Top 1000 Songs #170-#161

#170 - "Head On" - The Jesus And Mary Chain - Automatic - #1/1 - It's hard to say whether this song is more famous than the Pixies' cover version, but I prefer this more somber version of the song in comparison to Frank and Co.'s frenetic version.

#169 - "Aenema" - Tool - Aenema - #7/9 - The epic climax to Tool's greatest album tells the story of the "big one" that finally sends California plummeting into the ocean, and based on MJK's take on the matter, that would be just fine by him.

#168 - "Losing My Religion" - R.E.M. - Out Of Time - #10/12 - The big breakthrough hit that sent R.E.M. to the top of the pop charts after years on the college rock scene, this song was a very important pivot point that kicked the door open for the alt rock explosion of the 90's.

#167 - "You Know You're Right" - Nirvana - Greatest Hits - #11/15 - The song was available for years before it became a radio sensation, but the last Nirvana song is also one of their best, showing an exciting new direction that the band never had a chance to explore.

#166 - "Paranoid" - Black Sabbath - Paranoid - #1/3 - The world had never heard anything like Black Sabbath when they tore into the hard rock scene, creating a dozen different varieties of metal and setting the scene for the future of the genre. With their classic "Paranoid", they created speed metal.

#165 - "Real Wild Child" - Iggy Pop - Blah Blah Blah - #2/5 - I don't think it's an Iggy original, but this song is still one of his signature post-Stooges songs with it's solid lyrics building up to a crazy chorus.

#164 - "Once In A Lifetime" - The Talking Heads - Remain In Light - #9/10 - One of the weirdest hit songs of the 80's, The Talking Heads created a New Wave sensation with their bizarre art-rock hit.

#163 - "Eleanor Rigby" - The Beatles - Revolver - #15/22 - You wouldn't think that a band as cheerful and pop-friendly as the Beatles would produce such a bleak and grim song as "Rigby", which is a song about a woman who dies alone and is buried by a preacher with no congregants, but they did, foreshadowing a darker turn that the band would take in the future.

#162 - "Ocean Breathes Salty" - Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News - #3/4 - Modest Mouse is the latest great band to come out of the Seattle alternative rock scene with their breakthrough album Good News. While "Float On" was the big hit, "Salty" was the important follow-up that sealed the band as a force of nature rather than a mere one-hit wonder. I didn't think this song was so great the first time I heard it, but like all Modest Mouse songs, it really grows on you the more you hear it.

#161 - "Born In The U.S.A." - Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. - #9/11 - Although it was used by Ronald Reagan as a campaign song, "U.S.A." is actually a bleak and sarcastic view of life in Reagan's America for it's victims, the poor and disenfranchised.