FINALLY, AN ATTEMPT AT A GREATEST SONGS LIST....If you've ever had the pleasure of scrolling through Dan Selzer's ACUTE RECORDS web site (both the new and the old versions), you've undoubtedly found Dan to be a man of wealth and taste -- particularly when it comes to obscure 70s/80s DIY and electro-noise rarities of all eras. His Desperate Bicycles article is still the piece de resistance on the band and their m.o. . At some point Dan decided to enumerate his "Top Songs of All Time", an undertaking I wholeheartedly applaud. That's what obsession is all about, and I'm right there with him -- in fact, I stole his idea and compiled my own, something I've been, uh, meaning to do for some time. Since Dan threw together about 63 songs, I did the same. Since Dan didn't choose multiple tracks from the same artists, neither did I. Here goes, in alphabetical order:

Hasil Adkins “She Said”
Avengers “The American In Me”
Bags “Survive”
Big Star “September Gurls”
Black Flag “Police Story”
Blind Willie McTell “Ticket Agent Blues”
Liz Brady “Palladium”
Can “Mother Sky”
Carter Family “Motherless Children”
Captain Beefheart “Plastic Factory”
The Clean “Billy Two”
Clothilde “Fallait pas écraser la queue du chat”
Come “Fast Piss Blues”
Cramps “Human Fly”
Creation “How Does It Feel (To Feel)”
Creedence Clearwater Revival “Fortunate Son”
Crime “Hot Wire My Heart”
Desperate Bicycles “The Medium Was Tedium”
DMZ “First Time Is the Best Time”
Dolly Mixture “Everything and More”
Dream Syndicate “Tell Me When It’s Over”
Electric Eels “Agitated”
The Fall “Hip Priest”
Flesh Eaters “Pray ‘til You Sweat”
Gordons “Future Shock”
Gories “Telepathic”
Gun Club “She’s Like Heroin To Me”
Hampton Grease Band “Hey Old Lady and Bert’s Song”
Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra “Sand”
Bunker Hill “The Girl Can’t Dance”
Skip James “Devil Got My Woman”
Joneses “Pillbox”
Joy Division “No Love Lost”
Loretta Lynn “Hello Darlin’”
Love “My Little Red Book”
Mission of Burma “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”
Modern Lovers “Roadrunner”
Mo-Dettes “White Mice”
Derrick Morgan “Forward March”
The Nights And Days “These Days”
Augustus Pablo “King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown”
Pagans “What’s This Shit Called Love?”
Charley Patton “Spoonful Blues”
Pere Ubu “Heart Of Darkness”
Pinetoppers "Shout Bamalama"
Pink Floyd “See Emily Play”
Diane Ray “Please Don’t Talk To the Lifeguard”
Red Cross “Notes and Chords Mean Nothing To Me”
Revillos “Motorbike Beat”
Rolling Stones “Loving Cup”
Roxy Music “Virginia Plain”
Saints “Know Your Product”
Sonics “Boss Hoss”
Sonic Youth “Tom Violence”
Swell Maps “Vertical Slum”
Thirteenth Floor Elevators "Slip Inside This House"
Trashmen “Surfin’ Bird”
Twilighters “Nothing Can Bring Me Down”
Velvet Underground “What Goes On”
Hank Williams “Lovesick Blues”
Tammy Wynette “Singing My Song”
X “Adult Books”
Neil Young “Mr. Soul”

I recognize that I may have given MOZART some short shrift here, but I can't think of any of his songs that beat "What's this Shit Called Love?", can you?

posted by Jay H. at 3:16 PM