Songs that changed the world:"Like a Rolling Stone&quot

Poststructural Pub
1

A poll of big-time musicians for “Uncut” magazine gave their top 100 songs that changed the world. #1 was Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” Agree/disagree?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/05/AR2005080500459.html

(Just realized you might have to register. Here’s the pertinent part of the article:
"Bob Dylan’s song “Like a Rolling Stone” topped a poll Friday to find the 100 songs, movies, TV shows and books that “changed the world” in the opinion of musicians, actors and industry experts. Dylan’s 1965 single beat Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” into second place in the survey for “Uncut” magazine.

Sir Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Robert Downey Jr, Rolling Stone Keith Richards and Lou Reed were among those who gave their views for the poll.

“I absolutely remember where I was when I first heard it. It got me through adolescence,” rocker Patti Smith said of the winning song.
Ex-Beatle McCartney picked “Heartbreak Hotel” as his number one choice.
“It’s the way (Presley) sings it as if he is singing from the depths of hell,” McCartney said. “His phrasing, use of echo, it’s all so beautiful. Musically, it’s perfect.”

The Beatles’ song “She Loves Me” ranked at number three, followed by the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

Susan

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I agree/disagree, sure.

3

Funny that la Marseillaise didn’t make the top ten.

4

throws something that looks like a rolling stone at Bloo

Actually I’m a little baffled about how these songs “changed the world.”

Susan

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Well, in the case of Bob Dylan’s singing, I think it was the beginning of a lot of hearing damage in the population. :smiley:

Tom

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I think they mean “were really important to the baby boomers.”

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Ah, another top 100. Do we have a “yawn” emoticon?

I read a good sci-fi short story once about a song that really did change the world. I’ll need to look it up.

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Yes. :slight_smile:

Nice one.

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I think “Like a Rolling Stone” may have been the first single I ever bought. No wait, that was “Keep on Running” by the Spencer Davis Group. I did buy it though, why I cannot quite fathom at this distance.

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FREEBIRD!!!




(sorry, whenever someone talks about rock, that just seems to come out of my mouth!! :smiley: )

11

Hmmmm, how about stairway to heaven.

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So, I was a weird kid… mine was “Rhapsody in Blue” followed by “Slaughter on 10th Avenue”.

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I must admit that song was one that changed my life entirely…it was the very first song my then future husband asked me to dance with him to. I (not too terribly politely) refused him. He wasn’t my type :smiley:

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While I would agree heartily that much of Dylan’s music DID change the world, that song in particular wouldn’t have been my first choice out of his. And bands like the Stones don’t really strike me as “world changing” at all. But that’s just me. :stuck_out_tongue: in the end, these things just end up being nothing more than a popularity contest. I’ve always thought the more obscure songs by most of these bands and performers were much more interesting.

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Surely “Anarchy in the U.K” changed some peoples lives??
:astonished:

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crikey. Sure, it was a big hit, but it didn’t change the world fercrynoutloud. Talk about hype. And looking at the link, I have to think that somebody has been smokin’ too many doobies…

To me, the twin songs that hit popular culture like a mallet to the forehead were “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You”. Combined with the Ed Sullivan appearances, those really took your breath away.

of course this is all Boomer stuff. Just because I happened to be first aware in the early 60s,as does a swath of population, this silliness makes headlines.

Here are just a few off the top of my head that were more referential to changing times, though NOT world-changing: Purple Haze (talking about LSD), Along Comes Mary (talking about wacky tabacky, I thot and also Maggie May in a similar vein), Sky Pilot, which became associated with both drugs and Vietnam. Even though he flamed out pretty good, Eric Burden hit the pulse several times, with that tune and also “Warm San Francisco Nights.” Also that song by Buffalo Springfield whose title I forget “There’s Somethin Happenin Here”. Though downright smarmy, that song “If You’re Going to San Francisco” really captured a moment of the whole hippie thing. And of course “Woodstock” and “Four Dead in Ohio”.

I remember the Dylan song very well, hearing it played over and over again on the Top 40 station. I never connected the words though to grasp some meaning that then shed light on a new reality, so to speak. To Lit majors, Dylan has meanings that elude the hoi polloi, as he is familiar with the various poets and poetic forms.

To me, his was a different voice and style to listen to. Took me years to figure out that his singing style at the time, was not unlike cantors at services. I was playing a wedding one time and as the rabbi intoned, I made the connection.

Stevie’s post reminds me of my 45 buying days. I think its ironic that mp3s online cost about what a 45 cost, 99 cents. My early purchases were a bunch of Beach Boys songs as well as some Beatle Tunes. I inherited a few from older siblings, like Peppermint Twist and Glenn Yarboroughs "Baby the Rain Must Fall (a great tune for a movie).. I still have singles of tunes by Herman’s Hermit’s, the Turtles, Amboy Dukes (with the Nuge), and a novelty single, No Matter What Shape by the T-Bones.

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The first 45 I ever owned (my mother brought it back from Salt Lake as a gift) was “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and on the other side “She Loves You.” I remember vividly playing both sides over and over and over on my beige plastic record player.

I can’t even think of a song that might be considered world-changing.

Susan

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“For What It’s Worth”
One of my all-time favorite songs.

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I dunno, Susan, I think those two are it (the Beatles single).

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This subject has been mentioned earlier today on another thread :wink:

Check this out.

Slan,
D. :smiley: