Greatest Guitar Songs: You get a gold star!

As you may have guessed, trying to keep everything straight was a challenge. Once I had the list in a document, I changed all of the text to red, and then as I listened to something I changed it to black, so the ones I hadn't listened to were easy to spot.

Sometimes I would write notes, but often I would think that I should get back to something later, after I had listened to more. I would designate these with an asterisk. Sometimes I would even wait to mark something as black. Like, with "Chick Magnet" by MxPx, I liked it so much that I thought I would like more by them, so I kept them red. I also waited to mark off Dinosaur Jr. and Link Wray. Fall of Troy got a star, without having a specific song, as did Wolfmother. I want to listen to them more.

Going back through my stars, I see some that were because I really liked them, and some more because I can see where they really do have legitimate claims to the list, and sometimes both, but not always.

For example, one person suggested "Love Like Anthrax" by Gang of Four. I did not care for the song, but there was something about the band where I wanted to listen to additional songs. "Natural's Not In It" came up, and I really liked that. Based on my listening, which was rudimentary, "Natural" is more typical of their style than "Anthrax", which probably explains why it stood out to the original poster. (Actually, I thought they were more bass-centric in everything else, but I am not sure. More listening required.)

Here are a few songs of which I was completely unaware, but knew on hearing them that I would need to go back to them:

"Blank Generation" by Richard Hell
"Through The Fire And Flames" by Dragonforce
"Bolero" by Jeff Beck
"Oh Well" by Peter Green
"Surfing With The Alien" by Joe Satriani
"La Villa Strangiato" by Rush
"Black Masquerade" by Rainbow
"Rock Box" by Run DMC
"FFF" by P.I.L
"Shot By Both Sides" by Magazine
"Plug In Baby" by Muse
"Seasons In The Abyss" by Slayer

Yes, I am embarrassed that I had not heard of some of these bands, and some of these songs by bands I do know. I know Run DMC, I just didn't know this song. Again, sometimes it is worth going back.

I am well familiar with Queensryche - I've waited in the rain for an hour to see them - but I hadn't thought about them from a guitar point of view. I'm glad that people put them on the list, because there was sort of a reunion there.

Listening to the Eagles again, I don't know that any of those songs should count as "greatest", but they do really have their own individual sound. Lindsey Buckingham had not stood out to me in Fleetwood Mac, but listening again, his playing is very unique. I wrote down that it has an almost banjo-like texture. I'm not sure that I can back that up, but that's what I thought when I was listening.

I am not a fan of Nine Inch Nails, but of course "Head Like A Hole" stays with you, and "Discipline", which I had never heard before, is pretty good. I had never heard "Just Because" by Jane's Addiction either, but I like the intro.

My most embarrassing moment from this? "Highway To Hell" is a cooler song than I remembered, and it is by AC/DC, not Judas Priest as I had thought. If we are putting AC/DC on the list, I think that "You Shook Me All Night Long" is a better candidate, but it's good to have the memories cleared up. (If we are putting Judas Priest in there, I think I would vote for "Breaking the Law".)

For a fairly random revelation, even with all of the Dinosaur Jr. songs that were mentioned, my favorite by them was "Been There All The Time", which no one mentioned, though I certainly agree with the sentiment of so many, including Stereogum's Brandon, that they should have been somewhere in the Rolling Stone list. That's not the part that was weird though.

In comments on the "Been There All The Time" video, someone mentioned J Mascis's resemblance to Sauron, and I started thinking that every time I saw him. Well, last week I saw a clip where Mascis is being interviewed by Fred Armisen's feminist bookstore character from Portlandia, and there is another resemblance pointed out, and I am not going to be able to forget that one either:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG8pSsUyrl8

(J does not look as similar to Candace here as he has at other times.)

And for an unexpected development, it turns out that I do like Black Sabbath! I just prefer them with Ronnie James Dio; my brother listened to the Ozzy Osbourne version. Now, as vital as Tommy Iommi is to the Black Sabbath sound - both as a songwriter and as a performer, with the detuning and everything - Osbourne has such a distinctive voice and personality that there was no way that change would not be significant. I'm sure my preference for Dio ("Iron Man" aside) is an unpopular opinion, but still, finding out that I like them at all is a surprise, and a pleasant one.

It looks like Sabbath Keepers is a go.