making a cd for a friend
Submitted by CoCa on Fri, 08/29/2003 - 12:53
Tags:
- I am trying to make an "educational" cd for a friend of mine (we're both 20) who has absolutly no knowledge of rock music before about 1995, and I would love any input as to songs that should be included. To let you know how serious this situation is, I once said something about The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction", and she had absolutly no idea what i was talking about. She's equally clueless about Nirvanna, Pearl Jam, Bush, so it's not just older music that she doesn't know anything about. The girl needs help stat! So anyway, I am going to make her a couple of cds to sort of introduce her to the world of classic rock, and any suggestions, comments, etc, would be extrememly helpful.
Author Comments:
I just registered this morning, so if i messed anything up, or if this question should be somewhere else, please bear with me...be kind as you let me know! I really appreciate your input.
Suggestion: Make another friend;)
Welcome to Listology! There are many lists here that should help with this, but two leap to mind: stumpy's 1000+ Great Songs and lbangs' The Best Rock Songs. I'm sure other folks will chime in here with specific advice.
And let's not forget our old friend Nick Vane's 770 Favorite Songs.
Ah, good one! I know I neglected a bunch of good lists; I was in a hurry.
Well, I'm sure I'm not the best person to get this from, but I put together a list here, organized by decade. I think it's a pretty representative list of a lot of artists and styles of rock music. These songs are not always the best song of a particular artist, but I think they may be their most accessible songs and / or most popular. I'd say that, whether you like them or not, a rock fan should at least be familiar with these songs. That having been said, on some occasions, I had to stretch a little bit, because I thought that your friend should be familiar with the artist, but I couldn't think of one song that really stood out (for example, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, the Smiths, Elvis Costello, Radiohead, David Bowie Pavement, etc.)
Jim pointed out two "best songs" list, but IMHO, those lists wouldn't provide the best introduction to rock music. They're lists compiled from hearing tons of music for years and years. Save those for later. Then again, these songs are only my opinion, and I'm certainly not the most knowledgeable about rock music on this site, so take this list for what it is.
50's
1. Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley
2. Tutti Frutti - Little Richard
3. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
4. That'll Be the Day - Buddy Holly
60's
1. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
2. Louie Louie - Kingsmen
3. I Got You (I Feel Good) - James Brown
4. Hey Jude - Beatles
5. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
6. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
7. My Generation - The Who
8. Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
9. Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
10. Brown-Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
11. Respect – Aretha Franklin
12. You Really Got Me - Kinks
70’s
1. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
2. American Pie - Don McLean
3. Imagine - John Lennon
4. What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye
5. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
6. Light My Fire - Doors
7. Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix
8. Your Song - Elton John
9. Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
10. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
11. Hotel California - Eagles
12. Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols
13. Layla – Derek and the Dominoes
14. London Calling – The Clash
15. Alison – Elvis Costello
16. Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell
17. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
80’s
1. When Doves Cry - Prince
2. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
3. Like a Virgin - Madonna
4. With or Without You – U2
5. There is a Light That Never Goes Out - Smiths
6. Once in a Lifetime – Talking Heads
90’s
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
2. Losing My Religion – REM
3. Live Forever – Oasis
4. Paranoid Android – Radiohead
5. Cut Your Hair - Pavement
Wow, that's a rather good summary of pop music by singles there! Impressive.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Thank you, lbangs. I guess I've really mastered pretending I know what I'm talking about. :-)
I'm impressed. Minor opinion: I'd shuffle the Doors and Hendrix tunes back a decade. It will even out the lists and be a bit more accurate, even if those songs might have seen more airplay in the 70s.
Again, you did an incredible job here. You even pretty much nailed the last decade using only 5 (!) songs! I'd probably have to cheat and sneak a Liz Phair Exile tune on there, but hey, then it'd be six, right?
Impressive.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Oopsie. Much to my chagrin, I realize those songs were both actually realeased in 1967. But thank you again, lbangs.
CoCa: I agree with lbangs - AJDaGreat's list is an excellent answer to your question. The other lists mentioned are very good (see also my own list), but probably not quite what you are seeking.
A few comments to add re AJDaGreat's list:
- The 60's: Dominated by The Beatles, and if you include 'influence' in your criteria, they were matched only by Bob Dylan. I would add three or four songs from each to make the 60's list more representative (or delete everyone else). I am not sure that you need to restrict the list to one by each artist. Otherwise your friend might be forgiven for thinking that The Kingsmen were as important as The Beatles or Dylan.
