Nov 102008
It’s rare that we encourage unadulterated “Top 5” lists in the Halls of Rock, but every so often there’s the need for the sharing of such lists on a given subject. As we’ve seen in the past, they can say much about each of us and help us better navigate future discussions on an assortment of rock topics. I foresee a time when the knowledge we’re about to gather will come in handy…Ladies and gentleman, please post your Top 5 favorite songs by The Rolling Stones.
I hate to look like I’m wimping out, but I need a clarification. Are we supposed to list our 5 personal favorite Stones’ songs, or the 5 that we think are objectively best? I would give different answers to those two questions.
Thanks for asking for unnecessary clarification. Someone had to do it:) The question specifically asks for your top 5 “favorite” Stones songs. It’s easy enough to look up what, objectively, are the “best” Stones songs. Carry on!
“Torn and Frayed”
“Gimme Shelter”
“Monkey Man”
“Beast of Burden”
“Connection”
“Get Off My Cloud”
“Empty Heart”
“19th Nervous Breakdown”
“She Smiled Sweetly”
“Please Go Home”
1. “She’s A Rainbow”
2. “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing in the Shadow”
3. “Cool, Calm, and Collected”
4. “Connection”
5. “Sympathy for the Devil”
(bubbling under: “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Get Off My Cloud,” “As Tears Go By,” “Ruby Tuesday,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”)Clearly, the ’66-’68 Stones are nearest to my heart.
Good LORD. Only five songs?!
Yeah, bloody hell, well right NOW it’s…
Sympathy For The Devil
Get Off Of My Cloud
(I Can’t Get No)Satisfaction
19th Nervous Breakdown
Ride On Baby
Can we call this a “Gunpoint Poll,” as in “forced to choose at…”? ‘Cause that’s what it feels like.
Live With Me (live version)
Rocks Off
Dance Little Sister
All Down the Line
Street Fighting Man
Street Fighting Man
Get off My Cloud
Under My Thumb
Gimme Shelter
Jumpin Jack Flash
Alternate universe list:Monkey Man
Citadel
Dandelion
Ruby Tuesday
Let’s Spend the Night Together Citadel
Gimme Shelter
100 Years Ago
Shattered
2000 Light Years From Home
Monkey Man
At least four songs with numbers in the title and three songs with “Man” in the title were in contention for my top five. Huh.
YES, for those like Hrrundi, who are wondering: ONLY 5 SONGS – YOUR FAVES – AT GUNPOINT, if need be. Thanks.
These are most informative selections so far. I’ll add mine to the list shortly. If I say so myself, this is a difficult challenge!
I’m not sure who plays on it but I don’t think Memo From Turner counts so…
Shine a Light
Rocks Off
Connected
Miss Amanda Jones
Salt of the Earth
These choices are subject to change on an hourly basis and there are about 20 songs tied for the #6 slot.
I’m pretty sure I’ll sleep soundly tonight with this Top 5 list part of the public record (in order):
1. “Satisfaction”
2. “Under My Thumb”
3. “Tumbling Dice”
4. “Let’s Spend the Night Together”
5. “Beast of Burden”
“Brown Sugar”
“Gimme Shelter”
“Paint It Black”
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
“Satisfaction”
cdm wrote:
The Halls of Rock thank you for your restraint. Some of you may notice that I’ve had to “delete” your runner-up lists. It’s nothing personal; we feel it’s important that we’re vigilant in sharing nothing more than Top 5 faves here. Thanks.
Fuck. Forgot “Citadel.”Jumpin’ Jack
Satisfaction
Street Fightin Man
Bitch
The Last Time
(Shattered gets honorable mention)Paint It Black
19th Nervous Breakdown
Satisfaction
2000 Light Years From Home
Shattered
Alright, I got one for *you*, Mod: name your five favorite songs off of “Steppenwolf 7.” *Only* “Steppenwolf 7.”I look forward to your responses. Extra points for going into some detail on the role the gatefold photo plays in your choices.
