There’s something on EW.com that deserves your immediate and undivided attention. In a cool eight-minute audio-slideshow, our man Stephen King lists — in that scratchy, cracked, cool Stephen-King voice of his — the 25 greatest rock songs of all time. Somehow, “You Give Love a Bad Name” did not make his cut. Check it out anyway.
Comment over there if you wanna reach Steve directly. Over here, let’s see if we can get our own thing going. What are the best rock songs of all time? For me, No. 1 is easy. The Best Rock Song of All Time is "Mahgeetah", the 2003 superjam by My Morning Jacket. I’m completely serious. If you’ve ever communed with this tune, then you know there’s no topping it. The Beatles, Dylan, the Stones, Elvis, the Sex Pistols, Bon Jovi — "Mahgeetah" is the perfection they were all striving toward.
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Mahgeetah is your #1? Really? I’m just not getting it.
Rock on! My Morning Jacket forever!
I’m so sick of Stephen King. His EW column is AWFUL and if he wasn’t “Stephen King” it would’ve been cancelled long ago.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do have to admit that I’m not into jam bands.
MAHGEETAH! I love you. Can we get married?
I’m not sick of Stephen King, but that list of his was too weird to even be interesting. I’m not even willing to click over there to remind myself of what his choices were. I remember there being some uber-obscure Elvis…
Connie Francis at #4? I counted four songs on the list after 1974. Does Stephen King know they have been playing rock for the last THIRTY years?
First time for me hearing My Morning Jacket’s music. The lead singer has a nice voice, but is there a face behind all that hair? They play just fine, but would not ever hold them up to the standard other bands should follow. Opinions, everyone has em.
I hope GK was forced to do this. Because not only is this like looking at a beautiful lawn and choosing the 25 greatest blades of grass, but we’ve already been subjected to this ridiculous attempt by King to prove what a hep cat he is. We get it. He’s ancient and knows a lot more rock ‘n roll than the rest of us.
Let us never forget: two years ago, Stephen King picked as his number one song of the year: My Humps, by the Black Eyed Peas. Horror novels? His thing. Taste in music? Not his thing.
Mahgeetah is great but Lay Low is better, in humble opinion
This list couldn’t have dated him more. I think that if a song is TRULY great, it will be appreciated for generations. So few of these songs are even mentioned anymore.
I’m pretty sure that Steven King just pulled up his “25 Most Played” list in Itunes. The whole point is “look how obscure my music taste is,” and apparently obsucure equals best of all time.
I appreciate Mr.King’s love of 70s Boston punk, but really, Willie Alexander? The Lyres??
Allow me to replace those two choices with “Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers (a necessary Track 1 for any roadtrip mixtape), and my favorite, Mission of Burma’s “Academy Fight Song.”
P.S. “Lay Low” – I recall getting emotional the first time I heard the dual lead guitars take that hook at the five minute mark and wrestle it to the ground – an amazing song.
Hey, he was asked his top 25 and he gave it, I have no prob with that. We all have our own Top 25 and all different I’m sure. I grew up in the 70s so of course I like the 70’s picks, but I’d throw some Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Motley Crue in for good measure, but I love the Beach Boys, Stones, Elvis and of course AC/DC…..remember, he IS older and these are the songs that he grew up with, so spare him too much criticism, we reflect our own eras as well.
HOWEVER……John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band? now THAT did make me want to dry heave a little bit in my mouth….yikes!
My Humps had to be a joke. King has a dark sense of humor as well as a gift for writing horror novels.
He had to add rockabilly like Wanda Jackson and 50’s soul rock because if not for them groups like the White Stripes would not be here today. I would like to see Little Richard on Idol, it would be funny as hell. “Simon, shut up! Woo-hoo!” And of course Richard would have raided Ryan’s closet. lol!
Flightjacket, those are two of my favorites. Any chance we can persuade EW to post your top 25 with a fancy flash video?
It’s interesting that this was posted a month ago with just 24 songs, and it’s cool that he put Psychotic Reactions on his list, but if I had to choose a track off the Nuggets compilation, I would have put on the Standells “Dirty Water.”
I can totally back you up picking My Morning Jacket – anyone who’s seen them live knows they’re the best band working today. Personally, I’d pick One Big Holiday over Mageetah, but when it’s all that good does it really matter?
The man has a right to his opinion. He is as old as dirt and his picks are too, but what can you expect from someone who is ancient?
I have to agree… I’ve been wanting to like MMJ after reading about them and hearing the hype, but every song I listen to sounds like crap to me. Sorry! And I like jam bands, too… But anything by SCI, STS9, hell even Phish and Widespread beats what I just listened to on YouTube. It’s like jam music for people who don’t want to think much. Maybe I’m not giving it enough of a chance, but like a few others here, I just don’t get the love. Give me anything by the Mars Volta or Chris Whitley or Faith No More.
OT: Is there nothing else going on in pop culture today? This is the only blog entry so far…
and 10 minutes later… voila!
Oooh, some harsh comments.
I’d say that I tend to agree with Stephen King’s picks. Some of them were a little obscure, but he picked some really good ones. I agree with him in not including newer songs either – the old ones just have a certain spark that is overwhelmingly lacking in today’s music. I’m not saying that all rock songs today suck, or that all rock songs back then were great, because neither is true. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that overall rock has gotten progressively cheesier and more obnoxious.
(And I’m not saying that because I’m ancient, because I’m 22.)
The man is scary just like his picks. I would not expect anything different from the king of fright. I just don’t know how his wife does it.
He wasn’t asked what his 25 favorite songs are, he was asked what he believes to be the best / most significant 25 rock songs ever. I could have hammered out a more relevant list in my sleep.
Like, wo dude, your picks are like, so cool.
Yea, man, I mean, like, they rock. You’re the Coolest. You rule dude…
Gene Hackman in French Connection. Cool. As Lex Luthor. Not Cool.
Christina A as Xtina. Skanky but cool. In her new 40’s persona; very hot but not cool.
Young Andre Agassi; cool. Andre with Stefi; sweet but not cool. Jimmy Conners; never was cool. (Well, maybe when he married the playmate…)
Batman with Adam West; not cool. green Hornet with Bruce Lee as Kato; so very cool.
Animal, cool. Kermit, not cool.
Joan Jett & Patti Smith; perennially cool.
Eastwood as Dirty Harry. Cool. Eastwood in Bridges of Madison County. So. Not. Cool.
Eagles circa Hotel California were cool. Eagles selling albums at Wal-Mart; bubbling velveeta.
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