Foo Forum

The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Tokens - 1961

So in response to the most beautiful song in all of rock and roll - not my favorite, but most beautiful - much of Pink Floyd's work comes close. Emerson Lake and Palmer took a good stab at it. The revolutionary (at the time) work of Yes comes in at a very close second, but the most beautifully composed and executed song in all of rock and roll is also one of the most overdone ones - in fact, this is the very reason most of you may disagree. It crosses boundaries of neo-jazz, folk, and heavy metal in one succinctly produced song that is poetic, classic, and timeless.

Dark Side of the Moon and Momentary Lapse of Reason are my favourites there.

After that you have anything by King Crimson and the theme from Hitchikers Guide by The Eagles ("Journey of the Sourcerer").

"American Pie" sung by the Brady Bunch always cracks me up big time - is that not the perfect match of singers to song?

For dancing around in a stupid fashion I prefer "Yessir, I can boogie" by Bacarat and I like to corrupt young geeks of my acquaintance by making them listen to that. They are never quite the same.

For sheer rhythm its "Industrial Disease" by Dire Straits.

Yes, as well as... Knights in White Satin.

I would add Otis Redding and Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.

I could not agree more and what makes it even more painful is that it came from the same American black people whom I would credit with having the largest single influence on todays Rock music.

These days I form opinions on popular music from my radio. It's the only time I don't get to choose what I listen to. Recently it's been filled with 'hip hop' music (at least, that's what I'm told it's called). I used to say I'd rather listen to anything instead of rap, now I've something I'd rather listen to rap instead of.

Would you believe that I was actually aware that Eminem was not black? However if we are talking <beautiful> then there is no place for rap. AFAIAC there is not even a place for rap as musical genre. Admire it if you will but don't compare it with <real> musicians who write beatiful music and lyrics.

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Alan Jackson ...

Way down yonder on the chattahoochee
It gets hotter than a hoochie coochie
We laid rubber on the georgie asphalt
We got a little crazy but we never got caught

The Most Beautiful Girl (?) - Prince

Does anything by Billy Joel count? Then how about I Love You Just The Way You Are (?) or Always A Woman To Me (?).

Then I nominate "The last Goodbye" from "It's Only Rock & Roll" by the Rolling Stones.

Grandpa,
"Knights in White Satin" was good but have you heard the song "Poor Man's Moody Blues" (The title is supposed to be ironic) by Barclay James Harvest? It shows you how good KIWS could have been.

Another song that pulls my string is "Another First Kiss" by They Might be Giants from the album "Mink Car". Simple but so effective.

The Devils had a homecoming in the Meadowlands last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance and disappear down Flamingo Lane

Well the Maximum Lawman run down Flamingo chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl
And the kids round here look just like shadows always quiet, holding hands
From the churches to the jails tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand down in Jungleland

The midnight gang's assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light
Man there's an opera out on the Turnpike
There's a ballet being fought out in the alley
Until the local cops, Cherry Tops, rips this holy night
The street's alive as secret debts are paid
Contacts made, they vanished unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands
That face off against each other out in the street down in Jungleland

In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to the records that the D.J. plays
Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on, just a look and a whisper, and they're gone

Beneath the city two hearts beat
Soul engines running through a night so tender in a bedroom locked
In whispers of soft refusal and then surrender in the tunnels uptown
The Rat's own dream guns him down as shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland