The four hundred and twenty-fifth song: (Don’t Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Starting with a famous riff, the psychedelic roots of Blue Oyster Cult come through in this haunting song, relentlessly moving on while there's a haunting sound to this song as well - ready for death rather than fearing it. It's frightening on some levle, the impact of the emotions making themselves known throughout.
The four hundred and twenty-sixth song: More Than a Feeling - Boston
Some songs really get disadvantaged by their placement on the list and More Than a Feeling pales next to The Reaper. It's a lighter piece of classic rock, a rock ballad that does well in expressing a sentiment but through overexposure feels a bit emptier as well - and with a bridge that doesn't seem quite as needed. It's a nice and sweet song.
The four hundred and twenty-seventh song: Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
My connection to this song is a bit different from others, as I've studied performing it a capella when I actually got some singing lessons. There's something varied in the different funk parts it drifts through, with what feels like more shifts than normal, constantly moving between swing and funk. At the same time, I didn't quite appreciate the lyrics at the time, paying tribute to many different deceased musicians, and how it covers their music is probably more impressive and important.
The four hundred and twenty-eighth song: The Killing of Georgie (Parts 1 & 2) - Rod Stewart
While still a rock song, this soft rock number describes the life of Georgie, a gay man in a time where that was far more of a problem. While his death, mentioend in the song, doesn't come from his sexuality, his abandonment and the way he moves through life does and that is what really has the impact here. The second part is more longing and angry, having a more emotional impact, but it wouldn't work without the more upbeat, narrative first half to contrast against.
The four hundred and twenty-ninth song: Dancing Queen - Abba
After four quite emotional numbers, Dancing Queen makes for a real palate cleanser - no complicated emotions or lyrics, just admiration of these seventeen year olds enjoying going out and dancing. Musically it's more complex, making for a good song to dance to, and that's where its real strengths come in, reinforcing its lyrics and building on them while maintaining its joy - in a way the perfect pop song.
The four hundred and thirtieth song: Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
This is where you're almost hoping punk to end up, and where more bands took from - not just the dark political stuff, but joy in there as well - joy with a dark undertone, but there's some enthusiasm in here as well. Apparently, bubblegum music was their inspiration, and this bubblegum punk means it's not taken too seriously - it creates a fun song, for the most part, with the title and some references showing it's not all that.
The four hundred and thirty-first song: Love Hangover - Diana Ross
This song starts off slow, an R&B song that's well performed but not that special. When the disco break starts, everything loosens up a bit and the atmosphere changes. The structure of the lyrics is lost and you get a nice tune with some improvisation on top, but at that point it seems too far gone to recover any momentum.
The four hundred and thirty-second song: Cokane in My Brain - Dillinger
I still don't know what's going on with this song. I think this is Dillinger talking to himself, while he's not very responsive. He also keeps not realizing how not to spell New York, apparently, and there are a lot of other weird references, but mostly it feels nonsensical, weird lyrics over a repetitive riff, and whatever side it's on, it's clear he was on drugs when this was written.
The four hundred and thirty-third song: Police and Thieves - Junior Murvin
In response, we get some more conventional reggae, a song sung in falsetto that has a similar repetitive melody and tries to make a political point but doesn't seem to quite pull off what it's trying to do and say. I'm still not quite sure what point it's trying to make here, although that depends on me knowing Jamaican history anyway.
The four hundred and thirty-fourth song: (I’m) Stranded - The Saints
While we've talked about punk songs before, in this batch of ten this feels like the real punk song - hard driving guitars, an angry message and while there's an attempt at a catchy chorus it's just not that type of song or band. Compared to the previous song, there's a similar dislike and distrust of the government, but it manages to articulate it better and puts in a feeling of personal loneliness