A perfect song? What are your choices?


Can there be such a thing as a perfect song? I have a suggestion, what are yours? Here is a thought...

 

 

 

 

128x128falconquest

My Cherie Amour - Stevie Wonder - It's just so damn melodic.

A close second, Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen - The energy he adds with that pounding piano nearing the end of the song is so powerful.

Maybe I've mentioned this before, but my choice is the 4th Movement of Mozart's Symphony #39.

"Lies", written by Beau Charles and Buddy Randell, recorded by The Knickerbockers. A scorching rocker.

"On Broadway", just one of the great songs written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Performed by The Drifters. A haunting song if there ever was one.:

@rdcollns +1 on SRV Little Wing!

A couple of mine from the rock genre that have not been mentioned:

Steely Dan-Dirty Work

Dire Straits-Romeo & Juliet

Todd Rundgren-Dust in the Wind

Allmans-Dreams

Dead-Morning Dew

Alice in Chains-Nutshell

 

 

It's all John Lennon's fault. What was he thinking?

Sure Yoko helped him overcome the depression, distress and anger caused by McCartney's take over, but surely he could have found a more private way to thank her than give her an outlet for her particular brand of noise.

John always claimed she predated the B-52s, but I'm not sure that there's any comparison.

I have two.  You should all recognize them by the opening lines:

 

“Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again”

and

“there must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief”

 

I have numerous versions by the songwriters and even more cover versions of each.  Love them all.

 

 

kangatrax

Woodstock - Joni Mitchell,  The Court of The Crimson King & 21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson.

@roxy54 

Her singing makes murder justifiable.

 

Now if only Chapman had a last minute relapse of focus and shot her by mistake.

Then we could have spent the last 40 years consoling John and congratulating Chapman...

I have to speak in defense of Yoko Ono. First, the “let it be” documentary seems to me to communicate clearly that the dissolution of the Beatles is far more complicated than any assignation of responsibility to only one or another of the band mates. Second, Yoko made some compelling music. I think her three albums from the early to mid 70s are excellent and essential listening. Several subsequent recordings also deserve attention.

Now, perfect songs. I love a lot of the previous suggestions. Here are several I think deserve mention as well:

Nilsson, Driving Along

Zombies, Tell Her No

Bob Seger, Heavy Music; East Side Story

Van Morrison, Madame George 

Jazz Butcher, Sweet Water

Kinks, Well Respected Man

Nico, These Days

Thunderclap Newman, Something in the Air

Miles Davis, In a Silent Way

Lara was a little late with the song - now in Europe it is a rarity - in America there is none at all ... (a woman is tormented by love). 

 

I don’t know about the song, but the film is definitely one of the best in the history of cinema 

 

Goran is a drunkard and a bully - but his shows are perhaps the most incendiary - who is still young and wants to break away - do not miss it))

 

Boz Scaggs= "Desire" from the album "DIG"

Many have never heard of the album. The reason is :

RELEASE DATE was Sept 11th 2001... unreal !!

 

It is VERY good . One of my fav Boz albums. 

check it out. great sounding vinyl release ... the latest re-issue

 

JJ Cale- "Magnolia"

Johnny Cash- "Sunday Morning Coming Down"

written by Kris Kristofferson

I always thought of "Stairways to Heaven" as a perfect song.

It has everything I found necessary in a (rock) song - slow part, great melody, powerful lyrics, strong verses, solos...

And most importantly, geniuses behind every instrument and Robert Plant's voice.

I wouldn't say it's perfect but I've literally played Cat Stevens' Portobello Road hundreds of times.

 

 

If we are limiting it to Cat Stevens, I vote for Sad Lisa.  Maybe even if we don't limit it to Yusuf.  

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sometimes people are born to whom songs are dedicated ... By the way, whoever has not seen it, I recommend the autobiographical film "The Diary of a Motorcyclist" (2004). 

 

a unique way of sound reproduction ... the masters of this genre die early - an occupational disease ...

 

This man definitely has a sense of humor - he invented a language similar to English ... So not only fans of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and Cameron's "Avatar" distinguished themselves by this))). 

 

More mood specific than definitive but here are a few that are timeless for me:

Charles Mingus - Good By Pork Pie Hat

Bonnie Rait - Angel from Montgomery

Miles Davis - Flamenco Sketches

Joni Mitchel - Conversation

Grateful Dead - Darkstar (Date Specific)

Billie Holiday - Stars fell on Alabama

Nina Simone - Wanna Little Sugar in My Bowl

Allman Brother -In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Van Morrison - Into the Mystic

Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song

The Who - Babba O’Riley

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@roxy54

actually you accidentally answered your own question...
1 - this century is very stingy with masterpiece songs (which will go down in history) - most often fast food.
The level of performance skills of modern performers as a whole is much weaker than the 19th-20th century ... of course, there are individual songs - but they are few ...

2 - in fact, now this country is the world center of anticulture.
The consumer society is characterized by low education and general development. Example: natives who lived in the jungle far from civilization were given color photographs in their hands - they were not able to understand what they depicted! ... for them it was something like a leaf of a tree ... they didn’t see the picture ... they tried to bite ...
A similar process in society - there is no request for something complicated, there is no ability to evaluate the work, there is no dream (except for material wealth).
It’s like Hollywood - they can shoot anything, but they only shoot what makes money. They do not care about the education of the best qualities of man and his evolution. (that’s why we see a primitive movie with a lot of sound effects - only teenagers watch it).
... Unfortunately, this process is largely manageable - the owners of big money are interested in making the broad masses stupid - they are easier to manage. (but they themselves listen to classical music and opera - masterpieces of the past and present).

@rpeluso 

Sad Lisa was my favourite Cat Stevens song for a long time.

Around 1990 I discovered his '60s output (beyond 'I love My Dog' and 'I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun') and I soon fell in love his Mike Hurst produced work.

 

@serjio 

... Unfortunately, this process is largely manageable - the owners of big money are interested in making the broad masses stupid - they are easier to manage. (but they themselves listen to classical music and opera - masterpieces of the past and present).

 

 

The music industry is a business, let's not forget, and that any art it happens to churn out is often merely co-incidental.

Having said that, it's noticeable that in this age of information the consumer has unsurpassed access to knowledge online.

If some people want to limit themselves mainly to the incessant chatter on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok etc there's not a lot anyone can do.

Unfortunately there's still far too many people like my dad who don't have easy access to the internet, and many others like my mother can only use it in a limited way via their phones.

Even worse, far too many people seem unaware of just how pernicious companies like Google are when it comes to issues such as data theft and online tracking.

Worse still some of them like Google are actively seeking to influence consumer behaviour.

Or 'dumbing down' and shaping political opinion as it's now known as.

In Europe they brought in the GDPR act in 2019 to safeguard privacy but all it really managed to do was to make life harder for working people to access information on matters such as health etc.

The big money tech giants themselves carried on regardless.

 

Anyway, there's still treasure to be found for those who look.

Here's my favourite version of 'America' from West Side Story.

 

 

 

this is a masterpiece - the best Cinderella of all time...
you need to switch subtitles - at the bottom of the gear window (settings) - select English

 

@falconquest 

Great song! Thanks for the post, I had never heard it before.

As for me, there are so many, but lately I'd go with Diamond and Rust.

 

I didn’t find Vladimir Sofronitsky on YouTube - let it be Denis Matsuev .