Fab 50 Songs - the Countdown (we've reached #1)

[Billys Boots]

I'm hungry, and need to get this out of the way quickly and painlessly (don't watch the video), so at seven:

2011, #7 I am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BfnXX7EvhM

Wiki:  "I Am the Resurrection" is a song by The Stone Roses and the final song on the UK version of their debut album.

The last four minutes of the song is an instrumental outro. The song is in the key of B Mixolydian. The single was released on March 30, 1992, and reached #33 on the UK Singles Chart. It was the last of several singles released from their debut album while the band were estranged from their label Silvertone.

The track's title and its placing as the final song on the album is believed to have influenced the title of their long-awaited follow-up album, Second Coming, which was released five years later.

Q magazine placed it at number 10 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

NME magazine placed "I Am the Resurrection" at number 8 in its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.

Originally, the 12" exclusively contained the 8:13 long "Extended 16:9 Ratio Club Mix". Other versions were considerably shorter (under 4 minutes).

Ian: "I saw a poster with the words that had been written with fluorescent paint, that was put on the door of a church and it impressed me. So this lyric is about anti-Christianity. If people have a normal brain, they should find out how false this statement is. But sometimes people need mental support even though they understand the real meaning. Very sad or ironic, the church is making money... the Roman Catholic Church is the richest religious organization in the world, everyone must know that."

John: "[The song is] a murderous attack on one individual, I don't want to tell you who it is. It's someone both Ian and I know."

The NME described "I am the Resurrection" as "more like the eternal crucifixion".  For the season that's in it, I'm saying nowt.

[Shamrock Shore]

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Nere a sight of Tweed, Gina, Dale Haze and the Champions, Joe Dolce, Fr. Billy Cake.

Ingrate bastards, the lot of ye.

Billy, like the Skibbereen Eye, I'll be keeping a close watch on your for the top 5........dearg doom no 1

[Billys Boots]

And it's six:

2011, #6 Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3XIGon2RjY

Wiki: In a January 1994 Rolling Stone interview, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain revealed that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an attempt to write a song in the style of the Pixies, a band he greatly admired. He explained:[4]

I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.

Cobain did not begin to write "Smells Like Teen Spirit" until a few weeks before recording started on Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, in 1991.[5] When he first presented the song to his bandmates, it comprised just the main riff and the chorus vocal melody,[6][7] which bassist Krist Novoselic dismissed at the time as "ridiculous." In response, Cobain made the band play the riff for "an hour and a half."[4] In a 2001 interview, Novoselic recalled that after playing the riff repeatedly, he thought, "'Wait a minute. Why don't we just kind of slow this down a bit?' So I started playing the verse part. And Dave [started] playing a drum beat."[8] As a result, it is the only song on Nevermind to credit all three band members as authors.[9]

Cobain came up with the song's title when his friend Kathleen Hanna, at the time the lead singer of the riot grrrl punk band Bikini Kill, spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall. Since they had been discussing anarchism, punk rock, and similar topics, Cobain interpreted the slogan as having a revolutionary meaning. What Hanna actually meant, however, was that Cobain smelled like the deodorant Teen Spirit, which his then-girlfriend Tobi Vail wore. Cobain later claimed that he was unaware that it was a brand of deodorant until months after the single was released.[10]

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was, along with "Come as You Are", one of a few new songs that had been written since Nirvana's first recording sessions with producer Butch Vig in 1990. Prior to the start of the Nevermind recording sessions, the band sent Vig a rough cassette demo of song rehearsals that included "Teen Spirit". While the sound of the tape was wildly distorted due to the band playing at a loud volume, Vig could pick out some of the melody and felt the song had promise.[11] Nirvana recorded "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at Sound City recording studio in Van Nuys, California with Vig in May 1991.[12] Vig suggested some arrangement changes to the song, including moving a guitar ad lib into the chorus, and trimming down the chorus length.[13] The band recorded the basic track for the song in three takes, and decided to keep the second one.[7] Vig incorporated some sonic corrections into the basic live band performance because Cobain had timing difficulties when switching between his guitar effects pedals. Vig was only able to get three vocal takes from Cobain; the producer commented, "I was lucky to ever get Kurt to do four takes".[14]

[Billys Boots]

I'll keep going as I could be busier tomorrow:

And it's fiiiiiive:

2011, #5 Incident on 57th Street - Bruce Springsteen (and the E-Street Band)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb6SG9GtgMU&feature=related

Wiki: From The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is the second album by Bruce Springsteen and the as-yet-unnamed E Street Band, and is described by Allmusic as "one of the greatest albums in the history of rock & roll."[1] It was released in 1973. The album includes the song "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)," the band's most-used set-closing song for the first 10 years of its career.

