i mean..really..?..seriously..?

that exercise in whitebread boredom..?

whose feckin' world did that change..?

and what must it have been before..?

(whoar..!..)

nzphil..

Surely, any 40 songs that changed the world list should include:

l. Amazing Grace

2. We Shall Overcome

3. Down by the Riverside

4. I am Woman

5. Respect

Tapestry should have been woven into this list.

It's hard to imagine a list of this nature without including a song from Carol King's Tapestry which, for years, was the biggest selling album of all time and which elevated the female singer/songwriter to new heights. I'd pick "I Feel the Earth Move" as the best one for this narrow list.

-- Dabney

`

How could they overlook "You Really Got Me" The kinks launched the Second British Invasion. Damn you Sanjaya, you've ruined that song for me.

Also Dabney is right. Everyone my age lost their virginity while listening to TAPESTRY. Thanks for the memory.

Minor Threat had nothing to do with "Skinhead Punk" (a.k.a. the "Oi" movement, which was basically a UK-only phenomenon, with a few, long-after-the-fact American imitators). They were a great hardcore band, no doubt, and one of the most influential, but Black Flag definitely got there first. As a matter of fact, so did Bad Brains - if any song could be said to have launched American hardcore it was probably "The Big Takeover," which even MacKaye and Rollins bowed down and genuflected to.

Also, the Police were simply the most commercially succesful of the British "Blue Eyed Reggae" contingent from the early '80s - and by far the least interesting. If I was gonna represent that short-lived movement, I would go with something from the Clash ("Police and Thieves," "White Man In Hammersmith Palais") or the Specials ("Message to You Rudy," not reggae exactly, but the impulse and influence was undeniable on other UK popsters). Heck, even Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives" had a bigger - and earlier - commercial impact in the UK than anything the Police ever did.

Here's how Rolling Stone comes up with these lists:

-- Each of the seven or so members of the music staff comes up with his (almost entirely) own list. No interns or nonedit people are consulted. These guys are smart, but they don't have much more expertise than your average music geek.

-- The seven guys get together and half-heartedly pass around lists. Someone makes a master list.

-- Certain names are cut when they prompt howls from a staffer or two. Others are added in the interest of pleasing Jann Wenner.

-- What's left is cut down to 40 (or whatever number they're shooting for) through an uninteresting process of justification and random gut-trusting.

In other words, don't take it too seriously.

"We Shall Overcome"

"I Shot the Sheriff", "One Love", or "Get Up, Stand Up"

If so, why? I mean, it hasn't been relevant since the mid-70s, when they began to staple the fucking rag, magazine-style.

That self-congratulatory stuff has got to be a northern California thing. And, uh, Yawn? You're gay in New York but just a fag in LA.

What on earth do they mean by "changed the world"? The world of music? The political landscape? Our culture?

"How Soon Is Now" The Smiths -- fab, soaring guitar over emo lyrics. Certainly the Smiths were responsible for bringing more gay men and women out of the closet, and this is one of their signature songs.

"Keep on the Sunny Side", The Carter Family. Their music saw millions through the Great Depression. Without them, there would be no country music, and probably no rock and roll.

The Stone Roses, "I Wanna Be Adored" or "Fools Gold" -- launched a thousand new bands in England in the late '80s/early '90s.

Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" was far more world-changing than "A Hard Rain".

If you're gonna list something by the Cure, surely "Killing an Arab" or "10:15 Saturday Night" changed music more.

Boston's "More Than a Feeling" changed by life when I was 14, but I can't say that it changed the world.

"I Shall Be Released"?

Is it really that hard to spell Aerosmith? Really?

I've got to hand it to Rolling Stone, though-- this is the first time in probably ten years I've read anything from them, and I don't think I've ever been to their web page before. Any publicity stunt that'll give you traffic is a good publicity stunt, right?

Aside from the other omissions, I'd single out "Cop Killer" by Body Count-- huge controversy, changes in the record industry, and Body Count was the beginning of rap/rock.

I'd go with "Wish You Were Here", but at least Floyd made the list. Syd Barrett invented what Gilmour and Waters carried on, and the song is about him. But I'm good with "The Wall", too.

"Dark Side of the Moon" is not on the list, damn it all-the album and the song were pretty good then, and I think it changed the world!

But "The Wall" is a good bet, too.

The rest of the list is ho hum. Guess Rolling Stone is getting pretty old, too.

Sure, it's tough to narrow it down to 40, but Britney Spears changed the world? What world? And RS started in SF, during the heyday of the sixties San Francisco sound, and yet nothing from the Airplane or the Dead- hell, even the Youngblood's "Get Together" was as emblematic of the summer of love as any song I can think of. And I was there- Berkeley, Monterey, the Fillmore, all of it, everybody, and I've been a guitarist for 42 years. No Muddy, no Memphis Sound (where's Otis Redding), no Robert Johnson or Son House. I agree with about a quarter of the choices (that's alright, mama had to be there), but no Jonny Cash, or Hank Williams. Give me a freaking break. The move to NY was the sure signal of sellout. I was a charter subcriber from issue one, but I haven't read the rag in twenty years. Booooooring.

Eddie Van Halen was one of those rare artists who both heralded in a huge change in their art, and remained the best in the world at the new form. He ushered in the era of speed guitar and its thousand offhsoots, but no one else could play with his skill, emotion and humor. He took the guitar to new levels of virtuosity, but never got bogged down in technique. Yet Rolling Stone forgot about him in their "Best Guitarists" list (I think he was down in the 70s, which is downright absurd) and on this list they missed his indelible contribution to music history: the crossover hit "Beat It", on which his supple solos merged guitar worlds as surely as the "Walk This Way" collaboration.

Eddie deserves more love!