And now for something completely different.
Let's save the questions about the nature of music, it's relationship to mathematics, how in the world it taps into the depths of the human soul so effectively and universally, how it relates to language and communication and the divine logos, and all the rest of it for another time!
Right now what's on my mind is a much simpler (but much more difficult?) question of aesthetic ranking: What is the best rock song ever written?
Please help me move towards answering this question of such deep importance for our century.
I may not be widely educated in rock and roll -- it wasn't until college that my roommate introduced me thank goodness to people like Bod Dylan and Jackson Browne and Led Zepplin -- but I like it. So that gives me the right, nay dutiy, to provide now, for you, my (totally-subjective) nominees for greatest rock and roll song in the history of the world.
Drum roll, please.
Best Rock and Roll Song of All Time Nominees
Nirvana - Smells like Teen spirit
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Led Zepplin - Stairway to heaven
Radiohead - Karma Police
U2 - Where the Streets Have no name
Foo Fighters - Everlong
The Beatles - Yesterday
The Beatles - Hey Jude
The Beatles - In My Life
Bob Dylan - like a rolling stone
Muse - New Born
Muse - Hysteria
Honorable Mentions
Led Zepplin - Ramble on
Beatles - Hey jude
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday
Styx - Teenage Wasteland
There you have it. You have my nominations; why not give me yours? I need recommendations for new music to listen to. And who knows, they may even be considered during the 2006 official Nobel Best Rock and Roll Song Prize.
Rock on.