As with Springsteen's first album, it was well-received critically but had little commercial success at the time. However, once Springsteen achieved popularity with Born to Run, several selections from this album became popular FM radio airplay and concert favorites.

The E Street Band is known to have taken its name from David Sancious' mother's home in Belmar, New Jersey. But based on first-hand recounts of Sancious, the 'shuffle' occurred when the band's rented truck broke down late one night after a gig in New York City. Snowing, but within walking distance of Sancious' mother's home, the band decided to walk the short distance. The back photo on the album has the six band members standing in a doorway. The picture was of an antique store on Sairs Ave in the west end section of Long Branch, New Jersey. The building was across the street from West End Elementary School, and for years was Tommy Reeds bicycle repair shop and penny candy store; it has since been demolished and its former location is occupied by a parking lot.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 132 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[6] On November 7, 2009, Springsteen and the E Street Band played the album in its entirety for the first time ever in a concert at Madison Square Garden.

"Incident on 57th Street" is about "Spanish Johnny," who is "dressed just like dynamite" though he drives a "beat-up old Buick" and can't find a girlfriend. A desperate Johnny is told he is a cheater and a liar by "the pimps" who "swing their axes." He meets "Puerto Rican Jane" whom he wants to drive down "to the other part of town where paradise ain't so crowded." The new couple find their "soul flame" while "out on the street tonight." In spite of their sudden love, Jane knows "he'd never be true, but then she didn't really mind." Though Johnny tries not to get involved in the sordid affairs of his neighborhood, preferring to watch "the kids playin' down the street." Jane sleeps with her "sheets damp from sweat" while "Johnny sits up alone and watches her dream on, dream on." When Jane wakes up, she sees "Johnny putting his clothes back on" and all she can say is "those romantic young boys/All they ever want to do is fight." Johnny's friends call in through the window, asking if he wants to make "some easy money" and he leaves, promising to meet Jane "tomorrow night on Lover's Lane."

The song is often remembered for Garry Tallent's bass solo at 4.00 minutes, as well as for Danny Federici's signature organ figure in each of the song's choruses, one of Federici's more prominent moments in the E Street discography.

[Billys Boots]

Four:

2011, #4 A Rainy Night in Soho - The Pogues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Yp8vecWXM

Wiki: "Rainy Night in Soho" is a song by The Pogues. Originally included on their Poguetry in Motion EP, a different version can be found on an expanded edition of the group's 1985 release, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. The song is commonly performed at Pogues concerts and has been included in their recent setlists since their reformation in 2001. [1]

Rum Sodomy & the Lash is the second studio album by the London-based folk punk band The Pogues, released in 1985.

The title is taken from a quotation, often attributed to Winston Churchill: "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash." Singer and primary songwriter Shane MacGowan claimed that the title was suggested by drummer Andrew Ranken. The cover artwork is based on The Raft of the Medusa, a painting by Théodore Géricault, with the band members' faces replacing those of the men on the raft.

In August 1985, the album was launched on HMS Belfast – and one writer at the event was thrown into the Thames. It reached number 13 in the UK charts. The track "A Pair of Brown Eyes", based on an older Irish tune, went on to reach number 72 in the UK singles chart. "The Old Main Drag" would later appear on the soundtrack to the film My Own Private Idaho. A remastered and expanded version of Rum Sodomy & the Lash was released on 11 January 2005. The cut "A Pistol for Paddy Garcia", and the B-side of "Dirty Old Town", which only appeared on the initial cassette release, was moved to the bonus tracks. A poem by Tom Waits was also added to the expanded release.[1]

It has often made its way on to lists of greatest albums. In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 93 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 445 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Pitchfork Media named it the 67th best album of the 1980s.[4]

The song has been included on every Greatest Hits album the band has released, and is the first track on their 2001 disc, Ultimate Collection. It has also been covered by numerous artists, one cover being performed by Nick Cave and his band The Bad Seeds, who performed it on an EP in which MacGowan performed a Cave song, "Lucy". [2]

On May 30, 2008, Damien Dempsey released a cover version of "Rainy Night in Soho". It was taken from his fifth studio album, The Rocky Road, a collection of traditional ballads released on June 6, 2008. [3]

The song has also been covered by Paddy Reilly and Ronnie Drew, who recorded it on his final album The Last Session: A Fond Farewell as a duet with Damien Dempsey.

