The best written songs of all time?

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I'd like to know......

What in your opinion are some of the best well written songs of all time?

Here's some of my picks:

Meatloaf - I Would Do Anything For Love Radiohead - Paranoid Android Eagles - Hotel California Led Zeppelin - Fool In The Rain

Anyone agree or disagree with my picks?

I'd just like to add:

Stairway To Heaven-Led Zeppelin Everlong- Foo Fighters Imagine- John Lennon

Who knows. Lists like this are always incomplete and just show the likes and dislikes of the person who wrote it.

Really? I always thought this one didn't quite work. I thought it was a great idea, sure, but the punch line doesn't really follow through. I also like the Rear View Mirror song. My wife is a bigger fan of the first album.

Never really excited me.

Great tune.

I don't even remember this one.

A few of my faves are (off the top of my pointy head):

End of the Innocence by Henley Pride & Joy by SRV Stormy Monday by Aaron Walker Francine by Anonymous (recorded by ZZ Top) China Grove by the Doobies Reelin In The Years by Steely Dan Snatch It Back And Hold It by Junior Wells Fair Exchange by Bebop Deluxe Dixie Chicken by Little Feat Fortress Around Your Heart by Sting Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman

Watson (the ninja of nice) Davis

Well the lyrics are great, it's got all the basic rock aspects including a piano, and I think I heard a choir. It uses different combinations of the same verses. A soft rock song with a nice group of guitar leads.

It's spacey, and then it just rocks. The singing is more important than the lyrics in this song. It's really aggressive in some areas. Almost unpredictable at times.

Yup.

Oh no, this song is great! It's a love song, very catchy tune. The barre chords are somewhat hard to play, because you have to move fairly fast, it's one chord per beat, I think. In the middle of the song somewhere, an entire percussion set just charges in, and Bonham is flying over the music in amazing fashing. Good singing. Plant's got a hunger in his voice in this song. It's great. The reason it's not as well known, is because it's one of their later songs.

I like this one too.

Although I like it, I wouldn't consider it one of the best of all time.

I will have to give those a listen.

Good song! I was singing this in my head just yesterday.... 'well I told you that I love you, and there ain't no more to say'.

It's the lyrics that don't work for me. It builds up the suspense really well (I would do anything for love but I won't do that). It has you really wondering what the 'that' is that he won't do, and then in turns out to be some really weak 'Oh, I'd never leave' crap. Like I said, that song let me down.

This is classic blues. Doesn't get any better than this. It rocks, it swings, it slices, it dices, it even does julienne fries.

Watson (the ninja of nice) Davis

It's been done to death, including one thread that has only just died.

1st one I hate, 2nd is great, 3rd has a brilliant guitar solo, 4th I've never heard. But what difference does it make? This has only a tenuous link to songwriting.

I think the lyrics are great. Interestingly, Thom Yorke used a different vocal style on each track of the 'OK Computer' album, which is something to aspire to. He sounds quite angry in certain sections of PA. I particularly like the line about 'When I am king, you will be first against the wall.'

AH I see, maybe it's in there somewhere behind all that I'd never leave stuff?

Well whatever 'that' is.... just the phrase, 'I would do anything for love, but I won't do that' says enough for me. When someone is willing to do anything for love, it's got to be difficult for them to say they won't do one thing, especially if whatever that thing is....is what will give them love. But even though he won't do that one thing, he promises he'd do everything else, anything.

If he did reveal what that one thing is, I'm not so sure it'd make the song any better because it's sort of dragging in another storyline. Yes it's a let down, but maybe that's what makes it a good song.

She's my sweetest lil' baby Yeah, she's my pride and joy

Me too. He sounds like an aggressive lunatic. But sustains his sanity later on in the song. Well I think if the lyrics were spoken, or sung in a basic singing style, it wouldn't be as good. His vocals really push that one to the top.

Just like clockwork, every couple of months another 'best of' list...ugh!!

IJ

But that's the problem. In the song, he DOES reveal what that one thing is.

Watson (the ninja of nice) Davis