Greatest Guitar Songs: Excuse me, you left out my favorites

One of the earliest comments, but late enough that there had been several complaints, criticized that the issue with the complaints was that they hadn't even listened to the songs; they just checked for their favorites, found them missing, and assumed the list was invalid based on that.

Obviously I'm not doing that, but I do want to hit on my favorites here too. I will be reasonable. I have no intention of trying to shoehorn in A-ha or Reggie and the Full Effect - they will come up for other things - but again, so much of even getting into this comes from getting into My Chemical Romance, who are great with guitar, and so many of the other bands I listen to are great with guitar, that I just need to have my say.

First of all, the two bands that filled the top two spots for about a decade, The Clash and The Ramones, both made the list, with "London Calling" at 48 and "Blitzkrieg Bop" at 18. I guess that should make me happy, but I wasn't sure about either choice.

As I tried thinking about that more, especially while listening to The Ramones, I was thinking maybe "I Wanna Be Sedated" or "I Wanna Live" were stronger candidates, but over that I kept thinking that a lot of the guitar lines really sounded the same. And you know, that's punk! Simplicity is sort of its calling card. We're going to play three chords really fast with a lot of attitude for two minutes. Oy!

So maybe the reason they chose "Blitzkrieg Bop" was because it has four chords. But then you could argue that The Clash should rank higher, because they had songs with five chords, though I am not sure about "London Calling" specifically. I had thought about "Rudy Can't Fail", but I'm not sure that I can justify that. "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" might actually be stronger guitar-wise.

Suffice it to say, there is not a lot of punk on the original list, or in the comments, but punk is nonetheless awesome, and these two bands should be listened to a lot, regardless of technical complexity.

And, while all of the above-mentioned are good songs, my favorites are "Howling At The Moon", though the non-guitar aspects are probably more important to the overall sound, and "Train In Vain". Also, listening to "Pinhead" again, at the end that totally sounds like the Minions from Despicable Me.

Now, while these two bands are older, my love for them came later. I did not get into classic punk  until a few years after college. Actually, I've come to most of my modern bands kind of late too, so it works, but I am going to try and go in a kind of chronological order here.

If A-ha is not particularly known for guitar, it doesn't mean that my other 80's loves were not. Of the Split Enz/ Crowded House/ Finn Brothers continuum (but from a guitar point of view, it's basically Neil Finn), I'm going to call out "History Never Repeats" (I think there's some early jangle there), and "Something So Strong". As much as "Won't Give In" means to me, it is the pathos in the voices, and the depth of meaning. The guitar doesn't get in the way, but it's not what the song is about.

For Charlie Sexton, as much as his sound has matured over the years, I think I need to go back to "Beat's So Lonely". He was already so skilled, and there is something in the grind in the intro that still works for me. I did love "Hold Me" a lot.

For college, I need to give a shout-out to the Presidents of the United States of America. At the time, I did not even know that they were playing with minimal strings, and at some point I would like to go back and take another look at that. If you can do so much with so little, then what can you do with more. For now, "Lump" would probably be the best guitar song, but I have really enjoyed their covers: "Video Killed The Radio Star" and "George Of The Jungle".

That being said, college was more about the Gin Blossoms. It would be easy to go with "Hey Jealousy", but I don't know. I know that Scott Johnson and Jesse Valenzuela are a good team, and I know that with a lot of the songs it is the way that the guitar and the percussion and the vocals go together. "Until I Fall Away" creates an interesting mood. Honestly, I have a harder time being analytical with them. Some of that is probably the time and place when they hit, when I was not as analytical, and big emotional life-changing things happened, but their more recent titles really get me too, and I am old and settled now, kind of.

Going into some of my more recent loves, I find I have a lot more favorites. There are certainly bands that I love more passionately, or where there music hits me more deeply, but also, sometimes with the tweets, and having music playing when I work, and maybe just having gotten so much more serious about music, there are just a lot more bands that it would feel wrong to leave out. No matter how long this post gets, I will realize I forgot someone later, and feel bad, but, chances are I will write about them at some other time, so this just needs to be a post that covers a lot of cool guitar stuff.

I think it was Jimmy Eat World that came next. I became aware of them because "Sweetness" was used in promo for something on MTV, and it intrigued me, but it didn't grab me like "The Middle" did, and still does. While some of that is certainly the message, that intro hooks.

