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What is your top 1 song?
For me it is Holy Wars by Megadeth.
The entire album really, but this song just blows everything away. It will never be surpassed.
Tornado of Souls is right up there, but i have to choose just one so...
That one is also on my short list. I wonder, does your library include Spock's Beard?
I'm digging this. What type of music is this?
Progressive Rock, but that's a hugely diverse genre and so symphonic progressive rock will probably be closer to what you're looking for if you want to hear more... but even that is a hugely diverse sub-genre so your mileage on results may vary. :P
Symphonic prog is exactly right. It's also the most 'classic' of the prog styles... kinda where prog began back in the 60s/70s.
The mother of all music websites, progarchives, has acres of pages to help you sort through the ocean of artists working in progressive styles. It's as close to an 'authoritative' index as anything has ever come in the world of music, and it's got one hell of a large, old, mature community of music lovers driving it too.
Just be prepared to lose a couple hours of your life every time you go over there. Some websites are black hole time sinks and if you're a music fan, progarchives will own you. ;)
Every band there has a page, here's the one for Spock's Beard.
Thanks much!
I figured if you were into Floyd's epics you'd get a kick out of the beard. Neal Morse has rather a lot of projects, but I've always thought he's been at his best when he's with them. ;)
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
I don't have the words to explain why I love this song so much. It's a comprehensive dive into emotion and other feelings whenever I listen to it, and always leaves me in a state of serenity.
Live versions of this song are pretty amazing too.
Takes a special musician to convey so much emotion through a guitar.
My "top 1 song" changes pretty frequently based on my mood... but the song I have probably listened to the most times in my life is a bit of an obscure one; The Verve Pipe - Freshman. It hits me with a giant wave of 90s nostalgia whenever I listen to it.
And this is probably cheating by mentioning another, but Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark is probably a close second. It's just so beautiful and makes me tear up every single time I listen to it.
This will be a bit different from what OP posted... I'm a big fan of Tom Waits and this is probably my favorite song of his (performed live in 1975):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyyFLYNbQpg
His delivery and humor is surpassed only by his lyrics and his ability to tap into melancholy. I haven't ranked songs I liked, so I can't say this is #1, but it's up there.
On the Waits train: one of my top live performances
Yes, but was it a Downtown Train?
Partyman, or course.
This is amazing.
The first CD I ever owned was this one. Good choice!
Wow. This is awesome.
Rust in Peace will always be my Desert Island Album! Good on you, OP. Heavy Metal High Five!
However: my favorite song is the song I played first thing every morning for months to pull me out of a bad spot of Life In General: Happiness Is Just Around The Bend by The Main Ingredient.
Best bassline ever :)
I'm very glad that you linked to that classic Onion article.
My #1 song since I first heard it in '92 is Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden. It still knocks me on my ass to this day.
I’ve seen them almost dozen times, and that song was so bad ass live. Good pick. In many ways it’s a perfect rock song to my ears.
The one my username is from: Amarok. Considering it's a single 60-minute piece of unbroken music that reinvents itself every couple of minutes that's kinda like cheating, though. If I had to pick a more traditional song, I go for Wish You Were Here from Pulse (not Roger Water's old weak-sauce version)... with Once In A Lifetime as a very, very close second.
When you mentioned "not the weak-sauce version" I immediately thought you might be referring to this cover by Brutal Truth. Definitely not weak, might be a bit too reinvented for you. It would be too different for me too, except I like BT and Pink Floyd quite a bit.
Reinvention is good. This one's got a much heavier edge which is nice. What sells the version on Pulse above the original for me is the crowd and the extra guitar, that's why I like it more.
"Not Alone" by Nobuo Uematsu. Always brings a tear to my eye. (The Piano Collections version is really good too)
I love Nobuo. Final Fantasy VII had an awesome soundtrack. I love the Black Mages albums.
The FF7 soundtrack defined my early teen years
Echoes - Pink Floyd (the edited version off the best of album)
Vienna Teng's "City Hall"
I actually recently wrote a big post for another thread about why I love it so much.
Also, I'm looking forward to turning this thread into a great, eclectic playlist in a couple of days!
I have a few songs in my main playlist I feel the same way to. I have a penchant for instrumental music, and I often feel like vocals in a language I don't understand scratches a similar itch. I find it's easier to just "follow" the music instead of listening to just the vocals.
I think the charm about instrumental music rather then a lyrical song is that you get to fill in your own story while listening, rather then listen to someone else's.
I have always thought in pictures/clips, colors, and feelings. Which probably is why i also have this inclination. I read somewhere that only 20% of the population actually do this, i always thought everyone pictured things in their mind.
I feel the exact same way. IMO the human voice is the best instrument as it hits me on an emotional level in a way that no manufactured instrument can, but I actually prefer foreign language songs to those I can understand since otherwise I focus too intently on the words themselves, which distracts me from everything else in the composition.
Every time I listen to Japanese and Korean Rock, Pop and Metal I always think to myself "This is great, why don't I listen to more of it!?" and then for some reason never do; Possibly because it's a bit daunting to know where to even begin, especially since my only real exposure to it is random links on the net and anime openings. So.... got any other recommendations (since those were both great, esp. hitorie)? ;)
The vocalist/guitarist for Hitorie died a few weeks ago at only 31, extremely sad.
That is super depressing to hear. :( I really enjoyed all the Hitorie songs @bauke posted yesterday and their latest album is seriously awesome.
Fear of the Dark, Iron Maiden. I am a huge fan of everything Maiden, but Fear of the Dark is my hands-down favorite.
