The Final Countdown (Part 2)

Last time I started a countdown of songs featuring the numbers twenty through zero. We pick up today at number 10...

10. "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" Bruce Springsteen

You gotta hand it to the Boss: he's the consummate performer then and now. He also got snubbed at this year's Academy Awards where his song for "The Wrestler" should have won in a landslide (much less been nominated!).

9. "Revolution 9" The Beatles

The longest and most mysterious song by the Fab Four. It showcases Yoko Ono's avant-garde influence on Lennon (McCartney and their producer fought hard for the track to be removed from The White Album) as well as the band's "revolutionary" techniques in sound and editing. The song also spurred the "Paul is dead" urban legend and the very creepy backmask.

8. "Eight Days A Week" The Beatles

Deliciously cheesy pop gold. What I find strange about the early Beatles is that in pictures and videos of the concerts, you always see girls like this but hardly ever any dudes. And yet, how many guys today would give their left nut to see the greatest band EVER and be surrounded by desperate teen babes? Yup. All of them. I mean what were the boys doing back then? Throwing rocks at frogs? Eight days a week? Lets move on...

7. "The Magnificent Seven" The Clash

One of the best bass lines ever from my favorite band. It's also a great example of the recycling process that takes place in popular song. The song came out of inspiration from original hip hop groups like Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and this song represents the first attempt by a rock band to write and perform rap music. It is also regarded as one of the first rap records with political and social content. Coming full circle, like M.I.A. using a Clash song for "Paper Planes", Basement Jaxx recently borrowed "The Magnificent Seven" for a dance jam.

6. "Six Pack" Black Flag

One of the first hardcore punk bands and it's safe to say there just isn't music like this today. They also made waves for bands on independent labels. Two years ago, The Dirty Projectors, who ironically produce some of the prettiest music around, released a full cover of Black Flag's album "Damaged". The only thing was the band's leader, Dave Longstreth, hadn't heard the album in 15 years and reinterpreted all the Black Flag songs only as he remembered them. I'd suggest listening to their version of "Six Pack" below (and here) and the rest of the album.


5. "Five O'Clock Whistle" Joe Loss with Bette Roberts

Fun classic song that can only be enjoyed once you start working full-time.

4. "Four Women" Nina Simone

Painfully honest descriptions of four stereotypical African American women. In "American Popular Song" class this semester, an American girl turned to me during a Nina Simone song and whispered, "He sounds like Gnarls Barkley". Um...

3. "3rd Planet" Modest Mouse

Isaac Brock's sad, misguided voice are only comparable to that of one other rocker: The Replacements' Paul Westerberg.

2. "Two-Headed Boy" Neutral Milk Hotel

Forty years from now I'll still love this song and Jeff Mangum's voice.

1. "One" U2

This hard because there are eleventy-billion songs with "one" in the title (I counted). It's only fitting I include the song with just the number itself and the one that gives me chills every time I hear it.

0. "Zero" Smashing Pumpkins

And you thought I was going to use the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song. Pffft. I love the lines "Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness/And cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me." I'd say that pretty much sums up the '90s.