100 favorite songs of all time (Part 9)

This post is part of a series counting down my favorite songs of all time. Follow the links at the bottom of this post to read related posts.

60. Bob Marley – Concrete Jungle

Some artists just follow you. I must have heard my first Bob Marley song back when I was five. My aunt was a huge Bob Marley fan. In fact, the first CD I can remember owning was “Legend,” the best-selling multi-platinum Bob Marley greatest hits collection. She bought it for me. At the time, I was sucked in by the anthems most people closely associate with Marley: “I Shot the Sherriff,” “Jammin’” and “Get Up, Stand Up.” Sometime in high school though, I finally got around to checking out his other albums. I even checked out that remix rap album that came out with Black Thought, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and all those other dudes.  Marley worship – like Hendrix worship or Beatles worship – can get pretty cringe-worthy, but I still like his stuff and I still dig this song.

59. Nico – These Days

I feel bad for leaving Lou Reed off this list. I’ve already mentioned him once, slagging him off while praising John Cale. And now I went and put a Nico song on this list. I mean, I like Lou Reed. I don’t particularly like Nico. What’s up with that? Not sure, but this is a pretty sweet song. Normally, I think Nico’s voice is mind-numbingly dull. But it works here. She perfectly executes the pastoral, 60s British folk vibe. Oh, and yes, this song did appear in a Wes Anderson film. But I won’t hold that against it.

58. Deltron 3030 – Memory Loss

“Deltron 3030” is one of those epochal albums that came out during my youth. It reminds me of summer vacations and the awkwardness of high school. It’s so damn nerdy and that’s why it appealed to Little Paul. I first caught wind of Del tha Funkee Homosapien through the Hieroglyphics albums. My brother loved them and I leeched off that. Hell, “Oakland Blackouts,” “Miles to the Sun” and “You Never Knew” all just missed the cut for this list. They’re definitely Top 200 songs. But Deltron 3030 was my find. I remember sharing the album with just about everyone I met at the time, which was a pretty rad feeling.

57. Sam Cooke – Wonderful World

Sam Cooke is the greatest pop vocalist of all time. Again, no hyperbole. This is the ineffable truth, he’s the high holy totem of all pop, the discreet godliness that all other pop vocalists aspire to. And it’s all so effortless. Forget the fact that he invented soul, this man helped define the very cadence of pop. The transmogrification of the spiritual into the rutting and thrust of crude pop is in every note here. Now it sounds so innocuous, but in an abstract way, Cooke as an artist is one of the sources of every provocation that came later. If you don’t believe me, listen to “Live at the Harlem Square Club” and then we’ll talk. Cooke died young, still potent and in his prime. But frankly, his sound was too good for the world.

56. Love – You Set the Scene

I’ve listened to more hippy bands than I can even recall at this point. Love is among the top of the heap as far as that crowd goes. Arthur Lee was a firecracker and the words that came out of his mouth are baffling and glorious, sometimes utterly stupid, but often glittered with poignancy. There’s no better example than this song, which is obviously his finest tune by my standards. Lee’s lyrics, combined with a rather beefy baroque-rock arrangement (complete with swelling string and brass sections) make this an epic of middle-era psychedelic philosophy. The song comes from the album “Forever Changes.” Critical hindsight reappraised that album as a 60s masterpiece and this is the crowning jewel.

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