Davsto's Top 100 Songs (Complete!)

[Davsto]

7

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

by The Beatles

This song closes the second side of Abbey Road and is by far one of the heaviest songs they ever did, and it's amazing for it. It's rather minimalistic, with the lyrics using about 14 different words in total and the verses just consisting of "I want you, I want you so bad, I want you" etc, but it's amazing, and the bit of this song you should really be focusing on is the music.

Highlights

include the verses with the quite catchy melody and the way that the guitar perfectly imitates the vocals, the "chorus" (?) sections with the strong bass riff under the guitar arpeggios, the contrast between the two sections whenever they switch, the guitar solo that is kinda the second verse, and the outro where the bass riff is also played by a guitar while the arpeggios are still played over it, and it gets louder and louder with wind noises and Ringo bashing the fuck out of his drum set before the song just ends. No fade out, no final note, the tape is just cut and the song just stops, making for one of the most effective silences in music history.

[Davsto]

6

Won't Get Fooled Again

by The Who

I always marveled at how Who's Next managed to start with a song as incredible as Baba O'Riley and then somehow end with an even better song. This song is so great that even the well-written political lyrics about revolution and the uselessness of it ("Meet the new boss, same as the old boss") are probably the weakest thing about the song, since every other aspect of the song is so great.

Highlights

include the use of the synth with its repetitive beat in the background of most of the song but occasionally coming into the foreground for rather tense sections, the bassline, the general use of guitars during both the solo-y sections as well as in the background during vocal sections, and the bit around 6:35 where a climax is hit before the guitars are slowly allowed to fade the final note into the background and the synth plays centre stage before suddenly some drums kick in (Keith Moon's drumming in general being a highlights as usual) and the Roger screams the famous "YEAAAAAHHHHH!" (Daltrey's vocals being a highlight throughout the song once again) before a final instrumental ends the song.

[Davsto]

5

Eleanor Rigby

by The Beatles

Click image to listen

...And to round off the songs from Revolver, here we have a song about lonely people and death with a string quartet as its entire instrumentation, bringing out a sombre mood in general, never mind the changing of the tone and style of the quartet's music to fit with the parts of the song. This is actually one of the first Beatles songs I heard when I was younger, when we had to analyse the lyrics for an English lesson when I was about 7 or 8.

Highlights

of this song include the absolutely incredible lyrics which are among the best any Beatle ever wrote, telling of a heartbreaking story of loneliness and loss, the vocal melody which is wonderful particularly when accompanied with the vocal harmonies occasionally, and the wonderful expressiveness of the string quartet as the backing, playing slowly and smoothly during the sadder and simpler bits before playing staccato and putting you on edge for other sections.

[Not_Mafia]

Good choice

[Davsto]

4

Thick as a Brick

by Jethro Tull

And you thought some of the other songs on this list were long, eh? This is a 43 minute long song, taking up both sides of a record (so technically it is split into two parts with a noticeable fade out and then fade in, but they do flow into each other plus even if each song were separate they'd both make this list so it makes more sense to condense it into a single place). Of course, it isn't exactly "one song" - it's really a medley of loads of little separate songs, but the parts flow together smoothly enough that it wouldn't feel complete if you split it into its separate parts, and the reprises and recurrences of certain melodies and themes help it to feel like a cohesive song rather than a bunch of three minute songs awkwardly thrown together for a gimmick. A fair distribution of both instrumental and vocal sections help to keep it interesting too, rather than focusing too much either way, and the lyrics themselves paint nice imagery, even if a large proportion of them are effectively meaningless.

Highlights

include basically all the song apart from around 3 minutes near the beginning of part 2 (which largely consists of drum solos, random muttered words and constant stops and starts as it seems like it's going to start a new melody then fall apart again - the only part of the song I don't love in one way or another), but I'll just mention the best highlights - the endings of the first and second part as the song rushes through and climaxes (particularly at the end of the second part as it mixes reprises with new sections and slowly builds up before falling into a beautiful reprise of the opening section), the acoustic opening to the song which is made of several melodies in its own right and is extremely pretty, Martin Barre's guitar solos which are among the best he's ever done (pay attention in particular to the one around 7:10 which is wonderful) and the wonderful interplay between the guitars and Anderson's flutes which together do a great job of joining sections, the wonderful "do you believe in the day" section which is probably the best part of the song, and just how the song, despite its length, never seems to bore me, a testament to the great energy that the band played with at this stage as well as the brilliant melodies.

