Your Absolute, All-Time Favorite Song Recording of All Time!

[Gregg Juke]

If you could only pick ONE song, one record (single, not album), as your all-time best, not just song, not recording, but the total package combo (song/performance/production)... Your one and only "desert island pick;" what would it be? Regardless of/across all genres-- You can't take Miles with you, and The Shoes, and Jimi Hendrix and the Pixies-- You'd have to choose only one, and only one of their songs, at that...

I've thought long and hard about this one, and I _think_ that for me, it would be The Flamingos, "I Only Have Eyes For You." That perfect combination of song, sparse arrangement, incredible performance, "wrong" note choices and chords, awesome mono production (swimming in cathedral reverb); it takes the breath away...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar09/a ... s_0309.htm

What's yours? Do you have one? (Why not????)

GJ

[shedshrine]

If you could only pick ONE song, one record (single, not album)

Impossible question, but taken literally..

*Walks over to small 45rpm collection, skips The Knack's My Sharona and Zappa's Valley Girl, Devo's Be Stiff, pulls out:



no worky? THanks vvv: will fix later.

[vvv]

shedshrine: bad link to yer graffic?

Me: "Born to Run"

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Totally impossible question but off the top of my head -

Neil Young - Walk On. It might just be the best "band in a room" sounding song ever recorded.

or

Lee Dorsey (with Allen Toussaint and the Meters) Yes We Can. Perhaps the best one chord R&B song of all time

or

James Brown - Sex Machine. The other best one chord R&B song of all time.

See, your question is so impossible that I ended up picking 3 songs.

[dfuruta]

I suppose the one song that has made the biggest impression on me, as far as what recorded music could/has to be, would be Jandek - Naked in the Afternoon. As uncomfortable as it gets...

[Gregg Juke]

I know it's a difficult and mostly erroneous question, as we are all highly unlikely to be stranded on a desert island with just one song and the fully charged requisite playback technology.

But just as a thought experiment, I think it's revealing-- What do you really like about music? What do you really like about records? What are those (essential) qualities that you can bring to your own productions????

So, c'mon peeps, give it to me-- You're about to board that alien ship on that Twilight Zone episode, "To Serve Man," and they let you bring one song with you. One song that encompasses all of your emotional and aesthetic investment in music and audio production-- Which song will it be? Why?

GJ

[nobody, really]

[ubertar]

fully charged requisite playback technology

Wind-up Victrola. Problem solved.

[nobody, really]

http://youtu.be/6yEgcb167k4

Without going too crazy(er), and thinking about the second paragraph of your last post, I came up with Washer, by Slint. Like the rest of the songs on that record, I feel like it tells a story, carrying you from start to finish. The interplay between the vocals and the instruments, the arrangement, the sonics, the performance, it all adds up to one amazing experience. That album's been around for I guess going on 20yrs now, and it still sounds fresh to me everytime I listen to it.


Either that or this: http://youtu.be/h1ZjnX4dW2g

[Gregg Juke]

As long as you have a version of "Hella Good" on 78 or Edison Cylinder, aye Ub?

N, R-- Cracked me up!

GJ

[Gregg Juke]

Ah, interesting choices so far... I wasn't familiar with the Slint or Jandek, so coolio to be hipped to something "new."

Re: "Beyond the Sea," interesting to me because I found my self uncontrollably jamming to the Bobby darrin version in my mind on the way to the day gig the other day. No radio, CD, iPod-- just my mind blasting the tune until I couldn't not sing along...

GJ

[ubertar]

As long as you have a version of "Hella Good" on 78 or Edison Cylinder, aye Ub?

N, R-- Cracked me up!

GJ

Never heard of "hella good", though I do remember lots of teens saying that phrase in the '90s. I'd be happy with a good recording of Brahms' violin concerto with a great violinist and symphony. I don't know if there's anything on 78 by Perlman or Stern. Maybe Heifetz?

If you've only got one "song" on your island, better go with something longer than 5 minutes! If it's gotta be rock, how about something off Tales from Topographic Oceans?

[vvv]

One song that encompasses all of your emotional and aesthetic investment in music and audio production-- Which song will it be? Why?

GJ

Now you've added to the question.

Why "Thunder Road"? (Embarrassingly listed as "Born to Run" above because I was in a hurry and also thinking of it, and "Backstreets". )

Because, IMO, "The screen door slams, Mary's dress waives ..." is my favorite opening line, not just of any song, but of anything, also including books, poems, speeches, commercials, anything.

Because of the big lead vocal, the big BV's, the big drums and piano and guitars and big concept, that rock and roll can save you.

I did get a guitar and learn how to make it talk, and Roy Orbison does sing for the lonely.

[dfuruta]

I heard a stunning version of Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances, performed by the composer and Joseph Szigeti, on a 78 on a wind-up Victrola. It was one of the more memorable listening experiences I've had; I suppose I wouldn't mind that being the one. Low-fi, but with much more emotional resonance than pretty much anything else I've heard. There's something very evocative about unclear recordings (perhaps part of why I like Jandek, too).

[Gregg Juke]

I think that's one of the things I really dig about my choice too (Flamingos). I have a newer version that has been remastered, very clear, etc., but for years, I only heard versions that were "lo-fi" to say the least, and it definitely added to the mystery appeal...

GJ