[Niall Quinn]

I'll keep going as I could be busier tomorrow:

And it's fiiiiiive:

2011, #5 Incident on 57th Street - Bruce Springsteen (and the E-Street Band)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb6SG9GtgMU&feature=related

I'd not heard that before.
The characters in his songs never have it easy, do they?

[Billys Boots]

It's three, and it must be time for a dirge

2011, #3 Waterfall - The Stone Roses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQUxCQxu9og

Wiki:  The fourth single from 'The Stone Roses'; the debut album by English rock band The Stone Roses, released on Silvertone Records in 1989. It cemented the band's reputation among critics, and is still rated by some as one of the most important albums ever.[6] In 2004 an Observer Music Monthly poll consisting of musicians and critics voted the album the greatest of all time, as did the writers of NME in 2006, declaring it to be the greatest British album of all time.[7][8] It is widely considered as the seminal record of the Madchester movement that was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and as being highly responsible for the mid 1990s resurrection of British guitar music that came to be known as Britpop.[9]

"Waterfall" is the 9th single from The Stone Roses. It was the fourth single taken from their debut album The Stone Roses. It was released on 30 December 1991 and reached #27 in the UK.

The track which follows "Waterfall" on the album, "Don't Stop", is the original demo of "Waterfall" played backwards.
The song is referenced in the lyrics of Ian Brown's collaboration with Noel Gallagher, "Keep What Ya Got" ("Today now you're at the wheel, I'll ask how does it feel?").
The song was sampled by DJ Sam Flanigan for a mashup with "LDN" by Lily Allen.
The song was used in the film Green Street which starred Elijah Wood. The song is played when Matt (Wood) is getting aquianted with his brother in law Pater (Charlie Hunnam) and his friends, as well as in the film There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, which starred Robert Carlyle.
"Waterfall" is used as the theme song on the opening and closing credits of the TV programme The Panel.[1][/li][/list]
And it's a depressing, idiotic bag-of-shite.

[Billys Boots]

Time for two:

2011, #2 Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCrbziy20aU

Wiki:  "Gimme Shelter" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones. It first appeared as the opening track on the band's 1969 album Let It Bleed. Although the first word was spelled "Gimmie" on that album, subsequent recordings by the band and other musicians have made "Gimme" the customary spelling. The Rolling Stones first played the song live in 1969 at Pop Go the Sixties.

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Gimme Shelter" was created from the combined efforts of the singer and the guitarist. Richards had been working on the song's signature opening in London while Jagger was working on the film Performance. The song is a churning mid-tempo rocker and begins with a rhythm guitar intro by Richards, followed by Jagger's lead vocal. On the recording of the album, Jagger said in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, "Well, it's a very rough, very violent era. The Vietnam War. Violence on the screens, pillage and burning. And Vietnam was not war as we knew it in the conventional sense..." On the song itself, he concluded, "That's a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It's apocalypse; the whole record's like that."[1]

A higher-pitched second vocal track is sung by guest vocalist Merry Clayton. Of her inclusion, Jagger said in the 2003 book According to... The Rolling Stones: "The use of the female voice was the producer's idea. It would be one of those moments along the lines of 'I hear a girl on this track - get one on the phone.' " Clayton gives her solo performance, and one of the song's most famous pieces, after a solo performed by Richards, repeatedly singing "Rape, murder; It's just a shot away, It's just a shot away," and finally screaming the final stanza. She and Jagger finish the song with the line, "Love, sister, it's just a kiss away." To date it remains one of the most prominent contributions to a Rolling Stones track by a female vocalist.[2]

At about 2:59 into the song, Clayton's voice cracks twice from the strain of her powerful singing; once during the second refrain, on the word "shot" from the last line, and then again during the first line of the third and final refrain, on the word "murder", after which Jagger can be heard saying "Whoo!" in response to Clayton's emotional delivery. She suffered a miscarriage upon returning home, apparently due to the strain involved in reaching the highest notes.[3] Merry Clayton's name was misspelled on the original release, appearing as 'Mary'.

The song was first recorded in London at Olympic Studios in February and March 1969; the version with Clayton was recorded in Los Angeles at Sunset Sound & Elektra Studios in October and November of that same year. Nicky Hopkins played piano; the Rolling Stones' producer Jimmy Miller played percussion; Charlie Watts played drums; Bill Wyman played bass; Jagger played harmonica and sang backup vocals with Richards and Clayton. Guitarist Brian Jones was absent from these sessions. An unreleased version features only Richards providing vocals, and another extended version has also surfaced, featuring the bass much more in the forefront of the mix.[4]

Recent Rolling Stones tours have seen the song, once a staple of the show, dropped from the set list.[citation needed] Greil Marcus, writing in Rolling Stone, once described it as "the greatest ever rock and roll recording."