- The 90's: One omission which makes it slightly less representative is that there is no inclusion of hip-hop/rap. I cannot offer any suggestions I'm afraid because my favorites are not really representative of the genre, and Eminem is very much the 21st century.
- There are perhaps some other omissions, such as electro-pop or boy bands, but I agree that they should be omitted. (Perhaps add Blue Monday by New Order to the 80's).
Otherwise you couldn't hope for a better list.
P.S. Also welcome to Listology. You didn't mess anything up, and your question is in exactly the right place. Even if you were to mess up occasionally (as we do), we are mostly fairly forgiving here.
Thank you, professor. Your comments on the 60's are very valid. The Kingsmen as a group were certainly not as important as the Beatles or Dylan, but I think that "Louie Louie" is definitely an important song to know (just like Don McLean as an artist was not as important to the 70's as, for example, David Bowie, but I thought "American Pie" was an important song to know). I did restrict the list to one song per artist to achieve some variety, but the Beatles are of course a very eclectic band. I could've included "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" for some earlier Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows" for some psychedelic Beatles, and / or "Helter Skelter" for the hardest song the Beatles ever recorded (a very influential song, I imagine). However, I was trying to keep the list lean, and I think 44 songs is probably enough. I eventually chose "Hey Jude" as the best song to represent the Beatles, which wasn't a very easy decision, but it's among their very best in my book (if not THE best), so I figured why not. Professor, please feel free to put together your own list of 60's songs if you wish, so CoCa can pick whichever one she / he prefers.
The 90's - Again, your comments are valid. I'm not too familiar with hip-hop or rap, mostly because I hate 99% of it. I'm not sure that that sub-genre is really essential (in fact, is rap really a sub-genre of rock music, or is it its own genre?).
Thanks again for the comments. CoCa, good luck with educating your friend.
AJDaGreat: It did occur to me also that hip-hop might not be considered a sub-genre of rock, but I decided that by those criteria we might also have to exclude Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye (Soul), and maybe even Bob Dylan (Folk).
I would say that you might be missing out by hating rap - it has great rhythm and soul and a terrific loose feeling of spontaneity ( I had to check the spelling of that). And Eminem is (in my view) the first great poet of the twenty-first century - his lyrics are great and often have a message, though he doesn't have the soul of many black rappers.
I love Hey Jude - one of my top five by the Beatles (possibly second or third), but my personal favourite is Let It Be, which is not too dissimilar (a McCartney ballad).
Your 60's list is a great representation - I feel I could only better it in personal opinions. I have the advantage of having lived through the 60's, but you have the advantage of looking back in retrospect without that bias. Given the objective of the list (for a twenty-year-old), your opinion is possibly more appropriate, so I'll not try to change it. (This is a great forum for exchanging opinions.)
CoCa: In order to support the importance of The Beatles and Bob Dylan, I would add to AJDaGreat's original list The Beatles'; 'Help' (from the early days, John), 'Taxman' or 'Something' (George Harrison), and a choice from 'A Day in The Life' or 'Lucy In The Sky (With Diamonds)', plus Hey Jude (or Let It Be) of course. I would also add Bob Dylan's 'Positively 4th Street' and 'A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall' to AJDaGreat's choice of 'Like A Rolling Stone'.
Then move the Doors and Hendrix back a decade, add Blue Monday to the 80's, and add a hip-hop choice to the 90's (perhaps your own choice), and you have a definitve list for your friend. Good Luck!
Hey, thanks guys! I definitely appreciate the help, and I am sure my friend will too. I decided to make these cds for her birthday, and it just seemed like sort of a daunting task trying to figure out what to include, but you have given me some great feedback. I am new to listology, but ya'll seem really knowledgeble, and nice too! Can I stay, huh, can I??
Welllll.... alright, it's fine with me, but you should probably talk to Jim about this. I'm not sure if you can past the initiation test. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle before? And how good are you at advanced calculus?
By all means, stay! Myself, I've never ridden a motorcycle and I'm not particularly good at yer everyday run-of-the-mill calculus, forget about the advanced stuff. I do think the site might be more fun if I let AJ administer entrance exams though. :-)