Hi-Fidelity: Top 5 Lists

[RichardCranium]

So I was watching "Hi-Fidelity" again (its not in my top 5 all time movies, but it is still a pretty good) and tonight's episode of the great Australian pub quiz TV show "Rockwiz" (a repeat of a classic episode paying tribute to Aussie Rock Legends) it started me to thinking about top 5 lists in general.

So how about a thread on top 5 lists? Pick a topic, any topic, make your list and watch everyone shout you down. What could go wrong?

[RichardCranium]

I'll go first.

Topic: Greatest Australian Rock Songs of All Time

1) Pleasure and Pain - The Divinyls (Chrisy Amphlett was a absolute genius)
2) Friday on My Mind - The EasyBeats (Some say this is the greatest 'perfect' rock song of all time)
3) Stranded - The Saints (Possibly the first ever 'punk rock' song, and from Brisbane of all places)
4) Solid Rock - Goanna (Anthemic, Political, Power Rock, Didgeridoo used extremely well - what else do you want?)
5) From Little Things Big Things Grow - Paul Kelly and Kevin Carmody (Maybe Australia's version of Dylan's 'Hurricane'?)

Just missed: Eagle Rock by Daddy Cool (the video is a bit too silly) and Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil (loses out because there are just too many great Oils songs to choose from).

[RichardCranium]

Because I can, I'll put in the videos for my list, though that is not, in general a requirement for the topic.

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[EVCat]

I'm afraid my answers would all be INXS, AC/DC, and Midnight Oil

Can I Sit Next To You, Girl - AC/DC
Blue Sky Mine - Midnight Oil
Elegantly Wasted - INXS
Forgotten Years - Midnight Oil
It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll) - AC/DC

[EVCat]

In honor of the Joshua Tree 30 tour (just saw it...stunning), Top 5 U2 songs

1. Acrobat (Achtung Baby album)
2. One Tree Hill (Joshua Tree)
3. Unforgettable Fire (Unforgettable Fire)
4. Red Hill Mining Town (Joshua Tree)
5. Like a Song (War)

[RichardCranium]

I'm afraid my answers would all be INXS, AC/DC, and Midnight Oil

Can I Sit Next To You, Girl - AC/DC
Blue Sky Mine - Midnight Oil
Elegantly Wasted - INXS
Forgotten Years - Midnight Oil
It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll) - AC/DC

We'll agree to disagree on the top 5, but those are great songs.

The Oils are touring again, and I have tickets!

Robots bought all the tickets to the first show in less than 3 minutes off Ticketmaster; and they were on Ticketmaster resale in less than an hour selling for 10 times the face value. It pissed off EVERYONE, from the promoter to the Oils management to the fans, of course. I think it even got a mention in Parliament.

They jumped through hoops and organized a second show and put all kinds of checks and balances into the ticketing and they still sold out in less than a half hour. But I got mine somehow. I hope the scalpers end up getting absolutely burned.

[EVCat]

I'm afraid my answers would all be INXS, AC/DC, and Midnight Oil

Can I Sit Next To You, Girl - AC/DC
Blue Sky Mine - Midnight Oil
Elegantly Wasted - INXS
Forgotten Years - Midnight Oil
It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll) - AC/DC

We'll agree to disagree on the top 5, but those are great songs.

The Oils are touring again, and I have tickets!

Robots bought all the tickets to the first show in less than 3 minutes off Ticketmaster; and they were on Ticketmaster resale in less than an hour selling for 10 times the face value. It pissed off EVERYONE, from the promoter to the Oils management to the fans, of course. I think it even got a mention in Parliament.

They jumped through hoops and organized a second show and put all kinds of checks and balances into the ticketing and they still sold out in less than a half hour. But I got mine somehow. I hope the scalpers end up getting absolutely burned.

Obviously, my knowledge of Aussie Rock is limited severely. But I do thing the Blue Sky Mining album is nearly perfection. And High Voltage is my favorite AC/DC album (I don't care for Brian Johnson).

Would love to see Midnight Oil. Like U2, they were the soundtrack of my political awakening as a teen...right after the hardcore punk of the Dead Kennedys and the BYO records artists...

[RichardCranium]

OK then...

Top 5 Midnight Oil songs

1) Short Memory ( 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 )

Code: Select all

Conquistador of Mexico
The Zulu and the Navaho
The Belgians in the Congo
Plantation in Virginia
The Raj in British India
The deadline in South Africa

The story of El Salvador
The silence of Hiroshima
Destruction of Cambodia

Short memory, must have a short memory

The sight of hotels by the Nile
The designated Hilton style
With running water specially bought

A smallish man Afghanistan
A watch dog in a nervous land
They're only there to lend a hand
The friendly five a dusty smile
Wake up in a sweat at dead of night
And in the tents new rifles, hey, short memory

2) Beds Are Burning ( Diesel and Dust )

Code: Select all

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share

The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In forty five degrees

3) Power and the Passion ( 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 )

Code: Select all

People, wasting away in paradise
Going backward, once in a while
Moving ahead, falling behind
What do you believe
What do you believe
What do you believe is true

Nothing they say makes a difference this way
'Cos nothing they say will do
Take all the trouble that you can afford
At least you won't have time to be bored

Oh the power and the passion
Oh the temper of the time
Oh the power and the passion
Sometimes you've got to take the hardest line
I see sunburnt faces around
With skin so brown
Smiling zinc cream and crows
Sundays the beach never a cloud
Breathing eucalypt, pushing panelvans, stuff and munch junk food
Laughing at the truth, 'cos Gough was tough till he hit the rough
Uncle Sam and John were quite enough
Too much of sunshine too much of sky
It's enough to make you wanna cry

I see buildings, clothing the sky in paradise
Sydney, where the nights are warm
Daytime telly, blue rinse dawn
Dad's so bad he lives in a pub, underarms and football clubs
Flat chat, Pine Gap in every home a Big Mac
And no one goes back, that's that
You take what you get and get what you please
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees

4) Only The Strong ( 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 )

Code: Select all

When I'm locked in my room
I just want to scream
Now I know what they mean
One more day of eating and sleeping

Speak to me, look at me, I've been broken up and shaken down
Speak to me, speak to me, I'm at the edge of myself, I'm dying to talk
Look at me, won't you look at me, back once more at the point of no return

When I'm locked in my room
I just want to scream
Now I know what they mean
Only the strong

5) Blue Sky Mine ( Blue Sky Mining )

Code: Select all

There'll be food on the table tonight
There'll be pay in your pocket tonight

My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken
My life that is lived is no more than a token
Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why?

If I yell out at night there's a reply of blue silence
The screen is no comfort I can't speak my sentence
They blew the lights at heaven's gate and I don't know why

But if I work all day on the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)

The candy store paupers lie to the shareholders
They're crossing their fingers they pay the truth makers
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky

So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night

And if you blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue
If the sugar refining company won't save me

Who's gonna save me?

But if I work all day on the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
And if I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)
And some have sailed from a distant shore
And the company takes what the company wants
And nothing's as precious
As a hole in the ground

Who's gonna save me?
I pray that sense and reason brings us in
Who's gonna save me?
We've got nothing to fear

In the end the rain comes down
Washes clean the streets of a blue sky mine