the song remembers when

Rolling Stone is a magazine that loves to make lists. At the drop of a hat, they'll start counting down the "top 100" this and "50 hottest" that. It's understandable I guess...people seem to like seeing things (especially pop culture things) ranked...and lists make for an easy way to put out a "special collector's edition" issue.

Their latest list is audaciously entitled "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". By "all time" they mean the rock era (roughly from 1955-on) and by "greatest" they mean the favorite songs of their hand picked panel of judges (mostly critics, pop stars, and other folks in and about the pop music industry.)

At #1? Dylan's tart epic"Like a Rolling Stone" (the irony of Rolling Stone listing that one in first place notwithstanding, it's not a terrible choice at all.)

The irony kind of falls on top of itself when number 2 is the eternally cool "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones.

John Lennon's reflective "Imagine"
Marvin Gaye's ever-relevant "What's Going On"
Aretha Franklin's smokin'"Respect"

It's starting to seem like all of the "great" songs were written and recorded 30 or 40 years ago...

The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"
Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"
The Beatles' "Hey Jude"

Hey, wait a minute now, they must have been one or two great songs written after I finished puberty...oh, okay...

Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Ray Charles's delightfully salacious "What'd I Say" rounds out their top ten "greatest songs of all time".

The list is, of course, only as accurate as one decides it is. It's heavily weighted by songs from the 60's (202 entries) and 70's (144) with only 1 song released before 1950 making the cut.

The 21st Century has, thus far, only come up with 3 of the greatest songs of "all time" (but the century is still young :-): OutKast's irresistible "Hey Ya!" and Emimen's "Lose Yourself" and "Stan".

It's a goof...a frivolous but fun bit of business that will have most music fans grumbling about the ranking and the omissions (Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" didn't make the cut?? That's an outrage!) but there's nothing wrong with a little friendly debate.