[Parama]

Where's starless tho

[Davsto]

Hadn't listened to it at the time of making the list, otherwise it would be ~15th

[Parama]

rip

[Spiffeh]

Still don't know 90% of these

[Davsto]

3

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

by The Beatles

Click image to listen

The Beatles teamed up with Eric Clapton. A masterpiece was destined, no? Of course, it isn't entirely Clapton's guitar which makes this song - the lyrics are great, the piano and acoustic guitar melodies along with the vocal melody are wonderful, but it is truly the solo which makes this song as good as it is - although I would recommend that everyone check out the acoustic demo from Anthology, which somehow makes it into an entirely differently style of song.

Highlights

include the incredible guitarwork by Clapton throughout the verses, the guitar solo, and the coda, the thick texture of the song with acoustic guitar and piano and loads of other little bits making the song feel so full, and the haunting vocal melody which complements the lyrics perfectly.

[Davsto]

2

A Day in the Life

by The Beatles

Wow, I bet none of you saw this one coming, right? We finally get to my favourite Beatles song, and what a song, rounding off the Sgt. Pepper album on an absolutely fantastic note. Lyrics which mean slightly more than I Am the Walrus' lyrics but are still really based more on painting pretty pictures than actually getting a strong meaning across, multiple contrasting sections which still somehow fit together well, and just generally great in every way.

Highlights

include the first two minutes where the song is just a pretty slow ballad with some great piano, acoustic guitar, and a beautiful vocal melody, the multiple orchestral crescendos throughout the song (I especially like the one around 3:00, with the barely noticeable "ooh"s McCartney provides over the orchestra, one of my favourite details of this song), the weirdly bouncy middle section, and the ending of the song - after a final orchestral crescendo, a single chord played on three pianos is just held for about 40 seconds and allowed to resonate and fade out, hands down my favourite moment in any song ever.

[Nexus]

Davsto I hope the number 1 is awesome because A Day in the Life is definitely the best Beatles song

[Davsto]

Surprisingly enough I do think my number one choice is awesome

[Not_Mafia]

Who's it by? I'd like to guess

[Davsto]

It's by an artist who has already appeared on the list

That's all I'm saying

[Parama]

jethro tull

[Davsto]

[fanfare]

[Davsto]

1

21st Century Schizoid Man

by King Crimson

Click image to listen

The opening song to In the Court is a damn classic, even if it does set up very much the wrong idea of what the album is like - King Crimson wouldn't regularly make music like this until the likes of Larks' Tongues in Aspic in 1973, the heavy jazz-inspired prog rock with instrumental sections galore - this song is seven and a half minutes long and has three very short verses, although even those manage to make an impact. Hell, pretty much every single moment in this song has some sort of impact, and barely a second is wasted.

Highlights

include the main guitar/sax riff (particularly how it booms into the song after the deceptively quiet wind intro), the pictures of the lyrics and the heavy vocals with the metallic effect which are effective even in their brevity, the way the song transitions into the instrumental section with a different, if slightly weaker, riff which has guitar playing over it before transitioning into an absolutely incredible atonal guitar solo, the bit with all the whining saxes (okay, probably the weakest bit of the song, but it's still pretty cool), the stopping-and-starting instrumental which follows where all the instruments play in sync before the song comes back with the riff and the vocals before a screaming ending. Now you may have noticed I've listed literally every bit of the song as a highlight. That was intentional. The drumming is great, the bassline is great, the guitarwork is fantastic (although it's Robert Fripp so little else is to be expected), and the wind section of the orchestra add a lot to the song.

[Parama]

yeah it's pretty good

honestly the only song on that album worth listening to imo but

[Papa Zito]

Davsto buddy you desperately need to broaden your horizons.

[Davsto]

I have since the list started, considerably so

And am continuing to, so don't worry

I mean it's still largely 60s-70s rock/pop/prog, but there's a bit more variety within that group as well as bits and bobs from outside.

[xyzzy]

Davsto, what's your favorite song from the last decade?

[Davsto]

I have music from only like 8 albums from the last decade so that's a pretty limited question

I'd have to go with Leon by Madness, a song conspicuously missing from the list (I had listened to it at the time, but I only added songs I had in my MP3 collection, and it hadn't been added yet).

[Parama]

I probably have hundreds of albums from the last decade and very few from before the 90's tbh

[xyzzy]

this is technically from a bit before the last decade, but if you get the chance, Davsto (and anyone else who is interested in hearing some very good fairly recent music), you should listen to the album

Illinois

by Sufjan Stevens.