Do You Want To Hear the Best Song Ever?

How to explain?

Okay, so I think I’ve mentioned before that I frequent a Guided by Voices message board. I know, I know, message boards are sooo 1990s, but this particular board is quite a beehive of activity. You can go on there and “talk” about pretty much anything. Most of the discussion does not necessarily revolve around Robert Pollard, but everyone there does have a love for most-things-Bob in common. The other commonality seems to be a love for Rock & Roll in general. In fact, music is probably the most active topic—you can find a thread on just about any band you can think of. Heated arguments occasionally ensue, because aside from Pollard projects, you can’t get much of a consensus on any other artist. The boarders are very passionate about their taste in music and extremely knowledgeable when it comes to Rock History. I can’t tell you how many great recommendations I’ve gotten from that board over the last few years.

There is one thread in particular, titled “The Best Song Ever . . . Right Now At Least”, which I have long thought would make a good source for a Burn and Shine compilation. As you can probably surmise from the title of the thread, it is a place where members name a particular song that is currently kicking their ass. Sometimes these can be obvious, like “Unsatisfied” or “A Day in the Life”, but usually people venture into the thread to divulge the virtues of songs a little more off the beaten path.

I decided to go through the last few pages (the thread started in March of 2005 and is currently up to page 316) picking songs that were on my hard drive that had not yet made one of my compilations here at B&S. It has my signature all over it—you’ll see some of my favorite artists—but I can’t take credit for the choices. In order to give credit to the people who inspired the compilation, I’ve put their screen names in parentheses next to the song they nominated.

I’ll let the compilation speak for itself, but I will say that I think it turned out pretty fabulous, and I will continue to mine that thread for future Burn and Shine compilations.

Happy listening!


Do You Want To Hear the Best Song Ever?

01. Mission of Burma, "Progress" [1985] (Pimple Zoos)
02. The Monkees, "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?" [1967] (Chapter 18)
03. Bobby Fuller, "Let Her Dance" [1965] (Steve Cock)
04. Brian Eno, "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" [1974] (Man of Dimension)
05. Dinosaur Jr, "Does It Float" [1985] (Man of Dimension)
06. Archers of Loaf, "Death in the Park" [1995] (Ultra Maroon Blazer)
07. Martha & the Muffins, "Echo Beach" [1979] (The Third Man)
08. The Clash, "Jail Guitar Doors" [1977] (Dannyramone)
09. The Stranglers, "Golden Brown" [1981] (LARM)
10. Devo, "Beautiful World" [1981] (Dirty Dutch)
11. Low, "Starfire"[1999] (Lookit55)
12. Throwing Muses, "Not Too Soon" [1991] (MoreHotDogsPlease!)
13. The Wedding Present, "Dare" [1991] (Pimple Zoos)
14. Screaming Trees, "Seeing and Believing" [1986] (MoreHotDogsPlease!)
15. Undertones, "My Perfect Cousin" [1979] (LARM)
16. Wire, "Map Ref. 41n 93w" [1979] (Jscott)
17. The Byrds, "Wasn't Born to Follow" [1968] (Berno)
20. 20/20, "Backyard Guys" [1979] (Berno)
19. Roxy Music, "Editions of You" [1973] (Breadwinner & Klutz)
20. Nick Drake, "From the Morning" [1972] (Riff Randall)
21. X, "White Girl" [1981] (Dirty Dutch)
22. Tall Dwarfs, "Crawl" [1990] (Spastic Semicolon)
23. Sex Pistols, "Bodies" [1977] (Dirty Dutch)
24. Them, "Richard Cory" [1966](LARM)
25. The Church, "Tear It All Away" [1982] (RedLetterDay)

Total Time: 1:19:25

Download it here: Do You Want to Hear the Best Song Ever?