No. 9

Lights - Journey (1978)* Video - "When the lights go down in the city and the sun shines on LA." Steve Perry penned these words shortly before joining Journey, who was from San Francisco. He didn't quite like the lyrics, so he changed "LA" to "the Bay" and it became about San Francisco. Anyone who has spent a lot of time in either city would likely find the LA version puzzling as it's anything but beautiful. The Bay makes a whole lot more sense. Although Perry has moved on and been replaced by Filipino Arnel Pineda, "Lights" remains a concert favorite as I can attest.

No. 10

Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan (1975) Video - In my conversation yesterday with Rich Young, he mentioned that he expected to know only half of my top 10. Scanning the list, I agreed with him that half was about right. Half of the songs, you would have to have avoided hearing music to not know them. The other half, you would have had to take a deep interest in music to know them. I put this song with the last group. It's not one of Dylan's best-known works, though certainly belongs in his top 10.

Back when I used an alarm clock, I had this song wake me up every day for a year and loved it every time. It's held up to the test of time as I seemingly can't wear it out. The thing I like most about it is that I can't really relate to it at all. It speaks of a lifetime of drifting, which is something that's always interested me, but I've never done. Song No. 8 on my list is the female and 60s equivalent.

"Early one morning the sun was shining, I was laying in bed, wondering if she'd changed at all if her hair was still red. Her folks they said our lives together sure was gonna be rough, they never did like Mama's homemade dress, Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough.

I was standing on the side of the road, rain falling on my shoes, heading out for the east coast, Lord knows I've paid some dues getting through, tangled up in blue.

She was married when we first met, soon to be divorced. I helped her out of a jam I guess, but I used a little too much force. We drove that car as far as we could abandoned it out west, split up on a dark side night, both agreeing it was best. She turned around to look at me as I was walking away, I heard her say over my shoulder, we'll meet again someday on the avenue. Tangled up in blue.

I had a job in the great north woods, working as a cook for a spell. But I never did like it all that much and one day the axe just fell. So I drifted down to New Orleans where I happened to be employed working for a while on a fishing boat right outside de la Croix but all the while I was alone the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but I never did change my mind and I just grew tangled up in blue.

She was working in a topless place and I stopped in for a beer. I just kept looking at the side of her face in the spotlight so clear. And later on the crowd thinned out I was just about to do the same. She was standing there in the back of my chair said to me, don't I know your name? I muttered something underneath my breath, she studied the lines on my face, I must admit I felt a little uneasy when she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe, tangled up in blue.

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe. I thought you'd never say hello she said, you look like the silent type. Then she opened up a book of poems and handed it to me, written by an Italian poet in the 13th century. And every one of them words rang true, pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you, tangled up in blue.

I lived with them on Montague street, in a basement down the stairs. There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air. Then he started into dealing with slaves and something inside of him died. She had to sell everything she owned and froze up inside and when finally the bottom fell out and I became withdrawn the only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keeping on like a bird that flew tangled up in blue.

So now I'm going back again, I got to get to her somehow. All the people we used to know they're an illusion to me now. Some are mathematicians, some are carpenters wives, don't know how it all got started, don't know what they do with their lives, but me I'm still on the road heading for another joint. We always did feel the same. We just saw it from a different point of view. Tangled up in blue."

Now THOSE are some lyrics!

No. 11

Free Bird (Live) - Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973) Video - "What song is it you wanna hear? Free Bird!" A line that will live on long after every original member has departed. This is the closing song to every Skynyrd concert. The meaning is somewhat ambiguous, but the story I believe is that it was written as a tribute to Duane Allman. If it sounds like the guitar solos are way too rich, that's because 2 guitarists are playing the exact same notes in tandem. Also, if you're given the option of choosing the music for a lapdance, a crude friend of mine said to always choose Free Bird and insist on the live version as it runs over 14 minutes :)

No. 12

Thunderstruck (Live) - AC/DC (1990) Video - During my grade school years, I attended a 10-person parochial school where there were no sports or rock music. In the Fall of '98, I began attending the local public high school where I was introduced to weightlifting and THIS! Every single day, we kicked off our weight room session with this classic. I didn't become a professional bodybuilder, but I did become an elite air guitarist. Seriously though, this is the ultimate hype song, the best arena intro song, and as difficult to play as it sounds (Angus Young picks every note). I nearly swallowed the $90 entrance fee to see them live last winter in Orlando before picking the money back in my pocket and going to see a lousy cover band instead.

