Top 1000 Songs #20-#11

#20 - "Yesterday" - The Beatles - Yesterday And Today - #22/22 - The most covered song of the rock era, "Yesterday" is McCartney and Lennon's all-time classic, a deep and insightful ballad about love and loss and life. The world's greatest band was never better than they were on this early career song.

#19 - "Sunday Bloody Sunday" - U2 - War - #16/16 - U2's first definite sign of their future stadium-rocking greatness, "Sunday" is a sad and searing punk rock song disguising itself as a classic rock anthem. The song is best appreciated during the video recorded live at Red Rocks with Bono's mullet and the incredible effect that the fog ads to the bleak subject matter of the song.

#18 - "Baba O'Riley" - The Who - Who's Next - #8/9 - Frequently mislabeled as "Teenage Wasteland" because of the chorus, "Baba" features the best instrumental opening of the classic rock era and passionate vocals that create an almost cathartic tone to the song from start to finish.

#17 - "Satisfaction" - The Rolling Stones - Out Of Our Heads - #18/20 - The guitar riff is legendary and the lyrics were way ahead of their time. To think, the riff came to Richards in a dream. If he had just gone back to sleep we might never have had a classic rock era and everything would have sounded like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, high quality, but no attitude.

#16 - "Changes" - David Bowie - Hunky Dory - #10/10 - Among the best-written songs of the 70's, "Changes" was easily Bowie's best song with it's poetic lyrics and sing-along chorus. The "time may change me" part of the chorus and the chord progression between verses are highlights.

#15 - "Stairway To Heaven" - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV - #23/24 - The band's all-time classic epic, though not their best song, "Stairway To Heaven" is Dylanesque in it's epic storytelling and feautres the best guitar solo of all-time as Jimmy Page tears the sky open just before Robert Plant cauterizes it back together with a blistering penultimate verse leading into the classic ending.

#14 - "Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who - Who's Next - #9/9 - The most significant moment in rock n roll occurs towards the end of the song as a guitar solo builds up slowly to a cathartic explosion of a scream from Roger Daltrey (usually accompanied by a perfectly timed power slide). The song itself is also brilliant as it attacks politics and particularly the corruption of power even in the hands of those who led revolutions against said power. Like many of the best songs of the classic rock era, the song is essentially a story in parts played out as an epic rock song.

#13 - "Hey You" - Pink Floyd - The Wall - #13/14 - Not quite their best song or their best lyrics (but consider the band), but damn close as the best song on The Wall is a desperate appeal for connection in an isolated world and stands alone very well but fits in perfectly in the rock opera told on the album.

#12 - "Rockin' In The Free World" - Neil Young - Freedom - #6/6 - Young's most passionate and fast-paced song is also his best as he took an unexpected rock turn to crank out this pulsing Bush (the first one) era protest song. The guitar riff and chorus are highlights.

#11 - "Born To Run" - Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run - #11/11 - When Springsteen sat down to write this song he wanted to write the greatest song in the history of rock n roll. Rolling Stone said he was only off by 3 and I say he's only off by 10. The song is epic in scale from the deep vocal tone the Boss utilizes to the cathartic choruses. The story sounds like it could have been written by Steinbeck or Salinger and the guitar work is stellar. Not quite the greatest song ever written, but #11? Pretty damn close.