A clean well lighted place

I've been a serious music fan for about 6 years now. And I've listened to a wide range of music, and although I probably have missed out on plenty of genres and tons of legendary tunes, I'm more than literate. Here I present a list of the songs which years and years of listening and re-listening has ensured a place in Tito's rock and roll hall of fame. In other words, the following list (which I'll be adding to every now and then) contains what I think are the most perfectly executed songs in the History of popular music.

1) Song: Key to the Highway
Album: Riding With The King
Artist: Eric Clapton/ B.B.King

The very first time I heard Key to the Highway, I was completely blown away. To me, it represents everything that makes Blues so beautiful: the melancholy yet hopeful feel in every guitar lick, the notes that seem to almost talk to you and the soulful vocals. I was stunned, and it sold me onto blues for good. This song has had several renditions over the years, and while I love the Derek and Dominoes version (which was more of a jam session), my absolute favourite has to be Clapton and King's collaborative effort. There's nothing quite like the sound of the acoustic guitar when it comes to the blues. To me, this is probably one of the greatest blues songs ever.

2) Song: Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Album: Electric Ladyland

Okay, now this is a thoroughbred classic. Everyone's heard it. If you had to name ONE Hendrix song, this would be probably it. The playing is simply phenomenal. There's no word for it. The kind of song that might make converts out of even the mellowest of rockers. Voodoo Child is probably reason enough why Hendrix is still held to be a legend.

3) Distance vs Desire
Artist: Allan Holdsworth
Album: Sand

Very few songs actually have made me cry. And even fewer have made me readily admit that in public. It's a strange pick, this one, because I've never listened to much Holdsworth. But Distance vs Desire is what music is all about. This is the kind of stuff that takes you gently off to faraway lands. Holdsworth is a criminally overlooked guitarist. On this track, he plays the synthaxe, which is a guitar shaped synthesizer of sorts. Very crude description, I know, but you get the idea. I'm just glad there isn't any vocals in this one.

4) The Great Gig in the Sky
Artist: Pink Floyd/ Clare Torry
Album: The Dark Side of the Moon

I didn't go with any obvious Floyd song because they have been done to death on other lists and quite frankly I am a bigger fan of their more experimental outings. I'm talking about Atom Heart Mother and Echoes and Shine on you.... But Great Gig is my choice because of several factors. One: it was completely spontaneous as far as the story goes. Clare Torry, the singer, admitted to have gotten carried away a bit but she did the job beautifully. There's an almost primal sense of fear, anger, sadness and all out expression in her voice, and it fits in with the concept album theme marvelously. Secondly, it stands for what Pink Floyd was originally about: taking rock to new emotional heights and highs. And while it's all over in 4:48 minutes, but it feels like a progressive rock epic. Very dark yet hauntingly beautiful, this is the Floyd song for the ages.

5)Bohemian Rhapsody
Artist: Queen
Album: A Night At The Opera

Frankly, they don't make them like they used to. Show me something as wild and unpredictable but consistently brilliant as Bohemian Rhapsody, and...well, you can't. Yes, a few songs do come to mind, (Radiohead's Paranoid Android, Yes's And You and I, but they are either too whiny, or don't make sense, or both), but none that could compete with Mercury's soaring vocals or May's ripping guitar solo. And the song knows when it should end. It doesn't drag, yet is long enough to have the three parts perfectly complement each other. Amazing.

6) One More Red Nightmare
Artist: King Crimson
Album: Red

If there's one King Crimson album you should absolutely listen to, its Red. It proved progressive rock could actually rock, for one, and didn't have to resort to elaborate pretentious noodling, as some of the critics called it(just for the record, I love Moonchild when I'm in the mood....and yes, the whole of it). It also proved how much of a sucker I am for monster saxophone solos. And boy is there a treat for all you sax lovers. Ian McDonald features on the alto-saxophone and he grabs you by the collar and thrusts you into a musical phantasmagoria thats exhilarating and downright disturbing at the same time. It leaves you a little crazy by the end of it. John Wetton's vocals, Fripp's characteristic manic guitar and Bill Bruford's versatile drumming makes this one an all time rock classic.

7) Little Wing
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Album: Axis: Bold as Love

The second Hendrix song on my list. Little Wing has been covered by Clapton on his Derek and Dominoes album and more famously perhaps, by Stevie Ray Vaughan as an instrumental which got him a Grammy. I'm including the original, because frankly (and this is going to get people angry, provided anyone at all reads my blog apart from my sister) Clapton's version ruined the beauty of the song, and Vaughan's instrumental stretches on a little too long for my liking. Little Wing just went to show Hendrix could be an exquisitely melodic player, and a great singer when he felt like it, and wasn't all about burning guitars and technique and wild soloing. That said, the guitar solo that does feature on the original is a tad too short.