No. 13

Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine (1992) Video - In the Spring of 2002, I attended my first big concert, regrettably Linkin Park was the featured act. However, the silver lining was that before the first opening band started, the DJ played this song over the PA. It was early in the evening, most people hadn't arrived yet, and the place WENT NUTS! Typically concerts build little by little until the final encore is absolutely bonkers, but in this instance the crowd hit its highest level all night to a song with the house lights on and the band a thousand miles away. It's basically the insurrection theme song, the "We're Not Gonna Take It" of the 90s.

I'd been exposed to their Evil Empire and Battle of Los Angeles albums in high school, but this, their theme song protesting racism in security agencies had evaded me until it was 10 years old. Caution - there are explicit lyrics in spades on this track, but can you really write an insurrection song without them? I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!

No. 14

Roadhouse Blues (Live) - The Doors (1970) Video - "Ladies and gentlemen, from Los Angeles, California, the Dooooorrrrsssss!!!!" This is the greatest intro in the history of live performances. In an odd coincidence, this starts off a set of 3 straight songs, known primarily for their performances.

No group leaves me feeling as conflicted as The Doors. They represented so much that I'm against, but they were tremendous musicians, poetic songwriters, unequaled performers, and featured the greatest frontman in the history of frontmen. I could've easily had Riders On The Storm, L.A. Woman, Love Me Two Times, The End, or Moonlight Drive on this list, but the highest point of any Doors record for me is the aforementioned intro. I don't know if any group ever had command of a crowd quite like Jim Morrison and The Doors.

No. 15

Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden (1994) Video - One of the landmark alternative-grunge songs, "Black Hole Sun" was written by Chris Cornell, with the thought that the rest of the band wouldn't like it. Regardless, the public did as it became the hit of the Summer of '94. Its deep-seeming, dreamy lyrics are, according to Cornell, "probably the closest to me just playing with words for words' sake." In other words, don't try to attribute meaning to this song, it's just awesome. As is the video.

No. 16

Hey Hey What Can I Do - Led Zeppelin (1970) Video - Released as the B-side to another classic, "The Immigrant Song," "Hey Hey What Can I Do" is the only Zeppelin track to never be released on an album. It tells the story of a girl he adores, but who won't be faithful to him and the frustrations it causes him. In the 3rd verse, he elects to leave her where the guitars play. Hey, you gotta what you gotta do.

No. 17

Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones (1969) Video - The classic movie and the Scorsese film are both The Departed. What an awesome song, completely different from the previous Stones' song on this list. Vietnam-influenced, this is about apocalypse, the end of the world, at least as we know it.

"Oh, a storm is threat'n, my very life today.

If I don't get some shelter, eww yeah I'm gonna fade away.

War, children, it's just a shot away."

No. 18

Can't You Hear Me Knocking - The Rolling Stones (1971) Video - My No. 17 and No. 18 songs have 2 things in common, both were featured in the opening credits of classic films, both were featured in Martin Scorsese films, and both are by The Rolling Stones. Can't You Hear Me Knocking was featured in the opening credits of Blow and Scorsese's Casino. Not generally mentioned among the Stones' absolute best work, though it certainly is one of Keith Richards' best riffs. Rolling Stone named it the #25 best guitar song of all-time. Blow ranks among my top 10 favorite movies of all-time, partially due to the opening credit sequence with Keith Richards wailing away.

No. 19

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (1994) Video - On the evening of May 29, 1997, Jeff Buckley went for an impromptu swim in Wolf River Harbor just outside of Memphis. He was stone sober, fully clothed, and singing Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. In the wake of a passing boat, he drowned. Neither he nor the public realized the musical genius they'd just lost. Although his only studio album, Grace, had been released, it had not yet achieved significant success. Posthumously, Jimmy Page called Grace "close to his favorite album of the decade." The masterpiece of the album is this cover of a 1984 Leonard Cohen song. Like Otis Redding, Jeff Buckley never had the chance to fully develop his substantial gifts.

