Sunday, June 21, 2009

My list for the Hottest 100 of All Time

After copious coffee, hang-wringing and pulling out what little hair I have left, I've finalised my submission to Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time. The songs below are not my ten favourite songs of all time, because I literally cannot compile such a list; instead, I used some self-imposed rules in order to arrive at a list that strikes a balance between obscurity and populism, isn't skewed towards any particular genre or aesthetic and represents my personal taste while being universal enough to have an impact on the poll. Inevitably, some biases had to prevail; it's the White Boys club, and mostly rockers at that, and Kenny Rogers is conspicuously absent. But then that's why it isn't called Triple J's Encyclopedia of Music.

Rulez:

* Each decade from the 1960s onwards must be represented by at least one song.
* No artist may appear more than once on the list.
* Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana don't count as two separate artists.
* I may include two dark horse candidates. These songs can be as obscure as I damn well want, but must appear on official studio albums that are currently commercially available.
* It puts the lotion on its skin.

Songz:

Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man from Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs from The
Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

Black Sabbath - War Pigs from Paranoid (1970)

Television - Marquee Moon from Marquee Moon (1977)

The Clash - London Calling from London Calling (1979)

Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World from Freedom (1989)

REM - Drive from Automatic for the People (1992)

Weezer - Say It Ain't So from Weezer (Blue) (1994)

Radiohead - Paranoid Android from OK Computer (1997)

Smog - Let Me See the Colts from A River Ain't Too Much to Love (2005)

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