"Gimme Shelter" was never released as a single. It quickly became a staple of their live show, first featured throughout their 1969 American Tour. It has since been included on many compilation releases, including both Hot Rocks 1964–1971 and Forty Licks, and concert versions appear on the Rolling Stones' albums No Security and Live Licks.

In 2010, the component tracks of the song were released online. [1]

"Gimme Shelter" was placed at #38 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004. Pitchfork Media placed it at number 12 on its list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".[5]

[Billys Boots]

Sorry folks, gotta finish it now, mental day ahead.  And in a life-imitates-something phenomenon, the GAABoard favourite song of all time is an ode to masturbation (just like it was several times before):

Happy Christmas to one and all

2011, #1 Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oskM5XD_Yc4

Wiki: "Teenage Kicks" is a 1978 song originally recorded by Northern Irish punk rock group The Undertones. Composed by the band's principal songwriter, John O'Neill, it was championed by DJ John Peel, and was his all-time favourite song.[1]

In 1978, John Peel played the song twice in a row on his Radio 1 show. Peel often rated new bands' songs with 1 to 5 stars. He liked "Teenage Kicks" so much he awarded 28 stars. In 2001 Peel had written in The Guardian that apart from his name all he wanted on his gravestone were the words, "Teenage dreams, so hard to beat", from the lyrics of "Teenage Kicks".[2] In February 2008, a headstone engraved with the line was placed on his grave in Great Finborough, Suffolk.[3][4] In 2004, a mural in tribute to Peel, featuring the opening line of the song, appeared on a Belfast flyover.[5]

Teenage Kicks - The Undertones is a 2001 documentary film directed by Tom Collins.[6]

Mr. Peel:  There are no problems in finding the record, that's for sure. It's right there at the end of the shelf, along with other all-time favourites such as Stanley Wilson's No More Ghettos In America, the Quads' There Must Be Thousands, Don French's Lonely Saturday Night. You can spot it immediately because the paper sleeve is mustard yellow and slightly larger than the others. It is the Undertones' Teenage Kicks, still, after 23 years, the record by which all others must be judged.

Maybe once a fortnight, after a few days of listening to sizzling new releases and worrying that the music is merging into angst but otherwise characterless soup, I play Teenage Kicks to remind myself exactly how a great record should sound. "But what's so great about it?" people, from my own children to complete strangers in wine bars, have asked. I've never yet come up with an answer that pleased me much, falling back each time on: "There's nothing you could add to it or subtract from it that would improve it."

That's the best I can do, and even that sounds slightly excessive for a record that, upon its original release in 1978, was in the charts for a mere six weeks, rising no higher than 31st place. Teenage Kicks was reissued in the summer of 1983 and charted again, this time for two weeks.

Yet we're talking about a record that even now reduces me to tears every time I hear it. The first time I cried was when, stuck in traffic on the M6 near Stoke-on-Trent on my way to the football, I heard Peter Powell play my copy of the EP on Radio 1. I had written "Peter. This is the one" on the inner sleeve. To my alarm, I found myself weeping uncontrollably and I still can't play Teenage Kicks without segueing another track in afterwards to give myself time to regain composure.

The mustard coloured sleeve, really nothing more than an artfully folded piece of paper designed, in part, by Terri Hooley, the man behind Good Vibrations records, also lists the previous releases on the label, by Rudi, Victim and the Outcasts. Inside there is an application form that, had I filled it in and mailed it off, would have enabled me to become a member of the Punk Workshop at the Harp Bar, Hill Street, Belfast, a venue opened by the Undertones. On the mustard coloured sleeve itself is reproduced a photograph of a damaged door - there were doubtless many of these in the Derry/Londonderry of 1978 - with the words "The Undertones Are Shit" crudely painted on it. Beneath this, other critics have added Pish, Counts, Wankers.

Turn the sleeve over and there are the five boys accused of being counts and wankers. Billy the drummer, on the left, looks to be attempting to dislodge something from his teeth with his tongue. Next to him, bassist Mickey Bradley smiles his daft smile. Singer Feargal Sharkey, who looks as though he might just be wearing leather trousers, an error of judgment even in 1978, stands second from the right, and on either side of him are the O'Neill brothers, John and Damian. It was John who wrote Teenage Kicks.