HVB
This is really tough, but it’s the best that I can do with a gun at my head. Purposely leaving out the ones I’d think are the greatest in favor of the ones I just really like:
We Love You
Good Times, Bad Times
Shine a Light
Take It or Leave It
Stray Cat Blues
Suck it, assmonkey. I wasn’t trying to sneak in an extra, I was bemoaning an unforgivable lapse.
This thread makes me want to read a Graham Greene novel.
After the first 2, this is really tough for me. Regardless, without any further adieu and without reading anyone else’s list, here we go.
“Gimme Shelter”
“Loving Cup”
“Jigsaw Puzzle”
“Paint it Black”
“Miss Amanda Jones”
Those are my final choices and I’m sticking with them.
1. Gimme Shelter
2. Sympathy for The Devil
3. Ruby Tuesday
4. Let’s Spend the Night Together
5. Jumping Jack Flash
I’m actually not that big a Rolling Stones fan! =/
Under My Thumb
Jumpin Jack Flash
Have You Seen Your Mother Baby….
19th Nervous Breakdown
Rocks Off
“Who’s Been Sleeping Here”
“Fool To Cry”
“Going Home”
“Hot Stuff”
“Miss You”
This is kind of a silly exercise, but these are the Stone’s songs I’ve gone back to a number of times in recent years (
I want to throw “Angie” and “Slave” in there too) so for all intensive purposes, these are my current favorites. I’ve worn out a lot of their catalog over the years.I think
another favorite “Shattered”may be the last “new” song they’ve written, the last song that didn’t sound particularly “Stonesy” from the outset.Oh, sorry I named the runner ups, and sorry for writing “intensive” instead of “intents and..”. Whatta dope I can be.
Ruby Tuesday
19th Nervious Breakdown
Lady Jane
Have you seen your mother baby
Happy
Not a problem for failing to resist the urge to write in the follow-up choices, db and others. Don’t think I don’t have a few – and a regret or two, since reading your choices – myself. I’m striking them from the record out of diligence, but I think you can read behind the strike-through lines.
I know this seems like a silly exercise, but it will pay dividends down the road.
Jumping Jack Flash
Satisfaction
Tumbling Dice
Street Fighting Man
1st half of Can’t You Hear Me Knockin.
This seems easier than a Beatles fave 5.
LOVE the “first half” nomination, Chick!
Yes, I too found it much easier than having to pick a Beatles Top 5. Why do you think that is? For me, I think it’s because I have almost no personal emotional investment in most Stones songs. They’re mostly COOL – some cooler than others – expressions of community/generational feelings. Speaking for myself, I can’t think of a Stones song I personally think of as being “sad” or representing feelings of “love” or what have you. There are a few songs that move me on a more emotional level for the beauty – in a broad, artistic sense – of the song/performance itself, but most of the time I’m simply thinking YEAH!…ALL RIGHT!…KICK ASS…[shit-eating grin]…COOL!
Nice to see the love for Between the Buttons. Many of the choices from that album others have made could have been on my list, but I decided to be contrary.
Did db actually select TWO songs from Black & Blue?
Yes, db’s truly a brother from another planet! I mean that as a compliment. More power to him.
“Did db actually select TWO songs from Black & Blue?”
Yeah, I love BLACK & BLUE, right down to its sexist billboard. I think it is the first new Stones album that I was aware of its hitting the market, and I played those two songs on the campground jukebox all summer vacation in ’76.
I think it points to my whole jazz-centric perspective in a way, BLACK & BLUE (and even the ragged “Going Home”) is the sound of the band playing together, without being so concerned about songwriting or arrangements. “Miss You” pulls that idea into a groovy tune (I particularly like the sound of the “Miss You” 12″single, which is slightly extended).
Actually I like Black & Blue too. More bands should make albums while auditioning guitarists. I like to imagine what the Stones would have sounded like if Wayne Perkins had stuck around. He wouldn’t have lasted forever, but they might have made a cool string of albums. His playing on B&B is tasty.