No. 20

Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young (1969) Video - Another appearance by my favorite songwriter of all-time. The power chord just plain rocks, and the fact that this list is leading me up to marrying my own cinnamon girl helps its case.

No. 21

Dear Mr. Fantasy - Traffic (1967) Video - Steve Winwood is probably the greatest rock musician you've never heard of. He was similar to Eric Clapton in that they both bounced around between a lot of bands and both played together with Blind Faith. Of course, Steve Winwood never recorded one of the greatest Unplugged albums of all-time and never had a hit the magnitude of Layla, but he did record this.

No. 22

Cryin' - Aerosmith (1993) Video - Alicia Silverstone standing on a bridge over a freeway, contemplating a jump - that's how the video begins. The 90s brought us only 2 new Aerosmith albums, but both Get A Grip (Cryin') and Nine Lives (Pink), in my opinion, rank among the best rock albums of all-time. Cryin' is a tortured love song about being lonely, finding love, only to lose it again.

No. 23

Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band (1977)* Video - Paul Pena wrote this song in 1973 for his release on his new album, but due to conflicts with his label it remained unreleased until 2000, another sign that we need fewer lawyers in the music biz, and, in general. Steve Miller heard a bootleg of the song and recorded it for his own album.

The Steve Miller Band, best known today for The Joker, was not an immediate success. They had some success in the 70s, but were not extremely popular until they reunited in the early 80s, after the birth of "Classic Rock" on the airwaves. Steve Miller said they were dumbfounded by the crowds that showed up for their reunion tours because they'd never played to crowds that big during their heyday. The band continues to tour, I caught them last fall, one of the 3 best shows I've ever seen.

No. 24

When The Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin (1971) Video - Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones are all rock legends. Indeed, they may be the 2nd most important rock band of all-time, but the dirty little secret behind Led Zeppelin is that they're tremendous thieves because this song was written in 1929 by husband and wife Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie.

This is far from the only Zeppelin track where this is true. "Lemon Song" was ripped from Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" was ripped from a song of the same name sung by Joan Baez, but at least the all-time No. 1 Rock Song "Stairway To Heaven" is original, errrr, Spirit's "Taurus", not as blatant, but certainly a strong influence. Mind you, this would've all been ok if Jimmy Page had secured rights, or at least given credit for the music, but instead, they sued the Beastie Boys for stealing their intro to "When The Levee Breaks", a song they stole to begin with. They might be the greatest rock band of all-time, but they're certainly the greatest rock thieves of all-time.

No. 25

Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z & Alicia Keys (2009) Video - I typically roll my eyes when someone having just returned from the theater immediately places the movie in his/her top 10. There's no way to have a historical perspective for something that just arrived, so it's with great difficulty that I rank this song.

Songs rarely impress me upon first listen, so I believe it's noteworthy that the first time I heard it, I KNEW it was great. It's a crossover hit, in fact, Jay-Z's first Billboard No.1. Bill Simmons said he thinks this was the only thing for Jay-Z to prove himself as an artist, to replace Frank Sinatra's New York, New York as the song played after New York sports victories. It's iconic, it holds up to MANY repeated listens, and will hold up well over time. I'm not ashamed to put this in my top 25.

No. 26

Where Are You Going - Dave Matthews Band (2002)* Video - A story that only a Dave Matthews Band fan would find interesting - in 1999 and 2000, DMB worked with producer Steve Lillywhite on a new album. Dave was apparently hitting the bottle pretty hard and since he wrote all their music, what resulted was, in his words, "a lot of self-pity." The band wasn't pleased with their efforts and the whole project was scrapped. A year later, Dave Matthews wrote the entire Everyday album in a week, the band recorded it and it was released with much success. Concurrent with the launch of Everyday, a bootleg version of what fans would call The Lillywhite Sessions hit the Internet.

