So as promised, here is the second part of the greatest song ever.
I am going to mention The Beatles at this juncture. A lot, and i do mean a lot of people rate The Beatles extremely highly when taking about the best bands of all time. They then go on to say that A day in the Life is one of the best songs of all time. The whole Sargent Peppers thing, i don't really get. it isn't a bad album, but the people who claim it to be so fantastic clearly also think U2 are awesome. The Beatles were very good at pop songs and appealed to the masses, a day in the life is what exactly? a good pop song - no not really, reasonably poor melody , a acerbic piece of political satire set to music - err no. it is as far as i can see an interesting piece of music which now acts as a time capsule for what people were listening to at the time.
let's go somewhere far darker and by extension much more interesting. Three or four songs which should make most peoples top lists when they think about it.
The Cure - Love Song.
Love the film clip. set in the cave like that, gives a weird sense of detachment. i always imagine robert smith walking around Paris in a black and white film when I hear that song. it is a great song and it means a huge amount to a lot of people. I don't think it is so much about unrequited love as about impossible love. I had to think long and hard to put that song above the Edge of the Deep Green Sea which is perhaps my favourite Cure song. Which isn't so much about love but not being able to resist temptations associated loosely with love and not liking ones self at the end of it.
The next song is actually the most covered song of all time. hallelujah in this case by Jeff Buckley. Which to mine is the definitive version, as it somewhere in between the cloyingly sweet side and desperately trying to be dark side. It is a great song , which stands up to most people covering it because it was written so well in the first place. Hats off to Leonard Cohen. For comparison here is Leonard's version
It is a little too gospel for me.
Here is Jeff Buckley's version
I am still on that version. It seems to bring out the exasperation of the realisation that perhaps love isn't the walk in the flowers we can expect it to be. Which is the sort of stuff that appeals to me massively.
The next song is seemingly completely different. it is perhaps the most perfect pop song written Wouldn't it be Nice, by The Beach Boys and specifically Brian Wilson off of the Pet Sounds album. The beach Boys was the first album I had that was properly mine. it was 20 Golden greats, and for the first few years, i was 7, i listened mainly to the a side which was a whole lot of Beach Boys surfing and girl songs, i get Around, Little Deuce Coupe, fun fun fun. etc. Then I turned the LP over and finally listened to the other side and it started with Wouldn't it be nice and God only knows. I played and played those two songs.
I loved Wouldn't it be nice for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is a beautiful song. Really, listen to not only the effortless shifts in the rhythm but also the multi part harmonies going through it. I also liked it because it seeming was about a young guy who had found a girl and he wanted to spend a lot of time with her. i was just discovering girls and this appealed in some way
Anyway it turns out this isn't what the song is about at all. The song was written after a dinner party that Brian and his then wife attend where he fell in love with his friends wife. man, I found this out a few years ago, and was properly upset. it seriously hit me like a punch in the stomach about the truer nature of love and losing the naivety of youth. . . I am still not completely over it. Not sure I will ever be. Strange how that can happen when you build something up yourself.
So which of those four is the best? honestly, i would have to say Hallelujah, it isn't the best melodically or even imagery wise, but it is so heart felt and an expression of the should that it hard to how how it can be topped.
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