People have always asked my what my favorite Stones song is, so I finally picked one, but I’ve never been able to come up with my top ten or whatever. But today it would be:
1. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
2. Rip This Joint
3. No Expectations
4. Monkey Man
5. Too Tough
Mod, you don’t get any feeling of real emotions from Stones songs? Nothing from Memory Motel or No Expectations? No paranoia from Fingerprint File or the what now? feelings you had when you were 18 and hearing Gimme Shelter in a whole new way, with the impending decisions of moving out looming large? I’ll leave out the “that bitch did me wrong, it wasn’t my fault” feelings of most of their relationship songs (a position I like – it’s never my fault and I want music to make me feel good, not see someone else’s POV) because maybe that’s not what you’re looking for.
I have a hard time relating to Beatles songs on an emotional level. The older ones seem more tame than 50’s songs, and with the later songs, a lot of times I have no idea what they’re singing about.
Goo goo G’Joob?
cdm – Most of us die hards will let Memo From Turner from the Metamorphosis album slide as a Stones track. The version Mick released, and the one on The Singles Collection is Mick’s version with Ry Cooder. I always liked the former – I remember Betty Korvan playing it on WMMS late at night years and years ago. If Keith is on one, that’s the one (most of us think that’s him).
Thanks for picking up on my thoughts about “feelings,” 2K. I wasn’t sure if I was in any way clear. For starters, what I meant was that they rarely record introspective songs that I can relate to. I’m sure they have a few more than “As Tears Go By” and “No Expectations,” both of which have been known to affect me on an introspective, personal, emotional level more than most (add “Beast of Burden” to that list, but I think I mostly feel a lump in my throat because of the directness and simplicity of Jagger’s plea coupled with how great I think the song is following a period of Stones albums I mostly could care less for [excepting some of the “coolness” of Black & Blue “deep cuts”]).
I feel many cool, kick-ass emotions when listening to Stones songs, but the emotional range of their music – for me – is so limited that I didn’t have to think, when choosing my Top 5, “Should I pick this song, which I love on days when I feel this way, or that song, which I love on days when I feel that way?” With the Stones, for me, it was just a matter of “Which 5 songs most make me want to kick ass?”
Satisfaction
Gimme Shelter
Let It Loose
Street Fighting Man
Wild Horses
In case this helps clarify my thoughts on the emotional range of most Stones songs – or the emotional range that resonates with me: their like a musical Clint Eastwood, in some ways. I watch those spaghetti westerns, Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz, et al and get a serious charge from the manliness of the Clint character. It’s a very funny, very American, rebellious character that he played for all those years. There’s nothing to be questioned or felt lacking in the response I have to these parts. Then he made that Bridges of Madison County movie, in which he took his shirt off and cried. Personally, I didn’t buy it. If you want to consider that Clint stretching his range into new emotional territory, be my guest. I’m not counting it. Likewise, I rarely buy the Stones’ forays into more introspective emotional territory. I love them for the ass-kicking, rock ‘n roll rebellious and knowing humor that they display. Do any of you get an introspective/private emotion-type lump in your throat over more than a song or two by the Stones?
If I’m overlooking some vulnerability, I’d probably compare them more to a rebellious spirit like Jack Nicholson. They seemed slightly more vulnerable in the Brian Jones era, although I don’t know that they ever recorded a musical equivalent to what I get out of a more-rounded character than I expect from Eastwood, like Jake from Chinatown or the his characters from One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest or Five Easy Pieces. Maybe the perceptions of who the Superstar Stones of the last 30 or 40 years are have overridden my ability to buy into any signs of vulnerability. Just thinking out loud…
I just have the version of Memo from the Performance soundtrack. Which version is that? I always thought that was Mick and Ry. I’ve never heard the other version.
Mod, it takes a big man to admit that he’s watched Bridges of Madison County. A far bigger man that I….
Mr. Mod, I generally agree with your assessment of the emotional range of the Stones. I get a bit of a feeling from “Wild Horses.” But in general, I think the Stones derived strength from their hardiness, and Jagger’s remove, so, like the film starts you mention, they’re at their best when they’re hiding much (but not all) of their vulnerabilities.
Maybe one of the songs I placed on my list, “Torn and Frayed,” is one of their more vulnerable moments, but it’s still pretty seedy.