It was about the time that I was getting into classic punk that I also found myself liking bands like Green Day and Blink 182, that were considered at least punk-adjacent, and actually, right then I don't remember there being all the talk about whether or not anyone was punk enough. So at the time, that's where I was realizing with some dismay that I was a punk rocker, despite no desire to ever put a safety pin through my nose or a chicken. Obviously, there were some stereotypes. Once I found myself liking Rancid, I knew there was no going back, but I still don't care for the Sex Pistols.

Anyway, the first Green Day song that I remember being attracted to was "Basket Case", and it and "When I Come Around" are, I think, pretty strong guitar-wise, as is "Good Riddance" in its own way.

For Blink-182 it was absolutely "Dammit" that first drew me in, and again, you have a great riff there. That being said, I really love "Down", and lately I am listening to "Adam's Song" more, though it breaks me up pretty badly. I guess come for the guitar, stay for the heartbreak.

At some point Weezer came along. Yes, the initial attraction was "Buddy Holly" and my favorite is "Perfect Situation". Clearly, I am overly conventional, and not too punk rock for anything. However, my guitar selection, and I know this is counter-intuitive, is "Island In The Sun". It's not so much that they do anything flashy with it, and they did make the list on their own, with "Say It Aint So" coming in at 72. I know all that, and yet there is something about "Island" that is subtle and effective and I keep coming back to it.

For the All-American Rejects, Nick Wheeler and Mike Kennerty are another special duo to me, performance-wise, and they have a lot of good material out there to choose from. Also, they are always changing it up, and many of my favorite Rejects songs are less guitar-driven. I am tempted to go with "Dirty Little Secret" or "Swing, Swing", both of which are songs that I love, and which very much sound like them. However, I think "Top Of The World" may give a better idea of their range. And even with that, my favorite song is probably "Change Your Mind" or maybe "Kids In The Street". Actually, "Fast And Slow" is a great song for both guitar and non-guitar considerations. I'm going with "Fast And Slow".

And that brings us up to the watershed moment of finding My Chemical Romance. Everything changes after that, it terms of how I listen to music, and how I write about music, and how I write with music. It didn't exactly happen all at once, but there was some velocity.

Of the other bands I am going to mention, Fall Out Boy and Torche came specifically from listening to My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio came from listening to Reggie and the Full Effect, which came from listening to MCR, and while the Gaslight Anthem came from seeing something in the newspaper, their New Jersey origins carried extra weight because of MCR.

Truthfully, I am not that up on either Alkaline Trio or Torche yet. Currently there is more fixation on a couple of songs, "Mercy Me" and "Triumph of Venus" respectively, both of which are excellent guitar songs. I feel I need to mention them because those are good songs, but also, I think I am going to be listening and liking them more. I feel it coming on.

The Gaslight Anthem is great for guitars, over and over again. I love them for that. I think "great Expectations" is the best example of that, but it is also the song that I first fell for, and I am not exactly unsentimental. Anyway, it's a really good song. I might actually love "The '59 Sound" a little more, but for guitar it is "Great Expectations", followed by "Film Noir". I think.

For Fall Out Boy, I have to say that I don't think Joe Trohman gets enough attention. Maybe the band does not get enough attention for their quality in general. I'm glad they're back, but I'm glad that they had the hiatus because I think it made them better. Picking a strongest guitar song is difficult, but I lean towards "A Little Less Sixteen Candles A Little More Touch Me" or maybe "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs". My less expected favorite is "Hum Hallelujah.

So I can save My Chemical Romance for the last as my favorite, with this idea of building up towards the grand finale, or it could be something I do because then I am supposed to be narrowing down their songs, like that is even possible.

Of course I do need to call out "Summertime" because there is still that bridge, that is achingly beautiful and sticks with me in ways that I do not completely understand, though Dewees had some pretty good ideas on it, that maybe in that bridge you deconstruct and reconstruct everything good in the song. I can go with that. There is of course that building thing as we get into "I'm Not Okay", not to mention that bridge in the middle where the opportunity to head bang transforms it into my best karaoke number while also making me dizzy.

All of that, but I really need to mention "Headfirst For Halos" here, because it does something different, that really works. (I like to think that the "Think happy thoughts" comes from Gerard's turn as Peter Pan.)

Let me just mention one more time how brilliant the pairing of "Disenchanted" with "Famous Last Words" is, not only for combined meaning and emotional weight, but also for showing the variety of what the band can do and be. Even saying that, I think the song that I most want to play, and not the bass part, so what am I even thinking, would be "Bulletproof Heart".

Anything that doesn't make sense here, just blame it on love.