SJ.com Memorial Day 300 rock songs TOP SONG ON PAGE 10

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No. 24: SPRAWL II (MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS) -- Arcade Fire

The newest song in our countdown, it's from 2010's breakout album, "The Suburbs." Another song from that album also received a vote ("Neighborhood #3").

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No. 23: YELLOW LEDBETTER -- Pearl Jam
No. 22: CAN'T EXPLAIN -- The Who

I know Eddie Vedder is a huge fan of Pete Townshend, just judging by all the Who and/or solo Townshend songs that are played by Pearl Jam. Not sure if the reverse is true.

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No. 21: SWEET CHILD O' MINE -- Guns 'n Roses

Hard to believe it when high school marching bands break this one out at football games.

Maybe the band directors never saw the naughty album cover:



Don't let songs like this and videos with dolphins fool you. Axl Rose was one mean, nasty motherfucker.

 

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On to the top 20, with a classic from "The Wall":

No. 20: COMFORTABLY NUMB -- Pink Floyd

The video is from the one-shot, reunion show at Live 8, where The Floyd closed its short set with this song.

One of the few "Floyd-like" songs on The Wall album, and one of the last times Roger Waters and David Gilmour actually collaborated on a song.

Some would say this is Gimour's best guitar solo. Hard to argue.

 

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No. 19: ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD -- Neil Young

This video is the SECOND most famous rendition of the song, from 1993's MTV Music Video Awards show. Done with Pearl Jam in a precursor to their "Mirror Ball" collaboration.

The most famous rendition, of course, was on "Saturday Night Live" in 1988 or 89; it announced that after a decade of making divergent and weird albums, Neil Young the rocker was back!

 

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OK, remember how I said we were done with all the songs receiving one vote? Here's a trio of exceptions.

U2 received 10 votes from SportsJournalists.comers, and all for different songs. That tied them with one other band which also had 10 different songs picked, and I though both should be high in the countdown.

While it's almost impossible to pick the "best" song from Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, here's three of their best, from different points in their career:

No. 18: BEAUTIFUL DAY -- U2
No. 17: WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME -- U2
No. 16: PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE) -- U2

 

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Again, we had a bunch of votes for a variety of songs for this band. Two of the songs had two votes each, and deservedly so:

No. 15: GIMME SHELTER -- The Rolling Stones

No. 14: (I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION -- The Rolling Stones

A rare early clip of the song. About 589,439 guitarists have copied/imitated that riff in their songs.

 

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We've got tons of Bruce Springsteen fans on this site, and some of them didn't even vote in the countdown.

Nevertheless, The Boss received 10 votes, too, and three of his songs had two votes each.

I won't try to rank them; I'll just list them in reverse chronological order:

No. 13: THE RISING -- Bruce Springsteen
No. 12: BORN TO RUN -- Bruce Springsteen
No. 11: THUNDER ROAD -- Bruce Springsteen (this was the opening cut on "Born to Run")

Here's a 1976 video clip of Thunder Road:

 

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We're reached our final 10 songs, the toppermost of the pot roast (or something like that).

The Beatles were the other band with 10 votes for 10 different songs. Seven were listed earlier in the countdown.

I thought each band member deserved a place in the Top 10 with one of "his" songs:

No. 10: WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS -- The Beatles
No. 9: WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS -- The Beatles
No. 8: NORWEGIAN WOOD -- The Beatles
No. 7: HEY JUDE -- The Beatles

OK, nobody actually voted for "With a Little Help ..." but I thought Ringo needed a song!

 

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Here we go ... the six "winners" of our countdown.

(well, really, this is like a youth swim meet ... they're all winners )

Anyway, there was lots of love for this mid-1990s breakout tune by Everclear. It's rockin', yet catchy as hell. It's about the infamous pier. It's about ...

No. 6: SANTA MONICA -- Everclear

This is when Art Alexakis still had some snarl, before he was groovin' to the AM Radio and letting people know Everything Is Wonderful Now.

Give the man props.

 

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Attention please. Will the rock band from Rockford please assume the Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody" position ...



Thank you.

Now may we present:

No. 5: SURRENDER -- Cheap Trick

A live version, of course!

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com Memorial Day 300 rock songs COUNTIN' DOWN TO No. 1

More Midwestern rock, although from the eastern time zone.

Detroit's auto industry had seen better days by the 1990s and 2000s, but their music star output was just hitting its stride.

Among the best to come off the early 2000s assembly line:

No. 4: SEVEN NATION ARMY -- The White Stripes

And just because ... a photo of Meg (YESSS!) and Jack White:

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com Memorial Day 300 rock songs COUNTIN' DOWN TO No. 1

The song, and video, which ushered in grunge:

No. 3: SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT -- Nirvana

"Our little group has always been, and always will, until the end."

 

Re: SportsJournalists.com Memorial Day 300 rock songs COUNTIN' DOWN TO No. 1

How to determine the top song? Well, there were six songs with three votes each.

I ranked them according to how many votes the artist received OVERALL in our countdown:

Everclear -- 3 votes (all for "Santa Monica")
Cheap Trick -- 3 votes (all for "Surrender")
The White Stripes -- 4 votes ("Icky Thump" received one)
Nirvana -- 6 votes

and Led Zeppelin -- 9 votes.

Therefore:

No. 2: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN -- Led Zeppelin

This is the 1973 live performance at Madison Square Garden, from "The Song Remains the Same."