And let’s be clear: there’s nothing wrong with seedy moments of vulnerability…
Can’t fathom that ‘Dead Flowers’ didn’t make anyone’s list yet…it’s the top of mines…
1) Dead Flowers
2) Monkey Man
3) Ventilator Blues
4) The first 30 seconds of Honky Tonk Woman.
5) Let It Bleed
I guess I likes ’em when they’re seedy and loose…
I like “Dead Flowers” a lot–it’s one of the best character sketches the Stones have. The slightly hokey vocal lessens the power of the song a little bit though.
Hey, Telewacker —
“Ventilator Blues” almost made my list, too. That is one seriously great song!HVB
“Dead Flowers” was one of the 20 songs tied for #6.
Here’s my Beatles:
And Your Bird Can Sing
She Said She Said
Please Please Me
Don’t Let Me Down
Dig A Pony
Subject to change without notice
My Stones songs regale with tales of gamblin’, street fighting, toothless bitted hags, trying to make some girl. No emotional attachment required.
I like Stones lyrics that will always exclude me to a degree. The Stones should be way cooler than me. They shouldn’t have lyrics that speak to me. Hold me at arm’s length with “fever in the funkhouse now” where I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I get what you’re saying to me.
Bravo for how many times Monkey Man showed up! Bold and excellent choice.
No way I’m dropping a Beatles 5 without far more thought.
But I will stick with the Stones and drop this corollary HiJack question: What’s your favorite side of a Rolling Stones album? Immediately: Side 1 of Exile.
Hand of Fate
Rocks Off
The Last Time
When the Whip Comes Down
Dead Flowers
Mr. Mod, I can think of a lot of Stones songs that move me. I can think of more that just make me blown away by how awesome and timeless they seem to be (can you imagine a world without Honky Tonk Women?), but they’ve cut pretty deep on occasion. A glance at my shelf makes me think these should qualify:
Play With Fire
Back Street Girl
Factory Girl
You Got the Silver
Sway – A great three AM all by your lonesome drinkin’ song!
Wild Horses
Memory Motel
Before They Make Me Run
The emotions aren’t always nostalgic, or a sense of loss or some other more traditional feelings put into song, but I like the fact that sometimes they bring up uncomfortable feelings, like Back Street Girl. Or feelings of being at the end of your rope and knowing it’s all your fault, like Before They Make Me Run.
They’ve got some newer stuff that actually seems pretty fitting to my a little more than middle aged life these days, but I remember the girl I didn’t want my friends to know about as well as I remember the ones I did want them to know about.
Sway
Waitin on a Friend
Citadel
Play With Fire
Ruby Tuesday
Chickenfrank wrote:
Good question! The first album side that comes to mind, excluding The Green Grass and the the High Tide hits package, is side 1 of December’s Children (and Everybody’s). Side 1 of 12 x 5 runs a close second.
Side 1 of Let it Bleed would win hands down, for me, if not for “Love in Vain”. That song’s a serious needle lifter for me. It’s not like I have much Blooz Cred left to lose, so there goes what might have been left of it!
“Before They Make Me Run” is also a song that hits me on a deeper emotional level, 2K. “Happy”, for that matter, as well. Great answers all around from you on that question I had. Thanks.
Lidsville, welcome aboard! Good to see some love for “When the Whip Comes Down”. God, side 1 of that album is a KILLER!
100 Years Ago
Wild Horses
She Smiled Sweetly
Get Off My Cloud
Torn and Frayed
I have to say I always had a very hesitant liking of the Stones, digging enough of the classics, but finding them such horse’s patoots that the mockability factor outweighed the liking of them. Naturally I felt a little disingenuous even visiting the Hall, what with also being so uninvolved in baseball. But it was some of the folks here that got me to let my guard down more with them. Thanks, RTH. Seriously.
That Hall thanks YOU, General, for your stellar input. Baseball season is over. Mr. Mod has calmed down on that front.
“Moonlight Mile”
“Sister Morphine”
“Paint It Black”
“Gimme Shelter”
“Street Fighting Man”