Many DMB fans who found Everyday too poppy found The Lillywhite Sessions right down their alley, more like the old albums. Based at least partially on the positive response to the bootleg album, DMB took the 9 original songs from The Lillywhite Sessions added "You Never Know" and "Where Are You Going" and called it Busted Stuff, which was released in 2002. So, if the record doesn't get stolen and downloaded and downloaded several million times, we might never have experienced "Where Are You Going" and we certainly wouldn't have my No. 5 song of all-time.

No. 27

The Pusher - Steppenwolf (1968) Video - The more I learn about the music I love, the more embarrassed I become at how little I know. I knew, of course, that The Pusher was featured in Easy Rider. I also knew that Steppenwolf recorded the song prior to it being featured in the movie. What I didn't know is that Steppenwolf didn't write the song. The song was actually written and recorded by a singer named Hoyt Axton, who didn't release his version until 1971. The fact remains that this is a cover, albeit a very famous one that details the difference between a "dealer" who sells you marijuana and a "pusher" who deals in hard drugs. If you haven't seen Easy Rider, watch it!

No. 28

The Ballad of Curtis Loew - Lynyrd Skynyrd (1974) Video - This may seem an odd choice as it's hardly one of the best-known Skynyrd songs, but it's on the list because it tells a story. It tells the story of an underappreciated black musician, something I've harped about several times in previous posts, and about a young boy being punished for listening to music his parents don't approve of, another theme of mine, most notably in Aerosmith's Pink. Before their ill-fated plane crash, Lynyrd Skynyrd performed this song only once live.

No. 29

I Want You Back - Jackson 5 (1969) Video - In light of the events of a year ago, anything showing a young Michael Jackson seems incredibly depressing. Even through his last 20 screwed up years, there was always the hope that the next tour might bring him back to normalcy. Sadly, that day never came, and we're left only with his legacy of the greatest popstar of all-time and a troubled genius.

No. 30

Superstition - Stevie Wonder (1972) Video - You won't find this much funk outside of a George Clinton show. Interesting fact - Wonder performed this song live on Sesame Street in 1973. Man, kids these days are getting a raw deal. Their parents heard "Superstition" performed by Stevie Wonder, while they hear "I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the..." performed by, well, does this really need to be answered?

No. 31

Come What May - Ewan McGregor/Nicole Kidman (2001) Video - From my No. 1 Guilty Pleasure Movie of All-Time, Moulin Rouge, this song is fitting for this list leading up to the big wedding day as it will actually be sung at my wedding.

No. 32

Hard To Handle - Otis Redding (1968) Video - I'm not going to repeat what I said about Otis Redding's perpetual genius and untimely death in my post about the 25 songs that just missed my top 100, including his Nobody's Fault But Mine, but please check it out if you missed it. Just know this, a very respectably successful rock band, The Black Crowes, launched a career out of covering this song and adding nothing.

The bad part - most people think they wrote the song.

The worst part - Otis' recording came out after his death.

No. 33

It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube (1993) Video - This might shock you, but I don't know what it's like to live in South Central L.A. I once spent a scary 45 minutes waiting for a train at Rosa Parks Station one stop north of Compton dressed in my Banana Republic peacoat, but other than that, my impressions are formed primarily by Ice Cube-related media. Friday, Boyz N The Hood, Rodney King and O.J. Simpson trials, and this song laid the groundwork.

No. 34

Angie - Rolling Stones (1973) Video - In the fall of 2002, I was a sophomore in college with a Mustang GT and a growing rock 'n roll habit. I had just, on faith, purchased Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at Best Buy, having no idea what I would find (no track names on the album cover). Having been handsomely rewarded with what is probably my No. 1 album of all-time, I sought to discover more of this drug called "classic rock". I knew the Stones were just a step behind the Beatles, but the only songs of theirs I knew were Satisfaction and Paint It Black. I made a life-changing trip to the Lincoln Public Library where I picked up some drivel, the Doors' Greatest Hits and Rolling Stones' Hot Rocks. Both albums would profoundly impact my musical choices to this day.

Whereas the Beatles had offered me the bubblegum antics of She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah, the Stones gave me hard-hitting Let's Spend the Night Together and Mother's Little Helper. Angie wasn't on Hot Rocks, but it was on their subsequent Greatest Hits album, Jump Back.