8.05.2006

Near Misses

This year's Songs List Summit is less than two weeks away, and as Jill's trip to China forced her to finalize her list a few weeks early and mine's been in the works for months now, I thought I'd lock it down on a lazy, lonely Saturday afternoon. In the spirit of Mark's entry before last year's list, I thought I'd advertise the songs I had the most trouble leaving off this year's list of 20. Keep in mind that anything nominated for last year's list is ineligible in '06, so you're looking at #s 21 through 50 that didn't get a mention last year.

21. Sing, Travis - an addictive tune, but a little too pedestrian lyrically to crack the list
22. Don't Change Your Plans, Ben Folds Five - one of last year's final cuts just misses again
23. Stray Cat Blues, The Rolling Stones - ditto
24. Adrenaline, The Roots
25. Everyday, Buddy Holly & His Crickets - very nearly a late addition to the list
26. E-Bow the Letter, REM
27. God Makes No Mistakes, Loretta Lynn
28. Country Comfort, Elton John - could've taken 5 or 6 EJ songs; took one
29. Stand By Me, Ben E. King
30. Will You Love Me Tomorrow, The Shirelles - the best of three versions of this song I auditioned
31. At Last, Etta James
32. A Change is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke
33. Seeing Other People, Belle and Sebastian - too much B&S last year to nominate another one...
34. Cover (Version), Belle and Sebastian - ...but this would've been a decent choice too
35. Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys
36. Idioteque, Radiohead
37. I Feel Free, Cream
38. Jesus, Etc., Wilco - so many great Wilco songs, but none transcendent
39. Hey Ya!, OutKast - too easy?
40. Come on Eileen, Dexy's Midnight Runners - I just couldn't go there...
41. Dancing Queen, ABBA - ...or there
42. Reuters, Wire
43. Positively 4th Street, Bob Dylan - see Wilco comment, add 30 years of great songs
44. For No One, The Beatles - I couldn't list two Beatles songs, and I'm a sucker for the old stuff these days
45. Pass in Time, Beth Orton
46. Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O'Connor - if only it was the best song on its album...
47. Ordinary Joe, Terry Callier
48. No Surface All Feeling, Manic Street Preachers
49. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, Paul Simon
50. Get Gone, Fiona Apple - I nominated this song last year, but nobody seemed to notice, so I almost snuck it in again

1 Comments:

At 12:48 PM, Blogger marklow said...

"...I nominated this song last year..."

Yeah. I listened to a few songs I nominated last year that didnt even register (just for torture? for liking them so much?) and I was like, "What's wrong with those people!?!!" Get Gone is a great song. No question.

This year, in wrapping up my 20 nominees, I went through the disc and was like "That song HAS to be there. Because its total filler."

Perhaps a little pre-list odds: no more than 7 songs from each top 20 have any real chance of making a top 50, and beyond that I'd say only abut 4 songs per list have the gusto to win everyone's consideration.

And now I look at my list and see that you picked 2 other songs from two albums I have chosen songs from in my top20. What does a listmaker do? Do I write them off because you obviously dont prefer them, or do I just hope you'll have the sympathy to rally? Dilemmas...

Regardless, a pretty unpredictable group of songs. This'll be really fun.

 

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