Only one?! Most likely Propane Nighmares by Pendulum, although I honestly think it's impossible to rank any single song as #1, so I'll grant two honorable mentions to Rose Tattoo by Dropkick Murphys and Lionhearted by Porter Robinson.
Godspeed, by Ron Hynes. Actually, I've always preferred the cover by Shaye, but listening to Hynes' version again may have won me over. He wrote the song after hearing of the suicide of fellow songwriter Gene MacLellan. It's a beautiful piece of music that manages to say a lot about grief, suffering and forgiveness in a few lines.
Although a bit teen angst-ish and not my absolute favorite, Adam's song hits me really deeply for similar reasons.
Probably Comes a Time, by Neil Young, or at least, I find myself singing it to myself most any time that I've had any alcohol.
This changes so often. However, there's a few songs I'd say are my all time favorite. Aqueous Transmission is such a different and relaxing song. I've never heard anything like it. Truly serene.
The Light & the Glass Is a wonderful 9 minute song that takes you on a trip. This is a fantastic example of a song with a daunting length that flies by like it was nothing. The intro to this song is so much fun to play on acoustic. I adore Coheed, and this song is peak Coheed IMO. They do, of course, have similar epics other places in their discographies.
Dosed by RHCP is, to me, peak Flea. Some people love Flea for his crazy ass slap, and I can agree, but I've always loved it when Flea plays more melodic and soft, rather than sharp and prominent. Flea has a nice (read: annoying) tendency to make every chorus riff follow the same trend of notes, but he changes small things every chorus. It's what I love about Flea, but it makes learning his songs a bit of a struggle. Dude's all over the place. The whole album By The Way is chock full of my favorite lines by him.
Sentient Glow is fast becoming one of my all time favorites. So dynamic! Love Spencer's lows and highs. The album this came off is probably the heaviest I'm comfortable with listening to (CHVRCH BVRNVER was a bit challenging at first but it's kind of a fuckin' banger), but Sentient Glow still captures the magic of P3 for me, and just a tad of Juggernaut.
Asking me to pick 1 is torture. I listen to so much shit and I appreciate different parts of different songs at different parts in my life. Music is something I listen to around 80% of my time existing these days, so it's what I'm the most emotionally tied to.
I don't think I have a top one song so I will list the first song that came to my mind.
Lagi bina/Chal Mele nu Chaliye.
I listen to lots of different songs in various languages but something about the Punjabi language feels very beautiful to me (also because it's my mother tongue :P)
X-Japan Art of life
never get sick of listening to it and got me through some rough times.
Its tough to think of a favorite, but the first song that came to mind is mewithoutYou's Bear's Vision of St. Agnes
In short, the story of the record is a circus train went off the rails and animals escaped. After a long journey, the fox and bear get to some cliffs. Having not eating for days, the bear lies to the fox and says that his brother died and was laid to rest at the bottom of the cliffs, and that the fox could eat him.
The fox goes down and the bear jumps.
Old Man by Neil Young. Hands down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An2a1_Do_fc
Oh gosh... I can't look at my collection right now so I'm absolutely going to overlook something and kick myself later, but off the top of my head, I'll go for Gil-Scott Heron's Home Is Where The Hatred Is.
I was listening to "The Bottle" minutes ago. So awesome.
According the last.fm my most listened song is Beastmilk — You Are Now Under Our Control. Certainly a catchy song, although I'm not sure I would class it number 1.
Probably In the Woods... — 299 796 km/s is a better choice, I've listened to it a bit less but it's much longer and more elaborate.
I think right now it's Cadillac Ranch by Bruce Springsteen.
I gave it some thought, and it has to be superman by Goldfinger.
I will never not be able to sing along to this song, and despite the fact that it makes my heart overflow with Bittersweet Nostalgia it still fills me with joy.
Goddamn, that album brings back incredibly fond memories of summers spent in my backyard during high school, hanging out with my friends. Here in your bedroom from their previous album is another favorite of mine that I can't help but sing along to as well. Anything by Sublime too. 💖 90s era Ska.
almost certainly a conor oberst song, since like all of them are timeless. hundreds of ways is probably the top one, but i could make a case for a bunch of them (no lies, just love; lua; first day of my life; and so on) to myself really.
I guess the best way for me to do this, is to look at the song I play the most. Which would be Creeping Death by Metallica
I just love everything about it. It's fast, it makes you headbang, and sing out loud like a crazy person. It's based on a bible story of one of the Egyptian plagues. I won't go into it here, but it's an interesting read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeping_Death
Haken - Visions [22m27s]
Most of their stuff is great, but this song is their magnum opus in my opinion.
(Also I'm a sucker for time-travelling fiction, and there just aren't enough songs about time travel.)
Great songs in this topic so far.
I’m going to go with The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) + Moon, Turn The Tides, Gently, Gently Away
It’s Jimi’s masterpiece. I think he personally made every sound but the drums and flute while locked away in the studio by himself. It’s a gorgeous song about a nuclear apocalypse. It also makes me feel nice every time I hear it.
Vimeo
Wikipedia
Edit: Here is something that makes Jimi pretty freakin cool in my book.
I did the same thing as @ghostsplosion and it turns out that my top played song is the very next track from the same album. The Call of Ktulu by Metallica. This one make sense to me because it's my go-to song at the gym for a PR attempt. I focus on what I'm about to do during the intro and then time the start of my attempt with the part where the rest of the band comes in.
Awesome track! Good taste.
Has to be GRiZ - Prayer at the moment. I always liked funk and breakbeats, so when chillstep came along i fell in love with it. I did not listen to it a lot last years, but when I saw that griz has a new album i had to listen. And this song is just glorious! So much positivity! Especially in combination with the next song on the album It Gets Better