My Top 100 Songs of the Past Decade Or So. (Pt. 3)
Aug 14 '01
The Bottom Line It's just another "me" column in which I sort through all things music in my life and try to come up with some useful purpose for all of it.
After much delay and the beginning of two more side-projects here is the third installment of my favorite one hundred songs of all-time. It seems like lately my list changes much more frequently. With the additions of MP3.com and Napster and all these other music providers, new sounds and genres of music constantly surround me. This is a GOOD thing by the way.
80. These Are Days
Yes, there was a time in my life that I was grooving to the sounds of The B52’s, REM’s Shiny Happy People and anything that screamed 10,000 Maniacs. This was one of those songs I embraced right around the time I graduated from high school. It was one of those memory inducers that led you to re-think everything you ever did in life. It had a charm too it despite the sappy words and overly melodic beat. I haven’t liked Natalie Merchant though since she’s been something other than a maniac.
79. Black Balloon
The Goo Goo Dolls always grab my attention. It seems like every song they come out with has that hum-a-long sound and John Rzeznik’s raspy authentic voice makes each one a hit. Black Balloon hits every chord in making this one of those songs you can’t get out of your head. Everything about this hit has that hook like feel. The guitars, lyrics and drums keep you attached from beginning to end. If only they had a better group name.
78. Jackie’s Strength
Tori Amos’s song about being a woman and being strong in the heart of the world’s view leaves me thinking back to such things as the American version of Camelot and all things that feel historic and important. You can feel Tori bleed the tears of Jackie Kennedy and it makes this song so painfully powerful. “From The Choir Girl Hotel” turned out to be the best album since “Little Earthquakes” in my opinion and it was songs like “Jackie’s Strength” that made it so.
77. Return To Innocence
I was swept away the first time I heard anything from Enigma. Enigma has come to mean a lot to me because of the connection I share with them and my ex-girlfriend. There is nothing more subtly erotic and a gift to the senses than listening through an entire Enigma CD. “Return To Innocence” delivered a pleasurable understanding of life in reverse. Re-visiting the places we admired or feared as children and understanding that through out it all, we can still somehow return to our innocence of years gone by. The video is incredible as an old man’s life is put into reverse until he is just a young boy. Stirring to watch, but I find myself doing so over and over again.
76. End Of The Road
I don’t remember liking this song that much, but here it finds itself in the lower quarter of my top one hundred songs of all-time. I think this song actually made me want to cry every time I heard it, and being that I’m a sucker for depressing tunes (I’m a writer!) this obviously is what made this so popular to me. Boyz II Men were always fun to sing along with too. Grab a couple of good friends and attempt to serenade your way into the hearts of those cute looking high-school girls across the classroom. Yeah! That’s the ticket!
75. The Long Road
From the end of the road to the long road ahead, which in respects isn’t very long at all. Here comes the not so smash hit but incredibly introspective song of a man facing death row. Luckily Eddie Vedder dives into the mood perfectly and with it delivers a monumental piece that shrills with tension and delivers passionately the struggles of impending death of a man facing not only his maker, but also the wrongs he’s committed. This song vibrates from beginning to finish.
74. Before You Were Born
Very few songs burn at my soul the way this Toad The Wet Sprocket one does. This one is as well written a piece that tugs at the heartstrings and re-iterates a very important point about an unwanted child that you’ll ever see. The line “Goddamn the lover, who left you in pain…Goddamn the father without face without name and goddamn the people who never showed up, and goddamn the wounds that show how deep words can cut.” Blew me completely away. Just a very poetically bitter song to the end that has such great meaning to this day.
73. Keep The Faith
In the era of depressive style grunge and bitter lead vocalists, it was reassuringly positive to have a song like Bon Jovi’s “Keep The Faith” rescue us from our nineties doldrums. With a different sound and lots of mixed up musical appeal, this hit from the New Jersey group had fans from everywhere jiving along the rock and roll jazzy piece. They’ve always been about bending the rules in order to break the odds, and this song is no exception.
72. This Kiss
Faith Hill singing a song about kissing and not appearing on my list would go down in the annals of history as one of the lamest possible things I could do. Therefore she must have her very own spot on here. The video is very whimsical but HECK this list isn’t about videos so I’ll just stick to the “Faith Hill is beautiful and she’s singing about kissing, SO SHE HAS TO BE ON THIS LIST” reasoning.
71. Still The One
Whenever you talk about Faith Hill you have to include Shania Twain because they certainly are the divas of not only country but pop too. Shania Twain is my one true love though. Unfortunately she is married to a dog, I mean a Mutt, but that is beside the point. I met her at Cracker Barrel many years ago and even poured her a cup of coffee. Ahhhh, the memories in the furthest corners of my mind help Shania land a well-deserved place on the top one hundred.
So there is another ten on THE top 100 list. We saw some country/pop divas another Pearl Jam song and plenty of feel good music this time around. What will the next chapter bring forth? Stay tune true believers to the same bat site, same bat reviewer. The names Kaurisma, RG Kaurisma.
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Member: Roland Geary
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