My List of the Greatest Rock Songs Review

This is part 2 of a 17 part list of Great Rock N Roll songs.   17 is the number MikeMaroon chose and it's better than 10 or 15 and not a nice solid even number so it works perfectly.  My list concentrates on rock-n-roll music, not classical, not straight up pop, not old time country, not folk, not jazz but rock 'n roll...  too much soul is okay in the rock n roll of course,  50 Rock N Roll songs would be easy to come up with.. now figure out the best 17 and write your list soon !!!

The first 10 on the list are right here: /My-List-of-the-Best-Music-Ever-review-61c92

The final 7 of the list are right here:

#7. Like a Rolling Stone  - Bob Dylan     Folk as Rock N Roll?  I said no folk will be on this list and there isn't. . . when the lyrics are this good and revolutionary and the performance this loose and subversive, you bet your backside you are listening to rock n roll. 

#6  What I'd Say  --  Ray Charles said it all when he fused gospel and r &b on several songs and then he took it further when he improvised this party song mix of blues, gospel and jazz that you might as well call Rock-N-Roll.  I hear a little Cab Calloway in its inspiration and I know where a lot songs we know and love branch out from-hint... this one. And yeah, this great record was an improvisation!!!!  Bless Brother Ray.

#5. Hound Dog     Elvis drives it home with his singing Pelvis.  The devil's music could never ever be stopped once white boys started singing it this good.  Music was in revolution and Elvis was the cross-over fast fuse.  KABOOM.  It was all over.  Besides I looked up Rock-N-Roll in the dictionary and there was a picture of Elvis and the RCA dog. 

#4 Purple Haze  - Jimi Hendrix  Strong, powerful FUZZ.  You MUST play it loud. It was written back in December of 1966, ‘scuse me while I kiss the sky'.  Hendrix teaching the world how to play the guitar hard.   Even as we take it for granted it's as good as it gets. And this song will take higher than any drug ever could.

#3. Imagine  - John Lennon     The ultimate message song, delivered with a perfect simple melody.  Arranged on record with subtle echoes and quiet strings by Phil Spector to bring out Lennon's twenty two lines of  sung lyrics in a powerful restrained wishful manner.  Can you even Imagine not having this song as part of the soundtrack of your life?  I thankfully can't.  Low key as a rock-n-roll song but as embraced and accepted as part of our lives as it may be today it was once a very controversial, dangerous song.  "Imagine no religion" indeed!!!

#2  Johnny B. Goode  - Chuck Berry   The essence of Rock N Roll is in Chuck Berry's incredible song.  The music speaks for itself... loud, passionate and almost out of control.  We could talk about  Maybeline,  Sweet Little Sixteen  and Little Richard's Tutti Frutti or  Good Golly Miss Molly,....but  it is Johnny B. Goode that represents the quintessential roots rock-n-roll song.  It lit the trail on fire and keeps it burning even today. Even taking it for granted, calling it old school, watching it become a sit-com joke in Back to the Future, the song still kicks ass, earns respects and outruns the law.

#1. A  Day in the Life   -The Beatles     A true collaboration between Lennon and McCartney that could have easily gone on for 10 minutes but instead is a masterpiece of lyric, styling, melody, and studio experimental sound.  What Brian Wilson envisioned in his most inspired moments, George Martin, John and Paul brought to life in the greatest rock n roll song of all time.  Rock N Roll?  Yeah, it re-invents what Rock N Roll is  mixing it with classical music elements and creating a mini-rock opera.  It did it first and best.   It's not the least bit pretentious, its simply perfect.  Hail Hail Rock-N-Roll. 

Remember, It's only Rock and Roll and that's enough.