It is only within the past year that I have made my first visit to Derry, crossing to Dublin from Holyhead and being driven up to the city by Tom Collins and Vinny Cunningham, director and producer of the film Teenage Kicks - The Undertones. As we drove through the early evening, I caught glimpses of road signs bearing place names that I recognised from years of newspaper headlines. I asked my hosts whether we would be visiting areas where it might be wise for me to keep my mouth shut and not reveal that I was from England. They seemed amazed that I had asked.

Over the next few days I wandered around Derry visiting locations associated with the Undertones, their lives, their families, and their songs - even sitting in for Feargal Sharkey in a recreation of the photograph on the band's first LP sleeve. The house in which John and Damian grew up was filled with students, all apparently unaware of the historical significance of their temporary home. I met Paul McLoone, the singer who takes Feargal's place when the Undertones play these days - and does it very well, by all accounts. I was secretly pleased when I asked the band whether they would fancy doing another session for Radio 1 and they answered no. They played, they explained, for the fun of it, and not because they still hankered after a measure of fame. They'd had a bit of that, the message seemed to be, and hadn't enjoyed it much. Fame, it seemed, could be a mixed blessing in Northern Ireland.

From time to time, although not often enough, I see Feargal in London and was pleased that Billy, Mickey, John and Damian seem to bear him no ill will for his refusal to become an Undertone again. I had asked the singer about this when he came to our house to be interviewed, and his answer was as definite yet vague as it had been on the previous occasions I had asked him the same question.

I've not yet seen the finished film myself but hope that, in certain subdued lighting, I look kinda cute and don't come across too much as the awestruck fan I am still. In company with much of humankind, I've never met most of the musicians whose work I have loved over the years, although I once gave Gene Vincent directions to the toilet and had a meal only this summer with lively Welsh favourites Melys. I considered myself lucky to have spent a few sunny days with four-fifths of the Undertones in their home town, getting to know them a little better. They're modest people but they did record a handful of irresistible tunes, including the best single ever made.

Sheila, my wife, I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight, knows what when I die, the only words I want on my tombstone, apart from my name, are: "Teenage Dreams, So Hard To Beat."

What more do you need?

Sharkey: The ultimate John Peel band. The Undertones' 'Teenage Kicks' of 1978 was named as the great man's favourite ever track. However, the Derry quintet who formed in 1976 - based around the voice of Feargal Sharkey, the song writing of John and Damian O'Neill and Michael Bradley, along with Billy Doherty - almost packed it in until Terry Hooley - a Belfast record shop owner - financed the 'Teenage Kicks EP'. Immediately championed by Peel (he once said, 'I still play Teenage Kicks to remind myself how a great record should sound') the band bagged a deal with Sire, who issued the equally essential adolescent odes, 'My Perfect Cousin' and 'Jimmy Jimmy'. The first album, 'The Undertones' and it's follow up 'Hypnotised' had immediate success whilst subsequent, more mature-sounding albums, 'Positive Touch' and 'The Sin Of Pride' didn't do as well and The Undertones split in 1983. Feargal Sharkey embarked on a brief solo career, before becoming an A&R man, whilst John O'Neill and Raymond Gorman formed That Petrol Emotion, with Damian O'Neill joining later. Since 1999, The Undertones have been back playing live shows: with Paul McLoone as the new lead singer, their first album for twenty years, 'Get What You Need', was released in 2003.

"We were a bunch of late teenagers having a good time. By January 1979 we were over supporting the Rezillos so we could do a session at Maida Vale. But the biggest thing that struck me at the time was that John Peel had paid for us to do that first tape the previous autumn out of his own pocket. I don't know of any other DJ that I've met who would care to that extent, show that much drive and commitment to the music."

[saffron sam2]

I'll keep going as I could be busier tomorrow:

And it's fiiiiiive:

2011, #5 Incident on 57th Street - Bruce Springsteen (and the E-Street Band)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb6SG9GtgMU&feature=related

I'd not heard that before.
The characters in his songs never have it easy, do they?

Just to make the lives of the characters doubly diffcult, many believe that Spanish Johnny and Puerto Rican Jane reappeared as the Magic Rat and the barefoot girl in Jungleland.

[Declan]

Fair play Billy

[Shamrock Shore]

Good work Old Boots.

My aim in life is to get Dearg Doom adin at No 1.

How much next year

[Dinny Breen]

Good man Billy.

Hope to see you at the Stone Roses Gig. 

[Mayo4Sam]

Good man Billy, 4th best Gaaboard countdown this christmas

[Hashtag]

Good man Billy, 4th best Gaaboard countdown this christmas

LOLZ