been overrated somewhat – I wouldn’t disagree with the inclusion of songs like God Only Knows, Good Vibrations or In My Room but I really don’t see how California Girls by The Beach Boys can justify being in the top 100, it’s never stood out to me as being one of their best songs and the lyrics make me wince. I like Sloop John B better, but I don’t regard it as a great song either, and although both are very nicely sung I think they are hardly top 500 songs.

I do like Bob Dylan, although I can’t help but think someone like Neil Young, who doesn’t have a song in the top 100, gets a bit of a raw deal by comparison (Southern Man or The Needle And The Damage Done, anyone?).

I can’t say I think much of their top ten, the first one I’d remove is Hey Jude which in my opinion is well overrated (I’d like this list a lot more if this was swapped with one of the aforementioned Pink Floyd songs). Also, I suspect I’m not the first to notice this but there’s something a bit fishy about the choice of top two songs as well...

 

[TheGushinRussian]

Totally agree on Dire Straits as well as The Beach Boys, and where the **** is American Pie...? By far one of the most clever songs I know along with being catchy as heck. Also, Echoes is one of the most under rated songs of all time, and it should have been top 500 as it essentially kick started what became Pink Flpyds signature sound during the mid, late 70s. I love Bob Dylan and he's very poetic and everything, but sorry, I don't think he's that much better than Roger Waters, I see why others do because he's so fluent and clever in his sleight of hand references and material he covers, but I personally think Waters wrote much deeper, intellectual, complex and touching lyrics than did Bob Dylan! Waters voice is by no means great, nor is his bass which I don't mind, but that being said I prefer his voice over Dylans because he has more emotion and excitement in it than Bobs nasaly ass voice, which I guess I don't mind even if im not particularly a big fan of his voice. What im getting at, is artists like bob or the beach boys get their dicks sucked by Rolling Stone while bands like Floyd who don't want to be on the cover of a shitty, spiteful, money machine like RS get shat on for the forementioned not wanting to be on the cover.