Monday, May 22, 2006

Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!!

Top Ten Who Songs

See the album Who's Next?

No, not really. But damn, a case could be made, huh?

10. "Christmas" - Tommy seems to have been devalued heavily, by virtue of general critical consensus, in the last ten to twenty years. I don't get it.

9. "Underture" - A great rock instrumental, with that brilliant little Entwhistle melody.

8. "My Generation" - Has anyone ever drummed like Keith Moon?

7. "I'm Free" - Killer riff.

6. "Behind Blue Eyes" - "And if I swallow anything evil/Put your finger down my throat." Come on. That's gold.

5. "Pinball Wizard" - Such a simple device, that opening two-chord acoustic figure, but they get so much mileage out of it.

4. "Baba O' Riley" - The second-greatest use of a synth in a rock song ever. And has any rock song ever ended with a ho-down? And not felt wrong?

3. "I Can See for Miles" - I love the dissonant harmonies on this song.

2. "Love Reign O'er Me" - Such a great opening - the full piano chords, the rolling tympani, the high arpeggios.

1. "Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who pull of a remarkable feat here. This one song contains not one, not two, but three "greatest"s in, not just The Who's catalog, but in all of rock history. Doubt it?

1) Greatest fake ending in a rock song ever.
2) Greatest scream in a rock song, ever.
3) Greatest use of a synthesizer in a rock song ever.

Impressive.

Until Whenever.

3 comments:

Tom the Dog said...

"See the album Who's Next?"

Yep, pretty much. As you know, I consider it to be the greatest anything in the history of forever. Though I've mentioned it on my blog a lot, I've never really done a breakdown of it song by song. I really should.

That said, my top ten Who songs (I should really do that post, too) would break away from Who's Next with the very second song -- I'd have to go with "Who Are You" (which I can't help but notice you don't even include). Then back to Who's Next with "Behind Blue Eyes" at #3. Then... well, I'll save it for my blog.

#1, of course -- of COURSE -- is "Won't Get Fooled Again," which I think is the most perfect rock song ever. That scream IS rock & roll to me. My second favorite bit: the subtle dig at the audience that most people miss -- following the line, "I know that the hypnotized never lie," a few beats later, Daltrey spits, "Do ya?" Meaning: YOU, the listeners, the masses, YOU are the hypnotized, so WAKE UP. That is AWESOME.

Tosy And Cosh said...

"Won't Get Fooled Again" spits in the face of "Stairway to Heaven." I do wish, though, that it wasn't a TV theme song.

And I like "Who Are You" fine - probably top-twenty fine, but not top-ten fine.

Roger Owen Green said...

Townsend turned 61 this week. A fine tribute.